The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Sunday, May 1, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Sunday, May 1, 2011

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Plant extract may be new therapy for hay fever, study suggests (April 30, 2011) -- Fighting hay fever with a plant extract? It works, as was shown in a new clinical study. Allergic symptoms were alleviated significantly better than with the usual histamine receptor antagonists. ... > full story

Genes control fruit flies' social groupings (April 30, 2011) -- A new study reveals how a fruit fly's genes can influence the company it keeps. Using male flies that had been bred for varying levels of aggressiveness, researchers observed how the males formed groups when placed into an enclosure with females. ... > full story

Wild hogs: Researchers examine impact of feral pigs in eastern North Carolina (April 30, 2011) -- America's feral pig population continues to expand, increasing the potential for interaction with humans and domestic swine -- and for spreading diseases. Researchers at North Carolina State University examined feral pigs from eastern North Carolina to determine exposure to two parasites that can be transmitted from animals to people -- Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) and Trichinella. ... > full story

Through unique eyes, box jellyfish look out to the world above the water (April 30, 2011) -- Box jellyfish may seem like rather simple creatures, but in fact their visual system is anything but. They've got no fewer than 24 eyes of four different kinds. Now, researchers have evidence revealing that four of those eyes always peer up out of the water, regardless of the way the rest of the animal is oriented. ... > full story

New solar cell technology greatly boosts efficiency (April 29, 2011) -- With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, scientists have boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent. ... > full story

Mutant mouse reveals new wrinkle in genetic code (April 29, 2011) -- Call it a mystery with a stubby tail: an odd-looking mouse discovered through a US government breeding program in the 1940s that had a short, kinky tail and an extra set of ribs in its neck -- and nobody knew why. ... > full story

Identifying beaked whale foraging habitat in the Bahamas (April 29, 2011) -- Marine biologists have found that oceanographic and prey measurements can be used to identify beaked whale foraging habitat. ... > full story

When a salad is not a salad: Why are dieters easily misled by food names? (April 29, 2011) -- Dieters are so involved with trying to eat virtuously that they are more likely than non-dieters to choose unhealthy foods that are labeled as healthy, according to a new study. It seems dieter focus on food names can work to their disadvantage. ... > full story

Monkeys, too, can recollect what they've seen, study suggests (April 29, 2011) -- It's one thing to recognize your childhood home when you see it in a photograph and quite another to accurately describe or draw a picture of it based on your recollection of how it looked. A new report offers some of the first clear evidence that monkeys, like humans, have the capacity for both forms of memory. ... > full story

NASA technology looks inside Japan's nuclear reactor (April 29, 2011) -- Design techniques honed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for Mars rovers were used to create the rover currently examining the inside of Japan's nuclear reactors, in areas not yet deemed safe for human crews. ... > full story

How do white blood cells detect invaders to destroy? (April 29, 2011) -- Scientists have discovered how a molecular receptor on the surface of white blood cells identifies when invading fungi have established direct contact with the cell surface and pose an infectious threat. ... > full story

Ivory-billed woodpecker sighted and recorded (April 29, 2011) -- Scientists working independently in three states have now published articles that report multiple sightings of and various forms of evidence for this elusive species, which is extremely difficult to observe and photograph due to its rarity, wariness, and tendency to roam over wide areas in remote swamp habitat. During two encounters with an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, one researcher heard high-pitched calls that seem to match the description of an alarm call that was reported by James Tanner in the 1930s but was never recorded. ... > full story