Word: plant
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...pristine as it looks: as it flowed to the sea over many thousands of years, it picked up mineral- rich dust that settled out of the atmosphere. As they melt, the bergs are releasing that highly nutritious dust, which feeds phytoplankton, a microscopic form of oceanic plant life on which shrimplike krill feed. The result, says Smith: "There is an accumulation of organisms around icebergs, and this goes through the food chain up to seabirds." The iceberg ecosystem could extend to seals and penguins as well, although there's no proof of that yet. With an estimated 1,000 icebergs...
...trial couldn't happen in a place that needs it more. Queensland's government has budgeted 7.6 million Australian dollars ($6.7 million U.S.) in public money into the four-year, multipartner experiment, part of a larger initiative to fight the crushing drought, including a desalination plant and a controversial program to recycle waste into drinking water. "We're in uncharted territory as far as rainfall goes," says Craig Wallace, the state's Natural Resources and Water Minister. Wallace acknowledges that going out on a limb with cloud seeding - which still has its naysayers in the scientific community - may raise some...
Earthquake ruins houses, shuts nuclear plant...
...Federalist were both first published anonymously. In countries where governments don't respect free speech, anonymity is a priceless resource. Right now the Chinese city of Xiamen is trying to ban anonymous Web postings after citizens used the Internet to organize a protest against a new chemical plant...
...because Japan depends heavily upon nuclear power for electricity, it's unlikely much can or will be changed. "Building a reasonably quake-resistant plant is way too costly to be truly realistic," says Hiroyuki Nagasawa, a management-systems professor at Osaka Prefecture University. "Nothing short of reevaluating our energy policy will change the current situation, but we have much bigger political powers working to keep the plants running." The country has been spared a quake-related nuclear calamity so far. Citizens can only hope their luck holds...