With no end in sight for the oil gushing from the explosion site at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, anxious US officials are looking to researchers who study the Gulf of Mexico and its idiosyncratic currents to help determine where all the oil is and where it might be heading.
Akikikis are small birds with limber tongues that are adept at pulling insects from the crevices in tree bark. The olive-and-white birds are also headed towards extinction. Earlier this month, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed the akikiki as endangered and warned that global warming may hasten its disappearance by prompting the spread of avian malaria.
