What’s wrong with gorgeous Lake George? Scientists wire it up to find out→

David Richardson, reporting for Grist: 

“Thomas Jefferson called Lake George in Upstate New York “without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw.” The painter Georgia O’Keefe lived part time at the lake during the 1920s and ’30s, drawing inspiration for some of her laconic, gauzy landscapes. The Whitneys summered there, the Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers — all the big industrialists. It’s still one of New York’s top vacation destinations, bringing in around $1 billion in tourism each year.

If climate change took vacations it would probably go there too. But climate change doesn’t take vacations. In fact, Mark Swinton says it’s kind of hanging out at Lake George all the time, and not in a regular-folk, kick-back-in-an-Adirondack-chair-and-read-a-good-book sorta way.”

Why rabbits have white tails→

Daniel Cressey, reporting for Nature News Blog: 

“Dirk Semmann, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Göttingen in Germany, thinks he has the answer to this puzzle — and the evidence to back it up. Other theories hold that rump patches are warning to other animals, are sexually selected, or serve to show a predator that they have been spotted.

Semmann’s research suggests that these spots actually confuse predators because of their very noticeable nature. By focusing on the bright spot, the would-be predator ignores the larger body of the animal. Then, when the rabbit executes a sharp turn, the spot disappears and the predator has to readjust to focus on the camouflaged coat, losing vital seconds.”

How science studies lakes like White Bear; update on fixing a lethal intersection→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost: 

“Sometimes it seems we know still less about the water beneath our feet: how much of it there is, how reliably it’s being replenished, how long our ever-increasing demands on it can be sustained.

Many interesting glimpses into our reservoirs of groundwater knowledge and ignorance were laid out in a talk last Thursday evening, sponsored by The Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences.”