Culture

While U.S. intelligence officials have spent more than seven years searching fruitlessly for Osama bin Laden, UCLA geographers say they have a good idea of where the terrorist leader was at the end of 2001 — and perhaps where he has been in the years since.

Death is a subject that is frequently dealt with on film, arousing strong feelings in many viewers. Despite this, film researchers have rarely paid it much attention. Film researcher Andreas Jacobsson at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden uses a comparative perspective in his thesis to analyse the motif of death in different film cultures. Death is understood and presented in different ways in different cultures.

GUADAJIRA (BADAJOZ), SPAIN—Canopy light interception (LI) is an important factor for crop growth and fruit yield. Crop yield depends on a canopy's ability to intercept incident solar radiation, which in turn depends on the available leaf area, its structure, and its efficiency in the process of photosynthesis.

Maximizing leaf growth through light interception is an important consideration when studying different agricultural or environmental factors on crop yield, and it is the main source of data in the most widely used methods for estimating crop water needs.

GAINESVILLE, FL—The U.S. Green industry, including nursery and greenhouse producers, landscape services firms, and wholesale and retail distributors, has grown dramatically during the past two decades, becoming an increasingly important sector of American agriculture.

In 2002, the Green Industry generated 1.96 million jobs and $147.8 billion in sales. In 2006, sales of U.S. nursery and greenhouse crops reached $16.9 billion. Despite its growing importance, however, the production and management practices followed in this industry have not been well-documented.

If nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, New Mexico could experience some $3.2 billion in associated costs -- led primarily by wildfires and health-care. This could translate to an individual tab of about 8 percent of annual household income by 2020, according to a report produced for the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative's Program on Climate Economics by ECONorthwest.

If nothing is done to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Washington is likely to experience some $3.8 billion in associated annual costs -- including $1.3 billion in health related costs alone. That will translate to about 2 percent of median annual household income by 2020, according to a report produced for the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative's Program on Climate Economics by ECONorthwest.

If nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Oregon will face some $3.3 billion in annual costs, which could translate to an individual tab of about 4 percent of annual household income by 2020, according to a report produced for the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative's Program on Climate Economics by ECONorthwest.

PARMA, ID—Deficit irrigation is an agricultural technique used to achieve a variety of results depending on the crop. For white wine grapes, it balances the crop load by limiting the canopy size so there aren't too many leaves shading the grapes. For red wine grapes, deficit irrigation again limits canopy size, but also affects berry components associated with wine quality.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A task force launched by President Obama to boost America's middle class will have to help retool beleaguered U.S. workplaces facing their most sweeping changes since World War II, a University of Illinois labor expert says.

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, the dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations, says working-class fortunes are tethered to jobs now squeezed by recession and fraught with lingering problems ranging from stagnant wages and waning benefits to fundamental changes in the nature of work and markets.

FAYETTEVILLE, AR—Round, oblong, and in-between: the shapes of the fruits we eat are not always coincidental or, for that matter, thanks to nature. Before fruit arrives in local groceries, a lot of time and effort may have gone into creating the varieties found in the produce section.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Just over a year ago, the U.S. ethanol industry was still in overdrive, fueling a wave of new factories to keep pace with surging demand for the corn-based gasoline additive.

But the boom has since stalled amid a deep economic downturn that has stifled demand, one of many threats to the fledgling industry that were forecast in a 2007 study by two University of Illinois researchers.

WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2009 – Southeast Asia's few surviving elephants are under increasing threat from booming illegal ivory prices in Vietnam, according to a new market analysis released by TRAFFIC – the world's largest wildlife trade monitoring network and a joint program of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and IUCN.

The survey reports that Vietnamese illegal ivory prices could be the highest in the world, with tusks selling for up to $1,500 per kilogram (1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds) and small, cut pieces selling for up to $1,863 per kilogram.

Chemistry researchers at the University of Warwick have found that tiny nanoparticles could be twice as likely to stick to the interface of two non mixing liquids than previously believed. This opens up a range of new possibilities for the uses of nanoparticles in living cells, polymer composites, and high-tech foams, gels, and paints. The researchers are also working on ways of further artificially enhancing this new found sticking power.

Is the air we breathe on a daily basis slowly killing us?

It may not be that severe, but the air we breathe and water we drink may be more harmful than we realize.

The strange interaction of a parasitic wasp, the caterpillar in which it lays its eggs and a virus that helps it overcome the caterpillar's immune defenses has some scientists rethinking the definition of a virus.