The EDGE: ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Sunday, December 11, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Sunday, December 11, 2011

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Underground heat: Landsat satellites track Yellowstone's geothermal activity (December 10, 2011) -- Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a vast, ancient, and still active volcano. Heat pours off its underground magma chamber, and is the fuel for Yellowstone's famous features -- more than 10,000 hot springs, mud pots, terraces and geysers, including Old Faithful. But expected development by energy companies right outside Yellowstone's borders have some fearing that Old Faithful could be cheated out of its energy. ... > full story

Lipid-modifying enzyme: New target for pan-viral therapeutics (December 10, 2011) -- Three different disease-causing viruses -- poliovirus, coxsackievirus, and hepatitis C -- rely on their unwilling host for the membrane platforms enriched in a specific lipid, phosphatidylinositol 4 phosphate (PI4P) on which they can replicate, researchers report. ... > full story

Pharmacists crucial in plan for terrorist chemical weapons (December 10, 2011) -- Terrorist attacks with chemical weapons are a real possibility, according to a new study. Thanks to their extensive knowledge of toxic agents, and how to treat those who have been exposed, pharmacists are an invaluable resource in the event of an actual or potential chemical weapons attack. ... > full story

2010 spike in Greenland ice loss lifted bedrock, GPS reveals (December 9, 2011) -- An unusually hot melting season in 2010 accelerated ice loss in southern Greenland by 100 billion tons – and large portions of the island's bedrock rose an additional quarter of an inch in response. That's the finding from a network of nearly 50 GPS stations planted along the Greenland coast to measure the bedrock's natural response to the ever-diminishing weight of ice above it. ... > full story

New disinfection technique could revolutionize hospital room cleaning (December 9, 2011) -- A Queen's University infectious disease expert has collaborated in the development of a disinfection system that may change the way hospital rooms all over the world are cleaned as well as stop bed bug outbreaks in hotels and apartments. ... > full story

How Salmonella forms evil twins to evade the body's defenses (December 9, 2011) -- To swim or not? The same biological control that determines which capability genetically identical Salmonella will have impacts the virulence of the food pathogen. Swimmers do better in the gut, but non-motile Salmonella avoid triggering killer cells. An unusual protein turns on or off the manufacture of swimming apparatus in each new bacterium. ... > full story

Researchers develop a way to monitor engineered blood vessels as they grow in patients (December 9, 2011) -- New research describes how by using magnetic resonance imaging and nanoparticle technology, scientists can monitor the growth of laboratory-engineered blood vessels after implantation in patients. This is an important step toward ensuring that blood vessels, and tissues engineered from a patient's own biological material, are taking hold and working as expected. This is the first method for monitoring the growth and progress of engineered tissues once they are implanted. ... > full story

Microscopic worms could hold the key to living life on Mars (December 9, 2011) -- The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that if humanity is to survive we will have up sticks and colonize space. But is the human body up to the challenge? Scientists believe that Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm which has biologically similarities to human beings, could help us understand how humans might cope with long-duration space exploration. ... > full story

Helping your fellow rat: Rodents show empathy-driven behavior, evidence suggests (December 9, 2011) -- The first evidence of empathy-driven helping behavior in rodents has been observed in laboratory rats that repeatedly free companions from a restraint, according to a new study by University of Chicago neuroscientists. The observation, published today in Science, places the origin of pro-social helping behavior earlier in the evolutionary tree than previously thought. ... > full story

Decisions, decisions: House-hunting honey bees work like complex brains (December 9, 2011) -- Researchers have found a signal, overlooked until now, that plays a role when honey bees split off from their mother colony and go scouting for a new home. Called the "stop signal," it is a very short buzz delivered by a scout bee while butting her head against a dancing honey bee, and is similar to signals that occur between neurons in the brains of monkeys making decisions. ... > full story

Premature babies harbor fewer, but more dangerous microbe types (December 9, 2011) -- One of the most comprehensive studies to date of the microbes that are found in extremely low-birthweight infants found that hard-to-treat Candida fungus is often present, as well as some harmful bacteria and parasites. ... > full story

New fluorescent imaging sorts microbiome in human mouth (December 9, 2011) -- New fluorescent labeling technology that distinguishes in a single image the population size and spatial distribution of 15 different taxa has uncovered new taxon pairings that indicate unsuspected cooperation -- and standoffishness -- between members of the microbe biofilm that covers teeth. ... > full story

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