ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Tuesday, September 9, 2008
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As Andean Glacier Retreats, Tiny Life Forms Swiftly Move In (September 9, 2008) -- Scientists working at 16,400 feet in the Peruvian Andes has discovered how barren soils uncovered by retreating glacier ice can swiftly establish a thriving community of microbes, setting the table for lichens, mosses and alpine plants. The discovery is the first to reveal how microbial life becomes established and flourishes in one of the most extreme environments on Earth and has implications for how life may have once flourished on Mars. ... > full story
Milk May Help Bacteria Survive Against Low Levels Of Antibiotics (September 9, 2008) -- Milk may help prevent potentially dangerous bacteria like Staphylococcus from being killed by antibiotics used to treat animals. ... > full story
Ecologists Search For Invasive Ladybird’s Weak Spot (September 9, 2008) -- Ecologists have discovered that -- as well as being larger, hungrier and more aggressive than most British native ladybirds -- the invasive alien harlequin ladybird is also more resistant to fungal disease and a parasitic wasp, two common natural enemies of native ladybirds. ... > full story
US Air Force Technology Helps Scientists Understand Plant Root Function (September 9, 2008) -- Scientists have developed a non-invasive technique that uses thermal neutron attenuation to measure spatial and temporal distribution of water in soils. The study focuses on the McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center in Sacramento, Calif., developed by the US Air Force. ... > full story
Shifting Earth Near Closed Mines: Ground In Dutch Province Rising Faster Than Expected (September 9, 2008) -- The ground in the Dutch province of South-Limburg is not as stable as had been thought. Satellite observations have shown greater localized rises than expected. Newly-developed technology has also enabled improved charting of ground subsidence in the provinces of Groningen and North-Holland. The satellites measure ground shifts down to the last millimeter. ... > full story
Scientists Develop Model To Map Continental Margins (September 9, 2008) -- Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a new exploration method to assist the oil and gas industry in identifying more precisely where the oceans and continents meet. ... > full story
Marijuana Ingredients Show Promise In Battling Superbugs (September 8, 2008) -- Substances in marijuana show promise for fighting deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, including so-called "superbugs," without causing the drug's mood-altering effects, scientists in Italy and the United Kingdom are reporting. ... > full story
Structure Of Key Epigenetics Component Identified (September 8, 2008) -- Scientists from the Structural Genomics Consortium have determined the 3-D structure of a key protein component involved in enabling "epigenetic code" to be copied accurately from cell to cell. The research not only represents an advance for the epigenetics field, but also an advance for how the science was done. ... > full story
Alpine Fungi Collected In Beartooth Mountains Of Montana (September 8, 2008) -- Some of the world's top experts on fungi recently collected fungi and mushrooms above tree line in the Beartooth Mountains near Red Lodge, Mont. ... > full story
Unexplored Arctic Region To Be Mapped (September 8, 2008) -- A scientific expedition this fall will map the unexplored Arctic seafloor where the US and Canada may have sovereign rights over natural resources such as oil and gas and control over activities such as mining. Both countries will use the resulting data to establish the outer limits of the continental shelf, according to the criteria set out in the Convention on the Law of the Sea. ... > full story
Can Science Improve Man's Best Friend? (September 8, 2008) -- While animal buyers often look closely at physical characteristics, behavioral traits can make the difference between a dog becoming a much loved and pampered family member, or a mistreated or neglected unwanted animal. Science and breeding can be used to produce dogs that have characteristics desired by average dog owners and are well suited to the domestic environment. ... > full story
New Rules Needed To Govern World's Fragile Polar Regions (September 8, 2008) -- Consideration of international law and policy issues in polar regions is urgently needed as climate change opens the Arctic Ocean to shipping, fishing, and other resource exploitation, and as growing numbers of bioprospectors, researchers and tourists flock to Antarctica, all with potentially serious environmental consequences in these highly fragile ecosystems. ... > full story
New Stem Cell Screening Tool Takes Adult Stem Cell Research To New Level (September 8, 2008) -- A bioinformatic system takes adult stem cell research to a new level. Rather than using stem cells from embryonic sources, which opens difficult ethical and complicated scientific issues, scientists have been looking to adult human stem cells, culled from a person's own body. Adult stem cells are now being cultivated from various tissues in the body -- from skin, bones and even wisdom teeth. ... > full story
Changes In Urine Could Lead To BSE Test For Live Animals (September 8, 2008) -- Researchers have demonstrated that protein levels in urine samples can indicate both the presence and progress of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy disease in cattle. The scientists hope that their discovery might lead to the development of a urine-based test that could prevent the precautionary slaughter of many animals as now occurs when the disease is detected. ... > full story
Functional Food – Delicious And Healthy (September 8, 2008) -- Linseed is said to protect against cancer – but not everybody likes the taste. Researchers have now isolated the valuable components of the flax seeds. Incorporated in bread, cakes or dressings, they support the human organism without leaving an unpleasant aftertaste. ... > full story
Smoke Smudges Mexico City's Air, Chemists Identify Sources (September 8, 2008) -- Mexico City once topped lists of places with the worst air pollution in the world. Although efforts to curb emissions have improved the situation, tiny particles called aerosols still clog the air. Now, atmospheric scientists have sorted through the pall that hangs over the city to precisely identify aerosols that make up the haze and chart daily patterns of changes to the mix. ... > full story
Role Of Aerosols In Climate Change Examined (September 8, 2008) -- It appears that aerosol effects on clouds can induce large changes in precipitation patterns, which in turn may change not only regional water resources, but also may change the regional and global circulation systems that constitute the Earth's climate. A group of scientists have proposed a new framework to account more accurately for the effects of aerosols on precipitation in climate models. ... > full story
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
Delaying Evolution Of Drug Resistance In Malaria Parasite Possible (September 8, 2008) -- There's no magic bullet for wiping out malaria, but a new study offers strong support for a method that effectively delays the evolution of drug resistance in malaria parasites, a researcher says. ... > 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
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