Small water fleas help ecologists understand population dynamics

A study of populations of tiny water fleas is helping ecologists to understand population dynamics, which may lead to predictions about the ecological consequences of environmental change. -CONTINUED-

The Fire Rainbow: An Astonishing And Rare Marvel Of Nature

No, it's not the first of April. The phenomenon known as a 'fire rainbow' does exist. A fire rainbow is a halo or an optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a horizontal rainbow, but in contrast caused by the refraction of light through the ice crystals in cirrus clouds. Here, read the science behind it and marvel at some amazing photography of this rare beauty, the circumhorizont arc, known to its friends as a CHA.

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'Digital dark age' may doom some data

What stands a better chance of surviving 50 years from now, a framed photograph or a 10-megabyte digital photo file on your computer's hard drive? The framed photograph will inevitably fade and yellow over time, but the digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers – an unintended consequence of our rapidly digitizing world that may ultimately lead to a "digital dark age," says Jerome P. McDonough, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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