MS-LS2-5

Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.

  1. Environment

    Spidey sense: Eight-legged pollution monitors

    Spiders that prey on aquatic insects can serve as sentinels that naturally monitor banned chemicals that still pollute many rivers across the United States.

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  2. Animals

    Tiny — but mighty — food-cleanup crews

    Discarded food wastes can turn city spaces into food courts for disease-carrying rats and pigeons. But a new study shows tiny cleanup crews — especially pavement ants — are doing their best to eliminate such wastes. This, in turn, makes cities less attractive to bigger pests.

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  3. Microbes

    Recycling the dead

    When things die, nature breaks them down through a process we know as rot. Without it, none of us would be here. Now, scientists are trying to better understand it so that they can use rot — preserving its role in feeding all living things.

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  4. Environment

    Watering plants with wastewater can spread germs

    Recycled waste water may slake the thirst of outdoor plants. But it also can spread bacteria, a new study finds — germs that antibiotics may not be able to kill.

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  5. Microbes

    The Bahamas’ African roots

    Ocean bacteria may have built the Bahama islands, fed by dust blown across the Atlantic from the Sahara Desert.

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  6. Microbes

    Explainer: What you can do to fight antibiotic resistance

    Doctors and scientists are not the only people who can help preserve the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics. Even patients have a role to play, as these tips show.

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  7. Animals

    A library of tweets (and howls and grunts)

    The Macaulay Library houses a world of animal sounds. And now anyone with an Internet connection can check out this audio collection.

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  8. Animals

    Mite-y discoveries!

    Two teens from Russia discovered tiny mites living inside grass-like plants called rushes. Three of the species they turned up are new to science.

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  9. Slime: A new way to protect plants from slugs

    Katie Gwaltney had a slug problem in her garden. She decided to try using the slugs’ own slime against them. Her findings earned the high school freshman a finalist’s spot at this week's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

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  10. Studying a weevil to save a tree

    A root weevil is causing billions of dollars in damage to fruit trees in Florida. To save a tree of his own, Evan MacKay decided to study the pest, earning him a finalist’s spot at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    New ‘Heartland’ disease emerges in U.S. Midwest

    A new viral disease causes major pain and flu-like symptoms. At present, no treatment or cure exists.

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  12. Animals

    When a species can’t stand the heat

    When temperatures rise, New Zealand’s tuatara produce more males. With global warming, that could leave the ancient reptile species with too few females to avoid going extinct.

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