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A new theory has suggested that the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs 250 million years ago, was caused by the Earth’s magnetic field going into complete disarray, exposing the planet to a shower of cosmic radiation.

According to a report in Discovery News, the theory has been put forward by Yukio Isozaki of the University of Tokyo.

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction event happened 250 million years ago, snuffing out 90 percent of life on the planet.

Now, the new theory by Isozaki suggests that the catastrophe was set in motion 15 million years earlier, deep in the Earth.

On the edge of the molten outer core, a plume of super-hot material began rising through the mantle, upsetting convection in the core and throwing the planet’s magnetic field into disarray.

The weakening of Earth’s magnetic field exposed the surface to a shower of cosmic radiation, according to Isozaki. He believes that the radiation broke nitrogen in the atmosphere into ions that acted as seeds for clouds enshrouding the planet.

“This would’ve caused severe cooling and a drop in sea level” as the cool temperatures allowed massive ice sheets to accumulate on the continents, Isozaki said.

“If you check the rock record at that time, tropical coral reefs die first. Then, you start to see fauna from mid latitudes move into the tropics. It all points to cooling,” he added.

The superplume disrupted the magnetic field and put a strain on creatures living on the surface, but it was only the beginning.

According to Isozaki, five million years later it reached the surface, and the hot material punched through the crust, erupting as three successive supervolcanoes.

Today, the remnants of those volcanoes are scattered through India, China and Norway.

On their own they were too small to do much harm, but together, they cooled the climate even further, launching an extinction as bad as the one that would kill the dinosaurs 185 million years later.

Then, 10 million years later, the Permian-Triassic extinction struck.

“The effects of the superplume were just the first punch of extinction,” Isozaki said. “Then came the knockout punch, the Permian-Triassic extinction,” he added.

Isozaki said that both “punches” were caused by the same superplume.

Ten million years after the smaller volcanoes blew their tops, a much larger volcano, the Siberian Traps, erupted, launching the worst killing in the planet’s history.

A hydropower firm in Himachal Pradesh has been penalised for violating environmental laws, the government said Friday.

Om Power Corp, that is executing a 15-MW hydropower project near Palampur town in Kangra district, has been fined Rs.6.4 million after being found violating green norms.

“Om Power Corp has been asked to deposit Rs.64 lakh (Rs.6.4 million) for violating environment norms while executing the project. We will not allow the company to resume work till it takes corrective measures,” Forest Minister J.P. Nadda told IANS.

“The company has violated environment laws - from haphazard cutting of hills, damaging trees to unscientific dumping of debris in areas close to water channels,” he added.

A forest department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most hydropower projects are violating environment laws. “But the government is adopting a pick-and-choose policy to take action. It reacts only when there is a protest by local communities,” the official said.

The hill state has abundant water resources. Its power generation potential is 20,415 MW, about 25 percent of India’s total hydropower potential, out of which only 6,150 MW has been tapped so far.

In 2006, the state government approved a hydropower policy that aims to make Himachal Pradesh the ‘hydropower state’ of India. Since then, it has sanctioned a slew of hydro projects.

Local entrepreneurs are being encouraged to take up projects of between 2 MW and 5 MW generation capacity. Those above 5 MW are being allotted after open bidding.

The Asian Development Bank last month announced it would provide Himachal Pradesh $800 million as loan for projects that together will add 808 MW.

It is us, humans, who have been ruining this great earth into garbage and rubbles for our selfishness. We have been destroying the green trees like anything and making this place unlivable for our future generations. It is only recently where we have realized that we should do something for our earth. There are smaller things like buying organic tote bags only and other stuff like which help us in our aim of making our place greener.

No one knows that recycled sports bottles can be reused again. Such ignorance has been costing us a great deal when it comes to making the earth greener. Buying only promotional USB will also help in our goal of making this place greener.

The products like organic tote bags help immensely by way of preserving the green by reusing them and using only organic materials. They also will not pollute our earth unlike their polythene counterparts.

Recycled cards are another way to help make this place a better one to live. They are reused once and can be reused many times.

If only if we vow that to only buy green promotional products like the tote bags, etc we can actually help in smaller ways to make this place greener.

Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large meat-eating dinosaur with a breathing apparatus much like a modern bird, fortifying the link between birds and dinosaurs and helping to explain the evolution of birds’ unique system of breathing.

Pulled from 85-million-year-old rock along the banks of Rio Colorado in Argentina’s Mendoza Province, this 33-foot-long (10 meter), two-legged predator weighed as much as an elephant and likely had feathers, the scientists said.

But its method of breathing makes this dinosaur stand out, said Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, who wrote about the find on Monday in the journal PLoS ONE.

Instead of lungs that expand and contract, Sereno thinks this beast had air sacs that worked like a bellows, blowing air into the beast’s stiff lungs, much like modern birds.

“This dinosaur, unlike any other, provides more direct evidence of the bellows involved in bird breathing,” Ricardo Martinez of the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina, who worked with Sereno on the research, said in a statement.

The team named the dinosaur Aerosteon riocoloradensis, meaning “air bones from the Rio Colorado,” because its bones have pockets and a sponge-like texture called “pneumatization” in which air sacs from the lung invade the bone.

Most paleontologists believe birds evolved from small, feathered meat-eating dinosaurs, and the earliest known birds were strikingly similar to these dinosaurs.

The researchers think Aerosteon, a type of dinosaur called a theropod, may have evolved this breathing style in part to keep it from toppling over while chasing prey on its two massive legs. And it may have helped control body temperature.

“If dinosaurs and in particular theropods were ‘warm-blooded’ as many of us suspect and feathered for insulation, they would have had a major problem getting rid of heat at times. Perhaps this is why air sacs initially evolved, and then were co-opted for breathing,” Sereno said.

Aerosteon was smaller than the very biggest meat-eaters, which included North America’s Tyrannosaurus rex, Africa’s Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus, also found in Argentina.

Sereno thinks Aerosteon represents a separate line of predators that lived alongside and then outlasted Giganotosaurus. “This is one of the nice surprises of the find,” he said in an e-mail.

Weather data will help scan for nuclear tests and explosions under a tracking system unveiled on Monday by the UN weather agency and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO).

Using a process called “atmospheric transport modeling,” meteorological data will be used to detect radioactive particles and trace them back to where they originated from.

Cross-checked with other verification tools, the technique “allows for a much more accurate location of a potential nuclear explosion,” the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in a statement.

“With the contribution of WMO’s high-quality global meteorological data, CTBTO will be able to considerably improve its calculations for radioactive particles,” it added.

i went to rockaway beach and in the sand there was ALOT of circular flat clear mushy jelly like objects. i dont think its a jelly fish because there were no tentacles visible. they freaked me out. my brother touched it and it sort of jigled.

it could be either jellyfish or man o war
i’m guessing it’s man o war because they have them on the beach in florida too and their just these huge clear blobs all over the place

STOP eating fast food!!!! It alone has used so many natural resources and continues to make society ill and it is even tying its consumption with happiness and emotional wellbeing. This is disgusting and the earths woes will soon be over if we all ban fast food places immediately, starting with Mcdonalds, taco bell, and burger king. I can’t say enough about how distructive fast food is to our bodies and the earth.

now i think for breeding and then releasing is ok and keeping of small animals yes. But keeping large animals in small enclosers is wrong.safari parks i again think ok but whats your opinions.

I believe that a good zoo can be of tremendous value to the cause of conservation and education.

Many zoos are now actively involved in breeding and study programmes which may well help to prevent the extinction of some rare species from the wild.

However, there are some zoos which exist purely as a kind of ‘freak show’ where animals, often badly housed and cared for, are exploited degraded. A zoo which exploits animals solely for the purpose of making money or ‘amusing’ the Public should in my opinion be shut down.

So i guess I fully support zoos which aim to educate the Public, carry out programmes of scientific research and provide the best possible care and housing for the animals they keep.

They rake in millions yet only donate 10-20% of funde true eco-groups???Do they have incomes first rather then sharring it bween the boards…???

Having “looked” at many not for profit org. and one chick whose on the board,its all crooked.The have salaries form it and costs which equal 98% of what comes in stays in,1 to 2% goes to help other org.or some caus

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That is the problem with many not for profit organizations, that take any donations. You have the option of asking what percentage goes to the cause and what goes to admin costs and salaries. It isn’t just eco groups it’s all organizations. There are good and bad. I don’t donate to any, I belong to a couple groups that take action without asking for money.

In there defense, organizations that have full time paid employees often have better results and accomplish more. As in all things, do a little research and decide where your donations will do the most good.

I am seriosly considering becoming one of these but i’d like to know what your job consists of do you have much free time and is pay good?

I studied environmental science in college, hoping to work in conservation biology. Getting a good, permanent job w/a BS is difficult. I have done seasonal work the past 3 years. Two jobs for the Fed Gov and one for a private consulting firm. The plus is I get to see new places and work w/different animals. Get as much experience as you can. While in school/college take on internships, join clubs, etc. It WILL help. FYI-Oregon State University has the #1 Fish and Wildlife program in the country!

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. Wildlife biology is the study of the origins, behavior, diseases, genetics, and life processes of wildlife. you can specialise in wildlife research and management, including the collection and analysis of biological data to determine the environmental effects of present and potential use of land and water areas. you have to be investigative and realistic to be a wildlife biologist.

a semester hour is 1 hour of lecture class, or 3 hours of laboratory work each week for 18 weeks.

if you’re going for a nonresearch position, you need a degree in biological sciences plus… at least 9 semester hours in 1 of these: mammalogy, ornithology, animal ecology, wildlife management, wildlife techniques, or similar course; and at least 12 semester hours in general zoology, invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, comparative anatomy, physiology, genetics, ecology, cellular biology, parasitology, entomology, or similar (Extra courses in wildlife biology can be used to meet the zoology requirements); and at least 9 semester hours in botany or some other plant sciences. you also need a bit of experience and course work.

For research positions, you need a degree with a major in wildlife biology, zoology, or botany. that includes at least 30 semester hours in course work in biological science; and at least 15 semester hours in the physical, mathematical, and earth sciences. you need at least 9 semester hours of training in mammalogy, ornithology, animal ecology, wildlife management, principles of population dynamics, or similar; and at least 12 semester hours in as invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, comparative anatomy of the vertebrates, embryology, animal physiology, entomology, herpetology, parasitology, and genetics; at least 9 semester hours in the field of botany and related plant science; and at least 15 semester hours in any two or more of chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, soils, and/or geology. you must also have additional professional experience.