SPOOKY SCIENCE STORIES,  JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN  . . . MUSEUM SCALES BACK STUDY ON DEADLY BAT FUNGUS . . . ISLAND FOOD PRODUCTS SHOWCASED IN TAIWAN . . . SUGAR MAPLE IS IN TROUBLE . . . WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SAVE GULF OF MAINE COD? . . .     
OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST...

SPOOKY SCIENCE STORIES, JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN
Source: The New York Times
Gather around your laptops and smartphones, friends. It’s time for the crypt keepers of our Science department to share some seasonally appropriate stories (spooky alert). You’re not afraid? Hmmmm. Some polls suggest that you are more anxious about what you’ll see here than you care to admit. The Survey of American Fears, published by Chapman University earlier this month, found that a third of the people it surveyed said they were afraid of reptiles and a quarter said they fear insects. (read more)

MUSEUM SCALES BACK STUDY ON DEADLY BAT FUNGUS
Source: CBC.ca
Researchers from the New Brunswick Museum will no longer be actively studying the White-nose fungus that has devastated the province’s Little brown bat, Northern myoti, and Tri-coloured bat populations. Don McAlpine, chair of the department of natural science at the museum, says there aren’t enough bats to continue to track. (read more)

ISLAND FOOD PRODUCTS SHOWCASED IN TAIWAN
Source: Island Farmer
The initial response of Taiwan shoppers to a host of Island food products being showcased at one of the largest organic food stores in that country has been extremely positive. Grain Essence Garden Inc. coordinated the display with Leezan, which has more than 115 stores throughout the country that sell a range of organic products. Grain Essence Garden, incorporated in 2011, is operated by Buddhist followers who came to the Island after the arrival of the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS), a monastery in Little Sands. (read more)

SUGAR MAPLE IS IN TROUBLE
Source: Modern Farmer
Maple syrup earns about a billion dollars a year in the US, centered in the top three syrup-producing states: Vermont, New York, and Maine. Though there’s been rumbling about the possibility of tapping sap from young saplings rather than mature trees, but for the most part, this is a fairly traditional industry, reliant on mature trees in the wild. That’s why the results of this study, conducted by researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, are so concerning. (read more)

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SAVE GULF OF MAINE COD?
Source: NPR Cod was once so plentiful in New England that legend had it you could walk across the local waters by stepping on the backs of the fish. Now, though, this tasty species is in such trouble there that cod fishing is practically shut down. And scientists say it looks like rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine explains why regulators' recent efforts to help the cod while allowing fishing were a failure. (read more)