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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Two types of ice seals joined polar bears Friday on the list of species threatened by the loss of sea ice, which scientists say reached record low levels this year due to climate warming.

Ringed seals, the main prey of polar bears, and bearded seals in the Arctic Ocean will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.

A species is threatened if it's likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout a significant portion of its range.

The listing of the seals came after federal scientists did an extensive review of scientific and commercial data. It has no effect on subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives.

"They concluded that a significant decrease in sea ice is probable later this century, and that these changes will likely cause these seal populations to decline," said Jon Kurland, protected resources director for NOAA Fisheries' Alaska region.

Source: WDAM-TV

by St. Michael School Marketing

Have you ever extracted DNA? Have you ever extracted the DNA of a strawberry? Did you even know that strawberries have DNA? Well, the St. Michael eighth grade class found this all out when they did a science experiment aboard the Science on the Go Lab bus that visited St. Michael School from the University of Illinois. The mobile lab bus travels all over the state visiting High Schools and Grammar Schools alike. When this bus visited St. Michael the students learned about heredity and DNA. We learned about everything from if you stretched out all the cells in your body it could reach then sun and back four hundred times, to that you receive all your chromosomes from your parents. Then we participated in a DNA extracting experiment. The students, along with a professor from The University of Illinois, extracted DNA from strawberries by using a variety of chemicals. We were then able to view the different strands of DNA. The eighth graders discovered a whole new meaning to DNA!

Source: University of Illinois Mobile Science Lab Visits St. Michael School ...

by p-pickle@illinois.edu (Phyllis Picklesimer)

Barnes receives Harry M. Vars Research Award

Published: Feb. 16, 2012

Source: Kelly Tappenden, 217-333-6175, tappende@illinois.edu

Jennifer Barnes, a doctoral student in the University of Illinois Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, has received the 2012 Harry M. Vars Research Award from the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) for her work in producing therapies for use in pediatric intestinal failure.

Barnes was presented the award for her work on the paper "Intestinal Adaptation Is Stimulated by Partial Enteral Nutrition Supplemented with the Prebiotic Short-Chain Fructooligosaccharide in a Neonatal Intestinal Failure Piglet Model," which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

She grew up in Joliet, Ill., and graduated from the University of Illinois dietetics program in 2008. She joined Kelly Tappenden's...

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