ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Friday, July 29, 2011 ~ Technology

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Friday, July 29, 2011

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Aging brains are different in humans and chimpanzees; Evolution of human longevity led to both a large brain and brain shrinkage (July 29, 2011) -- Brains shrink in humans, potentially causing a number of health problems and mental illnesses as people age, but do they shrink to the same extent in the closest living relatives to humans -- the chimpanzees? ... > full story

Emulating nature for better engineering (July 29, 2011) -- Researchers in the UK describe a novel approach to making porous materials, solid foams, more like their counterparts in the natural world, including bone and wood. ... > full story

Common Korean surname tells tale of nationhood (July 29, 2011) -- The most common surname in Korea -- Kim -- has been traced back 1,500 years using a statistical model, providing evidence of a strong, stable culture that has remained intact to this day. ... > full story

Sea level rise less from Greenland, more from Antarctica, than expected during last interglacial (July 29, 2011) -- New research results are revealing surprising patterns of melting during the last interglacial period that suggest that Greenland's ice may be more stable -- and Antarctica's less stable -- than many thought. ... > full story

Ongoing global biodiversity loss unstoppable with protected areas alone (July 29, 2011) -- Continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as "protected areas" is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, according to a new comprehensive assessment. ... > full story

World population to surpass 7 billion in 2011; Explosive population growth means challenges for developing nations (July 28, 2011) -- Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added -- nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations also project that the population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100. ... > full story

Unexpected discovery on hormone secretion (July 28, 2011) -- Geneticists have made an unexpected discovery on hormone secretion. Contrary to common belief, the researchers found that pituitary cells are organized in structured networks. ... > full story

Geographic analysis offers new insight into coral disease spread (July 28, 2011) -- In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral responsible for maintaining major marine habitats and providing a natural barrier against hurricanes in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin. ... > full story

Toucans wearing GPS backpacks help Smithsonian scientists study seed dispersal (July 28, 2011) -- Nutmeg-loving toucans wearing GPS transmitters recently helped scientists in Panama address an age-old problem in plant ecology: accurately estimating seed dispersal. The tracking data revealed what scientists have long suspected, that toucans are excellent seed dispersers, particularly in the morning; also, for the first time, the data enabled researchers to create a map of the relative patterns and distances that toucans distribute the seeds of a nutmeg tree. ... > full story

Researchers tap yeasts as source of 'green' surfactants (July 28, 2011) -- Surfactants, which are wetting agents that lower a liquid's surface tension, have a long list of uses, from detergents and cosmetics to paints and pesticides. Most surfactants are petroleum-based. But one group of scientists has now focused its attention on sophorolipids, surfactant-like molecules produced by naturally occurring yeasts. ... > full story

Reservoirs of ancient lava shaped Earth (July 28, 2011) -- Geological history has periodically featured giant lava eruptions that coat large swaths of land or ocean floor with basaltic lava, which hardens into rock formations called flood basalt. New research proposes that the remnants of six of the largest volcanic events of the past 250 million years contain traces of the ancient Earth's primitive mantle -- which existed before the largely differentiated mantle of today -- offering clues to the geochemical history of the planet. ... > full story

Organized crime is wiping out wildlife, report finds (July 28, 2011) -- An immense and increasingly sophisticated illegal trade in wildlife parts conducted by organized crime, coupled with antiquated enforcement methods, are decimating the world's most beloved species including rhinos, tigers and elephants on a scale never before seen. ... > full story

Researchers look to dogs to better understand intricacies of bone cancer (July 28, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a gene pattern that distinguishes the more severe form of bone cancer from a less aggressive form in dogs. ... > full story

Artificial cilia open new nanotech possibilties; One step closer to learning how cilia movement is coordinated (July 28, 2011) -- Cilia -- tiny hair-like structures that perform feats such as clearing microscopic debris from the lungs and determining the correct location of organs during development -- move in mysterious ways. Researchers have created artificial cilia-like structures that offers a new approach for cilia study. ... > full story

NASA's WISE finds Earth's first 'trojan' asteroid (July 28, 2011) -- Astronomers studying observations taken by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission have discovered the first known "Trojan" asteroid orbiting the sun along with Earth. ... > full story

German E. Coli code cracked: Rapid, high-tech study of ongoing epidemic creates new paradigm for outbreak (July 28, 2011) -- A team of researchers has unraveled the genomic code of the E. coli bacterium that caused a deadly outbreak in Germany that began in May 2011. The paper describes how researchers worked together to use cutting edge technology to sequence and analyze the genomics of E. coli samples from the outbreak in a matter of days. ... > full story

Bacterial spite: When kamikaze-like behavior is a good strategy (July 28, 2011) -- Spite evolves in close quarters, according to new research. Scientists studied a bacterial species in which individuals sometimes explode, releasing a toxin into the environment that is deadly to competing bacteria. This kamikaze-like behavior is a bit of an evolutionary mystery. How could a behavior in which an individual gives up its chance to reproduce evolve? ... > full story

Growing up on livestock farm linked to increased risk of blood cancers (July 28, 2011) -- Growing up on a livestock farm seems to be linked to an increased risk of developing blood cancers as an adult, indicates new research. ... > full story

Social media poised to drive disaster preparedness and response (July 28, 2011) -- Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare may be an important key to improving the public health system's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, according to a new article. ... > full story

Wave power can drive sun's intense heat (July 28, 2011) -- A new study sheds light on why the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is more than 20 times hotter than its surface. The research may bring scientists a step closer to understanding the solar cycle and the sun's impacts on Earth. ... > full story

Cod resurgence in Canadian waters (July 28, 2011) -- Cod and other groundfish populations off the east coast of Canada are showing signs of recovery more than 20 years after the fisheries collapsed in the early 1990s, according to new research. ... > full story

A new target to inhibit malaria and toxoplasmosis infection (July 28, 2011) -- Scientists have characterized a protein complex that allows the agents that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis to infect host cells. This is a highly original mechanism, since the parasite supplies both the receptor which it inserts into the host cell membrane and the ligand it exposes at its surface. The researchers have now shown the three-dimensional structure of this complex. The new data paves the way for new drugs designed to inhibit the formation of the protein complex in question and block invasion by Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cells. ... > full story

Bacteria can 'fertilize' copper-polluted soil (July 28, 2011) -- When miners abandoned Michigan's Copper Country, they left a lot of the red metal behind, and not in a good way. Waste from the mining operations still contains a high fraction of copper, so high that almost nothing can grow on it -- and hasn't for decades, leaving behind moonscape expanses that can stretch for acres. Researchers may have now discovered how to make plants grow in the mine-waste desert and soak up some copper while they are at it. ... > full story

Closer look at cells: Fluorescence microscopy lets scientists observe exchanges across cell membranes (July 28, 2011) -- Many substances and nutrients are exchanged across the cell membrane. Scientists in Switzerland have developed a method to observe these exchanges, by taking a highly accurate count of the number of proteins found there. ... > full story

Scientists report dramatic carbon loss from massive Arctic wildfire (July 28, 2011) -- In a study published in this week's issue of Nature, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) senior scientist Gauis Shaver and his colleagues, including lead author Michelle Mack of the University of Florida, describe the dramatic impacts of a massive Arctic wildfire on carbon releases to the atmosphere. The 2007 blaze on the North Slope of the Alaska's Brooks Mountain Range released 20 times more carbon to the atmosphere than what is annually lost from undisturbed tundra. ... > full story

Scientists map attack tactics of plant pathogens (July 28, 2011) -- Every year, plant diseases wipe out millions of tons of crops, lead to the waste of valuable water resources and cause farmers to spend tens of billions of dollars battling them. Now a new discovery may help tip the war between plants and pathogens in favor of flora. ... > full story

First large-scale map of a plant's protein network addresses evolution, disease process (July 28, 2011) -- The first large-scale map of protein networks in a plant addresses longstanding questions about evolution, illuminates disease processes in plants. ... > full story

Plant immunity discovery boosts chances of disease-resistant crops (July 28, 2011) -- Researchers have opened up the black box of plant immune system genetics, boosting our ability to produce disease- and pest-resistant crops in the future. ... > full story

Veterinary medicine students experience higher depression levels than peers, research finds (July 28, 2011) -- Veterinary medicine students are more likely to struggle with depression than human medicine students, undergraduate students and the general population, according to several recent collaborative studies. ... > full story

Tundra fires could accelerate climate warming (July 27, 2011) -- After a 10,000-year absence, wildfires have returned to the Arctic tundra, and a new study shows that their impact could extend far beyond the areas blackened by flames. ... > full story

Social deficits associated with autism, schizophrenia induced in mice with new technology (July 27, 2011) -- Researchers have been able to switch on, and then switch off, social-behavior deficits in mice that resemble those seen in people with autism and schizophrenia, thanks to a technology that allows scientists to precisely manipulate nerve activity in the brain. In synchrony with this experimentally induced socially aberrant behavior, the mice exhibited a brain-wave pattern called gamma oscillation that has been associated with autism and schizophrenia in humans, the researchers say. ... > full story

More powerful 'lab-on-a-chip' made for genetic analysis (July 27, 2011) -- Researchers have invented a silicone chip that could make genetic analysis far more sensitive, rapid, and cost-effective by allowing individual cells to fall into place like balls in a pinball machine. The device -- about the size of a nine-volt battery -- allows scientists to simultaneously analyze 300 cells individually by routing fluid carrying cells through microscopic tubes and valves. By facilitating such "single-cell analysis," the device could accelerate genetic research and hasten the use of far more detailed tests for diagnosing cancer. ... > full story

How early reptiles moved (July 27, 2011) -- Modern scientists would have loved the sight of early reptiles running across the Bromacker near Tambach-Dietharz in Germany 300 million years ago. Unfortunately this journey through time is impossible. But thanks to a team of researchers, numerous skeletons and footprints of early dinosaurs have been found and conserved there during the last 40 years. ... > full story

Social networking elephants never forget (July 27, 2011) -- Asian elephants typically live in small, flexible, social groups centered around females and calves while adult males roam independently. However, new research shows that while Asian elephants in Sri Lanka may change their day to day associations they maintain a larger, stable, network of friends from which they pick their companions. ... > full story

Can amphibian fungal disease be beaten? (July 27, 2011) -- Over the past 30 years, around 200 species of amphibians have disappeared due to chytridiomycosis, a fungal infection. The scientific community has attempted to fight the pathogen, without success. Now, researchers have reviewed every technique in order to prevent the effects of this disease and local extinctions. ... > full story

Are cancers newly evolved species? (July 27, 2011) -- A molecular biologists has long believed that cancer results from chromosome disruption rather than a handful of gene mutations, which is the dominant theory today. That idea has led him to propose that cancers have actually evolved new chromosomal karyotypes that qualify them as autonomous species, akin to parasites and much different from their human hosts. ... > full story

Seeing the wood for the trees: New study shows sheep in tree-ring records (July 27, 2011) -- Nibbling by herbivores can have a greater impact on the width of tree rings than climate, new research has found. The study could help increase the accuracy of the tree ring record as a way of estimating past climatic conditions. ... > full story

How the modular structure of proteins permits evolution to move forward (July 27, 2011) -- A new study compares the development of the egg laying organ in two species of nematodes; with its results providing support for the theory of developmental systems drift. This theory maintains that, over the course of evolution, analogous organs of different species can retain the same shape and function while the regulative mechanisms underlying their development can change considerably. ... > full story

Electronic publishing 'goes live': News from the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne (July 27, 2011) -- The International Botanical Congress in Melbourne approved changes to the way scientists name new plants, algae, and fungi. To demonstrate the efficiency of electronic publishing, the open access journal PhytoKeys published a correspondence note by botanists from various institutions (Smithsonian Institution, Missouri Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanical Garden), led by Dr James Miller from the New York Botanical Garden. The correspondence was submitted, edited, proofread, and published by PhytoKeys during the congress in just four days. ... > full story

Largest recorded tundra fire yields scientific surprises (July 27, 2011) -- In 2007 the largest recorded tundra fire in the circumpolar arctic released approximately as much carbon into the atmosphere as the tundra has stored in the previous 50 years, say scientists. The study of the Anaktuvuk River fire on Alaska's North Slope revealed how rapidly a single tundra fire can offset or reverse a half-century worth of soil-stored carbon. ... > full story

Heavy metal hardens battle: Body armor hindered Medieval warriors (July 26, 2011) -- The French may have had a better chance at the Battle of Agincourt had they not been weighed down by heavy body armor, say researchers. A new study shows that soldiers carrying armor in Medieval times would have been using more than twice the amount of energy had they not been wearing it. This is the first clear experimental evidence of the limitations of wearing Medieval armor on a soldier's performance. ... > full story

Detailed picture of ice loss following the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves (July 26, 2011) -- Researchers have combined data from multiple sources to provide the clearest account yet of how much glacial ice surges into the sea following the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves. ... > full story

Reforestation's cooling influence is a result of farmers' past choices (July 26, 2011) -- Decisions by farmers to plant on productive land with little snow enhances the potential for reforestation to counteract global warming, concludes new research. Previous research has led scientists and politicians to believe that regrowing forests on Northern lands that were cleared in order to grow crops would not decrease global warming. But these studies did not consider the importance of the choices made by farmers in the historical past. ... > full story

New mouse model for testing cancer drugs (July 26, 2011) -- Only one in twenty cancer drugs makes its way from the laboratory to the market. The majority of new agents are only shown to be unsuitable in the later phases of clinical development which would explain the exorbitantly high development costs. A new mouse model could help researchers to recognize effects and side effects at an earlier stage. ... > full story

Beetles play an important role in reducing weeds (July 26, 2011) -- Researchers have found that ground beetles reduce the amount of weed seeds in the soil. Weeds reduce crop yields and these findings support the need to conserve farmland biodiversity as it plays an important supporting role to herbicides in controlling weeds and improving food security. ... > full story

Newly developed fluorescent protein makes internal organs visible (July 26, 2011) -- Researchers have developed the first fluorescent protein that enables scientists to clearly "see" the internal organs of living animals without the need for a scalpel or imaging techniques that can have side effects or increase radiation exposure. ... > full story

Modeling plant metabolism to optimize oil production (July 26, 2011) -- Scientists have developed a computational model for analyzing the metabolic processes in rapeseed plants -- particularly those related to the production of oils in their seeds. Their goal is to find ways to optimize the production of plant oils that have widespread potential as renewable resources for fuel and industrial chemicals. ... > full story

Newly discovered gene sheds light on the evolution of life on Earth (July 26, 2011) -- A chance discovery of a genetic mutation in wild barley that grows in Israel's Judean Desert has led to an international study deciphering evolution of life on land. ... > full story

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