The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Tuesday, May 10, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Tuesday, May 10, 2011

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'Fool's Gold' is ocean life's fertilizer: Pyrite nanoparticles from hydrothermal vents are rich source of iron in deep sea (May 10, 2011) -- Similar to humans, the bacteria and tiny plants living in the ocean need iron for energy and growth. But their situation is quite different from ours -- for one, they can't turn to natural iron sources like leafy greens or red meat for a pick-me-up. So, from where does their iron come? ... > full story

Airborne pollutants: New view of how water and sulfur dioxide mix (May 10, 2011) -- High in the sky, water in clouds can act as a temptress to lure airborne pollutants such as sulfur dioxide into reactive aqueous particulates. Although this behavior is not incorporated into today's climate-modeling scenarios, emerging research provides evidence that it should be. ... > full story

Genome of marine organism reveals hidden secrets; New methods to identify promising species in the wild (May 10, 2011) -- An international team of researchers has deciphered the genome of a tropical marine organism known to produce substances potentially useful against human diseases. ... > full story

More effective and less risky when you paint the hull of your boat (May 10, 2011) -- Every boat owner recognizes the dilemma: environmentally friendly paint or effective paint. Researchers have now found a way of reconciling these two almost unattainable aims. By using smart combinations of the most environmentally friendly biocides in the paint, it is possible to both reduce the total quantity of biocides and dramatically reduce the environmental impact. ... > full story

New models may reduce seabird bycatch (May 9, 2011) -- Tens of thousands of albatrosses and other far-ranging seabirds are killed each year after they become caught in longline fishing gear. Innovative new models may help reduce these casualties by more precisely projecting where and when birds and boats are likely to cross paths. ... > full story

For peacocks, the eyespots don't lie (May 9, 2011) -- Male peacock tail plumage and courtship antics likely influence their success at attracting and mating with females, according to recent research. ... > full story

Fast, sensitive blood test for human prion disease (May 9, 2011) -- Scientists have developed a method -- 10,000 times more sensitive than other methods -- to detect variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) in blood plasma. vCJD is a type of prion disease in humans that leads to brain damage and death. The researchers also used the test to rapidly detect scrapie, a prion disease of sheep, in infected hamsters, some pre-symptomatic. ... > full story

Parsley, celery carry crucial component for fight against breast cancer, study suggests (May 9, 2011) -- A compound in parsley and other plant products, including fruits and nuts, can stop certain breast cancer tumor cells from multiplying and growing, new research suggests. ... > full story

Direct removal of carbon dioxide from air likely not viable, report suggests (May 9, 2011) -- Technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change for several decades, according to a new report. ... > full story

Zombie ants have fungus on the brain, new research reveals (May 9, 2011) -- Tropical carpenter ants (Camponotus leonardi) are turned into "zombie ants" when infected by the parasitic fungus (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis). Infected ants become erratic and zombie-like, and are manipulated by the fungus into dying at a spot that provides optimal conditions for fungal reproduction. New research looks at altered behavior patterns in zombie ants in Thailand and shows how the fungus manipulates ant behavior. ... > full story

New DNA role in modifying gene function: Findings suggest new approach could create highly targeted therapeutics (May 9, 2011) -- For years, scientists have thought of DNA as a passive blueprint capable only of producing specific proteins through RNA transcription. Now, researchers have shown DNA can also act to fine-tune the activity of certain proteins known as nuclear receptors. ... > full story

Antibody-based biosensor can guide environmental clean-ups, provide early warning system for spills (May 9, 2011) -- Researchers have developed an antibody-based biosensor that can detect marine pollutants like oil much faster and more cheaply than current technologies. ... > full story

Giant hummingbirds: Running a little hot, but not on empty (May 9, 2011) -- Scientists have long thought that the giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) was just about as big as a hummingbird could get. They're nearly twice the size of the next largest species, and it was assumed that the energy needed for hovering flight would take the giants close to the upper metabolic limits for an animal that size. Not so, according to a new study. ... > full story

In a genetic research first, researchers turn zebrafish genes off and on (May 9, 2011) -- Researchers have designed a new tool for identifying protein function from genetic code. The team succeeded in switching individual genes off and on in zebrafish, then observing embryonic and juvenile development. ... > full story

What keeps an asexual fish species from taking over? (May 9, 2011) -- When a red-bellied dace and a finescale dace (freshwater fish in the carp and minnow family) mate with each other, they produce a hybrid with a very special ability: it can reproduce asexually. This asexual hybrid should have a tremendous evolutionary advantage over its sexually reproducing forefathers. So why doesn't the hybrid dace take over? ... > full story

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

Ethics of biofuels: Framework outlined (May 9, 2011) -- A new article outlines a framework for evaluating biofuels in order to address ethical issues surrounding the rapidly evolving race to develop biofuels. ... > 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