ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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Bonobos May Have Greater Linguistic Skills Than Previously Thought (September 2, 2008) -- What happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? New findings indicate that bonobos may exhibit larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings. ... > full story
Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary In Fair Condition, Facing Emerging Threats (September 2, 2008) -- A new NOAA report on the health of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary indicates that the overall condition of the sanctuary's marine life and habitats is fair. The report also identifies several emerging threats to sanctuary resources, including non-indigenous marine species, overfishing, waterborne chemicals from human coastal activities, and increased recreational use of the site. ... > full story
Prehistoric Funerary Precinct Excavated In Northern Israel: Grave Goods Include Phallic Figurines, Sea Shells (September 2, 2008) -- Hebrew University excavations in the north of Israel have revealed a prehistoric funerary precinct dating back to 6,750-8,500 BCE. The precinct, a massive walled enclosure measuring 10 meters by at least 20 meters, was discovered at excavations being undertaken at Kfar HaHoresh. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site in the Nazareth hills of the lower Galilee is interpreted as having been a regional funerary and cult center for nearby lowland villages. ... > full story
Bitter-tasting Nectar And Floral Odors Optimize Outcrossing For Plants (September 2, 2008) -- Experiments with genetically modified plants reveal new aspects on the biochemistry of flowers. Scientists have discovered how the chemistry of nectar and floral scents enforces good pollinator behavior, enabling plants to optimize the production of out-crossed seeds. ... > full story
Grain Moisture Measurements May Divert Mold, Insect Infestation (September 2, 2008) -- Grain storage bins are routinely monitored for temperature to control insect and mold problems. Now an scientists have preliminary research findings showing that monitoring carbon dioxide -- along with humidity and temperature -- also may help detect problems more effectively. ... > full story
'Lost World' Beneath Caribbean To Be Explored (September 1, 2008) -- Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean. ... > full story
New Report Loosens Noose Around Albatross’s Neck (September 1, 2008) -- The survival chances of the albatross, now officially the most threatened seabird family in the world, have been improved following a new report released by WWF-South Africa. ... > full story
Environmental Friendly Technology Can Remove Ink Stains In Paper Recycling (September 1, 2008) -- The greatest challenge in paper recycling is removal of polymeric ink and coating; and the most difficult paper is mixed office wastepaper. Traditional de-inking processes involve large quantities of chemicals which are expensive and unfriendly to the environment. A better alternative would be a technology that involves biological intervention. ... > full story
'Armored' Fish Study Helps Strengthen Darwin's Natural Selection Theory (September 1, 2008) -- Shedding some genetically induced excess baggage may have helped a tiny fish thrive in freshwater and outsize its marine ancestors, according to a new study in Science. ... > full story
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Humans Could Be Infected Through Blood Transfusions (September 1, 2008) -- A nine-year study in sheep has added to the evidence that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) can be transmitted through blood transfusion in humans. The likelihood of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) being transmitted between sheep through transfusion of infected sheep blood was 36 per cent, according to new research. ... > full story
Diversity Among Parasitic Wasps Is Even Greater Than Suspected (September 1, 2008) -- A tiny wasp that lays its eggs under the skin of unwitting caterpillars belongs to one of the most diverse groups of insects on Earth. Now researchers report that its diversity is even higher than previously thought. ... > full story
Faster Rise In Sea Level Predicted From Melting Greenland Ice Sheet, Based On Lessons From Ice Age (September 1, 2008) -- If the lessons being learned by scientists about the demise of the last great North American ice sheet are correct, estimates of global sea level rise from a melting Greenland ice sheet may be seriously underestimated. Scientists report that sea level rise from greenhouse-induced warming of the Greenland ice sheet could be double or triple current estimates over the next century. ... > full story
Crystals Improve Understanding Of Volcanic Eruption Triggers (September 1, 2008) -- Scientists have exploited crystals from lavas to unravel the records of volcanic eruptions. ... > full story
Life Under The Laser: Unique Technology Illuminates Microscopic Activity In Body's Chemical Messenger System (August 31, 2008) -- Researchers have developed a unique technology that will allow scientists to look at microscopic activity within the body's chemical messenger system for the very first time, live as it happens. ... > full story
No More Big Stink: Scent Lures Mosquitoes, But Humans Can't Smell It (August 31, 2008) -- Mosquito traps that reek like latrines may be no more. Chemical ecologists have discovered a low-cost, easy-to-prepare attractant that lures blood-fed mosquitoes without making humans hold their noses. ... > full story
Incidence Of Intestinal Parasite Coccidia Is Increasing In Broilers (August 31, 2008) -- Coccidia are single-celled intestinal parasites that currently represent one of the greatest challenges to the broiler industry. To keep the level of infection low, farmers commonly add coccidia-inhibiting chemicals (coccidiostats) to broiler feed. While this does not kill the parasites, it greatly reduces the incidence of overt sickness and death from infection. While clinical coccidiosis is therefore not a problem, veterinary authorities have never been able to gauge the extent of subclinical coccidiosis and the consequences this may have for animal welfare issues and production costs. ... > full story
Public Involvement Usually Leads To Better Environmental Decision Making (August 31, 2008) -- When done correctly, public participation improves the quality of federal agencies' decisions about the environment, says a new report from the National Research Council. ... > full story
Treatment For Hearing Loss? Scientists Grow Hair Cells Involved in Hearing (August 30, 2008) -- Scientists have successfully produced functional auditory hair cells in the cochlea of the mouse inner ear. The breakthrough suggests that a new therapy may be developed in the future to successfully treat hearing loss. ... > full story
Magmatically Triggered Slow Earthquake Discovered At Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii (August 30, 2008) -- From June 17-19, 2007, Kilauea experienced a new dike intrusion, where magma rapidly moved from a storage reservoir beneath the summit into the east rift zone and extended the rift zone by as much as 1 meter. ... > full story
Novel Approach In Molecular Differentiation Of Prion Strains (August 30, 2008) -- Scientists have identified a prion protein characteristic that is unique to some natural but unusual sheep scrapie cases. This finding may provide a novel method by which to study prion diversity and their possible changes during cross-species transmission. ... > full story
Antarctic Research Helps Shed Light On Climate Change On Mars (August 30, 2008) -- Eroded gullies on the flanks of Martian craters may have been formed by snowmelt as recently as a few hundred thousand years ago and in sites once occupied by glaciers. Similar conditions can be found in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. Rather than being a dead planet, the new data are consistent with dynamic climate changes on Mars. ... > full story
Scientists Discover Why Flies Are So Hard To Swat (August 29, 2008) -- Over the past two decades, Michael Dickinson has been interviewed by reporters hundreds of times about his research on the biomechanics of insect flight. One question from the press has always dogged him: Why are flies so hard to swat? "Now I can finally answer," says Dickinson, the Esther M. and Abe M. Zarem Professor of Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology. ... > full story
Katrina And Rita Provide Glimpse Of What Could Happen To Offshore Drilling If Gustav Hits Gulf (August 29, 2008) -- Shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the US, engineers studied damage done to offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. If tropical storm Gustav strengthens into a Category 3 hurricane, as forecasters are predicting, the damage could be extensive. ... > full story
Unexpected Large Monkey Population Discovered In Cambodia: Tens Of Thousands Of Threatened Primates (August 29, 2008) -- Biologists have discovered surprisingly large populations of two globally threatened primates in a protected area in Cambodia. The report counted 42,000 black-shanked douc langurs along with 2,500 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in Cambodia's Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area, an estimate that represents the largest known populations for both species in the world. ... > full story
'Pristine' Amazonian Region Hosted Large, Urban Civilization (August 29, 2008) -- They aren't the lost cities early explorers sought fruitlessly to discover. But ancient settlements in the Amazon, now almost entirely obscured by tropical forest, were once large and complex enough to be considered "urban" as the term is commonly applied to both medieval European and ancient Greek communities. ... > full story
Black Raspberries Slow Cancer By Altering Hundreds Of Genes (August 29, 2008) -- New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene. Researchers examined the effect of freeze-dried black raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal cancer. ... > full story
Saving Lives Through Smarter Hurricane Evacuations (August 29, 2008) -- Hundreds of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars could potentially be saved if emergency managers could make better and more timely critical decisions when faced with an approaching hurricane. Now, an MIT graduate student has developed a computer model that could help do just that. ... > full story
Eyes Evolved For 'X-Ray Vision': Forward-facing Eyes Allow Animals To 'See Through' Clutter In The World (August 29, 2008) -- The advantage of using two eyes to see the world around us has long been associated solely with our capacity to see in 3-D. Now, a new study has uncovered a truly eye-opening advantage to binocular vision: our ability to see through things. ... > full story
Natural Chemical From Sea Sponges Induces Death In Cancer Cells Via Unusual Pathway (August 29, 2008) -- A chemical called candidaspongiolide (CAN) inhibits protein synthesis but also kills cancer cells by triggering caspase 12-dependent programmed cell death, according to an article in the Aug. 26 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. ... > full story
Explosives Go 'Green' ... And Get More Precise (August 29, 2008) -- Certain explosives may soon get a little greener and a little more precise. Researchers have added unique green solvents (ionic liquids) to an explosive called TATB (1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene) and improved the crystal quality and chemical purity of the material. ... > full story
Researchers Provide Solution To World’s Worst Mass Poisoning Case (August 29, 2008) -- A solution to the world's worst case of ongoing mass poisoning, linked to rising cancer rates in Southern Asia, has been developed by researchers from Queen's University Belfast. They have created new low-cost technology to provide arsenic-free water to millions of people in South Asia currently exposed to high levels of the poison in groundwater. ... > full story
Fishing For Profits On World Caviar Market (August 29, 2008) -- As sturgeon populations decline in the Caspian Sea, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have a found way for Israel to cash in on the world's growing demand for caviar. ... > full story
Arctic Ice On Verge Of Another All-time Low (August 28, 2008) -- Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year. ... > full story
Cluster Watches Earth's Leaky Atmosphere (August 28, 2008) -- Oxygen is constantly leaking out of Earth's atmosphere and into space. Now, ESA's formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered the physical mechanism that is driving the escape. It turns out that the Earth's own magnetic field is accelerating the oxygen away. ... > full story
Student-designed Device To Help Poor East Africans Coax Oil From Coconuts (August 28, 2008) -- Student engineers designed an innovative and cost-effective apparatus that enables poor East African women to turn abundant coconuts into valuable coconut oil. ... > full story
New Report Card Shows Campuses Going Greener (August 28, 2008) -- Is your alma mater among those stepping up to green their campuses? Are our colleges preparing students for a greener future? You can find out in National Wildlife Federation's just-released Campus Environment 2008 Report Card, a comprehensive look at nationwide trends in sustainability among America's institutions of higher learning. The report compares findings with the previous study conducted in 2001. ... > full story
Jamaican Lizards' Shows Of Strength Mark Territory At Dawn, Dusk (August 28, 2008) -- What does Jack LaLanne have in common with a Jamaican lizard? Like the ageless fitness guru, the lizards greet each new day with vigorous push-ups. That's according to a new study showing that male Anolis lizards engage in impressive displays of reptilian strength -- push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap called a dewlap -- to defend their territory at dawn and dusk. ... > full story
Protection Zones In The Wrong Place To Prevent Coral Reef Collapse (August 28, 2008) -- Conservation zones are in the wrong place to protect vulnerable coral reefs from the effects of global warming, an international team of scientists warned today. Now the team say that urgent action is needed to prevent the collapse of this important marine ecosystem. ... > full story
Proteins Have Controlled Motions, Researcher Shows (August 28, 2008) -- Iowa State University researcher Robert Jernigan believes that his research shows proteins have controlled motions. Most biochemists traditionally believe proteins have many random, uncontrolled movements. ... > full story
Olive Leaf Extract Can Help Tackle High Blood Pressure And Cholesterol (August 28, 2008) -- Taking 1000 mg of a specific olive leaf extract (EFLA 943) can lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension (high blood pressure). These findings came from a "Twins" trial, in which different treatments were given to identical twins. By doing this, researchers could increase the power of their data by eliminating some of the uncertainties caused by genetic variations between individual people. ... > full story
Facades: A Source Of Water Pollution (August 28, 2008) -- For many years, fingers have been pointed at agriculture whenever pesticides are detected in rivers and streams. Studies now show that built-up areas also account for a considerable proportion of such inputs. For example, substances can be leached out of facade renders and paints by rainwater and enter the environment, where they may have toxic effects on organisms. ... > full story
New LIDAR System Sees The Sky In 3D (August 28, 2008) -- A new LIDAR measurement system -- unique in the world -- will provide continuous data on atmospheric humidity for Western Switzerland's weather forecasting headquarters. ... > full story
Genetic Underpinnings Of Sheep Traits May Yield Clues To Greater Productivity (August 28, 2008) -- Keeping America's sheep healthy and productive while expanding the market for wool and lamb is the goal of scientists who are matching the animals' physical traits to the genes that underpin their expression. ... > full story
Why Is Greenland Covered In Ice? Changes In Carbon Dioxide Levels Explain Transition (August 28, 2008) -- A fall in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, close to that of pre-industrial times, explains the transition from a mostly ice-free Greenland of three million years ago to the ice-covered region we see today. ... > full story
Sweet Potato Out-Yields Corn In Ethanol Production Study (August 28, 2008) -- In experiments, sweet potatoes grown in Maryland and Alabama yielded two to three times as much carbohydrate for fuel ethanol production as field corn grown in those states, scientists report. The same was true of tropical cassava in Alabama. ... > full story
Protein Misprediction Uncovered By New Technique (August 28, 2008) -- A new bioinformatics tool is capable of identifying and correcting abnormal, incomplete and mispredicted protein annotations in public databases. The MisPred tool currently uses five principles to identify suspect proteins that are likely to be abnormal or mispredicted. ... > full story
Yellowstone's Ancient Supervolcano: Molten Plume Of Material Cooler Than Expected (August 28, 2008) -- The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their existence to the "Yellowstone hotspot" -- a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found. ... > full story
Nonviable Seeds May Contain Research-Quality DNA (August 28, 2008) -- Agricultural Research Service scientists have ways of making seeds talk. They have demonstrated that seeds can reveal genetic information even after they've lost viability, which is the ability to germinate. The research has significant implications for seed bank management. ... > full story
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