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Counting Bugs In Panama? Get Out Your Tree Raft

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Credit Maurice Leponce / AAAS

Arachnoscelis magnifica

Credit Science / AAAS

Megasoma elephas (Scarab beetle)

Credit Courtesy of Juergen Schmidl

Gibbifer impressopunctata

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

Hemiptera ciccada

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

Pachycondyla dianae

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

Neotermes

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

Cithaerias pireta

Credit Courtesy of Yves Roisin

Thysania agrippina (Giant owlet moth)

Credit Courtesy of Noui Baiben

A helicopter placed this inflatable tree raft in the forest canopy in Panama.

Credit Roger Le Guen / Panacoco

Jurgen Schmidl fogs the forest understory with insecticide to help in the collection of specimens.

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce / Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Here, researcher Maurice Leponce hangs from the "canopy bubble."

Credit Jurgen Schmidl / University of Erlangen

Here, Dawn Frame and Alexey Tishechkin in the crane's gondola net insects attracted to the flowers of Nectandra purpurascens.

Credit Courtesy of Roger Le Guen

Researchers also used a hot air balloon-style system to collect arthropods from thie top of the forest canopy.

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

A construction crane was also built in the forest to allow access to different levels of the forest.

Credit Courtesy of Maurice Leponce

Researchers used the canopy, which in some places was as much as 13 stories above the forest floor, to collect insects.

Credit Courtesy of Noui Baiben

Researchers used this inflatable tree raft that sits atop the forest canopy to help them collect almost 130,000 arthropod specimens from a section of Panamanian rainforest about the size of a football field.

Credit Courtesy of Yves Roisin

This large moth, a Thysania agrippina, sometimes called the great gray witch, is one of the more than 6,000 species identified in a multi-year census of a section of Panamanian rainforest.

By editor

Originally published on Mon January 7, 2013 3:22 pm

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There are more species of insects than pretty much anything else in the world. And scientists know there are millions they haven't even identified yet. Now, in a tropical rainforest in Panama, a multinational team of scientists has just completed the first ever insect census.

Scott Miller, an entomologist at the Smithsonian who worked on the Panama, shows off one of the species from the survey that's at the National Museum of Natural History's insect zoo in Washington, D.C.

3:18 am

Fri December 14, 2012

Families Of Spain's 'Stolen Babies' Seek Answers — And Reunions

Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR

Antonio Iniesta demonstrates in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square last month. He's searching for a younger brother he believes is one of Spain's bebes robados, or stolen babies.

By Sylvia Poggioli

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 10:20 am

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Allegations of the existence of a secret network of doctors and nuns who stole newborn babies and sold them for adoption are reviving a dark chapter in Spain's recent history.

More than 1,000 people have gone to court hoping to track down sons and daughters or brothers and sisters they were told died in childbirth.

In Madrid's Puerta del Sol square last month, Antonio Iniesta stood next to a poster with the words bebes robados (stolen babies). His demonstration is intended to publicize his search for a brother he's convinced is alive.

3:17 am

Fri December 14, 2012

Farewell, Bosses: A Wave Of Young Entrepreneurs

Credit Mustafa Pie Co.

To save money, 30-year-old Alisha Mustafa runs her small pie-making business out of the kitchen of another restaurant.

By Benjamin Skirvin

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 5:33 am

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Thirty-year-old Alisha Mustafa spent years working at low-paying restaurant jobs. The unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent in her hometown of Bloomington, Ind.

"I've worked it all in this town," she says. "I've worked for so many restaurants, and last year was my year from hell in the industry."

So, she quit and started her own business. Now, she spends most days baking treats like gluten-free strawberry mango pie for her business, Mustafa Pie Co.

3:15 am

Fri December 14, 2012

In California, Parents Trigger Change At Failing School

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Credit Claudio Sanchez / NPR

Parents leading a revolt to take over an elementary school say it has failed their children. From left: Cynthia Ramirez with her son, Mason; Doreen Diaz; Bartola DelVillar; and Kathy Duncan.

Credit Claudio Sanchez / NPR

Chrissy Alvarado and Lori Yuan both have two children at Desert Trails Elementary. They say that if kids are failing, it's because they're poor, transient and already behind when they arrive.

By Claudio Sanchez

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 3:18 pm

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Parents in one small California community have used a "parent-trigger" law for the first time to shut down and take over an elementary school. It's a revolt led by parents who say the school has failed their children, but others say it's not the school's fault.

The school is in tiny Adelanto, Calif., home to several prisons connected by desolate stretches of highway on the fringes of the Mojave Desert.

6:37 pm

Thu December 13, 2012

How To Decide If Space Tourists Are Fit To Fly

Credit NASA

Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space in 1961. He later developed an inner ear problem that grounded him from space flight until an operation cured him.

By Sarah Zielinski

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 5:49 pm

Childhood dreams of being an astronaut are easy. Actually blasting off is a little harder.

But now people who have longed to go into space can buy a ticket, if they've got the cash. Are they healthy enough to make the voyage, though?

That's becoming a pressing question as the options for leaving Earth multiply.

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3:19 am

Fri December 14, 2012