If you’re like me, you always spot curious-looking trees when you go for a hike, wonder what they’re called while looking at the leaves and flowers, then forget about them — only to spot and wonder about them all over again the next time you see them. Now comes an iPhone app that’ll stop the wondering cycle: The Arbor Day Tree Identification Guide: What Tree Is That?

The app is the mobile version of the Arbor Day Foundation’s book “What Tree is That?” published back in 2009. Just like the book, the new digital, tree-free iPhone-friendly version lets you easily identify North American trees by noting the characteristics of the leaves and branches with the help of color illustrations.

Plus, the app lets iPhone and iPod Touch owners geo-tag the tree they’ve identified using iPhone’s global positioning system. Find it at iTunes for just $4.95 — a nice savings from the $14.95 sticker price for the book version.

Not an iPhone user? Arbor Day does offer a somewhat jankier mobile version of What Tree is That that works for other smart phones. It’s what I would use, except I’m trying to get into the habit of taking a break from my phone when I take a hike….

Image via Arbor Day Foundation

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Hold that cell phone close to your head, and your brain will get about 7 percent more active. That’s the finding of a new study published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It’s unclear, however, what this new finding means.

First, here’s what the study found. According to Wired, A team led by neuroscientist Nora Volkow of the National Institutes of Health attached a pair of cell phones — one turned off, the other with a live call — to each experimentee’s head. “Twenty minutes into the call, clinicians injected a radioactive form of sugar into each person, then began imaging their brains with a Positron Emission Topography machine. Over the course of 30 minutes, the sugar pooled in the brain’s most active regions and revealed the energy use to the brain scanner.”

The result? “Accounting for normal activity, the subjects showed about a 7 percent boost in sugar use on the side of the head where the active cellphone was.”

What that boost means, though, is unclear. “The preliminary study … raises many more questions than it answers,” reports LA Times. “But by providing solid evidence that cellphone use has measurable effects on brain activity, it suggests that the nation’s passionate attachment to its 300 million cellphones may be altering the way we think and behave in subtle ways.” NY Times reports on one potential concern:

Although speculative, one theory about how an artificial increase in brain glucose metabolism could be harmful is that it could potentially lead to the creation of molecules called free radicals, which in excess can damage healthy cells. Or it may be that repeated stimulation by electromagnetic radiation could set off an inflammatory response, which studies suggest is associated with a number of heath problems, including cancer.

NPR reports on other avenues of inquiry:

[Lennart Hardell, a cancer researcher at University Hospital in Orebro], who has previously suggested a link between cell phone use and brain cancer, says the finding doesn’t necessarily strengthen his case, because there’s no direct link between increased brain metabolism and cancer. But he says it’s still possible researchers will find an indirect one, perhaps involving hormonal changes or the production of molecules known as free radicals in the brain.

What can you do in the meantime to keep your cellphone use as safe as possible? “Just use a wired headset or the speakerphone function,” is what Volkow told Wired. “That keeps the phone far enough away to make it an insignificant risk.” Here are additional tips on reducing cell phone radiation.

Earlier:
>> Eco-friendly phones — How green are they really?
>> Old cell phones: How many have you recycled?
>> Pick safer smart phone: Droid, Nexus One are top radiation emitters

Photo by pittaya

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Looking to hook up with a politician willing to help you pollute? Click over to Polluterharmony and check out the profiles of elected government officials — who have a lovely record of cozying up to corporate polluters.

Greenpeace’s spoof dating site — described as “the No.1 matchmaking site for polluters, industry lobbyists, & politicians” — names and shames the politicians who’ve supported the less-than-green interest of big polluting companies willing to pay lawmakers to push dirty agendas. There are profiles of politicians seeking love, success stories of matches made in polluter heaven, and even a Twitter contest that lets anyone play matchmaker by using the tag #polluterharmony for a chance to win an undisclosed prize described as “a special Polluterharmony surprise” by Greenpeace.

Do you see any of your own elected officials on Polluterharmony? Know one who should have a profile on the site? Tweet your match — and if you win, let me know what the surprise prize is.

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iPhone users rejoice: Noshing on sustainable seafood has now become a mobile game, Foursqare-style.

That’s because the mobile version of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide just got more interactive. Once a relative simple app that told you which fish to enjoy and which to avoid for health and environmental reasons, Seafood Watch has now added a feature called Project FishMap.

Now, eco-pescatarians can add their favorite sustainable seafood restaurants to a map — and even earn badges for helping to crowdsource this green dining info!

If I owned an iPhone, I’d already have the Seafood Watch app. It’s free, after all, and it gets handily updated as environmental conditions change. But as it is, I and my Blackberry have go about my eco-pescatarian ways with an old school paper wallet card. And sadly, while an Android version’s due to be released next year, no plans to create a Blackberry version exists.

Earlier:
>> A Sustainable seafood guide for the digital age
>> Sustainable seafood shopping gets easier at supermarkets
>> Metro and Foursquare : Can check-ins boost ridership?
>> Shop for safer sunscreens with EWG’s new iPhone app

Image via Monterey Bay Aquarium

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You’ve all seen them — Those end-of-email pleas to “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail,” sometimes added in green font with an image of a leaf at the end for good measure. If you’re the type of emailer who’s added that tagline to your e-missives, I’ve got good news. Now, you don’t even have to rely on your email recipient to be considerate. You can actually mandate eco-considerateness — by preventing printing altogether!

How? With a little help from World Wildlife Federation’s WWF file format. According to WWF’s Save as WWF website, the WWF format’s pretty much like the PDF format — except WWF documents can’t be printed! (via Lifehacker)

To be clear, the WWF will only prevent people from printing the WWF attachments, not the email you sent the attachment with — so you may want to keep your “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail” email signature. And practically speaking, the WWF format isn’t going to be a viable option for, say, documents that require your real pen-to-paper signature.

But if you plan to email around a file that you really believe no one should be printing — whether for naughty or nice reasons — perhaps the WWF could work for you! I would give WWF a try, except the WWF software’s currently only available for Mac OS X 10.4+. A Windows version’s supposed to be coming soon though –

Image via saveaswwf.com

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