Biologists and oceanographs are enlisting 23 species of apex predators to serve as ocean sensors, outfitting them with electronic tags that report on oceanographic conditions and, in many cases, transmit the data via satellite. The data yield new information about the migrations and behavior of the animals and about the North Pacific Ocean.

Daniel Costa, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is working with Barbara Block of Stanford University, on this Census of Marine Life project called Tagging Of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP). He is also collaborating with researchers at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland on a project around Antarctica called Southern Elephant Seals as Oceanographic Samplers (SEaOS).

An 8th grade science teacher in Long Island has a simple idea for making a big dent in energy consumption. Kenny Luna wants to give one compact fluorescent light bulb to every child in the U.S., grades preK-12. To do this, he and his students are asking Oprah for help. On the class blog, Mr. Luna has invited people far and wide to join the effort, and posted instructions for sending a personal email to Oprah suggesting that she help make this happen. According to their calculations, if 50 million kids put a CFL in a lamp at home, we'd achieve $2.3 billion in energy savings. Seems like a wish worth granting.