In the Media
Selected media coverage of Nelson Institute people, programs, and activities.
Friday, November 20
Fungus provides clues to North American extinctions
One of the great mysteries about North America is what killed off woolly mammoths and other exotic animals that roamed the land after the last ice age. Ideas have ranged from a comet impact and climate change to human hunters. A study published Friday in Science Magazine provides new clues about this — cleverly deduced from samples of a fungus that grew on the animals' dung. (National Public Radio)Friday, November 20
The mystery of the mastodons gets a few big clues
When and how mammoths and mastodons went extinct has long puzzled scientists. But a new study suggests the animals vanished much earlier than previously thought. (The Christian Science Monitor)Friday, November 20
New data shed light on large-animal extinction
Whenever modern humans reached a new continent in the expansion from their African homeland 50,000 years ago, whether Australia, Europe or the Americas, all the large fauna quickly disappeared. This circumstantial evidence from the fossil record suggests that people’s first accomplishment upon reaching new territory was to hunt all its all large animals to death. But apologists for the human species have invoked all manner of alternative agents, like climate change and asteroid impacts. A careful analysis of lake deposits in New York and Wisconsin has brought new data to bear on this heated debate. (New York Times)Friday, November 20
Mammoths not killed by human spears
They were some of the biggest mammals to walk the earth but it seems woolly mammoths were not killed off by humans with sophisticated weapons. A study published in the journal Science shows that woolly mammoths started to die out nearly 2,000 years before complex spears were invented. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)Friday, November 20
Sophisticated hunters not to blame for driving mammoths to extinction
Woolly mammoths and other large, lumbering beasts faced extinction long before early humans perfected their skills as spearmakers, scientists say. The prehistoric giants began their precipitous decline nearly 2,000 years before our ancestors turned stone fragments into sophisticated spearpoints at the end of the last ice age. (The Guardian)Friday, November 20
Dung helps reveal why mammoths died out
Mammoth dung has proved to be a source of prehistoric information, helping scientists unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. (BBC News)Thursday, November 19
How Warner Park could become an open-air classroom
Just a few hundred feet from her home on Madison's north side, Trish O'Kane points out a "hidden treasure" — a pair of cocoons beneath some leaves at the base of a tree. These are from moths she'd seen mating, this past June. She read up on the subject and was even more amazed. (Isthmus)Monday, November 16
Changes in the climate and a windier Great Lake
Chalk up another effect of climate change: it’s getting windier over Lake Superior. That is the conclusion of a study by scientists associated with the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research who have looked at the effects of increasing surface water temperatures in the lake and air temperatures over it. The water has warmed faster than the air, creating instability in the air mass that results in stronger winds. (New York Times)Monday, November 16
Lake Superior winds increasing: global conditions the cause
The Great Lakes are getting windier. Rising water temperatures are causing winds to increase more than 10% since 1985. (BusinessNorth.com)Monday, November 16
Lake Superior stirs up wind as waters warm, ice cover recedes
Lake Superior, the world’s largest body of fresh water, is getting windier as the inland sea warms, increasing the danger to shipping and sailing interests. Winds above the lake, which straddles the U.S.-Canada border, have increased 5 percent a year since 1985, according to a study by Ankur Desai, an atmospheric and oceanic sciences researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Bloomberg News)Monday, November 16
Lake Superior becoming warmer, windier
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study suggests the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area, Lake Superior, is becoming warmer. Professor Ankur Desai, who led the study, said the rising temperature means more powerful winds on the lake, as well as consequences for currents, pollution and biological cycles. (United Press International)Friday, November 13