Not Your Grandma's Grow Lights

With demand for food expected to double over the next 40 years, the greenhouse-lighting system introduced by the Swedish company Heliospectra comes as welcome news. Combining high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs), sensors, and computer software that together can be programmed to deliver light with the precise intensity and wavelength that plants need, the product can augment growth by as much as 30 percent. The orange-spectrum mercury-based high-pressure sodium lights currently used by most greenhouses generate a lot of heat; the problem, according to Heliospectra, is that plants utilize only 25 percent of the lights’ energy. Cooler HB-LEDs produce the blue and red wavelengths that plants prefer. CEO Staffan Hillberg says the lights can save 50 percent in energy costs, and the company is developing a feedback system that can sense conditions like thirst and adjust light delivery accordingly. --Renee Cho

It Takes All Kinds

When they studied a mysterious fungal infection ravaging the world's amphibian populations, researchers at Oregon State University uncovered yet another reason to value biodiversity. In a paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors found that increased species richness decreased both the prevalence and the severity of the disease. The more amphibian species the researchers added to a controlled environment, the smaller the percentage of animals that died from the infection. "If you manipulate the diversity of the system," says Andrew Blaustein, a conservation biologist and co-author of the paper, "it dilutes the effects of the disease." Some species may be poor hosts, for example, and others may not get infected at all. The combined effect is a slowing of the overall transmission of the disease.

Not only does a lack of biodiversity have a profound impact on the amphibian world, say the researchers, but a depleted amphibian world has serious implications for biodiversity as well: tadpoles clean rivers by eating algae, for example, enabling other aquatic life to flourish. Frogs and salamanders eat insects, thereby protecting plant life. And amphibians are prey for fish, reptiles, birds, and even foxes. The tricky thing about biodiversity, Blaustein says, "is that once you lose it, it's really hard to get it back." --Michelle Bialeck

Deluxe Suite w/Gecko

Back in 2006, one of the resident astronomers at Namibia's Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, a safari camp run by the conservation-minded andBeyond, came across a tiny speckled gecko that he didn't recall having seen before. Five years and several examinations by taxonomists later, the rock-dwelling creature has now been recognized by the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology as a brand-new species: Pachydactylus etultra ("et" for and and "ultra" for beyond ). Guests of the lodge, which reopened last December after an extensive renovation, already were known to return home with stories of close-up encounters with oryx, springbok, aardwolf, hyena, and zebra. This in addition to stargazing with those astronomers and early-morning ballooning over the petrified-sandstone dunes. Now they can add new bragging rights to the mix: How many people do you know who've checked in to a hotel with its own species? Visit andbeyond.com.

Art Therapy

On a recent trip to South Africa, the Vermont-based artist Sally Linder met an AIDS orphan who inspired Zebra Boy, from her series Luminous People and Land. "The Zulu consider animals to possess special powers. This child was not well, and by imagining a zebra in his tiny hands I hoped to bring him symbolic respite and a moment of childhood joy." Read an OnEarth interview with the artist and see paintings from her polar bear series, Approaching a Threshold.

Says Who?

"Stop asking why organic food is so expensive and start asking why conventional food is so cheap. Conventional ag carries hidden costs that catch up with us later on: poor health and climate change are far more expensive in the end than the extra buck you’d pay for that sustainably farmed tomato." --Mario Batali

The Sounds of Sonar

Military ships and submarines routinely ping the ocean with active sonar despite the sometimes fatal hazard that the practice poses to whales and other marine mammals. Just how loud are those noises? It’s all relative.

Rockers for Refuse

Well, they've certainly identified a niche. The Texas-based act Vocal Trash combines singing, break dancing, and drumming with tips about recycling. You gotta love a band whose instruments run to dented trash cans.

Good Find: News Hound

No shedding, no barking, no need to walk or feed. This adorable (if pricey) pooch was made from recycled newspapers. $149 at vivaterra.com.

Beyond Skin Deep

Twenty-five years ago, Ute Leube and Kurt Nübling began gathering plants around their Alpine home for a line of beauty and wellness products. Now their all-natural creams and lotions are available in this country. We love knowing that the company helps partners from Peru to Nepal convert to organic farming. From $15 at primaveralife.com.