ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Saturday, April 30, 2011 ~ techdeck

Sabtu, 30 April 2011

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Saturday, April 30, 2011

02.22 technofi No comments

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Saturday, April 30, 2011

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New solar cell technology greatly boosts efficiency (April 29, 2011) -- With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, scientists have boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent. ... > full story

Mutant mouse reveals new wrinkle in genetic code (April 29, 2011) -- Call it a mystery with a stubby tail: an odd-looking mouse discovered through a US government breeding program in the 1940s that had a short, kinky tail and an extra set of ribs in its neck -- and nobody knew why. ... > full story

Identifying beaked whale foraging habitat in the Bahamas (April 29, 2011) -- Marine biologists have found that oceanographic and prey measurements can be used to identify beaked whale foraging habitat. ... > full story

When a salad is not a salad: Why are dieters easily misled by food names? (April 29, 2011) -- Dieters are so involved with trying to eat virtuously that they are more likely than non-dieters to choose unhealthy foods that are labeled as healthy, according to a new study. It seems dieter focus on food names can work to their disadvantage. ... > full story

Monkeys, too, can recollect what they've seen, study suggests (April 29, 2011) -- It's one thing to recognize your childhood home when you see it in a photograph and quite another to accurately describe or draw a picture of it based on your recollection of how it looked. A new report offers some of the first clear evidence that monkeys, like humans, have the capacity for both forms of memory. ... > full story

NASA technology looks inside Japan's nuclear reactor (April 29, 2011) -- Design techniques honed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for Mars rovers were used to create the rover currently examining the inside of Japan's nuclear reactors, in areas not yet deemed safe for human crews. ... > full story

How do white blood cells detect invaders to destroy? (April 29, 2011) -- Scientists have discovered how a molecular receptor on the surface of white blood cells identifies when invading fungi have established direct contact with the cell surface and pose an infectious threat. ... > full story

Ivory-billed woodpecker sighted and recorded (April 29, 2011) -- Scientists working independently in three states have now published articles that report multiple sightings of and various forms of evidence for this elusive species, which is extremely difficult to observe and photograph due to its rarity, wariness, and tendency to roam over wide areas in remote swamp habitat. During two encounters with an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, one researcher heard high-pitched calls that seem to match the description of an alarm call that was reported by James Tanner in the 1930s but was never recorded. ... > full story

Super-fruits: Tropical blueberries extremely high in healthful antioxidants, study suggests (April 29, 2011) -- The first analysis of the healthful antioxidant content of blueberries that grow wild in Mexico, Central and South America concludes that some of these fruits have even more healthful antioxidants than the blueberries -- already renowned as "super fruits" -- sold throughout the United States. These extreme super fruits could provide even more protection against heart disease, cancer and other conditions, the report suggests. ... > full story

Link between theta rhythm and ability of animals to track location probed (April 29, 2011) -- New research supports the hypothesis that spatial coding by grid cells requires theta rhythm oscillations, and dissociates the mechanisms underlying the generation of entorhinal grid cell periodicity and head-direction selectivity. ... > full story

Jump in communication skills led to species explosion in electric fishes (April 29, 2011) -- The Mormyridae, a family of African fishes that communicate by means of weak electric discharges, has more than 200 species. New work shows the fishes evolved a complex signal-processing brain before a burst of speciation. Together with other evidence the finding suggests brain evolution triggered diversification. ... > full story

Mapping pollutant threats to sea turtles: Satellite tracking reveals potential threat posed by human-made chemicals (April 29, 2011) -- Persistent organic pollutants are consistently showing up in the blood and eggs of loggerhead sea turtles, and the turtles accumulate more of the contaminant chemicals the farther they travel up the Atlantic coast. The pollutants may pose a threat to the survival of this endangered species, according to experts. ... > full story