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Tue 06 May 2008 Singapore maps, 1819 - 1954Category : heritage “From Emporium to Singapore City: Mapping the Journey” is Singapore’s first-ever historical map exhibition, jointly organised by SLA and the National Archives Board (NAS), covering 135 years of Singapore’s history (1819-1959) through maps. For more details see Yesterday.sg.
Mok Ly Yng has posted an annotated album of every map at the exhibition that he visited on 23 April 2008. Visit his Google Picasa album. If yoau re ablee to take better, high-res photos (without flash), please do so and send us the photos please!
 Fri 25 Apr 2008 NParks BRC - Singapore Biodiversity Talk SeriesCategory : talks In celebration of Earth Day, World Biodiversity Day and the International Year of the Reef 2008, the NParks Biodiversity Reference Centre is hosting a series of talks. Here is a summary of the schedule and more details can be found at Wild Singapore.
Mon 21 Apr 2008 Bicycles in the Land Transport Masterplan 2008Category : cycling
Mon 07 Apr 2008 07 Apr 2008 - World Health Day:Category : envt "Warm-up vs. health?" By Susan Blumenthal, Yi-An Ko & Stephanie Safdi. The Washington Times, 06 Apr 2008; WHO: World Health Day 2008: protecting health from climate change.  Sun 06 Apr 2008 NEA's weather page has rain data with landmark overlaysCategory : internet I found the NEA's Local Weather page useful for monitoring cleanup sites during the International Coasta Cleanup Singapore last year. The data from weather radar is updated every 15 mins and now I see that you can click to add overlays including those of HDB towns, nature parks and MRT stations to help orientate you. I do wish NParks URLs to which the park icons are linked to were named URLs instead of numbers so they could double as landmarks without having to click through, but it all an excellent enhancement by NEA to the weather page. This image was taken during the mid-afternoon shower over Holland Village today.
Fri 28 Mar 2008 Today, NUS LT20: 4pm - Barry Brook on "Climate Change: Feeling the Tropical Heat"Category : talks Department of Biological Sciences "Climate Change: Feeling the Tropical Heat" Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 Host: Professor Navjot Sodhi
Professor Brook will review the most recent observations of climate change impacts and describe the latest scientific projections for the near future. His focus will be on tropical impacts and examples of recent response of tropical systems, such as rain forest and reefs, to climate change. Taken together, these studies strongly imply that we are pushing the Earth perilously close to catastrophic and irreversible ‘tipping points’ in physical, biological and ultimately social systems. He will also discuss the ways in which we can implement solutions to mitigate, and adapt to, the coming challenges posed by climate change. But we have to act fast to make a real difference. About the speaker - Professor Barry Brook is an international research leader in global ecology and conservation biology. He holds the Foundation Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change and is Director of the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability at the University of Adelaide. He has published two books and over 120 scientific papers on various aspects of human impacts on the natural environment and biodiversity, including climate change, deforestation and overexploitation of populations. In 2006, he was awarded both the Australian Academy of Science Fenner Medal for distinguished research in biology and the Edgeworth David Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales, and in 2007, the H.G. Andrewartha Medal by the Royal Society of South Australia and was listed by Cosmos as one of Australia’s top 10 young scientists. The principal motivation for his research is to identify ways and means of reducing extinctions and mitigating the worst ravages of global change. Wed 26 Mar 2008 04 May 2008 - International Dawn Chorus Day!Category : nature Organise a pre-dawn session to listen to the morning's territorial chorusing to enjoy the music as the sun rises. International Dawn Chorus Day 2008 will see people all around the globe people waking up early to greet the rising sun to enjoy one of evolution's adaptations! Try rousing your friends to join you just this once and use the opportunity to spread the word to celebrate and protect wild birds! See idcd.info to learn more.
Wed 19 Mar 2008 Mon 24 Mar 2008: 7pm @ NUS - Dan Rittschoff on "The joys of Marine Life: Taste, Smell, Pheromones and Sex"Category : talks Public Talk on Marine LIfe "The joys of Marine Life: Taste, Smell, Pheromones and Sex"
By Dan Rittschof, Host: N. Sivasothi Monday 24th March 2008 Conference Room More details later! Mon 10 Mar 2008 Thu 13 Mar 2008: 2pm - Rittschof on "Cementing Relationships: Pheromones and Signals in Crustaceans and Mollusks"Category : talks
Abstract: Communication, especially communication that controls behavior vital to survival has evolved in all animals. Many highly specific communication molecules are peptides that are generated by the most ubiquitous and ancient proteolytic enzymes such as trypsin-like serine Proteases. We will explore some critical behaviors and support the hypothesis that a huge family of communication molecules evolved as byproducts of essential processes like glue polymerization and shell formation. About the Speaker: Prof Rittschof is Professor of Zoology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Basic studies in his lab include chemically-mediated and physiologically regulated breeding and spawning behaviors of behaviors of crustaceans and mollusks, such as organization of spawning, breeding navigation and movement behavior by kairomones and pheromones; hormonal and metabolic modulation of behavior and signaling uses of volatile compounds by marine organisms. Dr Rittschof is interested in signaling peptides and substituted amino sugars and disruption of signaling transduction cascades by pharmaceuticals and biocides. The ultimate goal of these studies is an understanding of the mechanisms and evolution of signaling systems. Current projects include studies on barnacle adhesion, impacts of biocide boosters on reproduction of target and non target species; and studies on a variety of aspects of ecology and reproduction of blue crabs. Prof Rittschof is Visiting Research Professor at TMSI. Sun 09 Mar 2008 JSTOR accessible via NLB, even from homeCategory : internet In zoology, many old tomes are still relevant. When I marveled over the directional swimming of "The Swimming Sea Anemone, Boloceroides mcmurrichi", I found two papers that provided the explanations I needed - Josephson & March (1966) and Lawn & Ross (1982). The former was available at the JEB webpage but for latter, I needed my university's JSTOR account for access. The lovely surprise I had today is that the paper is now available to home users via NLB's JSTOR account; how lovely!  The National Library Board e-journals section now includes access to JSTOR. The collection provides access to "archived contents of important scholarly journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences. Researchers are able to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of back issues of journals as they were originally printed. Existing titles are updated and new titles are added on an ongoing basis." You need to login to your NLB account to use the service. Visit the Digital Library Registration page to acquire a new account. Adding the NLB proxy for immediate access
Thanks to Ivan Chew for the alert. Read more ...
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Abstract - We have so far had less than one degree of recent global warming, yet it is already affecting the lives of millions of people and thousands of species. Indeed, climate change is increasingly seen as one of the most urgent challenges facing the global community, with its consequences expected to rapidly worsen during this century. 
