Science could benefit from seeing the Earth from the traditional Hawaiian point of view, said Dr. Carlos Andrade, assistant professor of Hawaiian Studies at UH-Manoa. Speaking last night to a standing-room-only audience at the Waikiki Aquarium, Dr. Andrade said, “Resources don’t need management, people need management.”

Two Atlantic bottlenose-dolphins — likely trained in Hawai`i — were deployed to the Middle East to help coalition forces. The dolphins, named Makai and Tacoma, were sent to the port city of Umm Qasr where they will help locate underwater mines. While there were reports over the weekend that Takoma had gone AWOL, Navy officials reported late Sunday that he’d returned about 48 hours later.

Living organisms surviving under 300 feet of solid rock and sediment at the bottom of the ocean may sound like something from Jules Verne, but a team of researchers led by UH scientist James Cowen have found them in a deep borehole in the northeast Pacific. Their work was recently published in the journal Science.

Someday soon your leftover lunch may be transformed into useful plastics such as trash bags, diapers, or even a lunch box, thanks to research at the University of Hawaii. A scientist at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology has developed a new, environmentally friendly way to transform table scraps into biodegradable plastics using bacteria.

There are only three of them known to exist on Earth — one male and two females — and they live in some of the most remote forest habitats on Maui. The po`ouli (Hawaiian for “black head”) are thought to have lived in Hawaii for centuries, but were only discovered by scientists thirty years ago. And on Monday a “last-ditch effort” will be launched to bring them into captivity and establish a breeding pair, hopefully saving them from extinction.