ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior (September 10, 2008) -- Without a way to measure religious beliefs, anthropologists have had difficulty studying religion. Now, two anthropologists from the University of Missouri and Arizona State University have developed a new approach to study religion by focusing on verbal communication, an identifiable behavior, instead of speculating about alleged beliefs in the supernatural that cannot actually be identified. ... > full story
Compost Heap Bacteria Could Provide 10% Of UK Transport Fuel Needs (September 10, 2008) -- Bacteria found in compost heaps able to convert waste plant fiber into ethanol could eventually provide up 10% of the UK's transport fuel needs, according to new research. ... > full story
Silent Streams? Escalating Endangerment For North American Freshwater Fish (September 10, 2008) -- Nearly 40 percent of freshwater fish species in North America are now in jeopardy, according to the most detailed evaluation of the conservation status of these fishes in the last 20 years. The 700 fishes now listed represent a staggering 92 percent increase over the 364 listed as "imperiled" in the previous 1989 study published by the American Fisheries Society. Researchers classified each of the 700 fishes listed as either vulnerable (230), threatened (190) or endangered (280). In addition, 61 fishes are presumed extinct. ... > full story
No-till Practices Show Extended Benefits On Wheat And Forage (September 10, 2008) -- With more than 3 million acres of wheat in north Texas, 50 percent or more of which is grazed by 1 to 2 million head of cattle, it is important to look at tillage practices and their effect on forage production. Research agronomists have been studying nitrogen response and forage production in relation to tillage practices. ... > full story
Dogs And Cats Can Live In Perfect Harmony In The Home, If Introduced The Right Way (September 9, 2008) -- Thinking about adopting a perky little puppy as a friend for your fluffy cat, but worried that they'll fight -- well, like cats and dogs? Think again. New research has found a new recipe for success. ... > full story
Rattlesnake-type Poisons Used By Superbug Bacteria To Beat Our Defenses (September 9, 2008) -- Colonies of hospital superbugs can make poisons similar to those found in rattlesnake venom to attack our bodies' natural defenses, according to new research. ... > full story
Hotline To The Cowshed (September 9, 2008) -- A wireless measuring system, consisting of sensors and transmission units, helps to keep livestock healthier with a minimum use of resources. ... > full story
Potential New Threat For Coral Reefs And Health Of Communities In The Tropics (September 9, 2008) -- Human activities bear a large part of the responsibility for coral reef degradation. Several threats hang over this complex ecosystem with its extraordinary biodiversity, whether in the form of anthropogenic effluents emitted at certain times or global warming which causes coral bleaching. ... > full story
South America Holds Treasure Of Copper, Molybdenum, Gold And Silver (September 9, 2008) -- Deposits of undiscovered copper, molybdenum, gold and silver may be present in the Andes Mountains of South America, according to a new scientific assessment. ... > full story
'Smart Water' May Help Boost Production From Oil Wells By 60 Percent (September 9, 2008) -- Researchers in Norway report that injecting a special type of seawater called "smart water" into certain low-yield oil wells may help boost oil extraction by as much as 60 percent. The study could help meet rising energy demands and provide consumers with some financial relief at the gas pump in the future, the scientists suggest. ... > full story
Living Sensor Can Warn Of Arsenic Pollution (September 9, 2008) -- Scientists studying arsenic pollution have discovered a living sensor that can spot contamination. They have also discovered new bacteria that can clean up arsenic spills even in previously untreatable cold areas. ... > full story
2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season Kicking Into High Gear (September 9, 2008) -- For the first time in the 2008 hurricane season, there were four tropical cyclones active in the Atlantic Ocean basin on one day (Sept. 2). September is considered the peak of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, and in the first week of September there were four tropical cyclones that forecasters were watching. ... > full story
How Bacteria Recycle Their Cell Wall: New Insights (September 9, 2008) -- A new paper provides important new insights into the process by which bacteria recycle their cell wall. ... > full story
'Water Bears' Able To Survive Exposure To Vacuum Of Space (September 9, 2008) -- Of all environments, space must be the most hostile: It is freezing cold, close to absolute zero, there is a vacuum, so no oxygen, and the amount of lethal radiation from stars is very high. New research shows that some animals -- the so-called tardigrades or "water bears" -- are able to do away with space suits and can survive exposure to open-space vacuum, cold and radiation. ... > full story
Catching The Blood Cell Bus Gives Fatal Yeast Infection A Clean Getaway (September 9, 2008) -- Yeast fungus cells that kill thousands of AIDS patients every year escape detection by our bodies' defenses by hiding inside our own defense cells, and hitch a ride through our systems before attacking and spreading. ... > full story
Urbanization Reconfigures Surface Hydrology (September 9, 2008) -- What are the consequences of human-made tinkering with land cover and hydrology on surrounding native desert ecosystems and biodiversity? This question forms the backdrop for a case study published in the journal BioScience, which found that one of the most profound impacts of urbanization is the "reconfiguration of surface hydrology." ... > full story
Childbirth Was Already Difficult For Neanderthals (September 9, 2008) -- Neanderthals had a brain at birth of a similar size to that of modern-day babies. However, after birth, their brain grew more quickly than it does for Homo sapiens and became larger too. Nevertheless, the individual lifespan ran just as slowly as it does for modern human beings. ... > full story
Birds' Harmonious Duets Can Be 'Aggressive Audio Warfare,' Study Finds (September 9, 2008) -- Researchers have new insight into the motivating factors that drive breeding pairs of some tropical bird species to sing duets. Those duets can be so closely matched that human listeners often mistake them for solos. ... > full story
As Andean Glacier Retreats, Tiny Lifeforms 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
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