ScienceDaily Environment Headlines -- for Tuesday, August 23, 2011 ~ techdeck

ScienceDaily Environment Headlines

for Tuesday, August 23, 2011

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When well-known flu strains 'hook up' dangerous progeny can result (August 23, 2011) -- A new study finds that a process called reassortment, a kind of viral sexual reproduction, between the virus responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1) and a common type of avian flu virus (H9N2) can produce offspring -- new combined flu viruses -- with the potential for creating a new influenza pandemic. ... > full story

Scale models: How patterns stay in sync with size as an embryo grows and develops (August 23, 2011) -- Scientists have added a significant piece to the puzzle of scaling -- how patterns stay in sync with size as an embryo or organism grows and develops. ... > full story

Ancient whale skulls and directional hearing: A twisted tale (August 23, 2011) -- Skewed skulls may have helped early whales discriminate the direction of sounds in water and are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation. ... > full story

Milk better than water to rehydrate kids, study finds (August 23, 2011) -- Children become dehydrated during exercise, and it's important they get enough fluids, particularly before going into a second round of a game. A new study by researchers in Canada found that milk is better than either a sports drink or water because it is a source of high quality protein, carbohydrates, calcium and electrolytes. ... > full story

Yeast's epic journey 500 years ago gave rise to lager beer (August 22, 2011) -- An international team of researchers believes it has identified the wild yeast that, in the age of sail, apparently traveled more than 7,000 miles to make a fortuitous microbial match that today underpins the 0 billion a year lager beer industry. ... > full story

Hyenas' ability to count helps them decide to fight or flee (August 22, 2011) -- Being able to count helps spotted hyenas decide to fight or flee, according to new research. When animals fight, the larger group tends to win. Researchers have now shown that hyenas listen to the sound of intruders' voices to determine who has the advantage. ... > full story

Newly discovered Icelandic current could change North Atlantic climate picture (August 22, 2011) -- Physical oceanographers have confirmed the presence of a deep-reaching ocean circulation system off Iceland that could significantly influence the ocean's response to climate change in previously unforeseen ways. ... > full story

Secret life of millipedes (August 22, 2011) -- Male adult helminthomorph millipedes usually have one or two pairs of legs from their seventh segment modified into sexual appendages. These specialized gonopods are used as claspers to hold the female during mating or to transfer sperm. New research has looked in detail at millipede development and the internal reorganization needed to produce functional gonopods. ... > full story

Tuning natural antimicrobials to improve their effectiveness at battling superbugs (August 22, 2011) -- Ongoing research is exploring the use of virus-produced proteins that destroy bacterial cells to combat potentially dangerous microbial infections. Bacteriophages produce endolysin proteins that specifically target certain bacteria, and one team of scientists has been studying one that destroys Clostridium difficile, a common source of hospital-acquired infections. New research is showing that it is possible to "tune" these endolysin properties to increase their effectiveness and effectiveness as antimicrobial agents. ... > full story

Genomewide mapping reveals developmental and environmental impacts (August 22, 2011) -- Complex traits that help plants adapt to environmental challenges are likely influenced by variations in thousands of genes that are affected by both the plant's growth and the external environment, report researchers. ... > full story

Species affected by climate change: To shift or not to shift? (August 22, 2011) -- Relocating species threatened by climate change is a radical and hotly debated strategy for maintaining biodiversity. ... > full story

Breeding ozone-tolerant crops (August 22, 2011) -- Scientists have found that future levels of ground-level ozone could reduce soybean yields by an average 23 percent. ... > full story

Deadly ancient Egyptian medication? German scientists shed light on dark secret of Queen Hatshepsut's flacon (August 22, 2011) -- The corpus delicti is a plain flacon from among the possessions of Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who lived around 1450 B.C., which is on exhibit in the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum of the University of Bonn in Germany. For three and a half millennia, the vessel may have held a deadly secret. This is what researchers there have just discovered. ... > full story

Restoration as science: Case of the collared lizard (August 22, 2011) -- Biologist Alan Templeton fell in love with the eastern collared lizard that lives in the hot, dry Ozark glades when he was 13. By the time he returned from graduate and postgraduate work, 75 percent of the lizard populations had vanished. A new article celebrates the success of his prolonged effort to reintroduce the lizards and make their populations self-sustaining. ... > full story

Oldest fossils on Earth discovered (August 22, 2011) -- Earth's oldest fossils have been found in Australia. The microscopic fossils show convincing evidence for cells and bacteria living in an oxygen-free world over 3.4 billion years ago. ... > full story

At last, a reason why stress causes DNA damage (August 22, 2011) -- For years, researchers have published papers that associate chronic stress with chromosomal damage. Now researchers have discovered a mechanism that helps to explain the stress response in terms of DNA damage. ... > full story

New way to treat common hospital-acquired infection: Novel approach may offer treatment for other bacterial diseases (August 22, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a molecular process by which the body can defend against the effects of Clostridium difficile, an intestinal disease that impacts several million in the U.S. each year. A commonly acquired hospital infection, the disease has become more common, more severe and harder to cure mainly due to the emergence of a new, highly virulent strain of the bacteria that causes it. ... > full story

Computational chemistry shows the way to safer biofuels (August 22, 2011) -- The word "biofuel" sounds positively healthy. But even diesel based on organically grown corn can degrade into toxic and environmentally harmful end products if produced with the wrong method. Now a chemist has developed a mathematical tool that helps predict the environmental impact of various methods of producing the climate friendly alternatives to fossil fuel. This promises cheaper, faster and above all safer ways to develop new biofuels. ... > full story

Imaging probe allows noninvasive detection of dangerous heart-valve infection (August 22, 2011) -- A novel imaging probe may make it possible to diagnose accurately a dangerous infection of the heart valves. Scientists have now shown how the presence of Staphylococcus aureus-associated endocarditis in a mouse model was revealed by PET imaging with a radiolabeled version of a protein involved in a process that usually conceals infecting bacteria from the immune system. ... > full story

Plants and fungi play the 'underground market' (August 22, 2011) -- Plants and fungi co-operate and trade with each other on a biological 'underground market', changing their trading partners if they don't get a fair deal. ... > full story

Student turns paper mill waste into ‘green’ material for industrial applications (August 22, 2011) -- A student in Israel has developed a method to use paper mill waste to produce ecologically friendly, industrial foams from renewable resources. ... > full story

Nitrogen in the soil cleans the air: Nitrogen-containing soil is a source of hydroxyl radicals that remove pollutants from the atmosphere (August 22, 2011) -- Eutrophication harms the environment in many ways. Unexpectedly, nitrogen fertilizer may also be positive for the environment. And even acidic soils, promoting the destruction of forests, can have a positive effect. Researchers in Germany have discovered that nitrogen fertilizer indirectly strengthens the self-cleaning capacity of the atmosphere. Their study shows that nitrous acid is formed in fertilized soil and released to the atmosphere, whereby the amount increases with increasing soil acidity. In the air, nitrous acid leads to the formation of hydroxyl radicals oxidizing pollutants that then can be washed out. ... > full story

Researchers on the trail of a treatment for cancer of the immune system (August 22, 2011) -- Danish researchers have become the first in the world to regulate a special receptor or bio-antenna that plays a vital part when the Epstein Barr herpes virus infects us and when this infection appears to be mutating into cancer of the immune system. Using a biochemical blueprint and a tiny bio-molecule researchers have succeeded in blocking the receptor concerned. This will make it possible to adjust and regulate the memory cells of the immune system. ... > full story

B chromosomes affect sex determination in cichlid fishes (August 22, 2011) -- B chromosomes have a functional effect on sex determination in a species of cichlid fishes from Lake Victoria, according to a study by Japanese researchers. The researchers found sex-ratio distortions caused by B chromosomes in the breeding line of the cichlids, as well as several protein-coding genes in the B chromosomes. The resultant ratio was female biased, suggesting a role for B chromosomes in female sex determination. ... > full story

Cause of stress-related DNA damage pinpointed: Findings suggest new model for developing novel therapeutic approaches (August 22, 2011) -- Sscientists have helped identify a molecular pathway that plays a key role in stress-related damage to the genome, the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. ... > full story

How nitrous oxide is decomposed: Researchers identify structure of enzyme that breaks down potent greenhouse gas (August 22, 2011) -- Nitrous oxide is a harmful climate gas. Its effect as a greenhouse gas is 300 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide destroys the ozone layer. In industrial agriculture, it is generated on excessively fertilized fields when microorganisms decompose nitrate fertilizers. Decomposition of nitrous oxide frequently is incomplete and strongly depends on environmental conditions. Researchers have now identified the structure of the enzyme that decomposes nitrous oxide and the decomposition mechanism. ... > full story

New scenario for the formation of Denmark Strait Overflow Water (August 22, 2011) -- A new article revises our current understanding of how the dense overflow waters from the Nordic seas, which represent the headwaters of the Meridional Overturning Circulation's lower limb, are formed. This implies that the timescale for the renewal of the deepest water in the overturning cell, and its sensitivity to changes in climate, could be different than presently envisioned. ... > full story

Making a bee-line for the best rewards (August 21, 2011) -- Bumble bees use complex problem-solving skills to minimize the energy they use when flying to collect food, according to new research. ... > full story

Three waves of evolutionary innovation shaped diversity of vertebrates, genome analysis reveals (August 21, 2011) -- Over the past 530 million years, the vertebrate lineage branched out from a primitive jawless fish wriggling through Cambrian seas to encompass all the diverse forms of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Now researchers combing through the DNA sequences of vertebrate genomes have identified three distinct periods of evolutionary innovation that accompanied this remarkable diversification. ... > full story

Neuroscientists show activity patterns in fly brain are optimized for memory storage (August 21, 2011) -- A research team has shown large populations of neurons in the brains of living fruit flies responding simultaneously to a variety of odors. Results reveal a portion of the fly brain important in learning and memory responds in a characteristic fashion that helps explain how an association is made between an odor and an experience -- the basis of a memory. ... > full story

New mechanism of genomic instability revealed (August 21, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered the cellular mechanisms that normally generate chromosomal breaks in bacteria such as E. coli. ... > full story

New defense discovered against common hospital-acquired infection (August 21, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a key mechanism used by intestinal cells to defend themselves against one of the world's most common hospital-acquired bacterial infections -- a mechanism they think they can exploit to produce a therapy to protect against the effects of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria. ... > full story

Parasite uses the power of attraction to trick rats into becoming cat food (August 20, 2011) -- Rats infected with the parasite Toxoplasma seem to lose their fear of cats -- or at least cat urine. Now researchers have discovered the brains of those infected, fearless male rats show activity in the region that normally triggers a mating response when encountering a female rat. But that does not mean it's love, as Toxoplasma just wants the rat to be eaten by a cat, so the parasite can reproduce in the cat's intestines. ... > full story

Under-reported greenhouse gas statistics? Sketchy emission reports revealed by Swiss measurements (August 20, 2011) -- Fluorinated hydrocarbons are potent greenhouse gases, emission of which must be reduced under the Kyoto Protocol. If you rely on the official reports of the participating countries, the output of trifluoromethane (HFC-23) in Western Europe is indeed significantly decreasing. However, pollutant measurements carried out by researchers in Switzerland now reveal that several countries under-report their emissions. For instance, Italy emits 10 to 20 times more HFC-23 than it officially reports. ... > full story

Kinder, gentler cell capture method could aid medical research (August 20, 2011) -- A research team has come up with a potential solution to a two-pronged problem in medical research: How to capture cells on a particular spot on a surface using electric fields and keep them alive long enough to run experiments on them. ... > full story

Growth of cities endangers global environment, according to new analysis (August 20, 2011) -- The explosive growth of cities worldwide over the next two decades poses significant risks to people and the global environment, according to a new meta-analysis. ... > full story

Spoilt food soon a thing of the past? (August 20, 2011) -- Unwanted bacteria, yeasts and molds can cause major problems for the food industry as well as consumers. Researchers have now developed new methods to identify potential sources of contamination. Using a spectrometer, the researchers are able to detect undesirable microorganisms in finished products and trace them back to the various steps in the production process. ... > full story

Lessons learned from the two worst oils spills in US history: Microbes matter (August 19, 2011) -- One year after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and two decades after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, the scientific lesson is clear -- microbes matter! Despite vast differences in the ecosystems and circumstances of these two worst oil spills in US history, oil-degrading microorganisms played a significant role in reducing the overall environmental impact of both spills, scientists report. ... > full story

Education leaders call for radical transformation in graduate biomedical curriculum (August 19, 2011) -- Leaders in biomedical education are calling for a radical new approach to post-graduate training in the life sciences to address significant challenges, including an avalanche of new discoveries in the last decade and the need to transcend traditional departmental boundaries to understand biological processes at multiple levels. ... > full story

Molecular scientists develop color-changing stress sensor (August 19, 2011) -- It is helpful -- even life-saving -- to have a warning sign before a structural system fails, but, when the system is only a few nanometers in size, having a sign that's easy to read is a challenge. Now, thanks to a clever bit of molecular design by bioengineers and chemists, such warning can come in the form of a simple color change. ... > full story

Micro-organisms are 'invisible' to the immune system (August 19, 2011) -- That micro-organisms have a great capacity to vary their surface structure is well known. It is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to develop vaccines against HIV and malaria, and why new influenza vaccines have to be produced every year. But it seems that these micro-organisms are also able to completely avoid activating a strong immune response in the person attacked. ... > full story

Realistic simulation of ion flux through membrane sheds light on antibiotic resistance (August 19, 2011) -- A new study describes an innovative new computational model that realistically simulates the complex conditions found in biological systems and allows for a more accurate look at ion channel function at the level of individual atoms. The research provides a remarkably detailed look at the function of a bacterial channel that kills brain cells in people with bacterial meningitis and provides insight into mechanisms that underlie deadly antibiotic resistance. ... > full story

First kangaroo genome sequence reveals possible gene responsible for characteristic hop (August 19, 2011) -- Kangaroos form an important niche in the tree of life, but until now their DNA had never been sequenced. In a new article, an international consortium of researchers present the first kangaroo genome sequence -- that of the tammar wallaby species -- and find hidden in their data the gene that may well be responsible for the kangaroo's characteristic hop. ... > full story

College students not eating enough fruits and veggies, study finds (August 19, 2011) -- College students aren't eating enough fruits and vegetables -- in fact, a new study shows students aren't even eating one serving per day, far from the recommended five daily servings. The study, which surveyed the eating habits of 582 college students, compares male and female students, but found that both were not getting the proper amount of fruits and vegetables. ... > full story

Research team achieves first two-color STED microscopy of living cells (August 19, 2011) -- Current applications of STED microscopy have been limited to single color imaging of living cells and multicolor imaging in "fixed" or preserved cells. However, to study active processes, such as protein interactions, a two-color STED imaging technique is needed in living cells. This has now been achieved for the first time. ... > full story

New images reveal structures of the solar wind as it travels toward and impacts Earth (August 19, 2011) -- Using data collected by NASA's STEREO spacecraft, researchers have developed the first detailed images of solar wind structures as plasma and other particles from a coronal mass ejection traveled 93 million miles and impacted Earth. ... > full story

Climate change and ozone destruction hastened with nitrous oxide used in agriculture (August 19, 2011) -- Researchers have discovered a new binding site for nitrous oxide (N2O). Nitrous oxide reductase, an enzyme containing copper, plays a key role in the biochemical process by reducing N2O to N2. This enzyme is highly sensitive to oxygen and is often precipitated in the reaction chain, meaning large amounts of N2O are released by fertilized fields in the farming industry. ... > full story

Further, faster, higher: Wildlife responds increasingly rapidly to climate change (August 19, 2011) -- New research shows that species have responded to climate change up to three times faster than previously appreciated. ... > full story