Roundup 10/22: Acclimations Edition

Harvard University is reassessing options for its $1 billion Allston science complex, says its president, Drew Faust. Construction has started, but the school is worried that the 27% drop in its endowment as a result of the financial crisis could require scaling back plans.

Late yesterday the Senate approved nominees Marcia McNutt to be director of the United States Geological Survey and Arun Majumdar to be director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

The Center for Biological Diversity has identified 350 species specifically threatened by warming temperatures and climate change, in honor of Saturday's global awareness day organized by 350.org. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is among them.

Under court order, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to designate 518,000 square kilometers of critical habitat (93% sea ice) for the threatened polar bear, but said the move wouldn’t really strengthen existing protections. Environmentalists were more sanguine.

State governments are not preparing to adapt to climate change, the Government Accountability Office says.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is criticizing the FBI investigation into former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist P. Leonardo Mascheroni. The physicist says authorities are investigating him in part because because of a recent meeting with someone claiming to be a representative of the Venezuelan government.

(turtle photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukanda/ / CC BY 2.0)