ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Sunday, September 7, 2008
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Chandelier Cells Unveil Human Cognition (September 6, 2008) -- What is it that distinguishes humans from other mammals? The answer to this question lies in the neocortex -- the part of the brain responsible for sensory perceptions, conscious thought and language. Humans have a considerably larger neocortex than other mammals, making it an ideal subject for the research of higher cognition. Scientists now reveal new insights into the mysteries of neocortex organization and function. ... > full story
Arteries From Distinct Regions Of The Body Have Unique Immune Functions (September 6, 2008) -- Arteries play an active role in the immune system by sensing infection and injury. They collect information about invaders through dendritic cells embedded in their walls. Arteries supplying blood to distinct parts of the body specialize in recognizing different bacterial signals. ... > full story
Old Before Their Time? Aging Rate In Flies Twice As Fast In Wild Than In Laboratory (September 6, 2008) -- Conventional wisdom suggests that stress accelerates aging -- but is it really true? Evolutionary studies of aging use short-lived animals under laboratory conditions -- constant temperature and humidity, no parasites, superabundant food. Researchers identified individual stilt-legged flies in their harsh natural environments while simultaneously monitoring their cousins in the lab. In males, the rate of aging was as least two times greater in the wild. For both sexes, life in the wild was dramatically shorter. More study of how environment affects gene expression is needed. ... > full story
Virology: How Does Herpes Simplex Virus Cause Inflammation Of The Brain? (September 6, 2008) -- Worldwide, about 80% of young adults are infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). The most common symptom of infection is a cold sore, but in some individuals the virus can also cause life-threatening inflammation of the brain (encephalitis); 70% of individuals who do not get treatment for this condition die. ... > full story
Glaciers In The Pyrenees Will Disappear In Less Than 50 Years, Study Finds (September 6, 2008) -- Much has been said about the situation of the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica, but little is known about those in the high mountain areas of the Iberian Peninsular. A Spanish research study has revealed, for the first time, that now only the Pyrenees has active glaciers. Furthermore, the steady increase in temperature, a total of 0.9°C since 1890, indicates that Pyrenean glaciers will disappear before 2050, according to experts. ... > full story
Honest Lovers? Fallow Buck Groans Reveal Their Status And Size During The Rut (September 6, 2008) -- Researchers have show for the first time that sexually selected vocalizations can signal social dominance in mammals other than primates, and reveal that the independent acoustic components -- fundamental frequency (pitch) and formant frequencies -- encode information on dominance status and body size, respectively. ... > full story
Digitizing Archives From The 17th Century (September 6, 2008) -- A researcher on a short trip to a foreign country, with little money, but a digital camera in hand has devised a novel approach to digitizing foreign archives that could speed up research. ... > full story
Ebola Cell-invasion Strategy Uncovered (September 5, 2008) -- Researchers have discovered a key biochemical link in the process by which the Ebola Zaire virus infects cells -- a critical step to finding a way to treat the deadly disease produced by the virus. ... > full story
What Is A Gene? Media Define the Concept In Many Different Ways (September 5, 2008) -- Even scientists define ‘a gene’ in different ways, so it comes as little surprise that the media also have various ways of framing the concept of a gene, according to a new study. ... > full story
Designer Wine? Characterization Of Grapevine Transposons May Aid Development Of New Grape Varieties (September 5, 2008) -- A new study presents a genome-wide characterization of grapevine transposons. This work shows that transposons have captured and amplified gene sequences in grapevines, which could have had an impact on gene evolution and their regulation. ... > full story
Infectious, Test Tube-produced Prions Can Jump The 'Species Barrier' (September 5, 2008) -- Researchers have shown that they can create entirely new strains of infectious proteins known as prions in the laboratory by simply mixing infectious prions from one species with the normal prion proteins of another species. ... > full story
How Salmonella Bacteria Contaminate Salad Leaves (September 5, 2008) -- How does Salmonella bacteria cause food poisoning by attaching to salad leaves? A new study shows how some Salmonella bacteria use the long stringy appendages they normally use to help them "swim" and move about to attach themselves to salad leaves and other vegetables, causing contamination and a health risk. ... > full story
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