ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Sunday, August 17, 2008
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Potatoes May Hold Key To Alzheimer's Treatment (August 16, 2008) -- A virus that commonly infects potatoes bears a striking resemblance to one of the key proteins implicated in Alzheimer's disease, and researchers have used that to develop antibodies that may slow or prevent the onset of AD. ... > full story
Resistant Prions: Can They Be Transmitted By Environment As Well As Direct Contact? (August 16, 2008) -- Prions, the pathogens that cause scrapie in sheep, can survive in the ground for several years, as researchers have discovered. Animals can become infected via contaminated pastures. It is not yet known whether the pathogens that cause BSE and CWD are equally resistant. ... > full story
New Bird Species Discovered In Gabon, Africa (August 16, 2008) -- Scientists have discovered a new species of bird in Gabon, Africa, that was, until now, unknown to the scientific community. The newly found olive-backed forest robin (Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus) was named by the scientists for its distinctive olive back and rump. Adult birds measure 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight. ... > full story
Synthetic Biology Is Bearing Fruit: Blockers Against Blockers (August 16, 2008) -- Synthetic Biology is bearing fruit: the tuberculosis pathogen can be fooled by a widely used food additive. The WHO records around nine million new cases of the disease each year, and about 50 million people are infected with a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is resistant to the antibiotics Isoniazid and Rifampicin. ... > full story
Studying Volcanoes With Balloons (August 16, 2008) -- People do all kinds of crazy things in Hawaii, but flying balloons over a volcano usually isn’t one of them. Unless you’re Adam Durant, that is. ... > full story
Burmese Pythons Will Find Little Suitable Habitat Outside South Florida, Study Suggests (August 15, 2008) -- Burmese Pythons may have chosen Florida as a vacation destination, but are unlikely to expand further, according to a new study. Although the United States Geological Survey earlier this year released "climate maps" indicating that the pythons could inhabit up to 32 states in the US, new research indicates that the snakes are unlikely to expand out of Florida. ... > full story
Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific (August 15, 2008) -- Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific, according to an analysis of ice cores. The findings show the connection of the world's coldest continent to global warming, as well as to events such as El Niño. ... > full story
Big-brained Animals Evolve Faster (August 15, 2008) -- Ecologists and evolutionary biologists analyzed body size measures of 7,209 species of birds and found that avian families that have experienced the greatest diversification in body size tend to be those with brains larger than expected for their body size. ... > full story
Stone Age Graveyard Reveals Lifestyles Of A 'Green Sahara' (August 15, 2008) -- The largest Stone Age graveyard found in the Sahara, which provides an unparalleled record of life when the region was green, has been discovered in Niger by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and University of Chicago Professor Paul Sereno, whose team first happened on the site during a dinosaur-hunting expedition. ... > full story
Climate Change Caused Widespread Tree Death In California Mountain Range, Study Confirms (August 15, 2008) -- Warmer temperatures and longer dry spells have killed thousands of trees and shrubs in a Southern California mountain range, pushing the plants' habitat an average of 213 feet up the mountain over the past 30 years, a UC Irvine study has determined. ... > full story
Study Shows Continued Spread Of 'Dead Zones'; Lack Of Oxygen Now A Key Stressor On Marine Ecosystems (August 15, 2008) -- A new study shows that the number of "dead zones" -- areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for most marine life -- has increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. Dead zones are now "the key stressor on marine ecosystems" and "rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems." ... > full story
Hybrid 'Muttsucker' Has Genes Of Three Species (August 15, 2008) -- In the murky waters of an inconspicuous stream in a remote area of Wyoming, researchers detail the potential impact that an introduced fish, the white sucker, could have on the evolutionary biology of fishes. ... > full story
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