Scientists Use Sex-Crazed Bugs as Alternative to Toxic Pesticides

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are hoping that the genetically-tweaked, sterile male insects they are releasing into the wild will serves a "green" population controllers that will reduce/eliminate the need for harmful pesticides on crops.

From Inhabitat

In today’s “gross news” category, some female insects might be getting lucky. As an alternative to toxic pesticides, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created “super-sexed” sterilized male leafhoppers to knock bug boots with females in the wild. Yes, that means that the female bugs will miss out on the joys of motherhood, but if the research proves successful, we may be able to eliminate a lot of the harmful and very ungreen chemicals that we currently use to keep food crops pest free.

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Website Seeks to Pair 'Green' Businesses with Environmentally Conscious Consumers

Posipair.com is a website developed by a former Life Sciences Communications graduate student, Sarah Manski. Recognizing the difficulty of finding good, concise information about truly green companies and services, Manski, working with her husband, developed PosiPair. In Manski's own words, "Every business is essentially their own island with marketing green goods and services. It's easy to spend hours online looking for a local, environmentally friendly company using a regular search engine like Google."

A contraction of the phrase "positive pairing", posipair.com is an online network of both businesses and consumers. The website also incorporates social networking that can link business profiles. Consumers have the option to post comments and ratings of the participating businesses. In 2009, Manski was a finalist in the Governor's Business Plan Contest, a contest designed to foster the growth of new business ideas. Manski and her business won a year's worth of free rent and several thousand dollars worth of IT services from another local company. The website is expected to launch in early 2010, so keep an eye out!

Click here to see the website