The Endangered Species Act at 50

The Endangered Species Act at 50 – CBS News Watch CBS News Historian Douglas Brinkley celebrates the success of the 1973 law that finally gave legal protection to America’s iconic flora and fauna facing extinction. In the half-century since the law’s introduction, an astonishing 99% of the threatened species originally listed have survived. View CBS

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They’re furry. They’re cute. They’re 5 new species of hedgehogs, Smithsonian scientists confirmed.

They’re small, furry and look like mice — but scientists say they’re actually a new species of hedgehogs. An international collaboration of researchers led by Smithsonian scientists identified five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs, according to a study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The scientists said they were able to use

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Octopus DNA reveals Antarctic ice sheet is closer to collapse than previously thought: “Unstable house of cards”

Scientists investigating how Antarctica’s ice sheets retreated in the deep past have turned to an innovative approach: studying the genes of octopuses that live in its chilly waters. A new analysis published Thursday in Science finds that geographically-isolated populations of the eight-limbed sea creatures mated freely around 125,000 years ago, signaling an ice-free corridor during

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Photos of Iceland volcano eruption show lava fountains, miles-long crack in Earth south of Grindavik

Iceland’s volcanic eruption could last months Iceland’s volcano continues to spew lava, and eruption could last months 01:40 A volcano in southern Iceland, near Grindavik, began erupting in spectacular fashion Monday night following weeks of warning signs, including thousands of earthquakes. Iceland’s Meteorological Office said the eruption opened an approximately 2.5-mile-long fissure and created lava fountains

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