USGS News: December Science Picks - Boughs of Minerals, Mistletoe and Mountain Frogs-a-Leaping...

[Denver Makle <dmakle@xxxxxxxx>]

USGS Office of Communications
   Science Picks — Leads, Feeds and Story Seeds
   December 2006 Edition

   For Release:  UPON RECEIPT

   Winter can be dark and dreary. Brighten your readers’ minds with a few
   festive science facts. The December edition of Science Picks looks at
   holiday place names, mysterious mistletoe, and many seasonal science
   issues. Photos and Web links are available to enhance your story. If you
   would like to receive Science Picks via email, would like to change the
   recipient or no longer want to receive it, please e-mail dmakle@xxxxxxxx
   .

   December Highlights:

   ·  Through Frosty’s Eyes — A Look at the Importance of Coal
   ·  A Chilly Clue to Global Change
   ·  Deck the Halls with Boughs of … Minerals?
   ·  A Kiss is Just a Kiss — Mistletoe is So Much More
   ·  Santa Citings across the United States
   ·  Mountain Frogs-a-Leaping
   ·  Putting Holiday Harvests on the Map
   ·  Santa plans his Christmas Route on This Dynamic Planet
   ·  Natural Science Films Provide Break from the Holiday Hustle:
   ·    Society and the City Spread  — How is the Country Handling the
   Increase?

   LEADS (top news, updates and happenings in natural science)

   Through Frosty’s Eyes — A Look at the Importance of Coal: In addition to
   its use for snowmen’s features and filling the stockings of the naughty,
   coal serves as an important energy resource for the United States. In
   this frosty time of year, coal is used to heat homes. In fact, coal is
   used as fuel to generate more than half of our country’s electric power.
   Many of the materials we use daily — dyes, antiseptics, plastics,
   pharmaceuticals and perfumes — contain compounds that are derived from
   coal. Do you know how coal forms or what the different types of coal
   are? The USGS conducts research around the world to provide information
   about energy resources, including coal. So, come in from the cold and
   visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/c1143/ to learn what Frosty already
   knows: coal is a complex and important natural resource. For more
   information on energy resources, visit the USGS Energy Resources Program
   Web site at http://energy.usgs.gov/, or contact the USGS at
   gd-energyprogram@xxxxxxxxx

   A Chilly Clue to Global Climate Change: Glacier ice that was already
   middle-aged when Neanderthal man roamed the earth holds clues to what
   the atmosphere was like hundreds of thousands of years ago — long before
   scientists began studying the climate. At the National Ice Core Lab in
   Denver, Colo., which is jointly funded and operated by the National
   Science Foundation (NSF) and the USGS, more than 16,000 meters of ice
   cores from Antarctica, Greenland and other locations are carefully
   preserved at -32 degrees F. These cores are providing an abundance of
   information, such as temperature, precipitation, atmospheric gas
   composition, volcanic eruptions and solar variability that is helping
   researchers to better understand our changing climate. One of the lab’s
   ice cores from Antarctica contains atmospheric information from about
   450,000 years ago. To learn more or to view the lab’s inventory, check
   out http://nicl.usgs.gov/index.html or contact Todd Hinkley at
   nicl@xxxxxxxx or (303) 202-4830.


   Deck the Halls with Boughs of … Minerals? Are cobalt oxide, sulfur, and
   cadmium sulfide used to make the traditional holiday hues in your
   seasonal decorations? —Of course they are! According to USGS scientists
   who collect worldwide data on almost all mineral resources, holiday
   lights are made with these and other minerals from around the world. The
   world’s supply of minerals — such as salt, manganese and lime — lights
   up the holiday season, helping many nations and cultures to celebrate
   their long-time traditions. To learn more about how minerals make the
   holidays shine, visit http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1584.
   For more information about other mineral related topics, visit the USGS
   Mineral Resources Program Web site at http://minerals.usgs.gov/ or
   contact Dennis Kostick at (703) 648-7715 or
   dkostick@xxxxxxxxx

   A Kiss is Just a Kiss — Mistletoe is So Much More: This Christmas when
   you pucker up under the mistletoe, consider this: while festive and fun,
   mistletoe also provides essential food, cover and nesting sites for an
   amazing number of birds, butterflies and mammals in the United States.
   There are more than 1300 types of mistletoe worldwide, and more than 20
   of them are endangered. According to USGS researchers, "mistel" is the
   Anglo-Saxon word for "dung," and "tan" is the word for "twig." Thus,
   mistletoe means "dung-on-a-twig" — talk about taking the romance out of
   that next kiss under the mistletoe! For more information, check out
   http://www.usgs.gov/mistletoe or contact Catherine Puckett at (352)
   264-3532 or cpuckett@xxxxxxxxx

   Mountain Frogs-a-Leaping: Since their August rescue from near-dry pools,
   endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs of southern California have been
   doing a lot less hopping than the USGS scientists participating in the
   multi-agency conservation effort to save the amphibians. There are high
   hopes that several dozen frogs-in-waiting will one day become frogs that
   are large enough to avoid predators and be returned to the wild, while
   others will remain to form the core of a breeding program to help
   restore these endangered frogs to their mountain homes. To learn more
   about this conservation effort, contact USGS scientist Adam Backlin at
   (714) 508-4702 or abacklin@xxxxxxxx, or Robert Fisher at (619) 225-6422
   or rfisher@xxxxxxxxx

   FEEDS (USGS tools and resources)

   Santa Citings across the United States:  ’Twas the night before
   Christmas in the U.S. of A. and "Santa" was spotted, but not with his
   sleigh. He was spotted in Georgia and Texas and Maine. In Nevada and
   Utah, he was spotted again. Arizona, Oregon,  and on up the West Coast,
   but Indiana is where  he's  cited the most. A stream, a dam,  and a
   Minnesota lake, all carry his name for goodness sake. If you’re looking
   for Santa, you can find his name on natural features such as reservoirs,
   springs, a dam, a lake, a stream,  and a pillar, as well as on buildings
   and populated places. Santa Claus is everywhere in the Geographic Names
   Information System. Check holiday-related geographic names at
   http://geonames.usgs.gov/ . For more information on the system, contact
   Karen Wood at (703) 648-4447 or kwood@xxxxxxxxx

   Putting Holiday Harvests on the Map: Kwanzaa is translated to mean
   “first fruit of the harvest,” and the International Water Management
   Institute is pleased to offer assistance to harvesters all over the
   world with the release of the Global Irrigated Area Mapping  Knowledge
   Gateway at http://www.iwmigiam.org. The Web site provides the first
   satellite-sensor-based global map for irrigation purposes, and gives
   country-by-country statistics of irrigated areas. The Web site was
   created using high quality spatial datasets available for free from the
   USGS and NASA. The site allows you to zoom in on your area of interest
   and find out what crops are being grown and specific data, such as
   surface water and ground water levels, on the area’s irrigation. For
   more information, contact Jennifer Lavista at (703) 648-4432 or
   jlavista@xxxxxxxxx


   Santa plans his Christmas Route on This Dynamic Planet: When Santa plans
   his night ride around the Earth, he has a host of natural hazards to
   consider: Earth is made up of more than 1500 volcanoes and 170 impact
   craters, and it has survived at least 44,000 earthquakes. This Dynamic
   Planet is an interactive map that shows many of the features that have
   shaped and continue to change the Earth. Log onto
   http://www.minerals.si.edu/tdpmap/ to discover the natural hazard
   history of your holiday destinations. For more information, contact
   Denver Makle at (703) 648-4732 or dmakle@xxxxxxxxx


   Natural Science Films Provide Break from the Holiday Hustle: Sit back
   and relax; USGS has some natural science entertainment to take the
   holiday hassles off your mind. Check out the “Living Rock: the Earth’s
   Continental Crust,” mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/movies/living_rock.wmv, and
   a primer on the Nation’s energy use and resources,
   mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/movies/future_of_energy_gases.wmv. For more
   information, contact Denver Makle at (703) 648-4732 or dmakle@xxxxxxxxx

   STORY SEEDS (points to ponder or investigate)

   Society and the City Spread — How is the Country Handling the Increase?
   Nearly 80 percent of Americans live in the city — that’s almost 240
   million people! As populations grow, so does the land dedicated to urban
   areas. What effects does this growth have on our environment? A new USGS
   publication, Rate, Trends, Causes, and Consequences of Urban Land-Use
   Change in the United States, tackles this question on the local,
   regional and national levels. The full report is available at
   http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1726/. For more information, contact Jon
   Campbell at (703) 648-4180 or joncampbell@xxxxxxxxx