ScienceDaily Environment Headlines
for Sunday, August 22, 2010
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Virus may act as 'evolution-proof' biopesticide against malaria (August 21, 2010) -- A naturally occurring virus in mosquitoes may serve as a "late-life-acting" insecticide by killing older adult mosquitoes that are responsible for the bulk of malaria transmission. ... > full story
Big quakes more frequent than thought on San Andreas fault, research shows (August 21, 2010) -- Earthquakes have rocked the powerful San Andreas fault that splits California far more often than previously thought, according to researchers who have charted temblors there stretching back 700 years. ... > full story
Newly identified RNA sequence is key in microRNA processing (August 21, 2010) -- Researchers have uncovered a mechanism that regulates the processing of microRNAs (miRNAs), molecules that regulate cell growth, development, and stress response. The discovery helps researchers understand the links between miRNA expression and chronic disease. ... > full story
Lowering Daisy's emissions: Battle against agricultural climate offenders (August 21, 2010) -- Agriculture accounts for approximately nine per cent of Norway's total emissions of greenhouse gases. Now, researchers are acquiring actual gas measurements and new knowledge about what causes the emissions -- with the aim of mitigating Norwegian agriculture's impact on the climate and environment. In particular, it is emissions of the greenhouse gases methane (CH4, from cattle) and nitrous oxide (N2O, from the soil and fertilisers) that make agriculture such a major climate culprit. This summer Daisy has gone to pasture adorned with some advanced monitoring equipment to help out. ... > full story
Drought drives decade-long decline in plant growth (August 21, 2010) -- Global plant productivity that once was on the rise with warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline because of regional drought, according to a new study of NASA satellite data. ... > full story
Smart fungus disarms plant, animal and human immunity (August 20, 2010) -- Fungal and bacterial pathogens are well capable of infecting plants, animals and humans despite their immune systems. Fungi penetrate leafs, stalks and roots, or skin, intestines and lungs, to infect their hosts. Researchers have now discovered how this is possible. They found that the fungus secretes a protein that makes stray building blocks of the fungal cell wall invisible for the immune system of the plant. In this way infection remains unnoticed. ... > full story
Mapping out pathways to better soybeans (August 20, 2010) -- Agricultural scientists are a step closer to unlocking genetic clues that may lead to packing more protein and oil into soybeans, a move that would boost their value and help US growers compete in international markets. ... > full story
Is the ice in the Arctic Ocean getting thinner? (August 20, 2010) -- The extent of the sea ice in the Arctic will reach its annual minimum in September. Forecasts indicate that it will not be as low as in 2007, the year of the smallest area covered by sea ice since satellites started recording such data. Nevertheless, sea ice physicists are concerned about the long-term equilibrium in the Arctic Ocean. ... > full story
Geologists revisit Earth's Great Oxygenation Event: More like the 'Great Redox Evolution' (August 20, 2010) -- Recent work with geochemical proxies for oxygen levels suggests that oxygen levels continued to fluctuate long after the Great Oxygenation Event 2.7 billion years ago, and that the oceans were many different flavors of anoxic right up until the Edicaran period, 600 million years ago. What happened in the intervening 2 billion years will be contested until scientists have more data, says a geochemist. ... > full story
How flies set their cruising altitude (August 20, 2010) -- Insects in flight must somehow calculate and control their height above the ground, and researchers have new insight into how fruit flies do it. The answer is simpler than expected. ... > full story
Italian youths who drink with meals are less often adult problem-drinkers (August 20, 2010) -- Italian youths whose parents allowed them to have alcohol with meals while they were growing up are less likely to develop harmful drinking patterns in the future, according to a new study. ... > full story
Widespread floating plastic debris found in the western North Atlantic Ocean (August 20, 2010) -- Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue. Now, a team of researchers has published a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students. ... > full story
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