ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Saturday, June 4, 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Saturday, June 4, 2011

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For stressed bees, the glass is half empty (June 3, 2011) -- When people are depressed or anxious, they are much more likely to see their glass as half empty than half full. In tough times, evidence of that same pessimistic outlook can be seen in dogs, rats, and birds. Now, researchers show that bees, too, share those very same hallmarks of negative emotion. ... > full story

New strain of MRSA discovered: Antibiotic resistant bacteria found in both humans and dairy cows (June 3, 2011) -- Scientists have identified a new strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which occurs both in human and dairy cow populations. The study identified the new strain in milk from dairy cows while researching mastitis (a bacterial infection which occurs in the cows' udders). ... > full story

River mystery solved: Scientists discover how 'Didymo' algae bloom in pristine waters with few nutrients (June 3, 2011) -- The pristine state of unpolluted waterways may be their downfall, according to new research. A species of freshwater algae that lives in streams and rivers, called Didymo for Didymosphenia geminata, is able to colonize and dominate the bottoms of some of the world's cleanest waterways -- precisely because they are so clear. Didymo does so with a little help from its friends -- in this case, bacteria -- which allow it to make use of nutrients like phosphorus. ... > full story

Mass extinction victim survives: Snail long thought extinct isn't (June 3, 2011) -- Think "mass extinction" and you probably envision dinosaurs dropping dead in the long-ago past or exotic tropical creatures being wiped out when their rainforest habitats are decimated. But a major mass extinction took place in North America in the first half of the 20th century, when 47 species of mollusk disappeared after the watershed in which they lived was dammed. Now, a population of one of those species -- a freshwater limpet last seen more than 60 years ago and presumed extinct -- has been found in a tributary of the heavily dammed Coosa River in Alabama's Mobile River Basin. ... > full story

New NASA salt mapper to spice up climate forecasts (June 3, 2011) -- Salt is essential to human life. Most people don't know, however, that salt -- in a form nearly the same as the simple table variety -- is just as essential to Earth's ocean, serving as a critical driver of key ocean processes. While ancient Greek soothsayers believed they could foretell the future by reading the patterns in sprinkled salt, today's scientists have learned that they can indeed harness this invaluable mineral to foresee the future -- of Earth's climate. ... > full story

Autism may have had advantages in humans' hunter-gatherer past, researcher believes (June 3, 2011) -- Though people with autism face many challenges because of their condition, they may have been capable hunter-gatherers in prehistoric times, according to a new paper. ... > full story

Tsunami sensor detects mysterious background signal in Panama (June 3, 2011) -- An unusual signal detected by the seismic monitoring station at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's research facility on Barro Colorado Island results from waves in Lake Gatun, the reservoir that forms the Panama Canal channel, scientists report. Understanding seismic background signals leads to improved earthquake and tsunami detection in the Caribbean region where 100 tsunamis have been reported in the past 500 years. ... > full story

Study maps global 'hotspots' of climate-induced food insecurity (June 3, 2011) -- A new study has matched future climate change "hotspots" with regions already suffering chronic food problems to identify highly vulnerable populations, chiefly in Africa and South Asia, but potentially in China and Latin America as well, where in fewer than 40 years, the prospect of shorter, hotter or drier growing seasons could imperil hundreds of millions of already impoverished people. ... > full story

Mechanism discovered for health benefit of green tea, new approach to autoimmune disease (June 3, 2011) -- One of the beneficial compounds found in green tea has a powerful ability to increase the number of "regulatory T cells" that play a key role in immune function and suppression of autoimmune disease, according to new research. This may be one of the underlying mechanisms for the health benefits of green tea. ... > full story

Non-independent mutations present new path to evolutionary success (June 3, 2011) -- Mutations of DNA that lead to one base being replaced by another don't have to happen as single, independent events in humans and other eukaryotes, a group of biologists has learned after surveying several creatures' genomes. ... > full story

Researchers build largest biochemical circuit out of small synthetic DNA molecules (June 3, 2011) -- In many ways, life is like a computer. An organism's genome is the software that tells the cellular and molecular machinery -- the hardware -- what to do. But instead of electronic circuitry, life relies on biochemical circuitry -- complex networks of reactions and pathways that enable organisms to function. Now, researchers have built the most complex biochemical circuit ever created from scratch. ... > full story

Birds dumping eggs on the neighbors (June 3, 2011) -- A huge study of over 69,000 nests around the west coast of Scotland has revealed for the first time the full extent of egg dumping by seabirds. The findings show that cuckoos aren't the only birds to lay eggs in other birds' nests, and may give an insight into how so-called brood parasitism evolved. ... > full story