Once hunted to near-extermination, the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf reached an important milestone recently. With a population estimated at 1,500, the wolf re-established itself in the Yellowstone National Park area, and in March 2008 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed it from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Almost immediately, hunters began petitioning the state offices of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming for permits to hunt the wolves, perhaps down to as little as 20 percent of their current numbers in some areas. Such a weighty issue begs the questions: How much hunting is safe for a given species? How many gray wolves can die before the species loses its chance at recovery?
Continue reading "Biodiversity: Some species may always be endangered" »
A chain of 14, breathtaking Pacific islands is paradise lost without reliable electricity.
The Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth some 1,500 miles east of the Philippines, has seen its garment industry waste away in the face of global competition. Attracting replacement industry is difficult, in part because of the commonwealth's undependable power supply. Rolling blackouts are the norm, caused by aging power plant equipment and the irregular delivery of expensive, imported diesel to run the plants.
SMU's geothermal energy team of faculty and graduate students is aiming to prevent the Islands' economic oblivion by helping to convert their volcanic heat into affordable, renewable energy.
Continue reading "Earth's inner heat can generate electric power" »
Kumar Venkataraman, in SMU's Cox School of Business, has received an SMU 2008 Ford Research Fellowship.
Venkataraman's research has influenced important policy debates on the structure of financial markets and has been cited by regulators with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States, as well as with the Financial Services Authority in Europe.
Continue reading "Financial-market research nets Venkataraman cash prize" »
