The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Tuesday, July 19, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Tuesday, July 19, 2011

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2011 Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' could be biggest ever (July 19, 2011) -- Researchers have examined the scope and size of this year's "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico and have measured it currently to be about 3,300 square miles, or roughly the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but some researchers anticipate it becoming much larger. ... > full story

Cadmium selenide quantum dots degrade in soil, releasing their toxic guts, study finds (July 19, 2011) -- Quantum dots made from cadmium and selenium degrade in soil, unleashing toxic cadmium and selenium ions into their surroundings, a new study has found. ... > full story

Dry onion skin has a use (July 19, 2011) -- More than 500,000 tonnes of onion waste are thrown away in the European Union each year. However, scientists say this could have a use as food ingredients. The brown skin and external layers are rich in fiber and flavonoids, while the discarded bulbs contain sulphurous compounds and fructans. All of these substances are beneficial to health. ... > full story

Six new species of Eucalantica micro-moths discovered from the New World (July 19, 2011) -- The Eucalantica genus belongs to the relatively primitive micro-moth group, Yponomeutidae. Six new species have now been described. ... > full story

Monitoring cellular interactions at nano-scale in more detail than ever before (July 18, 2011) -- Using nanotechnology to engineer sensors onto the surface of cells, researchers have developed a platform technology for monitoring single-cell interactions in real-time. ... > full story

Origami in seed capsules: Lids on seed cases of the ice plant unfold when honeycomb structure swells inside them (July 18, 2011) -- A number of plants disperse their seeds in a rather artistic way: the seed capsules of the ice plant Delosperma nakurense, for instance, unfold lids over the seed compartments in the manner of a movable origami when they are moistened by rain. ... > full story

Gene migration helps predict movement of disease (July 18, 2011) -- Until recently, migration patterns, such as those adopted by birds all across the Amazonian rainforest, have not been thought to play an important role in the spreading of beneficial genes through a population. ... > full story

Down-under digestive microbes could help lower methane gas from livestock (July 18, 2011) -- The discovery that a bacterial species in the Australian Tammar wallaby gut is responsible for keeping the animal's methane emissions relatively low suggests a potential new strategy may exist to try to reduce methane emissions from livestock, according to a new study. ... > full story

Parasitism: Wasp uses ladybug as 'zombie bodyguard' (July 18, 2011) -- The parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae is no fool. It controls a ladybug, lays an egg in its abdomen and turns it into the bodyguard of its cocoon. This surprising host-parasite manipulation has been closely observed in new research. ... > full story

Study of soil effects from March 11 Japan earthquake could improve building design (July 18, 2011) -- Japan's March 11 Tohoku Earthquake is among the strongest ever recorded, and because it struck one of the world's most heavily instrumented seismic zones, this natural disaster is providing scientists with a treasure trove of data on rare magnitude 9 earthquakes. Among the new information is what is believed to be the first study of how a shock this powerful affects the rock and soil beneath the surface. ... > full story

Rising oceans: Too late to turn the tide? (July 18, 2011) -- Melting ice sheets contributed much more to rising sea levels than thermal expansion of warming ocean waters during the Last Interglacial Period, scientists have found. The results further suggest that ocean levels continue to rise long after warming of the atmosphere levels off. ... > full story

Grand Cayman blue iguana: Back from the brink of extinction (July 18, 2011) -- While thousands of species are threatened with extinction around the globe, efforts to save the Grand Cayman blue iguana represent a rarity in conservation: a chance for complete recovery, according to experts. ... > full story

Lab-grown meat would cut greenhouse gas emissions and save energy, research suggests (July 18, 2011) -- Meat grown using tissue engineering techniques, so-called 'cultured meat', would generate up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally produced meat, according to a new study. ... > full story

Natural chemical found in grapes may protect against Alzheimer's disease (July 18, 2011) -- Researchers have found that grape seed polyphenols -- a natural antioxidant -- may help prevent the development or delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease. ... > full story

When minor planets Ceres and Vesta rock Earth into chaos (July 18, 2011) -- A new study examines the orbital evolution of minor planets Ceres and Vesta, a few days before the flyby of Vesta by the Dawn spacecraft. A team of astronomers found that close encounters among these bodies lead to strong chaotic behavior of their orbits, as well as of Earth's eccentricity. This means, in particular, that Earth's past orbit cannot be reconstructed beyond 60 million years. ... > full story

Non-Africans are part Neanderthal, genetic research shows (July 18, 2011) -- Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, new research shows. ... > full story

Massive enzyme footballs control sugar metabolism (July 18, 2011) -- Neutron scattering has revealed how massive enzyme complexes inside cells might determine whether sugar is burnt for energy or stored as fat. The findings promise to improve understanding of diabetes and a range of metabolic diseases. Scientists using neutron scattering have shown how pyruvate dehydrogenase complexes (PDCs) could control the rate of sugar metabolism by actively changing their own composition. ... > full story

What keeps Earth cooking? (July 18, 2011) -- From core to surface, a constant flow of trillions of watts of heat enables Earth's magnetic field, spreads the sea floors, and keeps continents on the move. Much of it comes from the radioactive decay of elements in the crust and mantle, but how much? By measuring neutrinos from deep in the Earth, scientists have made the most precise estimate yet of radiogenic heat. ... > full story

Deep below the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: New molecular model better explains diffusion of spill under water (July 18, 2011) -- For the first time, scientists gathered oil and gas directly as it escaped from a deep ocean wellhead -- that of the damaged Deepwater Horizon oil rig. What they found allows a better understanding of how pollution is partitioned and transported in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and permits superior estimation of the environmental impact of escaping oil, allowing for a more precise evaluation of previously estimated repercussions on seafloor life in the future. ... > full story

Equinome launches elite performance test for thoroughbred horses (July 18, 2011) -- An equine genomics company has launched a new genetic test that can identify individual thoroughbred horses with the greatest genetic potential for racecourse success. Using the results of the Equinome Elite Performance Test, thoroughbred horse owners and breeders can now increase their chances of successfully identifying those foals and yearlings most likely to perform at the elite level. ... > full story

Efficiency -- not cost -- drives value of hospital environmental services, study finds (July 18, 2011) -- The amount of money that hospitals spend on environmental services, such as cleaning and maintenance service is not as important in influencing patient satisfaction scores as the way the money is spent, according to researchers. ... > full story

Early talking doll recording discovered (July 17, 2011) -- Scientists recently recovered sound from an artifact that historians believe is the earliest surviving talking doll record. The artifact is a ring-shaped cylinder phonograph record made of solid metal, preserved by the National Park Service at Thomas Edison National Historical Park. Phonograph inventor Thomas Edison made the record during the fall or winter of 1888 in West Orange, New Jersey. ... > full story

Lymphoma drug shrinks dog tumors, could lead to human treatment (July 17, 2011) -- There are many kinds of cancers of the immune system, but one, activated B-cell diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, is particularly common and pernicious. Researchers have now shown that dogs that develop this disease spontaneously share the same aberrant activation of a critical intracellular pathway with humans. They also found that a drug designed to disrupt this pathway helps kill tumor cells in the dogs' lymph nodes. ... > full story

Fossil forensics reveals how wasps populated rotting dinosaur eggs (July 16, 2011) -- Exceptionally preserved fossils of insect cocoons have allowed researchers in Argentina to describe how wasps played an important role in food webs devoted to consuming rotting dinosaur eggs. ... > full story

NASA's Aura satellite measures pollution 'Butterfly' from fires in Central Africa (July 16, 2011) -- Fires raging in central Africa are generating a high amount of pollution that is showing up in data from NASA's Aura Satellite, with the ominous shape of a dark red butterfly in the skies over southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Angola. ... > full story

High social rank comes at a price, wild baboon study finds (July 15, 2011) -- Being at the very top of a social hierarchy may be more costly than previously thought, according to a new study of wild baboons. The findings have implications in the study of social hierarchies and of the impact of social dominance on health and well-being, a subject of interest among researchers who study human and other animal populations. ... > full story

The genome guardian's dimmer switch: Regulating p53 is a matter of life or death (July 15, 2011) -- Scientists have found clues to the functioning of an important damage response protein in cells. The protein, p53, can cause cells to stop dividing or even to commit suicide when they show signs of DNA damage, and it is responsible for much of the tissue destruction that follows exposure to ionizing radiation or DNA-damaging drugs such as the ones commonly used for cancer therapy. ... > full story

Strong El Niño could bring increased sea levels, storm surges to US East Coast (July 15, 2011) -- Coastal communities along the US East Coast may be at risk to higher sea levels accompanied by more destructive storm surges in future El Niño years, according to a new study. The study was prompted by an unusual number of destructive storm surges along the East Coast during the 2009-2010 El Niño winter. ... > full story

Dramatic climate swings likely as world warms: Ancient El Niño clue to future floods (July 15, 2011) -- Dramatic climate swings behind both last year's Pakistan flooding and this year's Queensland floods in Australia are likely to continue as the world gets warmer, scientists predict. Researchers have discovered that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the sloshing of the warmest waters on the planet from the West Pacific towards the East Pacific every 2-7 years, continued during Earth's last great warm period, the Pliocene. Their results suggest that swings between the two climatic extremes, known as El Niño and La Niña, may even have occurred more frequently in the warmer past and may increase in frequency in the future. ... > full story

Novel compound selectively kills cancer cells by blocking their response to oxidative stress (July 15, 2011) -- Scientists have discovered a novel compound that selectively kills cancer cells by blocking their response to oxidative stress, with an effectiveness that surpassed a chemotherapy drug currently used to treat breast cancer. Their findings are based on experiments in cell culture and in mice. ... > full story

Virtual natural environments and benefits to health (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have compared the benefits of interaction with actual and virtual natural environments and concluded that the development of accurate simulations are likely to be beneficial to those who cannot interact with nature because of infirmity or other limitations: but virtual worlds are not a substitute for the real thing. ... > full story

Separated for 20 million years: Blind beetle from Bulgarian caves clarifies questions (July 15, 2011) -- One of the smallest ever cave-dwelling ground beetles has recently been discovered in two caves in the Rhodopi Mountains, Bulgaria, and described under the name Paralovricia beroni. The beetle is completely blind and is only 1.8-2.2 mm long. ... > full story

Swarms of locusts use social networking to communicate (July 15, 2011) -- Social studies of Facebook and Twitter have been adapted to gain a greater understanding of the swarming behavior of locusts. The enormous success of social networking sites has vividly illustrated the importance of networking for humans; however for some animals, keeping informed about others of their kind is even more important. ... > full story

Link found between increased crops and deforestation in Amazon, but issue not so cut and dry (July 15, 2011) -- Geographers are out to prove what environmental scientists have suspected for years: Increasing the production of soybean and biofuel crops in Brazil increases deforestation in the Amazon. Although this cause-and-effect finding seems fairly straightforward, the issue of deforestation in the Amazon is more complex and more devastating than previously believed. ... > full story

First adenovirus to jump between monkeys and humans confirmed (July 15, 2011) -- A novel virus that spread through a California monkey colony in late 2009 also infected a human researcher and a family member, researchers have found -- the first known example of an adenovirus "jumping" from one species to another and remaining contagious after the jump. ... > full story

Protein switch controls how stem cells turn into new heart tissue (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have identified a protein that can direct stem cells to become either new heart muscle or blood vessels. The research, which was carried out in zebrafish, offers insight into how it might be possible one day to generate tissues to repair the human heart after damage inflicted by a heart attack. ... > full story

Wood products part of winning carbon-emissions equation, researchers say (July 15, 2011) -- The amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere by forests could be quadrupled in 100 years by harvesting regularly and using the wood in place of steel and concrete that devour fossil fuels during manufacturing, producing carbon dioxide, researchers say in a new study. ... > full story

Editing the genome: Scientists unveil new tools for rewriting the code of life (July 15, 2011) -- Researchers have unveiled genome-engineering technologies capable of fundamentally re-engineering genomes from the nucleotide to the megabase scale. Treating the chromosome as both an editable and an evolvable template, the researchers have demonstrated methods to rewrite a cell's genome through powerful new tools for biotechnology, energy and agriculture. ... > full story

Fast-shrinking Greenland glacier experienced rapid growth during cooler times (July 15, 2011) -- Large, marine-calving glaciers have the ability not only to shrink rapidly in response to global warming, but to grow at a remarkable pace during periods of global cooling, according to geologists working in Greenland. ... > full story

Brainy lizards pass test for birds (July 15, 2011) -- Tropical lizards may be slow. But they aren't dumb. They can do problem-solving tasks just as well as birds and mammals, a new study shows. A new experiment tested Puerto Rican anoles on several cognitive tasks and found they can learn and remember to solve a problem they've never faced before. ... > full story

'Dry rot' genome offers lessons for biofuel pretreatment processes: Breaking down cellulose without blasting lignin (July 15, 2011) -- Dry rot due to the fungus Serpula lacrymans causes millions of dollars worth of damage to homes and buildings around the world. Now a comparative analysis involving Serpula lacrymans, the second brown rot fungus to have its genome sequenced, sheds light on the mechanism by which Serpula breaks down cellulose and the role of brown rot fungi in the global carbon cycle. ... > full story

Enzymes for cell wall synthesis conserved across species barriers (July 14, 2011) -- Plants have neither supportive bone tissue nor muscles, and yet they can form rigid structures like stalks and even tree trunks. This is due to the fact that plant cells are enveloped by a stable cell wall. The main component of the plant cell wall is cellulose, which represents almost 50 percent of the total cell wall material and, at one billion tons per year, is the most frequently produced macromolecule in nature. Very little is known about the way in which cellulose is produced, and the knowledge that is available has mainly been obtained from the model plant thale cress which, although easy to study, is of no economic significance. Researchers have now succeeded in showing that knowledge obtained in thale cress can be applied to other plant species. ... > full story

Loss of large predators has caused widespread disruption of ecosystems (July 14, 2011) -- The decline of large predators and other "apex consumers" at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems all over the planet, according to a review of recent findings conducted by an international team of scientists. The study looked at a wide range of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems and concluded that "the loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind's most pervasive influence on the natural world." ... > full story

Cancer gene therapy from camels (July 14, 2011) -- Nanobodies produced from camel blood have unique properties, which can be used in future drug development. New research confirms that camel blood can help scientists in the fight against cancer. ... > full story

Life in 'inner space': Joint mission to film marine life three kilometers down (July 14, 2011) -- Undiscovered ‘alien’ life forms that thrive without sunlight in temperatures approaching boiling point may soon come to light, thanks to a groundbreaking Irish-led marine research mission aboard the national research vessel RV Celtic Explorer. In collaboration with scientists from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, the researchers are due to sail from Galway for the mid-Atlantic Ridge July 13. The voyage is being filmed for the National Geographic Channel for inclusion in an upcoming series about the ocean. ... > full story

Print your own teeth: Rapid prototyping comes to dentistry (July 14, 2011) -- What if, instead of waiting days or weeks for a cast to be produced and prosthetic dental implants, false teeth and replacement crowns to be made, your dentist could quickly scan your jaw and "print" your new teeth using a rapid prototyping machine known as a 3-D printer? ... > full story

Brain network connections revealed (July 14, 2011) -- New research has revealed that the brain is characterized by a highly consistent, weighted network among the functional areas of the cortex, which are responsible for such functions as vision, hearing, touch, movement control and complex associations. The study in primates has revealed that such cortical networks and their properties are reproducible from individual to individual. ... > full story

Tsunami airglow signature could lead to early detection system (July 14, 2011) -- Researchers have recorded an airglow signature in the upper atmosphere produced by a tsunami using a camera system based in Maui, Hawaii. Coupling of the ocean surface to the upper atmosphere enables tsunami imaging. The first ionospheric signature precedes the modeled ocean tsunami by one hour. ... > full story