The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Monday, May 9, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Monday, May 9, 2011

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A renewable twist on fossil fuels (May 9, 2011) -- Pulling valuable fuels out of thin air? It sounds like magic, but a chemist is now working to transform carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, into gas for your car and clean-energy future fuels. ... > full story

Does the central Andean backarc have the potential for a great earthquake? (May 9, 2011) -- The region east of the central Andes Mountains has the potential for larger scale earthquakes than previously expected. Previous research had set the maximum expected earthquake size to be magnitude 7.5, based on the relatively quiet history of seismicity in that area. This new study contradicts that limit and instead suggests that the region could see quakes with magnitudes 8.7 to 8.9. ... > full story

Heavy agricultural machinery can damage the soil, Nordic researchers find (May 9, 2011) -- Heavy agricultural machinery results in more permanent damage to the soil than previously believed by researchers. This may lead to poorer crop yields and increased pollution from agricultural land, is the message of a group of Nordic researchers. The result is called soil compaction and it concerns the negative effect of driving heavy machinery on soil that is used for growing plants. Soil compaction is characterized by increased density of the soil, reduced air volume and a reduced ability to drain off surplus water. ... > full story

Tree rings tell a 1,100-year history of El Niño (May 8, 2011) -- Tree-ring records from North America give a continuous history of variations in El Niño intensity over the past 1,100 years and can be used to help climate models predict more reliably how El Niño will change in the face of global warming, according to a new study. ... > full story

New online mechanism for electric vehicle charging (May 8, 2011) -- Researchers have designed a new pricing mechanism that could change the way in which electric vehicles are charged. It is based on an online auction protocol that makes it possible to charge electric vehicles without overloading the local electricity network. ... > full story

Insects' exuberant helmet is actually an extra set of wings, researchers show (May 8, 2011) -- In 250 million years of insect evolution, the appearance of new wings is unprecedented. Transformations and losses of wings, yes, but additions, never. A research team in France has shattered this belief by providing proof that the exuberant helmet of Membracidae, a group of insects related to cicadas, is in fact a third pair of profoundly modified wings. ... > full story

US farmers dodge the impacts of global warming -- at least for now (May 8, 2011) -- The United States seems to have been lucky so far in largely escaping the impact of global warming on crop production. But for most major agricultural producing countries, the rising temperatures have already reduced their yields of corn and wheat compared to what they would have produced if there had been no warming, according to a new study. ... > full story

Single-cell marine organisms offer clues to how cells interact with the environment (May 8, 2011) -- From a bucket of seawater, scientists have unlocked information that may lead to deeper understanding of organisms as different as coral reefs and human disease. By analyzing genomes of a tiny, single-celled marine animal, they have demonstrated a possible way to address diverse questions such as how diseased cells differ from neighboring healthy cells and what it is about some Antarctic algae that allows them to live in warming waters while other algae die out. ... > full story

Protein keeps sleep-deprived flies ready to learn (May 8, 2011) -- A protein that helps the brain develop early in life can fight the mental fuzziness induced by sleep deprivation, according to researchers. ... > full story

World's blueberries protected in unique, living collection (May 8, 2011) -- Familiar blueberries and their lesser-known wild relatives are safeguarded by US Department of Agriculture scientists and curators at America's official blueberry gene bank. The plants, collected from throughout the United States and more than two dozen foreign countries, are growing at the USDA Agricultural Research Service National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Ore. ... > full story

When livestock can transmit foot-and-mouth disease: Findings suggest fewer cattle could be culled in the future (May 8, 2011) -- A new study of foot-and-mouth disease shows that cattle afflicted with the virus are only infectious for a brief window of time -- about half as long as previously thought. This finding suggests that the controversial control measures used to halt the disease's spread, such as killing large numbers of livestock, could be reduced. The discovery is also changing the way that scientists think about infectious diseases in general. ... > full story

Engineers patch a heart: Tissue-engineering platform enables heart tissue to repair itself (May 7, 2011) -- Engineering researchers have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. The breakthrough is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day. ... > full story

It takes a community of soil microbes to protect plants from disease (May 7, 2011) -- Plants rely on a tight-knit army of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections. The discovery could help scientists develop ways to better protect the world's food crops from devastating diseases. The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen ... > full story

Direct proof of how T cells stay in 'standby' mode: Study offers means of activating T cells to fight disease without antigenic triggers (May 7, 2011) -- Researchers offer definitive proof that T cells need to actively maintain "quiescence," a sort of standby mode the cells enter while waiting activation by other parts of the immune system. The researchers also found that they can activate quiescent cells by targeting a single protein, opening the possibility that quiescent T cells within tumors can be used to kill cancer cells. ... > full story

Green roof proves a cost-effective way to keep water out of sewers (May 7, 2011) -- Green roofs like the one atop a Con Edison building in Long Island City, Queens can be a cost-effective way to keep water from running into sewer systems and causing overflows, researchers have found. ... > full story

How shifts in temperature prime immune response (May 7, 2011) -- Researchers have found a temperature-sensing protein within immune cells that, when tripped, allows calcium to pour in and activate an immune response. This process can occur as temperature rises, such as during a fever, or when it falls -- such as when immune cells are "called" from the body's warm interior to a site of injury on cooler skin. ... > full story

Vatican science panel calls attention to the threat of glacial melt (May 7, 2011) -- A panel of some of the world's leading climate and glacier scientists has issued a report commissioned by the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences citing the moral imperative before society to properly address climate change. ... > full story

Chemistry curbs spreading of carbon dioxide: Research could have implications for carbon sequestration (May 7, 2011) -- The presence of even a simple chemical reaction can delay or prevent the spreading of stored carbon dioxide in underground aquifers, new research has revealed. ... > full story

Malaria mosquitoes accurately find their way to smelly feet (May 6, 2011) -- Malaria mosquitoes utilize carbon dioxide from exhaled air to localize humans from afar. In the vicinity of their preferred host, they alter their course towards the human feet. Researchers discovered how female malaria mosquitoes use foot odors in the last meters to guide them to their favored biting place. The research suggests possibilities to disrupt the host seeking behavior of the malaria mosquito. ... > full story

Parental exposure to BPA during pregnancy associated with decreased birth weight in offspring (May 6, 2011) -- Parental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy is associated with decreased birth weight of offspring, compared with offspring from families without parental BPA exposure in the workplace, according to researchers. ... > full story

Advanced instrument analyzes immune cells in far more detail: Technology promises more effective prescription drug therapies (May 6, 2011) -- Researchers have taken a machine already in use for the measurement of impurities in semiconductors and used it to analyze immune cells in far more detail than has been possible before. The new technology lets scientists take simultaneous measurements of dozens of features located on and in cells, whereas the existing technology typically begins to encounter technical limitations at about a half-dozen. ... > full story

Sticking their necks out for evolution: Why sloths and manatees have unusually long (or short) necks (May 6, 2011) -- As a rule all mammals have the same number of vertebrae in their necks regardless of whether they are a giraffe, a mouse, or a human. But both sloths and manatees are exceptions to this rule having abnormal numbers of cervical vertebrae. New research shows how such different species have evolved their unusual necks. ... > full story

Cigarette smoking and arsenic exposure: A deadly combination (May 6, 2011) -- Arsenic exposure and smoking each elevate the risk of disease. But when combined together, the danger of dying from cardiovascular disease is magnified, a new study finds. ... > full story

Antibodies help protect monkeys from HIV-like virus, scientists show (May 6, 2011) -- Using a monkey model of AIDS, scientists have identified a vaccine-generated immune-system response that correlates with protection against infection by the monkey version of HIV, called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The researchers found that neutralizing antibodies generated by immunization were associated with protection against SIV infection. This finding marks an important step toward understanding how an effective HIV vaccine could work, according to the scientists. ... > full story

Selaginella genome adds piece to plant evolutionary puzzle (May 6, 2011) -- A sequencing of the Selaginella moellendorffii (spikemoss) genome -- the first for a non-seed vascular plant -- is expected to give scientists a better understanding of how plants of all kinds evolved over the past 500 million years and could open new doors for the identification of new pharmaceuticals. ... > full story

Universal signaling pathway found to regulate sleep (May 6, 2011) -- An unexpected observation in the C. elegans nematode may help explain the neurobiology of sleep in a wide variety of creatures, including humans. ... > full story

DNA from common stomach bacteria minimizes effects of colitis, study says (May 6, 2011) -- DNA from Helicobacter pylori, a common stomach bacteria, minimizes the effects of colitis in mice, according to a new study. ... > full story

After a three-decade hiatus, sea-level rise may return to N. America's West Coast (May 6, 2011) -- The West Coast of North America has caught a break that has left sea level in the eastern North Pacific Ocean steady during the last few decades, but there is evidence that a change in wind patterns may be occurring that could cause coastal sea-level rise to accelerate beginning this decade. ... > full story

Succulent plants waited for cool, dry Earth to make their mark (May 6, 2011) -- Between five and 10 million years ago, the landscape on Earth changed dramatically. Biologists and colleagues have determined that cacti exploded onto the global scene then, about the same geologic time as other succulent plants and tropical grasses. The trigger: A global period marked by cooling and increased aridity, possibly with lowered atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. ... > full story

Drug-resistance fears for deadly fungal disease (May 6, 2011) -- Deadly human fungal infections caused by certain strains of Aspergillus fungi appear to be developing resistance to current drug treatments at an alarming rate, say scientists. ... > full story

Capt. Kidd shipwreck site to be dedicated 'Living Museum of the Sea' (May 6, 2011) -- Nearly three years after the discovery of the shipwreck Quedagh Merchant, abandoned by the scandalous 17th century pirate Captain William Kidd, the underwater site will be dedicated as a "Living Museum of the Sea". ... > full story

Why more species live in Amazon rainforests: Evolution of treefrogs sheds light on the mystery (May 6, 2011) -- For more than two hundred years, the question of why there are more species in the tropics has been a biological enigma. A particularly perplexing aspect is why so many species live together in a small area in the tropics, especially at some sites in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin in South America. New research on the evolution and ecology of treefrogs sheds new light on the puzzle. ... > full story

Precipitation, predators may be key in ecological regulation of infectious disease (May 6, 2011) -- Ecologists have shown that just three ecological factors -- rainfall, predator diversity, and island size and shape -- can account for nearly all of the differences in infection rates among the eight Channel Islands off the California coast. ... > full story

Can social deficits of autism and schizophrenia be modeled in animals? (May 6, 2011) -- Social deficits are common in several psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia. Individuals with severe social dysfunction can experience significant difficulties with everyday functioning. Now, scientists have further characterized a mouse model that provides some insights into biological factors related to social deficits, by comparing mice that had their oxytocin receptor gene made inactive, using a specialized technique called genetic knockout, with unaltered mice. ... > full story

Expert panel calls for 'transforming US agriculture': Changes in markets, policies and science needed for more sustainable farming (May 5, 2011) -- A group of leading scientists, economists and farmers is calling for a broad shift in federal policies to speed They say current policies focus on the production of a few crops and a minority of farmers while failing to address farming's contribution to global warming, biodiversity loss, natural resource degradation and public health problems. ... > full story

Corn gene provides resistance to multiple diseases, study shows (May 5, 2011) -- Researchers have found a specific gene in corn that appears to be associated with resistance to three important plant leaf diseases. ... > full story

Reptile 'cousins' shed new light on end-Permian extinction (May 5, 2011) -- The end-Permian extinction, by far the most dramatic biological crisis to affect life on Earth, may not have been as catastrophic for some creatures as previously thought, according to a new study. ... > full story

Hunting for deadly bacteria (May 5, 2011) -- Biochemists have developed a simple test that can swiftly and accurately identify specific pathogens using a system that will "hunt" for bacteria, identifying their harmful presence before they have a chance to contaminate our food and water. ... > full story

Worm discovery could help one billion people worldwide (May 5, 2011) -- Scientists have discovered why some people may be protected from harmful parasitic worms naturally while others cannot in what could lead to new therapies for up to one billion people worldwide. ... > full story

Small sea birds hold heat rather than cranking up the furnace (May 5, 2011) -- A new study offers some clues about how small aquatic birds survive in extremely cold climates. ... > full story

What lies beneath the seafloor? Results from first microbial subsurface observatory experiment (May 5, 2011) -- An international team of scientists report on the first observatory experiment to study the microbial life of an ever-changing environment inside Earth's crust. ... > full story

Turning 'bad' fat into 'good': A future treatment for obesity? (May 5, 2011) -- By knocking down the expression of a protein in rat brains known to stimulate eating, researchers say they not only reduced the animals' calorie intake and weight, but also transformed their fat into a type that burns off more energy. The finding could lead to better obesity treatments for humans, the scientists report. ... > full story

Air pollution near Michigan schools linked to poorer student health, academic performance (May 5, 2011) -- Air pollution from industrial sources near Michigan public schools jeopardizes children's health and academic success, according to a new study. ... > full story

Evolutionary lessons for wind farm efficiency (May 5, 2011) -- Evolution is providing the inspiration for computer science research in Australia to find the best placement of turbines to increase wind farm productivity. ... > full story

Horsetail plant developed successful set of tools for extreme environments -- for millions of years (May 5, 2011) -- Over 100 million years ago, the understory of late Mesozoic forests was dominated by a diverse group of plants of the class Equisetopsida. Today, only one genus from this group, Equisetum (also known as horsetail or scouring rush), exists -- and it is a prime candidate for being the oldest extant genus of land plant. The authors of this study showed that the plant developed a successful set of tools for life in extreme environments and has maintained them for millions of years. ... > full story

Estimated costs of environmental disease in children at .6 billion per year (May 5, 2011) -- In three new studies, researchers reveal the staggering economic impact of toxic chemicals and air pollutants in the environment, and propose new legislation to mandate testing of new chemicals and also those already on the market. ... > full story

California's draft Bay Delta conservation plan needs better integration to be more scientifically credible, report finds (May 5, 2011) -- A draft plan to conserve habitat for endangered and threatened fishes in the California Bay-Delta while continuing to divert water for agricultural and personal use in central and southern California has critical missing components, including clearly defined goals and a scientific analysis of the proposed project's potential impacts on delta species, says a new report from the National Research Council. ... > full story

Genome duplication encourages rapid adaptation of plants (May 4, 2011) -- A biologist has found that at least some plant adaptations can occur almost instantaneously, not by a change in DNA sequence, but simply by duplication of existing genetic material. ... > full story