ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Tuesday, March 13, 2012

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Tuesday, March 13, 2012

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Mathematical methods predicts movement of oil and ash following environmental disasters (March 12, 2012) -- For those involved in managing the fallout from environmental disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it is essential to have tools that predict how the oil will move, so that they make the best possible use of resources to control the spill. Such tools now appear to be within reach. ... > full story

How the human body controls viruses thought to cause a variety of cancers (March 12, 2012) -- New research addresses how the human body controls gamma-herpesviruses, a class of viruses thought to cause a variety of cancers. ... > full story

Extensive taste loss found in mammals: Feeding preferences shaped by taste receptors (March 12, 2012) -- Scientists report frequent loss of sweet taste in mammalian species that are exclusive meat eaters. Further, two sea-dwelling mammals that swallow their food whole have extensive taste loss. Many sweet-blind species eat only meat, demonstrating that a liking for sweets is frequently lost during the evolution of diet specialization. ... > full story

First consumption of abundant life form, Archaea, discovered (March 12, 2012) -- Scientists have documented for the first time that animals can and do consume Archaea – a type of single-celled microorganism thought to be among the most abundant life forms on Earth. Archaea that consume the greenhouse gas methane were in turn eaten by worms living at deep-sea cold seeps off Costa Rica and the West Coast of the United States. ... > full story

Medical imaging technology used to better understand fish senses (March 12, 2012) -- A marine biologist gets an occasional strange look when she brings fish to Rhode Island Hospital. While the facility's microCT scanner is typically used to study bone density and diseases like osteoporosis, it is also providing new insights into the skull structure and sensory systems of fish. ... > full story

Epstein Barr-like virus infects and may cause cancer in dogs (March 12, 2012) -- Best known for causing mononucleosis, or "the kissing disease," the Epstein Barr virus has also been implicated in more serious conditions, including Hodgkin's, non-Hodgkin's and Burkitt's lymphomas. Now a team of researchers has the first evidence that an Epstein Barr-like virus can infect and may also be responsible for causing lymphomas in man's best friend. ... > full story

Statue, chapels and animal mummies found in Egypt (March 12, 2012) -- A wooden statue of a king, a private offering chapel, a monumental building and remains of over 80 animal mummies found in Abydos, Egypt, reveal intriguing information about ritual activity associated with the great gods. ... > full story

Ancestor of biggest dinosaurs: First dinosaur discovered in Spain dates back 15 million years earlier than thought (March 12, 2012) -- The dinosaur Aragosaurus ischiaticus, discovered 25 years ago in Teruel, is from 15 million years earlier than originally thought. Its new dating means that it was the ancestor of the Titanosauriforms, which includes the biggest dinosaurs. ... > full story

Nitrous oxide emissions are no laughing matter (March 12, 2012) -- While many are acquainted with the problems caused by CO­­2 emissions, the harmful effects of the release of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere have been far less well known. Only in recent years has the international scientific community begun to understand the scope of the threat posed by N­­2O emissions.   ... > full story

California's snow not disappearing despite drought (March 12, 2012) -- During some winters a significant amount of snow falls on parts of California. During other winters — like this one (so far) — there is much less snow. But more than 130 years of snow data show that over time snowfall in California is neither increasing nor decreasing. ... > full story

Sending out an SOS: How telomeres incriminate cells that can't divide (March 12, 2012) -- The well-being of living cells requires specialized squads of proteins that maintain order. Degraders chew up worn-out proteins, recyclers wrap up damaged organelles, and-most importantly-DNA repair crews restitch anything that resembles a broken chromosome. If repair is impossible, the crew foreman calls in executioners to annihilate a cell. As unsavory as this last bunch sounds, failure to summon them is one aspect of what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell. ... > full story

Greenland ice sheet may melt completely with 1.6 degrees of global warming (March 12, 2012) -- The Greenland ice sheet is likely to be more vulnerable to global warming than previously thought. The temperature threshold for melting the ice sheet completely is in the range of 0.8 to 3.2 degrees Celsius of global warming, with a best estimate of 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial levels, shows a new study. ... > full story

World breakthrough on salt-tolerant wheat (March 11, 2012) -- A team of Australian scientists has bred salt tolerance into a variety of durum wheat that shows improved grain yield by 25% on salty soils. ... > full story

Global warming threat to coral reefs: Can some species adapt? (March 10, 2012) -- Coral reefs are among the ecosystems most severely threatened by global warming, but hopeful new evidence has emerged that some coral species may be able to adapt to warmer oceans. Researchers now report on coral populations which unexpectedly survived a massive bleaching event in 2010 in Southeast Asian waters and had previously experienced severe bleaching during an event in 1998. ... > full story

Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Using satellite technology to evaluate the effects of ecotourism on tiger sharks (March 9, 2012) -- Ecotourism activities that use food to attract and concentrate wildlife for viewing have become a controversial topic in ecological studies. This debate is best exemplified by the shark dive tourism industry, a highly lucrative and booming global market. Use of chum or food to attract big sharks to areas where divers can view the dwindling populations of these animals has generated significant criticism because of the potential for ecological and behavioral impacts to the species. However, the debate has been largely rhetorical due to a lack of sufficient data to make any conclusions either way. ... > full story

Meteorites reveal another way to make life's components (March 9, 2012) -- Creating some of life's building blocks in space may be a bit like making a sandwich -- you can make them cold or hot, according to new NASA research. This evidence that there is more than one way to make crucial components of life increases the likelihood that life emerged elsewhere in the Universe, according to the research team, and gives support to the theory that a "kit" of ready-made parts created in space and delivered to Earth by impacts from meteorites and comets assisted the origin of life. ... > full story

Environmentally friendly cleaning and washing (March 9, 2012) -- More and more everyday products are based on renewable resources, with household cleaners now containing active cleaning substances made from plant oils and sugar. These fat and dirt removers are especially environmentally friendly and effective when produced using biotechnology, with the aid of fungi and bacteria. ... > full story

Mid-Atlantic suburbs in U.S. can expect an early spring thanks to the heat of the big city (March 9, 2012) -- If you've been thinking our world is more green than frozen these days, you're right. A recent study has found that spring is in arriving earlier -- and autumn later -- in the suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, DC. The reason? The urban landscape traps heat in the summer and holds it throughout the winter, triggering leaves to turn green earlier in the spring and to stay green later into autumn. The result is an extended growing season. ... > full story

Orientation of ants: Every cue counts (March 9, 2012) -- Foraging desert ants always find their way back to the nest, even when it is only marked by a magnetic cue, vibration, or carbon dioxide. ... > full story

Mapping the Moho with GOCE (March 9, 2012) -- The first global high-resolution map of the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle – the Moho – has been produced based on data from ESA’s GOCE gravity satellite. Understanding the Moho will offer new clues into the dynamics of Earth’s interior. Earth’s crust is the outermost solid shell of our planet. Even though it makes up less than 1% of the volume of the planet, the crust is exceptionally important not just because we live on it, but because is the place where all our geological resources like natural gas, oil and minerals come from. ... > full story

A test of the senses in the search for a 'shoal mate' (March 8, 2012) -- Young coral reef fish use sounds, smells and visual cues to find their nursery grounds, according to new research. By testing how young French grunts (a common fish in Curaçao and throughout the Caribbean) responded to local sounds, smells and visual cues, the researchers have unlocked, for the first time, the mystery of how centimeter-long juvenile fish can navigate from the high seas to find their shoal mates in amongst the roots of mangrove trees or blades of seagrass. ... > full story

Scientists discover effects of PD-1 blockade on ART therapy in SIV-infected monkeys (March 8, 2012) -- Scientists have discovered that blocking PD-1, an immune molecule that inhibits the immune response to viral infections, can have a significant effect on HIV-like illness in non-human primates. ... > full story

Deeper view of HIV reveals impact of early mutations (March 8, 2012) -- Mutations in HIV that develop during the first few weeks of infection may play a critical role in undermining a successful early immune response, a finding that reveals the importance of vaccines targeting regions of the virus that are less likely to mutate. ... > full story

Drug helps purge hidden HIV (March 8, 2012) -- Researchers have successfully flushed latent HIV infection from hiding, with a drug used to treat certain types of lymphoma. ... > full story

Counting reef sharks with cameras: 'Chum cam' underwater video survey shows that reef sharks thrive in marine reserves (March 8, 2012) -- Scientists have used video cameras to count Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) inside and outside marine reserves on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea. Using survey data collected from 200 baited remote underwater video cameras, nicknamed "chum cams," the scientists compared the relative abundance of these reef sharks in two marine reserves with those in two areas where fishing is allowed, and demonstrated that the sharks were more abundant in the reserves. ... > full story

Eating wild: Foraging safely in a modern world (March 8, 2012) -- In an expanding “foodie” culture, people go to great lengths to get the best ingredients, seek out the most aesthetic desserts, and buy natural and organic. Less noted, though, is the movement of "foragers": people who “eat wild” on a regular basis, supplemented by naturally growing, edible plants for which they search in their local communities, whether urban or rural. ... > full story

Multiple species of seacows once coexisted (March 8, 2012) -- Sirenians, or seacows, are a group of marine mammals that include manatees and dugongs; Today, only one species of seacow is found in each world region. Scientists have discovered that this was not always the case. According to the fossil record of these marine mammals, which dates back 50 million years ago, it was more common to find three, or possibly more, different species of seacows living together at one time. ... > full story

Insect DNA offers tiny clues about animals' changing habitats (March 8, 2012) -- The long-term impact of climate change on natural communities of wild animals could be better understood thanks to a new study. ... > full story

Clock gene helps plants prepare for spring flowering, study shows (March 8, 2012) -- Scientists have made fresh discoveries about the processes that govern plants' internal body clocks and help them adjust to changing seasons, triggering the arrival of flowers in spring. ... > full story

Insects have 'personalities' too, research on novelty-seeking honey bees indicates (March 8, 2012) -- Thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates, new research suggests. Some honey bees, too, are more likely than others to seek adventure. The brains of these novelty-seeking bees exhibit distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known to be associated with thrill-seeking in humans, researchers report. ... > full story

Iridescent, feathered dinosaur offers fresh evidence that feathers evolved to attract mates (March 8, 2012) -- Researchers have revealed that the small, feathered dinosaur Microraptor had a glossy iridescent sheen like a modern crow and that its tail was narrow and adorned with a pair of streamer feathers, suggesting feathers originally evolved for display, rather than flight. The new fossil is the earliest record of iridescent color in feathers. ... > full story

Polymer scientists and physicists, inspired by curly leaves, develop new technique for shaping thin gel sheets (March 8, 2012) -- Inspired by nature's ability to shape a petal, and building on simple techniques used in photolithography and printing, researchers have developed a new tool for manufacturing three-dimensional shapes easily and cheaply, to aid advances in biomedicine, robotics and tunable micro-optics. Researchers have just described their new method of halftone gel lithography for photo-patterning polymer gel sheets. ... > full story

Powerful tool to measure metabolites in living cells (March 8, 2012) -- By engineering cells to express a modified RNA called "Spinach," researchers have imaged small-molecule metabolites in living cells and observed how their levels change over time. Metabolites are the products of individual cell metabolism. The ability to measure their rate of production could be used to recognize a cell gone metabolically awry, as in cancer, or identify the drug that can restore the cell's metabolites to normal. ... > full story

Biologists locate brain's processing point for acoustic signals essential to human communication (March 8, 2012) -- In both animals and humans, vocal signals used for communication contain a wide array of different sounds that are determined by the vibrational frequencies of vocal cords. Knowing how the brain sorts out these different frequencies -- which are called frequency-modulated sweeps—is believed to be essential to understanding many hearing-related behaviors, like speech. Now, a pair of biologists has identified how and where the brain processes this type of sound signal. ... > full story

Protein folding: Understanding the dance of the chaperones (March 8, 2012) -- Proteins are the molecular building blocks and machinery of cells and involved in practically all biological processes. To fulfill their tasks, they need to be folded into a complicated three-dimensional structure. Scientists have now analyzed one of the key players of this folding process: the molecular chaperone DnaK. ... > full story

Oldest organism with skeleton discovered in Australia (March 8, 2012) -- Paleontologists have discovered the oldest animal with a skeleton. Called Coronacollina acula, the organism is between 560 million and 550 million years old. The finding provides insight into the evolution of life on the planet, why animals go extinct, and how organisms respond to environmental changes. The discovery also can help scientists recognize life elsewhere in the universe. Coronacollina acula has a number of hard parts -- structural supports -- essentially holding it up. ... > full story

BP oil spill hurt marshes, but recovery possible, experts say (March 8, 2012) -- A new study shows that arthropods living in coastal salt marshes affected by BP oil spill were damaged but they were able to recover if their host plants remained healthy. ... > full story

How a bacterial pathogen breaks down barriers to enter and infect cells (March 8, 2012) -- Scientists have found for the first time that a bacterial pathogen can literally mow down protective molecules, known as mucins, on mucus membranes to enter and infect a part of the body. ... > full story

Archaeologists unearth slave burial ground on the island of St. Helena (March 8, 2012) -- Archaeologists have unearthed a unique slave burial ground on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. The excavation, which took place in advance of construction of a new airport on the island, has revealed dramatic insights into the victims of the Atlantic slave trade during the notorious Middle Passage. ... > full story

Scientists detect seismic signals from tornado (March 8, 2012) -- A geophysical experiment detected unusual seismic signals associated with tornadoes that recently struck regions across the Midwest -- information that may have value for meteorologists studying the atmospheric activity that precedes tornado disasters. ... > full story

Large solar flares generate geomagnetic storm (March 8, 2012) -- A pair of unusually large solar flares early March 7, 2012 generated a Coronal Mass Ejection that was expected to reach Earth around mid-day March 8. It will likely cause at least a strong geomagnetic storm that could affect satellites in space and trigger auroral displays. The effects at ground level are expected to be limited, but there is a good chance for some excellent auroral displays in the north. ... > full story

Wallflower or daredevil: Personality of male primates changes throughout life (March 8, 2012) -- One individual is wild and audacious, the other one shy and cautious. It is widely unknown why there are major differences in personality even within a species. Scientists have now studied how male mouse lemurs are shy when young and grow more audacious as they age. Females remain about the same throughout their lifecycle. ... > full story

Petunia points the way to better harvests: Understanding plants' relationships with helpful soil fungi (March 8, 2012) -- Most plants live in symbiosis with soil fungi and are supplied with water and nutrients as a result. Based on the petunia, plant biologists have now discovered that a special transport protein is required to establish this symbiotic relationship. The targeted control of this protein could lead to greater harvests. ... > full story

The Darwin-Wallace mystery solved: Darwin vindicated from accusations of deceit (March 8, 2012) -- A new study traced historical shipping records and vindicated Darwin from accusations of deceit. For the past four decades, Charles Darwin had been accused of keeping the essay of fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace for a fortnight, thereby enabling him to revise elements of his theory of evolution, before jointly announcing the theory of evolution by natural selection in July 1858. ... > full story

Identifying ancient droughts in China (March 8, 2012) -- Drought events are largely unknown in Earth's history, because reconstruction of ancient hydrological conditions remains difficult due to lack of proxy. New research uses a microbial lipid proxy of highly alkaline conditions to identify enhanced aridity in Miocene sediments on the Tibetan Plateau. This enhanced aridity is associated with significant uplift of the Tibetan Plateau nine million years ago. ... > full story

HIV/AIDS vaccine shows long-term protection against multiple exposures in non-human primates (March 7, 2012) -- Scientists have developed a vaccine that has protected nonhuman primates against multiple exposures to simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) given in three clusters over more than three years. SIV is the nonhuman primate version of HIV. ... > full story

Reducing the urban heat island effect: Bright is the new black as New York roofs go cool (March 7, 2012) -- On the hottest day of the New York City summer in 2011, a white roof covering was measured at 42 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the traditional black roof it was being compared to, according to a new study that details the first scientific results from the city's unprecedented effort to brighten rooftops and reduce its "urban heat island" effect. ... > full story

NASA sees second biggest flare of the solar cycle (March 7, 2012) -- The leading edge of the first of two major coronal mass ejections will reach Earth at about 1:25 AM EST on the morning of March 8 (plus or minus 7 hours). Such a CME could result in a severe geomagnetic storm, causing aurora at low latitudes, with possible disruption to high frequency radio communication, global positioning systems (GPS), and power grids. ... > full story