If It’s 3.14 it Must Be Pi Day

Here at Ecology Today, we’ve barely recovered from last year’s Square Root Day (3/3/09), but we won’t let that get in the way of extending an appropriately irrational “Happy Pi Day” to our dear, nerdy friends around the world. You know who you are.

(Those who aren’t pi lovers can always bake a cake: it’s also Albert Einstein’s birthday.)

Behold, the Power of Peas

A scientist from the University of Tel Aviv envisions generating electricity by mimicking the way plants transform energy from the sun into sugar. From CoolerPlanet:

Using the basics of plant photosynthesis, or what structural biologist and nanoscientist Prof. Nathan Nelson is calling the Photosystem I (PSI) complex, it may someday be possible to harness the molecular engines of plants to create what is, in the botanical world at least, a 100-percent conversion of sunlight into energy.

Prof. Nelson’s botanical-based solar cell reportedly won’t achieve the 100-percent efficiency found in the natural world, but researchers associated with the project expect at least 20 percent efficiency, which is about five percent better than the most efficient silicon-based solar photovoltaic technology on the market today.

Canada to Replace Paper Money with Plastic (No, not Credit Cards)

While more expensive to produce, plastic currency is more durable, waterproof, less likely to spread germs, and recyclable.  From about.com:

Sometime late in 2011, the Bank of Canada will replace the nation’s traditional cotton-and-paper bank notes with currency made from a synthetic polymer. Canada will purchase its plastic money from a company in Australia, one of nearly two dozen countries where plastic currency is already in circulation.

New Model Suggests Peak Oil Could Be Reached A Decade Earlier than Predicted

Science Daily:

In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil and intensify the search for alternative fuel sources, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 — almost a decade earlier than some other predictions.

Understanding Climate’s Influence on Human Evolution

A report by the Committee on Earth System Context for Hominum Evolution, National Research Council, looks at the intersection of climate change and human development, and calls for new research. From the National Academies Press (scroll down to the table of contents to read individual chapters online):

The Earth’s geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins evolved. Understanding Climate’s Change on Human Evolution explores the opportunities of using scientific research to improve our understanding of how climate may have helped shape our species.

With Schools in Ruins, Haitan Children Face Present Dangers, Uncertain Futures

From the New York Times:

Thousands of schools in and around this devastated capital could remain closed for months or never reopen, according to Haitian and United Nations education officials. That leaves vast numbers of children languishing in camps or working in menial jobs as they struggle to survive.

Children staying in the camps face trials beyond laboring in the streets. Health workers in the camps are reporting a rising number of young rape victims, including girls as young as 12…

“The entire structure of the lives of these children has been upended, and now they’re dealing with the predators living next to them…”