California Agriculture:

• Biofuels caught in changing regulations: California's new biofuels regulations may be flawed by scanty data.
• California voters assess anti-GMO initiatives: Something's missing from the debate over genetically-modified organisms—and unfortunately it's science.
• Models clarify Tahoe clarity loss: Comprehensively cleaning up our act is the only way to restore Lake Tahoe's fabled beauty.
• Trained ovines chomp on weeds, avoid vines: An emetic chaser is all it takes to make sheep chow down on weeds instead of grapevines.
• UC scientists help California prepare for climate change: Carbon-cutting agricultural practices such as using less fertilizer and restoring wetlands have the added benefit of making farming more sustainable overall.
• Science-based outreach helps stem sudden oak death: Contrary to popular belief, uprooting native plants from gardens and tossing muddy hiking shoes won't stop this disease from wiping out California oaks. But tracking the pathogen could help slow its spread.

Conservation:

• Turning A Radical Idea Into Reality: After Maine's Edwards Dam was demolished, salmon returned to the newly-freed stretch of the Kennebec River for the first time in 264 years.
• Long-distance Killer: Pesticides are the latest suspect in Costa Rica’s mysterious frog decline.
• Wipe out: The domino effect extends to marine life—great sharks are going down and they're taking shellfish with them.
• Slow-growth Forests: Climate change may stunt rather than spur tree growth.
• A Little Vaccination Goes a Long Way: Immunizing just a third of Ethiopian wolves is enough to protect them from rabies.
• Small Worlds Shed New Light on Habitat Loss: Bigger habitats aren’t always better. The mix of species—and how they affect each other—may matter even more than sheer size.

Ecosystem Marketplace:

• Wetland Mitigation Banking: What do buyers want and why does it matter?: Finding common ground between conservationists and builders is key to making mitigation banks work.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment:

• Banning energy-hog TVs (see p.235): California is poised to set energy standards for flatscreen and plasma sets, which gobble 10% of the state's home electricity use.
• Rx for oak trees (see p.122): How can we stop this disease from killing California oaks? Not with an alternative method that a researcher likens to “treating pneumonia with orange juice.”
• California’s cash crunch derails conservation (see p.69): California can't sell bonds, endangering voter-approved environmental initiatives.

Public Library of Science Biology:

• Bad Taste Protects Fruit Flies from Eating a Toxic Amino Acid in Plants: A new kind of taste receptor in insects could ultimately lead to more targeted pesticides.
• Slowing Down a Hammerhead Ribozyme Allows Glimpses of It in Action: Trapping an RNA enzyme in a crystal reveals the workings of these ancient catalysts, which may have been the basis of life in a pre-DNA world.
• A Social Amoeba Discriminates in Favor of Kin: Microorganisms that cheat and practice nepotism to get the top—who needs science fiction?

Smithsonian Zoogoer:

• Sex and the Spotted Hyena: Female spotted hyenas out-macho the males, right down to their genitals.
• Sea Otters, Adrift: What’s killing California sea otters? Veterinarians say disease but conservation biologists say the likely culprit is malnutrition.
• Designs from Life: The Eiffel Tower, Velcro and deep-sea robots are among the many designs inspired by living things.
• The Unicorn, the Mermaid, and the Centaur: Why we fall for mythological hoaxes—some people just like to fool others, some just don't know any better, and science can be as much an art as anything else.
• Trouble in Paradise: California's Island Fox: The few remaining foxes are in danger of being picked off by golden eagles but both species are protected. Can we save one from the other without harming either?
• Scat-Sniffing Dogs : Dogs sniff out DNA-rich scats of elusive species from grizzly bears to tigers, and whales may be next.

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