Free Republic

An IDF fighter who was seriously injured two weeks ago died on Tuesday after being infected by a dangerous fungus found in the soil of the Gaza Strip, Reshet Bet Radio reported. The fungus has infected ten other fighters. The deceased fighter arrived with serious injuries to his limbs at Asuta Hospital in Ashdod, where they identified that he had been infected with treatment-resistant fungi. The doctors tried every possible treatment, including experimental treatments from abroad, and brought in every specialist they could, but in the end, the fungus invaded vital organs in the soldier’s body and he died. Professor...

The community of West Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area is facing a new environmental threat in the form of toxic waste lurking beneath the soil with residents calling for 'climate justice' in the form of reparations. The threat is in addition to existing pollution residents must deal with in what are predominantly communities of color. The stability of contaminants buried underground are a reminder of Oakland's industrial history, but the health and safety of those living nearby very much depends on it remaining in the soil. But as the waters of the San Francisco Bay rise and reach...

More like a verdant rug than a forest or pasture, the humble moss packs a surprising lot of punch for being such a small plant. In an amazing new study, researchers have only just discovered how vital this diverse group of itty-bitty botanicals is to ecosystems around the world...Sampling mosses from over a hundred sites across eight different ecosystems, Eldridge and colleagues estimated populations of the plant cover a staggering 9.4 million square kilometers in the types of environments surveyed. This is comparable to the size of China or Canada.Ancestors of all today's living plants, these ancient organisms are more...

Grasses, shrubs and mosses are growing and expanding around Mount Everest and across the Himalayan region as the area continues to experience the consequences of global warming, researchers have found. Scientists from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom used satellite data to establish increases in subnival vegetation -- plants that grow between the tree line and the snow line -- in the Himalayas. Using NASA Landsat satellite data from 1993 to 2018, remote sensing scientists measured "small but significant" increases in vegetation cover across four height brackets between 4,150 and 6,000 meters (13,615-19,685 feet) above sea level. "There...

Eating like a caveman meant chowing down on woolly rhinos and sheep in Belgium, but munching on mushrooms, pine nuts and moss in Spain. It all depended on where they lived, new research shows. Scientists got a sneak peek into the kitchen of three Neanderthals by scraping off the plaque stuck on their teeth and examining the DNA. What they found smashes a common public misconception that the caveman diet was mostly meat. They also found hints that one sickly teen used primitive versions of penicillin and aspirin to help ease his pain. The dental plaque provides a lifelong record...

Bungling police raided the home of an elderly couple after they mistook the smell of a common garden plant for cannabis. Ivor and Margaret Wiltshire bought 'moss phlox' four years ago for £2 and spread it through their front and back garden. But the plant - which grows vivid pink flowers in the spring and looks nothing like cannabis - gives off a pungent aroma similar to the drug. vor and Margaret Wiltshire have launched an official complaint against the police after they raided their home because a garden plant smelled like cannabis The smell was so strong the couple's...

What's making the mini crop circles? Snails? Millipedes? A mysterious circular pattern on moss-covered logs has scientists scratching their heads. Last winter, researchers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park discovered the symmetrical bull's-eye pattern on patches of liverwort (a close relative of moss) growing on pine trees that had died and fallen on the ground. At this point, biologists aren't sure what causes the circles. Some have suggested snails, while others have speculated millipedes. "Immediately, we thought of snails," said Keith Langdon, chief biologist with the Smokies. "But snails graze in a zigzag pattern. We can't find records of...

GARDENERS have been warned that their habit could leave them at an increased risk of heart disease. Medics found that pollutants in the soil could have a 'detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system'. The results of the analysis pushed experts to recommend that people wear a face mask, if they are in close contact with the soil. Experts at the University Medical Center Mainz, Germany said pollution of air, water and soil is responsible for at least nine million deaths each year. They highlighted that more than 60 per cent of pollution-related deaths are due to heart issues such as...

Soil can be considered black gold, and we’re running out it. The United Nations declared soil finite and predicted catastrophic loss within 60 years. “There are places that have already lost all of their topsoil,” Jo Handelsman, author of “A World Without Soil,” and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told CNBC. The impact of soil degradation could total $23 trillion in losses of food, ecosystem services and income worldwide by 2050, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. “We have identified 10 soil threats in our global report … Soil erosion is number one because it’s...

A DEADLY terrorist weapon could be buried in the backyards of Darwin's northern suburbs, US scientists fear. US authorities say melioidosis - commonly known as Nightcliff Gardeners Disease - is a potential bioterror threat. The US Government believes the tropical disease, caused by soil-dwelling bacteria, could become the next anthrax-style bioterrorism threat.

eth Watkins has been farming his family’s land in southern Iowa for decades, growing pasture for his cows as well as corn and other row crops. His great-grandfather founded the farm in 1848. “He came in with one of John Deere’s steel plows and pierced the prairie,” Watkins recounted. With its rolling hills and neat lines of corn stretching to the horizon, broken by clumps of trees, it’s a picturesque scene. But centuries of farming those hills have taken their toll on the soil. Now, farmers like Watkins are facing widespread soil degradation that can lower their crop yields and...

Although Sudanese president Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir meets more than all of the requirements that qualified Libya's Muammar Gaddafi for regime change -- the U.S. has shown an alarming amount of empathy for the oppressor and his cabal in Khartoum. In fact, Gaddafi's sins pale in comparison to those of Bashir, whose transgressions were concisely enumerated by Doyle McManus in the L.A. Times on Tuesday. Because of his role as the architect of the Darfur genocide -- a campaign which claimed over 300,000 lives -- Bashir became the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes by the International...

Fertilizer. What is it? How does it work? Is it safe to use? What's the difference between Organic and Synthetic fertilizer? Watch the video: https://youtu.be/IeMvR4tmMJ8

Pila'a, Kauai -- Last Sunday morning, more than a dozen cars were parked along a six-foot wall built around Mark Zuckerberg's vast retreat on the northeast corner of Kauai, a small, remote Hawaiian island that's home to 70,000 people. The gate, which is almost always locked shut, was open, so you could walk right past the Facebook-blue sign that reads "PRIVATE PROPERTY Thank you for not trespassing." The lava rock wall, which Zuckerberg started building in 2016, inflamed some of his neighbors. It's built on a bluff a mile from the ocean and now stretches for nearly a mile along...

Wieger Wamelink, a biologist at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, is running plant growth experiments in a mixture of NASA-made Martian soil simulants — made from volcanic terrestrial rocks — and pig manure, to which he added live adult worms. University officials said in a statement that the infant worms are the first offspring of adult worms to be born in a Mars soil simulant. Mars is not a naturally habitable environment for life as we know it, so if humans want to live there long term, Red Planet settlers will have to establish closed ecosystem models....

People are entitled to their own opinions about what the definition ought to be. But the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the Supreme Court is an "originalist," one who claims to be bound by the narrowly historical meaning of the Constitution's terms at the time of their adoption. To his kind of judge, Cruz ironically wouldn't be eligible, because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and '90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a "natural born" citizen. Even having two US parents wouldn't suffice. And having just...

It’s caked in clay, but looks solid enough as the backhoe gently hoists Joan Fitzgerald’s 500-gallon fuel oil tank out of the ground and into the air and deposits it on her front lawn in Clifton. But back in the excavated hole, dark residue stains the dirt and the odor of petroleum is heavy above the pit. "I can smell it," she said. Environmental consultant Steve Rich chops at the clay. Underneath holes appear in the 66-year-old steel. Daylight shines through some that are as big as dimes. "I think, unfortunately, quite a bit of oil might have come out,"...

Prozac may not be the only way to get rid of your serious blues. Soil microbes have been found to have similar effects on the brain and are without side effects and chemical dependency potentials. Learn how to harness the natural antidepressant in soil and make yourself happier and healthier. Read on to see how dirt makes you happy. Natural remedies have been around for untold centuries. These natural remedies included cures for almost any physical ailment as well as mental and emotional afflictions. Ancient healers may not have known why something worked but simply that it did. Modern scientists...

Soil covers only 10% of the earth’s surface, but within this small area, all of the world’s crops are produced. It provides the anchor that allows plants to grow upright and is the primary source of water and nutrients for plants. Scientists have identified over 70,000 varieties of soil in the United States alone...

The farm-to-table process in China starts in villages like this one in the agricultural heartland. Food from the fields of Ge Songqing and her neighbors ends up in their kitchens or in the local market, and from there goes to other provinces. The foods are Chinese staples: rice, cabbage, carrots, turnips and sweet potatoes. But the fields are ringed by factories and irrigated with water tainted by industrial waste. Levels of toxic heavy metals in the wastewater here are among the highest in China, and residents fear the soil is similarly contaminated. Though they have no scientific proof, they suspect...