CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 11, 2009 |
California's Department of Food and Agriculture plans to continue efforts to eliminate an invasive moth that it says poses a risk to fruit and ornamental plants, despite protests from scientists and environmentalists who say the measures are unnecessary. Moth detection has led to quarantines in 3,500 square miles in 15 counties, including Los Angeles, causing millions of dollars in lost revenue, said Michael Jarvis, deputy secretary for public affairs at the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
September 9, 2008 |
Two years ago, a bass-baritone covered in gook stalked the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. That was the medieval monster in Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel," commissioned by Los Angeles Opera. Sunday afternoon, a baritone covered in gook again stalked the Chandler stage. This time it was Brundle, the scientist hero transmogrified into a Musca domestica in Howard Shore's "The Fly," inspired by the 1986 David Cronenberg horror film -- the latest opera commissioned by the company.
November 13, 2006 |
IN the war against head lice, we face an enemy that is fast and plentiful, with nimble armies that can evolve and outwit standard weaponry. Will we ever take the lead in this scalp-biting, nit-picking arms race?
May 10, 2003 |
Mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus and a strain of malaria have developed a resistance to insecticides because of a single-letter mutation in their genetic code, scientists said. Researchers at the University of Montpellier II in France said the alteration could be the cause of 25 years of resistance to insecticides among insects that carry the disease. The mutation makes a key enzyme in the mosquitoes less sensitive to ingredients in some insecticides.
February 16, 2003 |
The San Bernardino County town of Colton is the only city in the nation with an official, federally designated fly preserve. Hard as it may be to believe, this is not a distinction sought by city leaders, who can't imagine that the 10-acre, chain-link-ringed habitat of the tiny Delhi Sands flower-loving fly will ever challenge Mt. Slover, a 300-foot limestone peak owned by a cement company, as the city's major landmark.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 30, 2001 |
This is a story about a bug, a bird and a tree. The bug is a tiny caterpillar, the western spruce budworm, eating its way through eastern Washington forests. The tree is the Douglas fir, the budworm's favorite meal. The bird is the northern spotted owl, a federally protected species that frequents the same forests the budworms are devouring. Put them together and you get another story--a story about how hard it is to correct the damage when humans tamper with Mother Nature.