Corals Can Get Herpes; Valtrex Not an Option

Coral reefs have taken a beating in recent decades. Ask someone who dove off the Florida coast in the ’70s and he’ll tell you the reefs today are a shadow of what they once were.Overfishing, reckless coastal development, pollution, careless boaters, and human plundering have all had a perilous effect on the increasingly…

Study Finds Just Thinking About Alcohol Can Make You More Racist

​​Everybody’s trying to ride the Trayvon Martin case’s publicity coattails — politicians are making statements about it left and right, a column in the Huffington Post tried to connect an FAU student’s freakout to racial anger, and now, the University of Missouri is trying to tie a psychology study to…

JAVMA Probes Whether Burmese Pythons Are Mere Hype or Slithering Destructive Force

Despite the string of national headlines, television specials, a federal ban, and grotesque photographs, it’s becoming increasingly unclear whether Burmese pythons are permanently wrecking the Everglades or if they’re just an overhyped nuisance. Earlier this year, scientists released a major study suggesting that huge drops of mammal sightings in the Everglades were likely because…

If Climate Change Melts Greenland’s Ice Sheet, Will South Florida Drown?

A giant sheet of ice that covers most of ​Greenland might be a serious problem for South Florida in a few hundred or few thousand years, give or take. A new study in Nature Climate Change warns that a 1.6 degree Celsius jump in global temperatures could completely melt Greenland’s ice sheet. That’s terrible because we’re talking about…

Python Destruction of Everglades May Be Overhyped

At the end of January, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study suggesting that Burmese pythons were decimating mammal populations in the Everglades. The numbers were shocking: a 99 percent decline in raccoon sightings, a 98 percent drop in opossum sightings, and so on. Reuters reported on Friday, however, that some…

Circumcision and AIDS: Harvard Doctors Respond to Criticism

Could a whole coalition of highly accomplished, super educated doctors and researchers — the ones who work at and advise the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Harvard School of Public Health — all be wrong? Or are their critics hindering them from…

Our Interview With John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

​We told you yesterday about the Broward Water Partnership’s latest push to encourage water conservation with its new spokesman, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Jingleheimer Schmidt is helping pass on information about conservation, rebates for high-efficiency toilets, and free stuff by using stories about his anti-drought efforts in Nursery RhymeLand. There’s also a…

Hungry, Hungry Pythons Decimate Mammal Populations in Everglades

​It’s no secret that Burmese pythons have been wreaking havoc in the Everglades, but the extent of their destruction has been hard to grasp. A new study provides some of the first hard statistics on how these invasive reptiles are altering the food chain, and the numbers are downright scary.Between…

EPA Makes Toxic Releases In Broward Easier To Find Than Ever

Copper in Coral Springs. Lead in Deerfield. Styrene in Dania Beach. These are just a few of the cases that turn up with a quick search of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Toxic Release Inventory database.The database, consisting of toxic disposals from 2010, allows users to search by zip code…

Burmese Pythons Can Survive in Saltwater. Damn.

​As if snakes large enough to swallow — or at least try to swallow — alligators in the Everglades aren’t frightening enough, U.S. Geological Survey researchers delivered a bit of unsettling news this week about Burmese pythons. These massive beasts can’t be held back by saltwater. The researchers hoped that reptiles’…

Public Has Three More Days to Comment on Possible New Wildlife Refuge

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period for a proposal to turn 150,000 acres of savanna ranch land north of Lake Okeechobee into the “Headwaters of the Everglades National Wildlife Refuge.” The acquisition would cost $700 million, and around a third of the land would…