ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Monday, September 8, 2008
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Lightweight And Long-legged Males Go The Distance For Sex (September 8, 2008) -- A study of giant cricket-like insects suggests that sexual selection for smaller, more mobile males could be responsible for some of the impressive sexual difference in body size in this species and may explain other species where males are smaller than females. ... > full story
You Can Be Replaced: Immune Cells Compensate For Defective DNA Repair Factor (September 8, 2008) -- A new mouse model has provided some surprising insight into XLF, a molecule that helps to repair lethal DNA damage. The research suggests that although XLF shares many properties with well known DNA repair factors, certain cells of the immune system possess an unexpected compensatory mechanism that that can take over for nonfunctional XLF. ... > full story
Trichoplax Genome Sequenced: 'Rosetta Stone' For Understanding Evolution (September 8, 2008) -- Molecular and evolutionary biologists have produced the full genome sequence of Trichoplax, one of nature's most primitive multicellular organisms, providing a new insight into the evolution of all higher animals. ... > full story
New Evidence On The Robustness Of Metabolic Networks (September 8, 2008) -- Biological systems evolve in ways that increase their fitness for survival amidst environmental fluctuations and internal errors. Now researchers have found new evidence that evolution has produced cell metabolisms that are especially well suited to handle potentially harmful changes like gene deletions and mutations. The team developed a mathematical model, which could be useful in bioengineering, medicine and the design of synthetic networks, describing the cascading failure phenomenon as a percolation-like process. ... > full story
Atomic Structure Of The Mammalian 'Fatty Acid Factory' Determined (September 8, 2008) -- Mammalian fatty acid synthase is one of the most complex molecular synthetic machines in human cells. It is also a promising target for the development of anti-cancer and anti-obesity drugs and the treatment of metabolic disorders. Now researchers have determined the atomic structure of a mammalian fatty acid synthase. ... > full story
Bad Sign For Global Warming: Thawing Permafrost Holds Vast Carbon Pool (September 7, 2008) -- Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws ... > full story
Scientists Identify Genetic Link That May Neutralize HIV (September 7, 2008) -- A genetic target may provide a significant new opportunity for vaccine or therapeutic development. Scientists have uncovered new evidence that strengthens the link between a host-cell gene called Apobec3 and the production of neutralizing antibodies to retroviruses. The finding adds a new dimension to the set of possible explanations for why most people who are infected with HIV do not make neutralizing antibodies that effectively fight the virus. ... > full story
Artificial Meadows And Robot Spiders Reveal Secret Life Of Bees (September 7, 2008) -- Many animals learn to avoid being eaten by predators. Now ecologists have discovered that bumblebees can even learn to outwit color-changing crab spiders. Bumblebees learn to avoid camouflaged predators by sacrificing foraging speed for predator detection, according to new research. ... > full story
Major Flooding Risk Could Span Decades After Chinese Earthquake (September 7, 2008) -- Up to 20 million people, thousands of whom are already displaced from their homes following the devastating Chinese earthquake, are at increased risk from flooding and major power shortages in the massive Sichuan Basin over the next few decades and possibly centuries. A geographer from Durham University makes the observations on returning from carrying out investigative fieldwork in the China earthquake zone. ... > full story
Plant-parasitic Nematode Genome Sequenced (September 7, 2008) -- The annotated genome of one of the most destructive nematodes -- Meloidogyne incognita -- the southern root-knot nematode, has just been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. ... > full story
Long-held Assumptions Of Flightless Bird Evolution Challenged By New Research (September 7, 2008) -- Large flightless birds of the southern continents -- African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi -- do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. ... > full story
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
DNA Shows That Last Woolly Mammoths Had North American Roots (September 5, 2008) -- In a surprising reversal of conventional wisdom, a DNA-based study has revealed that the last of the woolly mammoths--which lived between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago--had roots that were exclusively North American. ... > full story
Biocontrol Insect Exacerbates Invasive Weed (September 5, 2008) -- Biocontrol agents, such as insects, are often released outside of their native ranges to control invasive plants. But scientists in Montana have found that through complex community interactions among deer mice, native plants and seeds, the presence of an introduced fly may exacerbate the effects of the invasive plant it was meant to control. ... > full story
DNA Editing Tool Flips Its Target (September 5, 2008) -- Imagine having to copy an entire book by hand without missing a comma. Our cells face a similar task every time they divide. They must duplicate both their DNA and a subtle pattern of punctuation-like modifications on the DNA known as methylation. Scientists have caught in action one of the tools mammalian cells use to maintain their pattern of methylation. Visualized by X-ray crystallography, the SRA domain of the protein UHRF1 appears to act like a bookmark while enzymes are copying a molecule of DNA. ... > full story
Global Sea-rise Levels By 2100 May Be Lower Than Some Predict, Says New Study (September 5, 2008) -- Despite projections by some scientists of global seas rising by 20 feet or more by the end of this century as a result of warming, a new study concludes that global sea rise of much more than 6 feet is a near physical impossibility. ... > full story
New Evidence On Folic Acid In Diet And Colon Cancer (September 5, 2008) -- Researchers are reporting a new, more detailed explanation for the link between low folate intake and an increased risk for colon cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. ... > full story
Hurricane Gustav's Path And Development (September 5, 2008) -- The development and path of Hurricane Gustav is shown via a sequence of satellite images acquired by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument on 25 August, 28 August, 30 August and 1 September 2008 (from right to left). ... > full story
Molecular Evolution Is Echoed In Bat Ears (September 4, 2008) -- Echolocation may have evolved more than once in bats, according to new research from the University of Bristol. ... > full story
Do 68 Molecules Hold The Key To Understanding Disease? (September 4, 2008) -- Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer. ... > full story
Complex Ocean Behavior Studied With 'Artificial Upwelling' (September 4, 2008) -- A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature -- pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biological production. ... > full story
Cinnamon-based Packaging To Prevent Mold In Bread And Other Baked Goods (September 4, 2008) -- Bread that goes moldy is the bane of consumers and bakers alike, ruining appetites and wasting food and money. Now, researchers have developed a new type of paper packaging made with cinnamon oil that appears to prolong the freshness of bread and other baked goods by up to 10 days. ... > full story
Global Warming: Warmer Seas Linked To Strengthening Hurricanes, According to New Research (September 4, 2008) -- The theory that global warming may be contributing to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic over the past 30 years is bolstered by a new study. ... > full story
Tutankhamen Fathered Twins, Mummified Fetuses Suggest (September 4, 2008) -- Two fetuses found in the tomb of Tutankhamen may have been twins and were very likely to have been the children of the teenage Pharaoh, according to the anatomist who first studied the mummified remains of the young King in the 1960s. ... > full story
Researchers Create Animal Model Of Chronic Stress (September 4, 2008) -- In an effort to better understand how chronic stress affects the human body, researchers have created an animal model that shows how chronic stress affects behavior, physiology and reproduction. Developing the animal model better positions the researchers to understand the neurohormonal causes of such stress and the body reaction in order to develop more effective treatment options for humans. ... > full story
Wolves Would Rather Eat Salmon (September 4, 2008) -- Although most people imagine wolves chasing deer and other hoofed animals, new research suggests that, when they can, wolves actually prefer fishing to hunting. The study shows that when salmon is available, wolves will reduce deer hunting activity and instead focus on seafood. ... > full story
Improving Piglet Survival (September 4, 2008) -- Neonatal mortality in pigs is a major welfare and economic concern. It is one of the issues being tackled by Welfare Quality®, an EU-funded project designed to integrate farm animal welfare into the food chain. ... > full story
A Little Nitrogen Can Go A Long Way (September 4, 2008) -- With significant increases in the price of fertilizer and grain, site-specific management -- especially in variable rate nitrogen application -- can have a significant impact on yield and profitability, as reported in the latest issue of Agronomy Journal. ... > full story
Substance Found In Fruits And Vegetables Reduces Likelihood Of The Flu (September 3, 2008) -- Mice given quercetin, a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables, were less likely to contract the flu. The study also found that stressful exercise increased the susceptibility of mice to the flu, but quercetin canceled out that negative effect. Quercetin, a close chemical relative of resveratrol, is present in a variety of fruits and vegetables, including red onions, grapes, blueberries, tea, broccoli and red wine. ... > full story
Biological Invasions Increasing Due To Freshwater Impoundments, Says Study (September 3, 2008) -- The growing number of dams and other impoundments is increasing the number of invasive species and the speed at which they spread, putting natural lakes at risk, says a study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder. ... > full story
Cell Division Study Resolves 50-year-old Debate, May Aid Cancer Research (September 3, 2008) -- A new study has finally resolved a controversy that cellular biologists have been arguing over for nearly 50 years, with findings that may aid research on everything from birth defects and genetic diseases to the most classic "cell division" issue of them all -- cancer. ... > full story
Hurricane Katrina Increased Mental And Physical Health Problems In New Orleans By Up To Three Times (September 3, 2008) -- Half the residents of New Orleans were suffering from poor mental and physical health more than a year after their homes and community were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, according to new research. ... > full story
Energy-saving Bacteria Resist Antibiotics (September 3, 2008) -- Bacteria save energy by producing proteins that moonlight, having different roles at different times, which may also protect the microbes from being killed. The moonlighting activity of one enzyme from the tuberculosis bacterium makes it partially resistant to a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics, according to a paper published in the journal Microbiology. ... > full story
Oldest Gecko Fossil Ever Found, Entombed In Amber (September 3, 2008) -- Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a gecko, with body parts that are forever preserved in life-like form after 100 million years of being entombed in amber. ... > full story
How Friendly Bacteria Avoids Immune Attack To Live Happily In The Gut (September 3, 2008) -- For a long time scientists have been puzzled by the fact that the immune system in the gut is capable of fighting toxic bacterial infection while staying, at the same time, tolerant to its resident “friendly” bacteria. But a new article has starting to explain the mystery by revealing how a recently discovered gene - pims – is activated by the gut immune response against friendly bacteria to rapidly suppress it, effectively creating tolerance to the gut microbiota. ... > full story
Scientists Grow 'Nanonets' Able To Snare Added Energy Transfer (September 3, 2008) -- Adding to the growing list of novel nanoscale structures, researchers report engineering nanonets, flexible webs of tiny wires that improve the performance of their materials, which are used in microelectronics and clean energy research. The new structure improves material used in microelectronics and water-splitting. ... > full story
Shot In The Arm For Sumatran Elephants And Tigers (September 3, 2008) -- The Indonesian government is to double the size of a national park that is one of the last havens for endangered Sumatran elephants and tigers. ... > full story
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