ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Chick magnet? Nest diet has big impact on attractiveness of hihi birds
• Animal bite force: Size of lunch dictates force of crunch
• Kids teach parents to respect the environment
• Pinpointing protein locations
• Reproductive workings of a harvester ant dynasty
• Picky eater fish clean up seaweeds from coral reefs
• Climate change affects the flight period of butterflies in Massachusetts
• NASA satellites find freshwater losses in Middle East
• Building a biochemistry lab on a chip
• Southwest regional warming likely cause of pinyon pine cone decline
• Discovering cell surface proteins' behavior
• Ancient insects shed light on biodiversity
• 'Get off my lawn:' Song sparrows escalate territorial threats
• Cell shape changes during mitosis
• Using light to control cell clustering
• Scientists create automated 'time machine' to reconstruct ancient languages
• New world record efficiency for thin film silicon solar cells
• Modern growing methods may be culprit of 'coffee rust' fungal outbreak
• Carbon sponge could soak up coal emissions
• Low-arsenic rice discovered in Bangladesh could have major health benefits
• Color vision: Explaining primates' red-green vision

Chick magnet? Nest diet has big impact on attractiveness of hihi birds Posted: 12 Feb 2013 06:01 PM PST Chicks that stock up on their five-a-day outshine their love rivals in later life, a new study shows.

Animal bite force: Size of lunch dictates force of crunch Posted: 12 Feb 2013 06:01 PM PST Even in the same animal, not all bites are the same. A new study finds that because the force in a muscle depends on how much it is stretched, an animal's bite force depends on the size of what it is biting. The finding has direct implications for ecology and evolution.

Kids teach parents to respect the environment Posted: 12 Feb 2013 06:00 PM PST A child can directly influence the attitude and behavior of their parents towards the environment without them even knowing it. Researchers have, for the first time, provided quantitative support for the suggestion that environmental education can be transferred between generations and that it can actually affect behavior.

Pinpointing protein locations Posted: 12 Feb 2013 06:00 PM PST An innovative technique which pinpoints protein locations and helps researchers unravel the protein's functions has just been developed.

Reproductive workings of a harvester ant dynasty Posted: 12 Feb 2013 12:46 PM PST For the first time, scientists have measured how successfully a queen ant establishes new colonies. The work revealed that the queen was still reproducing several decades after mating.

Picky eater fish clean up seaweeds from coral reefs Posted: 12 Feb 2013 12:44 PM PST Using underwater video cameras to record fish feeding on South Pacific coral reefs, scientists have found that herbivorous fish can be picky eaters – a trait that could spell trouble for endangered reef systems.

Climate change affects the flight period of butterflies in Massachusetts Posted: 12 Feb 2013 12:44 PM PST Biologists have found that butterflies show signs of being affected by climate change in a way similar to plants and bees, but not birds, in the Northeast United States. The researchers focused on Massachusetts butterfly flight periods, comparing current flight periods with patterns going back more than 100 years using museum collections and the records of dedicated citizen scientists. Their findings indicate that butterflies are flying earlier in warmer years.

NASA satellites find freshwater losses in Middle East Posted: 12 Feb 2013 11:11 AM PST A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.

Building a biochemistry lab on a chip Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:20 AM PST Miniaturized laboratory-on-chip systems promise rapid, sensitive, and multiplexed detection of biological samples for medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and high-throughput screening. Using micro-fabrication techniques and incorporating a unique design of transistor-based heating, researchers are further advancing the use of silicon transistor and electronics into chemistry and biology for point-of-care diagnostics.

Southwest regional warming likely cause of pinyon pine cone decline Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:20 AM PST Creeping climate change in the Southwest appears to be having a negative effect on pinyon pine reproduction, a finding with implications for wildlife species sharing the same woodland ecosystems, says a University of Colorado Boulder-led study.

Discovering cell surface proteins' behavior Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:20 AM PST Chemists are advancing scientific understanding of the structure and function of glycoproteins, in particular the number and positioning of sugars on them. Glycoproteins are membrane proteins and are often involved in human diseases. They facilitate communication between cells.

Ancient insects shed light on biodiversity Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:20 AM PST Evolutionary biologists have discovered that modern tropical mountains' diversity patterns extended up into Canada about 50 million years ago. Their findings confirm an influential theory about change in modern species diversity across mountains, and provide evidence that global biodiversity was greater in ancient times than now.

'Get off my lawn:' Song sparrows escalate territorial threats Posted: 12 Feb 2013 10:19 AM PST Territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals. First an early warning that matches the intruder's song, then wing waving -- a bird's version of "flipping the bird" -- as the dispute heats up, and finally, if all other signals have failed, attack.

Cell shape changes during mitosis Posted: 12 Feb 2013 09:18 AM PST Scientists have gained new insight into the process of mitosis in mammalian cells. Researchers have succeeded in deciphering a heretofore unknown mechanism that plays a key role in cell shape changes during mitosis. They investigated the transient degradation of a protein that regulates specific structures of the mechanical scaffold of the cell, the actin cytoskeleton.

Using light to control cell clustering Posted: 12 Feb 2013 09:17 AM PST A new study pairs light and genetics to give researchers a powerful new tool for manipulating cells. Results of the study show how blue light can be used as a switch to prompt targeted proteins to accumulate into large clusters.

Scientists create automated 'time machine' to reconstruct ancient languages Posted: 12 Feb 2013 08:20 AM PST Ancient languages hold a treasure trove of information about the culture, politics and commerce of millennia past. Yet, reconstructing them to reveal clues into human history can require decades of painstaking work. Now, scientists have created an automated "time machine," of sorts, that will greatly accelerate and improve the process of reconstructing hundreds of ancestral languages.

New world record efficiency for thin film silicon solar cells Posted: 12 Feb 2013 08:19 AM PST Researchers have reached a remarkable 10.7 percent efficiency single-junction microcrystalline silicon solar cell, clearly surpassing the previous world record of 10.1 percent held by the Japanese company Kaneka Corporation since 1998. Such significant efficiency, independently certified, was achieved with less than two micrometers of photovoltaic active material – 100 times less than with standard techniques.

Modern growing methods may be culprit of 'coffee rust' fungal outbreak Posted: 12 Feb 2013 08:17 AM PST A shift away from traditional coffee-growing techniques may be increasing the severity of an outbreak of 'coffee rust' fungus that has swept through plantations in Central America and Mexico, according to an ecologist who studies the disease.

Carbon sponge could soak up coal emissions Posted: 12 Feb 2013 07:06 AM PST Emissions from coal power stations could be drastically reduced by a new, energy-efficient material that adsorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, then releases it when exposed to sunlight.

Low-arsenic rice discovered in Bangladesh could have major health benefits Posted: 12 Feb 2013 07:05 AM PST Scientists have identified aromatic rice with very low arsenic content and higher concentrations of essential nutrients, selenium and zinc.

Color vision: Explaining primates' red-green vision Posted: 11 Feb 2013 08:08 AM PST Retinal neurons sensitize to colors preferred by nearby photo-receptors. Results in mice may explain primates' red-green vision.

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