Don't expect picnics without ants in the city parks of earth's warmer future. Research suggests that city ants adapt quickly to warming.

Michael Angiletta of Indiana State University led a research team in an effort to learn how well organisms might be able to adapt to a warmer environment. They compared leaf cutter ants from the hot city center of Sao Paolo, Brazil with the same species of ant from nearby cooler rural areas.

Both the city and the rural ants were put in a room where the heat was turned up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit. The city ants survived twenty percent longer. The question that the researchers can't yet answer is whether these urban ants - that live a short distance from their rural cousins - are actually evolving to cope with their warmer environment or have acclimatized to take the heat.

Either way, they say that - because cities are ahead of the rest of our planet when it comes to warming. Studies like this one give researchers a glimpse of changes that might occur with other species as earth gets hotter. The team now plans to continue the study.

They'll use maps made from satellite data to identify possible sites for future experiments about the potential effects of urban warming on earth's creatures. Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand. We're Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

The European Union has recommended updated warnings about possible side effects from the anti-flu drug Tamiflu after Japanese doctors reported psychiatric disorders among teenagers who’ve been taking it. The European Medicines Agency in London said that the information lifted in the packets should warn that convulsions, hallucinations and delirium have all been reported among patients taking Tamiflu.

Among the most beloved are the migratory bird species that travel great distances across the globe.

Where do birds come from and where do they go? That's kind of a fundamental question that has intrigued scientists and people probably from the beginning of time.

That's Judd Howell, Director of the US Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Howell told Earth & Sky that bird tracking technology has come a long way. Once upon a time, satellite transmitters were so heavy, that only big animals like polar bears could be fitted with them. The bears could be tracked to within several kilometers. Now, birds the sizes of geese or ducks can carry the transmitters on their global treks, and they can be tracked to within a few meters.

Well, if we understand what their habitat needs are, I mean, a habitat is the place where an animal lives, and it gets its food there and its shelter there and it reproduces there. And if we can understand, you know, what those needs are and make sure that those needs are being met then you can be reasonably assured that you'll be able to keep that species going in the wild.

Practical applications for humanity include monitoring where wild and domestic birds meet. Howell said one such program in China relates to the spread of avian flu. Our thanks today to NOAA - the National Oceanic and At/mospheric Administration. We are Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

These areas get no rain at all, not even fog. What's more, the soil contains a chemical oxidant - a substance that decomposes organic matter. Think of bleach or hydrogen peroxide.

It's this double whammy of not being able to grow, because there is no water, and having to fight off this oxidant which is there in the soil. We think the same conditions would apply on Mars.

But even the Atacama soil is not devoid of life.

There're organics in the soil in the Atacama, even in the driest region. But if Viking had landed there, it would not have detected those organics, because its instruments are not as capable as those that we would carry down to the field with us now.

Recently, scientists conducted tests in the Atacama soil, similar to those that the Viking spacecraft conducted on Mars in 1976. The researchers found that the Viking's organic detection instruments weren't sensitive enough to perceive（和preceive很接近） the minute（注意读音） bits of organics in this earthly desert.

McKay said it's important that instruments destined for Mars are tested thoroughly on earth. He said it makes no sense to send an instrument to Mars in search of life that can't detect earthly life. We're Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

A university of Virginia chemistry professor has created a device that he says can very quickly diagnose certain diseases at the earliest stages of onset.

University of Virginia's James Landers told Earth & Sky that this device - which resembles a glass microscope slide - uses nanotechnology. It works by analyzing the patient's blood. Tiny nanoscale pores embedded in the device allow it to examine DNA molecules in the blood for signs of disease.

The whole purpose of the clinical diagnostic procedure is to essentially evaluate certain parts of that DNA, and see whether or not the DNA sequences are normal, or whether there are abnormal or mutated sequences in there.

Landers said abnormalities in particular sections of a DNA strand can be signs of early-stage cancer or other problems. While standard genetic analyses for cancer can take days and even weeks, this device can do the same work in a matter of hours, according to Landers.

When you comparing that to three days or two weeks, it's a paradigm shift, and I think the MDs that we work with tell us that this changes how they do their job, which is what research is about.

And doctors know that the earlier they can detect cancer and other diseases, the better chance they have of treating and possibly curing them. More on nanotechnology at our website. With thanks to the National Science Foundation. We are Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

By looking into the past, a researcher is trying to understand how animals might adapt to global warming now.

Richard Norris of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been studying a climate warming event of 55 million years ago. Although there seemed to be major extinctions in the deep ocean, he said, that ancient climate change wasn't as detrimental for animals on land.

“It allowed animals to migrate,for example, from Central Europe over to North America. We have the first record of horses in north America, the first record of primates in North America associate with this episode of global warming. And so, a lot of species spread all over the planet when their northern migration routes were opened up by becoming much warmer.”

But, he said, 55 million years ago there was no large human presence on the planet, and that's important.

“Back then, organisms could freely move around, because we weren't in the way. We build highways and cities and agricultural land and all sorts of things that interfere with the migration of organisms. So it's quite plausible that there will be much heavier extinction from this particular episode of global warming than occurred in the past.”

Join the on-going conversation about global warming at our website at earthsky.org. Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand. We're Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.

Over 145 lakes are already known to lie beneath the ice in Antarctic.

What's new is that many of these lakes appear to be linked together like plumbing and carry vast quantities of liquid water between them and towards the sea. If these lakes are indeed linked, they need to be taken into account in scientific models predicting how Antarctic ice melts and contributes to sea level rise. That's because these lakes - buried under the ice - would lubricate the bottom of ice streams known to move inland ice out to sea.

And there's another factor at work here. In Antarctic, ice collects along the coast in floating platforms called ice shelves. There is concern that as oceans warm from climate change, the ice shelves might disintegrate. Earth Scientist Robert Bindschadler of Goddard Space Flight Center was a study co-author. Earth & Sky asked him what he most wanted the public to know.

"Well, I think it's important to emphasize the changes are happening faster and faster, and even we experts are surprised at how rapid the changes are taking place. And we're still trying to come up with a deeper understanding so we can predict what's going to happen."

Over 90% of the world's ice lies in Antarctic. That's our show, our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand. We are Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.

"We looked at the problems with low-income families in gaining and maintaining employment. Two of the major barriers for them to get out of poverty was(were) transportation and childcare. So we looked in and said ‘what’s the easiest ways to provide them transportation?’ All of our cars today are donated mostly by individuals. We do advertising in local radio, in local newspapers and a little bit on TV, and do a lot of word of mouth and presentations."

Schwartz says in the past seven years Vehicles for Change has awarded more than 2,100 cars to low-income families in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Qualified individuals attend an orientation program to learn about safe driving and automobile insurance. They then buy the car with the help of a loan for $900 to $1,000.

"Once our recipient gets a car they get a six month 6,000 mile warranty. They can't always bring it back here. So we probably have 30 garages throughout Maryland and Virginia who do the repairs for us."

It is a happy moment for 27-year-old Sean Rock, a radio technician in Baltimore. He is getting a car. "I feel great because it just helps me out with transportation, getting back and forth to work, and with my family chores I need to get done （get done with 做完，结束）and, you know, taking my son to basketball practices." As a father of three children, Rock says life was rough without a car for the last two years.

Ivan Smith is another Baltimore man who is getting a car. And for the 20-year-old plumber it is his very first. "Now I have a car, I can make a lot more money by doing other side jobs. I can go hang out with my buddies and be happy."

What makes it possible for Rock and Smith to have such confidence is a program called Vehicles for Change. It is a non-profit organization that repairs and provides donated vehicles to low-income families at a minimal price to help them stay employed.

Martin Schwartz is the organization's executive director. He co-founded it in October 1999 with an auto parts distribution company that is no longer in business.

Autism is a little-understood neurological and behavior syndrome that interferes with a child's ability to relate or interact with others. The new survey by the Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention is not a nationwide study but based on data from only 14 states. Still, many in the medical community and among support groups, found the numbers staggering.

Lee Grossman with the Autism Society of America. "It actually validates what we've been saying all along that the numbers of people being diagnosed with autism is much higher than what had been previously stated."

More money on research is needed because very little is known about possible risk factors for autism, what causes it, or even how to recognize it biologically.