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"Jack Dumbacher, researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, discusses his 1980s discovery of New Guinea's Hooded Pitohui, the first poisonous bird to be documented by science."

But in recent years, environmentalists have branded corn as an icon of unsustainable agriculture. It requires large amounts of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which require large amounts of fossil fuel to manufacture. Most of the resulting corn is fed to livestock who didn't evolve to subsist entirely on corn. In cattle, eating corn increases flatulence emissions of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - and creates an intestinal environment rich in e. coli, a common cause of food poisoning.

"Break down the oil slick, keep it off the shores: that's grounds for pumping toxic dispersant into the Gulf, say clean-up overseers. Susan Shaw shows evidence it's sparing some beaches only at devastating cost to the health of the deep sea. "

"The first monogamous amphibian has been discovered living in the rainforest of South America."