Flies on a diet live much longer than flies that are allowed to eat all they want. But just a small whiff of extra food is enough to shorten the lives of the dieting flies again, a new study shows.

The effect only occurred in flies on restricted rations, though. When flies could eat their fill—and thus already had shortened lives—smelling more food didn’t cut their lives any further.

Mutant flies with damaged sniffers lived longer regardless of their diet and also escaped the ill effects of smelling food.

[Read](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070201-fly-smelling.html?source=rss “Read the Story”)(National Geographic)

Toads on the Japanese island of Ishima seem to be losing their evolutionary battle with snakes. Most snakes, and indeed most other animals, avoid eating toads because of the toxins in their skin. [Rhabdophis tigrinus snakes](http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Rhabdophis+tigrinus&gwp=13 “Answers.com Article”), however, not only tolerate the toxins, they store the chemicals for their own defensive arsenal.

[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11048&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)

Seismic activity is tearing Africa apart and scientists are geared up to watch the ripping landscape in an unprecedented set of observations.

The African and Arabian plates meet in the remote Afar desert of Northern Ethiopia and have been going through a rifting process — at a speed of less than 1 inch per year — for the past 30 million years. This rifting formed the 186-mile Afar depression and the Red Sea.

Occasionally, the buildup of pressure can lead to bursts of cataclysmic activity. In September 2005, a chain of earthquakes caused hundreds of deep fractures. In some spots the ground shifted some 26 feet, and magma, enough to fill a football stadium more than 2000 times, was injected into a crack between the two plates.

Should the processes occurring today continue, the map of Africa will be forever changed, the researchers say.

[Read](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16891250/ “Read the Story”)(LiveScience via MSNBC)

Environmentalists concede that an ambitious multi state pledge to clean up the Chesapeake Bay by 2010 will fall short, because of the **$28 billion** cost and the necessary sewage treatment upgrades and other improvements will take longer than three years.

The Environmental Protection Agency said this month that efforts to restore the bay’s health need to be accelerated to meet the 2010 deadline., but experts told The Washington Post that acceleration would have to include widespread sacrifices from individuals and unprecedented government funding. And even then, it might not be enough.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1047278 “Read the Story”)(AP via WTOP)

The [caribou](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribou “Wikipedia’s Caribou Article”) population in Canada’s vast [Northwest Territories](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_territories “Wikipedia’s Northwest Territories Article”) is falling rapidly and the increasingly warm climate could slow the animals’ chances of recovery, a government wildlife specialist said Friday.

Herds of barren-ground caribou, which for centuries have been a crucial source of food and furs for local aboriginals, have dropped by between 40 and 86 percent over the last 10 years. The largest single herd fell from 472,000 animals in 1986 to 128,000 in 2006 and is still declining.

Ease of hunting and global warming were cited as issues.

[Read](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16827098/ “Read the Story”)(MSNBC)

Wasps fitted with minuscule radio ([RFID](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rfid “Wikipedia’s RFID Article”)) tags have helped scientists shed light on the insects’ behaviour.

Rather than just tending their home colonies, the worker wasps also buzzed into nearby relative-holding nests, helping raise the young, the team said.

The researchers believed the insects were boosting their chances of propagating their genes by nurturing relatives in multiple nests, and they expect to find similar behaviour in other insect species.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6291429.stm “Read the Story”)(BBC)

Beavers may be helping to halt the decline of some amphibian populations, a study suggests.

Researchers, surveying streams in the forests of Alberta, Canada, found significantly more frogs and toads where beaver dams were present. They believe the beaver “ponds” may be providing favorable conditions for developing tadpoles.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6256565.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

The six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed is losing forestland to development at a rate of 100 acres per day, according to a study by the U.S. Forest Service and The Conservation Fund.

Both advocate better management of family-owned woodlots, including selective timber harvesting, to help landowners cash in on their forests without selling out to developers.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1031392 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)

Researchers warn that if current climate projections hold true, warmer temperatures could mean fewer trout in Virginia’s 2,300 miles of wild trout streams.

And one model indicates rising temperatures could take 97 percent of the trout habitat in the southern Appalachians by 2100.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1024794 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)

Bears appear to have stopped hibernating in Spain’s northern mountains, according to Spanish scientists who blame climate change for the behavior. Of the 130 Cantabrian brown bears living in that region, a few females with cubs have been found awake in a season when bears typically slumber.

[Read](http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/12/22/hibernate_ani.html?category=animals&guid=20061222103030 “Read the Story”) (Discovery Channel)

The [black duck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Black_Duck “Wikipedia’s American Black Duck Page”), a signature species of the Chesapeake Bay and a favored target of mid-Atlantic hunters for decades, is in trouble, and scientists are not sure why.

There are several suspects:

* Waterfront development is ruining the wetlands where black ducks lay their eggs and live.
* Their food stuffs – bugs and worms and aquatic plants that thrive in muddy ooze – are fading, too.
* Black ducks are skittish of humans and won’t hang around when marinas, homes, roads and piers show up nearby.

What doesn’t make sense is this: While other migratory waterfowl have rebounded in recent years, including Canada geese, snow geese and mallards, black ducks have not, especially in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. Throughout the East Coast, their numbers are down about 60 percent, according to scientific estimates.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1009915 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)

Marooned on an island, this group of lions should have died out. Instead, in an evolutionary twist, they have learned to swim and become strong enough to tackle their only prey… giant buffalo. Fearless, ferocious and mightier than the world has ever seen, this is the new breed of super-lion.

[Read](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-392292/The-superlions-marooned-island.html “Read the Story”) (The Daily Mail)

A start-up company called [Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel](http://www.fryodiesel.com/ “Philadelphia Fry-O-Diesel Website”) is focused on making biodiesel fuel from restaurant trap grease. Thats the slimy, sticky gunk that collects at the bottom of restaurant drains. Most restaurants pay to have the stuff hauled away.

[Listen](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6585629 “Listen to the Story”) (NPR)