With Viagra, the male could mate for up to 20 minutes. Scientists are also working on a project to clone panda embryos with the intention of artificially implanting them in a living panda's womb. Poaching and habitat loss have reduced the population of giant pandas to just 1,000, and many worry that extinction may be around the corner. That Feeds You Pedal Express, a bicycle delivery company in Berkeley, Calif., has teamed up with a local nonprofit youth group to run a program that delivers fresh organic produce to Berkeley residents. Once a week, the produce is carted to customers on cargo bikes, tricycles with flatbeds that can carry up to 800 pounds.
Customers rave about both the tasty food and the theory behind the program.
Researchers found that the overall numbers of amphibians dropped 15 percent a year from 1960 to 1966, and continued to decline about 2 percent a year through 1997. The data indicate that the amphibian decline began well before scientists first sounded the alarm about the issue in the 1980s. Scientists aren't sure about the cause, but they suspect a combination of factors, including the widespread use of pesticides and fertilizers, loss of wetlands to development, the introduction of exotic predators, and increased ultraviolet light as a result of a thinning ozone layer. The report found that despite increased policing of threatened areas, the pace of deforestation in the world's largest rainforest remained as high in 1999 as it was 1998, a rate 31 percent higher than that of 1997 and comparable to the high rates of the late 1980s. In one positive development, a coalition of 40 Brazilian companies has launched a purchasing group that pledges to use only timber certified as having been legally logged, the first such effort in a developing country.