Washing your hands with antibacterial soap containing triclosan – the most common microbe-killing ingredient used in these soaps – may be no better than ordinary plain soap, according to South Korean researchers. The work adds weight to previous studie…
Archives for September 2015
BioBlitz: A Snapshot of Sandy Hook’s Ecological Diversity
Summer may be over, but the Sandy Hook peninsula’s early days of the offseason have been anything but uneventful… On Sept. 18, the National Park Service (NPS) and the American Littoral Society (ALS) welcomed scientists, naturalists and volunteers of …
Rutgers Scientist Michael Kennish is Editor of International “Encyclopedia of Estuaries”
Michael Kennish, research professor in the Rutgers Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is the editor and a contributing author of the Encyclopedia of Estuaries, an international volume of the most comprehensive and multidisciplinary research knowledge and advances in estuarine science, to date. Newly published by Springer (Dordrecht, The Netherlands), it contains nearly 270 articles […]
Rutgers Expert Offers ‘CPR’ Tips For Brown Lawns
The grass is not always greener on the other side. The lack of rainfall and high temperatures this summer have taken a toll on lawns across the state, according to Bill Hlubik, professor and agricultural and resource management agent for the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Middlesex County’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station… Hlubik said most lawn grasses in New Jersey and the Northeast are pure stands or mixtures of bluegrass, fescues and perennial rye grasses, which are cool season turf grasses that go into dormancy when it gets hot and dry. While in dormancy, the grass will slow down its metabolic processes and conserve energy until better conditions return… “Some lawns will revive once adequate rainfall and cooler temperatures return. However, for lawns that were previously struggling, the current drought and heat may be the final smack-down to take weak lawns out of contention for the 2016 season,” he said… Throughout September, Hlubik recommended de-thatching lawns. Excess thatch is the dead and brown layer of rhizomes and old roots and plant tissue between the crown or base of the lawn plant and the roots, he said.
ESC Director Karyn Malinowski (CC’75, GSNB’80,’86) Featured in Major Interview by NJFB “Ag Matters”
Founding director of the Rutgers Equine Science Center Karyn Malinowski (CC’75, GSNB’80,’86) was the subject of a far-ranging interview on the state’s equine industry in the Summer 2015 issue of Ag Matters, published by the New Jersey Farm Bureau. An equine specialist, Malinowski is a professor of animal sciences at the School of Environmental and […]
The Bitter Truth
This article features the work of Paul Breslin, a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center as well as a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University. He is a geneticist and biologist whose work focuses on taste perceptio…
Drought Watch Issued In NJ
With New Jersey’s dry spell growing, state officials issued a drought watch Wednesday and called on residents to conserve water… “It is prudent,” said David A. Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist. “I think the timing is right. It’s always a tricky call because these generally are somewhat subjective decisions, mind you underlaid by factual data.”… If it remains warm and dry and water use does not drop, the state Department of Environmental Protection will consider taking further action, such as declaring a drought warning. Under a warning, the DEP may order water purveyors to develop alternative sources of water or transfer water from areas with relatively more water to those with less, according to the DEP statement… Robinson, the state climatologist who is based at Rutgers University, said rainfall over the past 30 days has been 25 to 50 percent of average. Rainfall in the past 90 days has been about half the norm, and the past 90 days were warmer than normal.
Summer 2015: Not One For the Record Books
State Climatologist Dave Robinson of Rutgers University says the Garden State’s summer climate lacked any excessive heat or cold, and was on the mild side… “It was a summer with quite a mixed bag of conditions, with the exception of the weekends, which were almost exclusively beautiful,” Robinson said… Robinson says every weekend day was rain-free, from the beginning of July through Labor Day. He said New Jersey did not have an exceptionally warm summer, just as the past two years have not been exceptionally warm in the eastern U.S., when other parts of the world are experiencing intense heat… In fact, global climate watchers are saying 2015 is on track to go into the books as the warmest year on record for the planet earth. But not so here in the Garden State. According to Robinson, we were above average temperature-wise, in every month of the summer, but not excessively so.
Vote Near on Lifting Ban on Oyster Beds in N.J. Waters
Five years after the Christie administration ordered scientists to remove oyster beds designed to clean pollution, the state Senate is poised this week to vote on a measure that could put the bivalves back into state waters… The bill would effectivel…
New NJAES Catnip Releases May Make Purr-fectly Good Insect Repellents
Farmers and home gardeners may be as attracted to the new lines of catnip being released by Rutgers NJAES as cats are. The new varieties have larger leaves and flowers, which produce more of the essential oils that cats go crazy for. Rutgers Professor Jim Simon and doctoral student William Reichert have developed lines with […]