RefBan

Referral Banners

Monday, January 12, 2015

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Salvaging the ecosystem after salvage logging

Posted: 09 Jan 2015 01:44 PM PST

After a forest fire, logging companies often follow to do what is called salvage logging--salvaging the timber that has not been completely destroyed by the fire. The economic benefit is clear. But the ecological effects are unknown, experts say.

Small volcanic eruptions partly explain 'warming hiatus'

Posted: 09 Jan 2015 10:28 AM PST

The "warming hiatus" that has occurred over the last 15 years has been caused in part by small volcanic eruptions. Scientists have long known that volcanoes cool the atmosphere because of the sulfur dioxide that is expelled during eruptions. Droplets of sulfuric acid that form when the gas combines with oxygen in the upper atmosphere can persist for many months, reflecting sunlight away from Earth and lowering temperatures at the surface and in the lower atmosphere. New research further identifies observational climate signals caused by recent volcanic activity.

Mercury from gold mines accumulates far downstream

Posted: 08 Jan 2015 01:24 PM PST

Rhe risks taken on by artisanal, small-scale gold miners in Peru extend beyond personal and local health risks by creating hazardous levels of mercury in the food chain at least 350 miles away, researchers have discovered.

Special delivery: Hitchhiking microparticles deliver drugs directly

Posted: 07 Jan 2015 12:10 PM PST

Polymeric microparticles are made to 'hitchhike' to inflamed tissue in order to deliver their drug payload. By taking advantage of natural body processes, researchers have developed a method of targeting inflamed tissues, creating a way to treat both the inflammation and its underlying cause.

Restoring vision to the blind

Posted: 07 Jan 2015 12:07 PM PST

Scientists have long known that species such as amphibians and fish can regenerate retinal cells -- so why can't mammals? This and related questions are the premise for the third report from scientists trying to solve this mystery.

Hello people, goodbye soil: Humans erode soil 100 times faster than nature

Posted: 07 Jan 2015 12:07 PM PST

In North America, European colonization and agriculture led to as much soil loss in just decades as would have occurred naturally in thousands of years, new research shows. Scientists have, for the first time, precisely quantified natural rates of erosion in ten US river basins to compare with modern ones.

Snail invaders succumb to vacuum-steam treatment

Posted: 07 Jan 2015 06:12 AM PST

The U.S. East Coast and some port areas such as Houston, Texas, are being invaded by snails that hitchhike in containers shipped from the Mediterranean. A vacuum-steam treatment is effective at destroying invasive snails in a pallet of imported tile, researchers have demonstrated.

No comments: