Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for November 22, 2007

Forget the Earth, Now We are Killing the Universe

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Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

The startling claim is made by a pair of American cosmologists investigating the consequences for the cosmos of quantum theory, the most successful theory we have. Over the past few years, cosmologists have taken this powerful theory of what happens at the level of subatomic particles and tried to extend it to understand the universe, since it began in the subatomic realm during the Big Bang.

Sounds like a job for the UN Intergalactic Panel on Cosmological Change.

The Telegraph: Mankind ‘shortening the universe’s life’

Lesser Sooty Owl

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Lesser Sooty Owl.jpg

The piercing, descending shriek of the Lesser Sooty Owl Tyto multipunctata sounds much like a falling bomb, without the explosion at the end. It has enormous eyes and exceptional hearing, allowing it to hunt in almost total darkness.

It is a formidable rainforest predator of almost all the creatures I have posted at this weblog over the past few years.

Formerly classified as a sub-species of the much larger and darker Sooty Owl Tyto tenebricosa, it has since been re-classified into a distinct species that is endemic to Australia.