ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• No Earth impact in 2040: NASA releases workshop data and findings on asteroid 2011 AG5
• Bugs have key role in farming approach to storing CO2 emissions
• Nanotechnology used to harness power of fireflies
• The boys are bad: Older male ants single out younger rivals for death squad
• Studying soil to predict the future of Earth's atmosphere
• New solar active region spitting out flares
• Study suggests expanded concept of 'urban watershed'
• Amazon was not all manufactured landscape, scientist says
• Bat bridges don't work
• Normal bacterial makeup has huge implications for health
• More than one way to be healthy: Map of bacterial makeup of humans reveals microbial rare biosphere
• Rapidly cooling eggs ups shelf life, cuts risk of illness

No Earth impact in 2040: NASA releases workshop data and findings on asteroid 2011 AG5 Posted: 15 Jun 2012 11:32 AM PDT Researchers anticipate that asteroid 2011 AG5, discovered in January 2011, will fly safely past and not impact Earth in 2040. Observations to date indicate there is a slight chance that AG5 could impact Earth in 2040. Experts are now confident that in the next four years, analysis of space and ground-based observations will show the likelihood of 2011 AG5 missing Earth to be greater than 99 percent.

Bugs have key role in farming approach to storing CO2 emissions Posted: 15 Jun 2012 09:53 AM PDT Tiny microbes are at the heart of a novel agricultural technique to manage harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Nanotechnology used to harness power of fireflies Posted: 15 Jun 2012 08:41 AM PDT Scientists have found a new way to harness the natural light produced by fireflies using nanoscience. Their breakthrough produces a system that is 20 to 30 times more efficient than those produced during previous experiments.

The boys are bad: Older male ants single out younger rivals for death squad Posted: 15 Jun 2012 07:45 AM PDT Male Cardiocondyla obscurior ants are diphenic (either winged or wingless). New research demonstrates that the dominant wingless (ergatoid) male is able to identify potential rivals before they emerge from their pupae. Constant patrolling of the nest ensures that this male is able to bite or chemically tag rivals as soon as they emerge from their pupae. Chemically tagged ants are quickly destroyed by workers.

Studying soil to predict the future of Earth's atmosphere Posted: 15 Jun 2012 07:39 AM PDT Soil plays an important role in controlling the planet's atmospheric future according to new research. Researchers found that the interaction between plants and soils controls how ecosystems respond to rising levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

New solar active region spitting out flares Posted: 14 Jun 2012 04:37 PM PDT An active region on the sun, numbered AR 1504, rotated into view over the left side of the sun on June 10, 2012. The region fired off two M-class flares and two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on June 13 and June 14, 2012.

Study suggests expanded concept of 'urban watershed' Posted: 14 Jun 2012 03:27 PM PDT Within two decades, 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, and coping with the resulting urban drinking water and sanitation issues will be one of the greatest challenges of this century. A new study presents a new conceptual framework that addresses characteristics of watersheds that are affected by urban land uses.

Amazon was not all manufactured landscape, scientist says Posted: 14 Jun 2012 11:28 AM PDT Population estimates for the Amazon basin just before Europeans arrived range from 2 to 10 million people. A new reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited. This clashes with the belief that most of Amazonia, including forests far removed from major rivers, was heavily occupied and modified.

Bat bridges don't work Posted: 13 Jun 2012 03:40 PM PDT Wire bridges built to guide bats safely across busy roads simply do not work, University of Leeds researchers have confirmed.

Normal bacterial makeup has huge implications for health Posted: 13 Jun 2012 11:54 AM PDT Scientists have mapped the normal microbial makeup of healthy humans.

More than one way to be healthy: Map of bacterial makeup of humans reveals microbial rare biosphere Posted: 13 Jun 2012 10:32 AM PDT New results confirm concept of "rare biosphere" of microbial life, originally discovered in ocean samples, and with many implications for human health.

Rapidly cooling eggs ups shelf life, cuts risk of illness Posted: 11 Jun 2012 12:28 PM PDT Taking just a few seconds to cool freshly laid eggs would add weeks to their shelf life, according to a new study. The rapid-cooling process uses liquid carbon dioxide to stabilize the proteins in egg whites so much that they could be rated AA -- the highest grade for eggs -- for 12 weeks. Earlier research showed that the same cooling technology could significantly reduce occurrences of salmonella illnesses.

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