ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Computer rendering: Graduate student brings extinct plants 'back to life'
• Odds that global warming is due to natural factors: Slim to none
• Protein researchers closing in on the mystery of schizophrenia
• Climate paradox deciphered from the Miocene era
• Controversy over nitrogen's ocean 'exit strategies' resolved
• Tibetan Plateau was larger than previously thought, geologists say
• Appearance of night-shining clouds has increased
• Greenland ice cores show industrial record of acid rain, success of US Clean Air Act
• Sensitive balance in immune system: How one molecule can affect health outcomes
• Devil in disguise: Small coral-eating worm may mean big trouble for reefs
• Taming of the shrew: Bicolored shrew a health risk for horses
• Splice variants reveal connections among autism genes
• Scientists grow cartilage to reconstruct nose
• 3-D printing cancer cells to mimic tumors
• Scientists report success growing cartilage to reconstruct nostrils and implanting tissue-engineered vaginal organs into humans
• Laboratory-grown vaginas implanted in patients
• Bioanalysis: Microbeads are easily fixed
• Possible new target to attack flu virus identified

Computer rendering: Graduate student brings extinct plants 'back to life' Posted: 11 Apr 2014 12:38 PM PDT Most fossilized plants are fragments indistinguishable from a stick, but a graduate student hopes a new technique will allow paleontologists to more precisely identify these fossils. A graduate student showed the power of this technique by turning a 375 million-year-old lycopod fossil into a life-like rendering.

Odds that global warming is due to natural factors: Slim to none Posted: 11 Apr 2014 12:34 PM PDT An analysis of temperature data since 1500 all but rules out the possibility that global warming in the industrial era is just a natural fluctuation in the earth's climate, according to a new study.

Protein researchers closing in on the mystery of schizophrenia Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:31 AM PDT Schizophrenia is a severe disease for which there is still no effective medical treatment. In an attempt to understand exactly what happens in the brain of a schizophrenic person, researchers have analyzed proteins in the brains of rats that have been given hallucinogenic drugs. This may pave the way for new and better medicines.

Climate paradox deciphered from the Miocene era Posted: 11 Apr 2014 07:31 AM PDT A supposed climate paradox from the Miocene era has been deciphered by means of complex model simulations. When the Antarctic ice sheet grew to its present-day size around 14 million years ago, it did not get colder everywhere on the Earth, but there were regions that became warmer. This appears to be a physical contradiction, and this research aims to address that.

Controversy over nitrogen's ocean 'exit strategies' resolved Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:23 AM PDT A decades-long debate over the dominant way that nitrogen is removed from the ocean may now be settled. Researchers found that both of the nitrogen 'exit strategies,' denitrification and anammox, are at work in the oceans. The debate centers on how nitrogen -- one of the most important food sources for ocean life and a controller of atmospheric carbon dioxide -- becomes converted to a form that can exit the ocean and return to the atmosphere where it is reused in the global nitrogen cycle.

Tibetan Plateau was larger than previously thought, geologists say Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:19 AM PDT The Tibetan Plateau -- the world's largest, highest, and flattest plateau -- had a larger initial extent than previously documented, Earth scientists have demonstrated. Known as the "Roof of the World," the Tibetan Plateau covers more than 970,000 square miles in Asia and India and reaches heights of over 15,000 feet. The plateau also contains a host of natural resources, including large mineral deposits and tens of thousands of glaciers, and is the headwaters of many major drainage basins.

Appearance of night-shining clouds has increased Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:19 AM PDT First spotted in 1885, silvery blue clouds sometimes hover in the night sky near the poles, appearing to give off their own glowing light. Known as noctilucent clouds, this phenomenon began to be sighted at lower and lower latitudes -- between the 40th and 50th parallel -- during the 20th century, causing scientists to wonder if the region these clouds inhabit had indeed changed -- information that would tie in with understanding the weather and climate of all Earth.

Greenland ice cores show industrial record of acid rain, success of US Clean Air Act Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:18 AM PDT Detailed ice core measurements show smog-related ratios leveling off in 1970, and suggest these deposits are sensitive to the same chemicals that cause acid rain. By analyzing samples from the Greenland ice sheet, atmospheric scientists found clear evidence of the U.S. Clean Air Act. They also discovered a link between air acidity and how nitrogen is preserved in layers of snow.

Sensitive balance in immune system: How one molecule can affect health outcomes Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:18 AM PDT The protein c-FLIPR plays a key role in controlling a 'cellular suicide' process named 'apoptosis.' Scientists have described the significance of c-FLIPR for the immune system in detail: In the presence of an excess of this molecule, mice can fight infectious diseases better, but they develop autoimmune diseases as they get older. The inhibitory effect of c-FLIPR on apoptosis is the underlying cause in both cases.

Devil in disguise: Small coral-eating worm may mean big trouble for reefs Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:17 AM PDT A coral-eating flatworm has been identified as a potential threat for coral reefs. It is barely possible to see the parasitic worm Amakusaplana acroporae when it sits on its favorite hosts, the staghorn coral Acropora, thanks to its excellent camouflage. However, the researchers found that the small flatworm could cause significant damage to coral reefs.

Taming of the shrew: Bicolored shrew a health risk for horses Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:14 AM PDT The bicolored shrew is a protected species in Central Europe, but these furry insect-eaters have a dark secret. Researchers have discovered that bicolored shrews carry the Borna virus. Infection with this virus causes fatal encephalitis in horses. The mechanisms of transmission had until now been unclear, but we now know more about one route - from bicolored shrews to hosts.

Splice variants reveal connections among autism genes Posted: 11 Apr 2014 06:13 AM PDT A new aspect of autism has been discovered, revealing that proteins involved in autism interact with many more partners than previously known. The scientists isolated hundreds of new variants of autism genes from the human brain, and then screened their protein products against thousands of other proteins to identify interacting partners. Proteins produced by alternatively-spliced autism genes and their many partners formed a biological network that produced an unprecedented view of how autism genes are connected.

Scientists grow cartilage to reconstruct nose Posted: 10 Apr 2014 04:46 PM PDT Scientists report first ever successful nose reconstruction surgery using cartilage grown in the laboratory. Cartilage cells were extracted from the patient's nasal septum, multiplied and expanded onto a collagen membrane. The so-called engineered cartilage was then shaped according to the defect and implanted.

3-D printing cancer cells to mimic tumors Posted: 10 Apr 2014 04:46 PM PDT A 3-D model of a cancerous tumor using a 3-D printer has been successfully created by researchers. The model consists of a grid structure, 10 mm in width and length, made from gelatin, alginate and fibrin, which recreates the fibrous proteins that make up the extracellular matrix of a tumor. "With further understanding of these 3D models, we can use them to study the development, invasion, metastasis and treatment of cancer using specific cancer cells from patients. We can also use these models to test the efficacy and safety of new cancer treatment therapies and new cancer drugs," the lead author stated.

Scientists report success growing cartilage to reconstruct nostrils and implanting tissue-engineered vaginal organs into humans Posted: 10 Apr 2014 04:43 PM PDT Two new articles report the first ever successful operations in humans to reconstruct the alar wings of the nose (nostrils), and to implant tissue-engineered vaginal organs in women with a rare syndrome that causes the vagina to be underdeveloped or absent, in both cases using the patients' own tissue.

Laboratory-grown vaginas implanted in patients Posted: 10 Apr 2014 04:43 PM PDT Scientists reported the first human recipients of laboratory-grown vaginal organs. They have described long-term success in four teenage girls who received vaginal organs that were engineered with their own cells.

Bioanalysis: Microbeads are easily fixed Posted: 10 Apr 2014 01:02 PM PDT A passive method for sorting and fixing microbeads of different sizes could lead to cheaper and more functional biological assays, researchers report. Biological assays are an integral part of the researcher's toolkit in the fields of biomolecular chemistry and genomics. Microfluidic microbead systems, which consist of arrays of beads coated with an assay-specific reagent, have revolutionized biological assay technology by allowing the high-throughput detection of target molecules from small sample volumes. Fabrication of the microbead systems, however, requires great care and various ancillary devices.

Possible new target to attack flu virus identified Posted: 10 Apr 2014 12:36 PM PDT A protein produced by the influenza A virus helps it outwit one of our body's natural defense mechanisms, researchers have found. That makes the protein a potentially good target for antiviral drugs directed against the influenza A virus. When an influenza virus infects a human cell, it uses some of the host's cellular machinery to make copies of itself, or replicate. In this study, the researchers discovered that a protein produced by human body cells, DDX21, blocks this replication process.

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