Latest news with #ProjectPhoenix
Miami Herald
02-07-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Hardcore birders and casual sparrow spotters: Science needs you
LOS ANGELES - Attention would-be warbler watchers and pigeon peepers: Ornithologists at UCLA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are recruiting volunteers for Project Phoenix, a multiyear citizen science initiative investigating birds' response to wildfire. The team is seeking volunteers in California, Oregon and Washington to collect data from July through November, the duration of the official West Coast fire season. Volunteers need to choose a comfortable, familiar spot - a backyard, a balcony, a favorite local park - and spend 10 minutes there each week noting any bird activity they hear or see. They then enter their observations on the online platform eBird. No bird knowledge or expertise is required, said program director Olivia Sanderfoot, a UCLA ornithologist. Beginners especially are welcome, in fact, as they're more apt to notice common species and behaviors that longtime bird watchers might overlook. "Whether you are an expert birder who has been birding your whole life or you have never thought about birds, you are welcome to join Project Phoenix," Sanderfoot said. "We want this program to be accessible." This is the third consecutive year of the study, which began in 2023 with about 300 volunteers tracking bird behavior over a three-month period. The study aims to understand the effects of wildfire smoke on birds, an understudied component of the ever-expanding Western fire season. The more data volunteer observers gather, the better ornithologists can understand how fires affect these animals and what steps can be taken to help them. Participants can commit to the whole season or just a few weeks. Researchers will cross-check volunteers' notes against fire and smoke distribution data to look for patterns in animal behavior. For those who struggle to tell a bushtit from a barn owl, the team has assembled resources to help distinguish between common local species and can answer individual questions via email. Volunteers' notes are also reviewed by a team of expert birders before being passed on to researchers, who will follow up with further questions about any highly unusual birds or behavior noted. What may feel like casual observations to a backyard birder are actually valuable data points, Sanderfoot said. From the first two years of project data, scientists have already noticed that the presence of soot particles - a major component of wildfire smoke - changes the probability that certain bird species will be observed in a given area, Sanderfoot said. The reason why isn't yet clear. Are scrub jays showing up in parks where they typically aren't spotted? They may be relocating to avoid sooty skies. Is the action at a backyard feeder getting surprisingly heated? It's possible that birds aggravated by smoke are becoming more territorial. Scientists want to know if birds are actually flying to new locations when air quality declines, or if they are changing their behaviors in ways that make them harder or easier for human bird-watchers to spot. "These are the hypotheses we are hoping to test with the data we collect in 2025," Sanderfoot said. "The more people we have engaged, the more likely that we will have people in place to capture these impacts where they occur. It requires people power." Signups are at The bird-watching is also fun, volunteers said. "I've enjoyed being able to slow down and just stop to observe for 10 minutes," said Carrie Brown-Kornarens, a Los Feliz ceramicist and wildlife enthusiast who has volunteered for Project Phoenix since the study's launch. "Staying in one spot brings the birds to you, and it's a peaceful experience." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Hardcore birders and casual sparrow spotters: Science needs you
Attention would-be warbler watchers and pigeon peepers: Ornithologists at UCLA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are recruiting volunteers for Project Phoenix, a multiyear citizen science initiative investigating birds' response to wildfire. The team is seeking volunteers in California, Oregon and Washington to collect data from July through November, the duration of the official West Coast fire season. Volunteers need to choose a comfortable, familiar spot — a backyard, a balcony, a favorite local park — and spend 10 minutes there each week noting any bird activity they hear or see. They then enter their observations on the online platform eBird. No bird knowledge or expertise is required, said program director Olivia Sanderfoot, a UCLA ornithologist. Beginners especially are welcome, in fact, as they're more apt to notice common species and behaviors that longtime bird watchers might overlook. 'Whether you are an expert birder who has been birding your whole life or you have never thought about birds, you are welcome to join Project Phoenix,' Sanderfoot said. 'We want this program to be accessible.' This is the third consecutive year of the study, which began in 2023 with about 300 volunteers tracking bird behavior over a three-month period. The study aims to understand the effects of wildfire smoke on birds, an understudied component of the ever-expanding Western fire season. The more data volunteer observers gather, the better ornithologists can understand how fires affect these animals and what steps can be taken to help them. Participants can commit to the whole season or just a few weeks. Researchers will cross-check volunteers' notes against fire and smoke distribution data to look for patterns in animal behavior. For those who struggle to tell a bushtit from a barn owl, the team has assembled resources to help distinguish between common local species and can answer individual questions via email. Volunteers' notes are also reviewed by a team of expert birders before being passed on to researchers, who will follow up with further questions about any highly unusual birds or behavior noted. What may feel like casual observations to a backyard birder are actually valuable data points, Sanderfoot said. From the first two years of project data, scientists have already noticed that the presence of soot particles — a major component of wildfire smoke — changes the probability that certain bird species will be observed in a given area, Sanderfoot said. The reason why isn't yet clear. Are scrub jays showing up in parks where they typically aren't spotted? They may be relocating to avoid sooty skies. Is the action at a backyard feeder getting surprisingly heated? It's possible that birds aggravated by smoke are becoming more territorial. Scientists want to know if birds are actually flying to new locations when air quality declines, or if they are changing their behaviors in ways that make them harder or easier for human bird-watchers to spot. "These are the hypotheses we are hoping to test with the data we collect in 2025," Sanderfoot said. 'The more people we have engaged, the more likely that we will have people in place to capture these impacts where they occur. It requires people power.' Signups are at The bird-watching is also fun, volunteers said. 'I've enjoyed being able to slow down and just stop to observe for 10 minutes,' said Carrie Brown-Kornarens, a Los Feliz ceramicist and wildlife enthusiast who has volunteered for Project Phoenix since the study's launch. 'Staying in one spot brings the birds to you, and it's a peaceful experience.' This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
01-07-2025
- Science
- Los Angeles Times
Hardcore birders and casual sparrow spotters: Science needs you
Attention would-be warbler watchers and pigeon peepers: Ornithologists at UCLA and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County are recruiting volunteers for Project Phoenix, a multiyear citizen science initiative investigating birds' response to wildfire. The team is seeking volunteers in California, Oregon and Washington to collect data from July through November, the duration of the official West Coast fire season. Volunteers need to choose a comfortable, familiar spot — a backyard, a balcony, a favorite local park — and spend 10 minutes there each week noting any bird activity they hear or see. They then enter their observations on the online platform eBird. No bird knowledge or expertise is required, said program director Olivia Sanderfoot, a UCLA ornithologist. Beginners especially are welcome, in fact, as they're more apt to notice common species and behaviors that longtime bird watchers might overlook. 'Whether you are an expert birder who has been birding your whole life or you have never thought about birds, you are welcome to join Project Phoenix,' Sanderfoot said. 'We want this program to be accessible.' This is the third consecutive year of the study, which began in 2023 with about 300 volunteers tracking bird behavior over a three-month period. The study aims to understand the effects of wildfire smoke on birds, an understudied component of the ever-expanding Western fire season. The more data volunteer observers gather, the better ornithologists can understand how fires affect these animals and what steps can be taken to help them. Participants can commit to the whole season or just a few weeks. Researchers will cross-check volunteers' notes against fire and smoke distribution data to look for patterns in animal behavior. For those who struggle to tell a bushtit from a barn owl, the team has assembled resources to help distinguish between common local species and can answer individual questions via email. Volunteers' notes are also reviewed by a team of expert birders before being passed on to researchers, who will follow up with further questions about any highly unusual birds or behavior noted. What may feel like casual observations to a backyard birder are actually valuable data points, Sanderfoot said. From the first two years of project data, scientists have already noticed that the presence of soot particles — a major component of wildfire smoke — changes the probability that certain bird species will be observed in a given area, Sanderfoot said. The reason why isn't yet clear. Are scrub jays showing up in parks where they typically aren't spotted? They may be relocating to avoid sooty skies. Is the action at a backyard feeder getting surprisingly heated? It's possible that birds aggravated by smoke are becoming more territorial. Scientists want to know if birds are actually flying to new locations when air quality declines, or if they are changing their behaviors in ways that make them harder or easier for human bird-watchers to spot. 'These are the hypotheses we are hoping to test with the data we collect in 2025,' Sanderfoot said. 'The more people we have engaged, the more likely that we will have people in place to capture these impacts where they occur. It requires people power.' Signups are at The bird-watching is also fun, volunteers said. 'I've enjoyed being able to slow down and just stop to observe for 10 minutes,' said Carrie Brown-Kornarens, a Los Feliz ceramicist and wildlife enthusiast who has volunteered for Project Phoenix since the study's launch. 'Staying in one spot brings the birds to you, and it's a peaceful experience.'
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Business Standard
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
Smiling buddha to Operation Shakti
On the morning of May 18, 1974, at 8:05 sharp, some 110 kilometres from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan's Thar desert, the push of a button announced India's entry into the closed club of nuclear nations. The reverberations of that test, conducted underground in arid Pokhran, and called Pokhran-I (codename Smiling Buddha), were felt around the world. With this detonation, India had become the only country outside the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the P5, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China – to have conducted a confirmed nuclear weapons test. China had tested its first just 10 years ago, in 1964, two years after the Indo-China war. India termed it a 'peaceful nuclear explosion', but it was in effect a decisive and unequivocal declaration that it had nuclear capability. The country's nuclear journey gained pace in the late 1950s under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru through Project Phoenix. It was mainly to promote civilian nuclear energy, but with physicists like Homi Bhabha, the 'father of the Indian nuclear programme', laying the groundwork for weapons development. The Atomic Energy Act of 1962 gave further control to the central government over atomic energy resources. After Nehru died in 1964, the efforts shifted mostly towards peaceful goals under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Gandhian scientist Vikram Sarabhai. However, with Shastri's successor, Indira Gandhi, the momentum towards weaponisation resumed. A small, secret team of scientists and engineers worked through the 1960s and early 1970s to build the necessary infrastructure and technical capabilities. The 1971 Indo-Pak war, during which the US sent warships to the Bay of Bengal, further galvanised India's resolve, culminating in Gandhi authorising the development of a nuclear test device in 1972. India had already opposed joining the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it saw as discriminatory. In later years, while it participated in negotiations for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), it did not ratify it for the same reasons. Pokhran-I invited strong, sharp reactions from the world. India faced immediate sanctions. Major nuclear suppliers shut their doors to it. Less than a year later, led by the US, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was formed to restrict and regulate the supply of nuclear material and know-how to countries that hadn't ratified the NPT. The US further tightened export controls by passing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act, 1978. An editorial in The New York Times read: 'Such great talent of resources has been squandered on the vanity of power, while 600 million Indians slip deeper into poverty. The sixth member of the nuclear club may be passing the beggar bowl before the year is out.' India continued with its programme through the '80s and '90s, aware that neighbouring Pakistan was also acquiring nuclear capability. Meanwhile, the original five nuclear weapons states kept a close eye on India, which had by now opened its economy to the world. Twenty-four years after Smiling Buddha, the hot, barren Pokhran would once again witness a country's determination to exercise its sovereign right to security, despite the intense scrutiny and the threat of sanctions. It was again in the month of May, when average temperatures in Pokhran hover above 40 degrees Celsius, that India conducted its second test – a series of five nuclear tests, actually; three on May 11 and two on May 13, 1998. Pokhran-II, codenamed Operation Shakti, with the devices named Shakti-I through Shakti-V, carried out under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also invited intense criticism from the global community. Besides the Western world, countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Malaysia also reacted adversely. While India stood its ground, it made known its 'no-first-use' policy. India's record since has established it as a nuclear-responsible country. In 2008, it signed a civil nuclear agreement with the US, and the same year, it received a waiver from the NSG. It has since signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with Japan, Australia, South Korea, France and Vietnam, among other countries.
