Informatics includes the science of information and the practice of information processing.

Informatics studies the structure, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process and communicate information. It also develops its own conceptual and theoretical foundations. Since computers, individuals and organizations all process information, informatics has computational, cognitive and social aspects.

Used as a compound, in conjunction with the name of a discipline, as in medical informatics, bio-informatics, etc., it denotes the specialization of informatics to the management and processing of data, information and knowledge in the named discipline.

More on [ Informatics ]

BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition

'Lost towns' discovered in Amazon
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:37:07 -0000
The remote Amazon basin was once home to complex urban communities, according to a study in Science journal.
Fly's brain 'senses swat threat'
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:12:17 -0000
Researchers in the US believe they have solved the mystery of why flies are so hard to swat - planning and intelligence.
Online maps 'wiping out history'
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:17:17 -0000
Internet mapping is demolishing thousands of years of Britain's geography and history, a leading cartographer claims

NYT > Environment

California Moves on Bill to Curb Sprawl and Emissions
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:51:43 -0000
A proposed law encourages housing close to job sites, rail lines and bus stops in order to shorten the time people spend in their cars.
As Arctic Sea Ice Melts, Experts Expect New Low
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:17:55 -0000
The coverage of sea ice in the Arctic could break the record low from last September, scientists said.
Xcel to Disclose Global Warming Risks
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:53:45 -0000
The New York attorney general announced an agreement that would require Xcel Energy, a builder of coal-fired plants, to disclose to investors the financial risks of global warming.

ENN: Climate

Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low
Envisat observations from mid-August depict that a new record of low sea-ice coverage could be reached in a matter of weeks. The animation above is a series of mosaics of the Arctic Ocean created from images acquired between early June and mid-August 2008 from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard Envisat. The dark grey colour represents ice-free areas while blue represents areas covered with sea ice.
The weekends are more rainy — and it may be our fault
IT SEEMS to happen with depressing frequency - sunny skies turn to rain just as the weekend arrives. Now Spanish researchers say they have evidence that in some parts of Europe the weather really does follow a weekly cycle, although not in the straightforward way that the anecdote might suggest.
Carbon Footprint: Saving at Home
YOU know your shoe size. But you probably don’t know your carbon footprint, particularly the footprint of your home.

L.A. Times - Environment

Orange County judge keeps storm-drain runoff standards in place for now
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700
An earlier ruling against the rules had frozen them, preventing builders from getting necessary California state permits. A Los Angeles regional board must review the standards. A judge ruled Thursday that water quality standards designed to protect the region's beaches from polluted storm-drain runoff will remain in place, at least for the time being.
Northern California horse sanctuary in desperate straits because of its name
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Dream Catcher used to share part of its name, 'Equus Sanctuary,' with an L.A. County haven closed for violations. Donor confusion has halted fundraising. It's been a summer of tough breaks on a remote ranch where Barbara Clarke had hoped hundreds of old and ailing horses could live out their final days amid sagebrush prairie and juniper forests.
Santa Barbara County panel OKs offshore oil drilling
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700
In a largely symbolic act, the county Board of Supervisors votes 3 to 2 to support offshore oil extraction. A divided Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in support of offshore drilling, after an impassioned daylong hearing in which this year's record gas prices trumped the memory of a disastrous oil spill.

National Geographic News

ANIMAL PHOTOS WEEKLY: Albino Whale, Baby Giraffe, More
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
A rare albino right whale frolics in the water, a mother giraffe nuzzles its baby, and more in our new weekly roundup of animal photos.
New Orleans Gears Up for Possible Hurricane Gustav Hit
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
As tropical storm Gustav gains strength in the Caribbean, emergency management personnel who learned from Hurricane Katrina three years ago are already preparing for possible landfall.
Ancient Urban Network Mapped in Amazon Forests
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Vast swathes of "pristine" Amazon rain forest may actually have been sophisticated urban landscapes prior to the arrival of European colonists, anthropologists say.

USDA - Natural Resources

Forest Service Maps and General Guides.
Topographic maps, specialty maps and brochures, national trails, roadless areas.
Plants Database
Classification, characteristics, invasive and noxious plants, alternative crops, distribution maps, fact sheets.
National Water Management Center
Direct assistance, information, and technology on water-related issues for natural resources conservation.

The Economist: The environment

The Amazon:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
Oil and gas extraction does not have to hurt the rainforest, or its peopleON THE face of it, a mostly peaceful protest by several thousand tribespeople in Peru’s Amazon jungle this month was a resounding victory for those who shook placards and spears. On August 22nd Peru’s Congress repealed two presidential decrees, approved in May and June, that made it easier for companies and individuals to buy land belonging to indigenous peoples by reducing the necessary consent from a two-thirds vote by an entire community to that of half the attendees at a mass meeting. The protesters, who occupied oil installations, claimed that many of them would lose their land unwittingly. Alan Garcia, Peru’s unpopular president, argues that do-gooding NGOs are blocking his country’s drive for economic development. The protest, and the repeal of the decrees, was an embarrassing setback for the government. Other decrees regulating oil exploration will now be reviewed by an all-party committee. ...
Magnetism and behaviour:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
Like compass needles, cows point north-southACCORDING to popular folklore, many animals are smarter than they appear. Dogs bark before earthquakes; chimpanzees know the right herbs to deal with intestinal worms; cattle predict rainfall by sitting on the ground. But cows, in particular, may have a hidden talent that far outweighs any meteorological skills. It appears they know which way is north.Sabine Begall of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and her colleagues became interested in animal magnetism when they were working on mole rats—blind animals that live underground and use magnetism to navigate. In a paper published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they looked at whether larger mammals also have the ability to perceive magnetic fields. They did so by studying images of thousands of cattle captured on Google Earth, a website that stitches together high-resolution satellite photographs to produce a simulacrum of the Earth’s surface. ...
Archaeology:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:36 -0000
The world’s favourite rainforest once had towns in itRAINFORESTS are often thought of as virgin habitats: in other words, pristine ecosystems unaltered by the hand of man. A moment’s thought shows that this cannot truly be so. People do live in rainforests, and where people live they must alter things. But the fact that those who live there these days tend to make their living by hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants may suggest that Homo sapiens could, in principle, be just another forest species—a natural part of the ecosystem that alters it only to the extent that any species inhabiting it would. To that extent, the forest is still “virgin”.In the world’s largest rainforest, though, this argument no longer holds. The past few years have brought evidence suggesting that parts of the Amazon forest were settled and farmed before Europeans arrived in the area. Now Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his colleagues have provided some more. In a paper published in this week’s Science they look at part of Brazilian Amazonia called the Upper Xingu. Here, they found, humans flourished between about 1,500 years ago and 400 years ago. Moreover, these people lived in urban societies that, even if they did not resemble traditional cities, matched them in population and social organisation. ...

Reuters: Environment

Storm Gustav poised to become a hurricane
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:15:03 -0400
GEORGE TOWN (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Gustav was expected to strengthen in the warm Caribbean on Friday as it left flooded Jamaica and churned toward the Cayman Islands, headed for the Gulf of Mexico on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's deadly strike on New Orleans.
IAEA nuclear leak did not reach environment: probe
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:37:23 -0400
VIENNA (Reuters) - A small amount of plutonium which leaked from an ageing International Atomic Energy Agency laboratory near Vienna did not reach the environment, according to an independent inquiry cited by the U.N. watchdog on Friday.
Small farmers to join Brazil sustainable cane move
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:11:21 -0400
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Dozens of small and medium-scale farmers in Brazil's Sao Paulo state will grow sugar cane certified as meeting strict social and environmental standards, the region's cane producers association said late on Thursday.

NPR Topics: Environment

Flies In Danger Escape With Safety Dance
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:05:00 -0400
High-speed cameras reveal that flies perform an elegant little ballet with their legs. In less than a 10th of a second, flies perceive the direction of the threat and use their legs to angle their bodies for the quickest escape route.
Florida's Tourism Executives Revisit Offshore Drilling
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:19:00 -0400
Florida's biggest business is tourism, and its beaches are the state's crown jewel. The state's tourism industry has strongly opposed offshore oil drilling, but in September, an annual tourism convention will focus on the risks and rewards of this practice.
Cyclists And Drivers Vie For Space On The Road
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:25:00 -0400
High gas prices and heightened environmental awareness have led more bicyclists to take to already-congested streets. Road rage has escalated quickly — drivers complain that cyclists ignore traffic laws and cyclists contend that drivers deliberately try to run them down.

UN News Centre - Environment, Shelter

Tests confirm no radioactivity release from incident at UN laboratory
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Independent experts have confirmed the initial findings of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there was no release of radioactive material to the environment after an incident at one of its laboratories earlier this month.
Accra talks bode well for future climate change negotiations - UN official
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Important progress has been made during the latest round of United Nations-led climate change talks in Accra, Ghana, on key issues relating to a new international agreement to tackle global warming, the world body's top official dealing with the issue said today.
In Zaragoza, UN spotlights use of nuclear technology to protect water resources
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The United Nations agency tasked with promoting safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies will be showcasing its efforts to protect the world's water resources at a major exhibition currently being held in the Spanish city of Zaragoza.

Environment

The Release of Environmental Sustainability An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support
B-SPAN Washington D.C. – On July 22nd, 2008, the World Bank presented a panel discussion to recognize the release of Environmental Sustainability An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support, written by John Redwood, Jouni Eerikainen, and Ethel Tarazona. Event Chair Vinod Thomas, Director General of the World Banks Independent Evaluation Group, opened the panel by explaining the importance of the report regarding the broader implications for both the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).
2. Global Tiger Conservation Initiative Symposium
B-SPAN On June 9 2008, the World Bank launched the Global Tiger Conservation Initiative with a thematic symposium held at the World Banks headquarters in Washington D.C. The event, entitled Tiger Conservation Moving Lessons Learnt Towards a Winning Strategy, brought together tiger conservation experts to discuss lessons in trade, governance and finance, as well as steps going forward in this important effort.
1. Global Tiger Conservation Initiative Symposium
B-SPAN On June 9 2008, the World Bank launched the Global Tiger Conservation Initiative with a thematic symposium held at the World Banks headquarters in Washington D.C. The event, entitled Tiger Conservation Moving Lessons Learnt Towards a Winning Strategy, brought together tiger conservation experts to discuss lessons in trade, governance and finance, as well as steps going forward in this important effort.

Subscribe to Environment RSS feed