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Thursday, December 8, 2011

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Changes in bioelectric signals trigger formation of new organs: Tadpoles made to grow eyes in back, tail

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 02:57 PM PST

For the first time, scientists have altered natural bioelectrical communication among cells to directly specify the type of new organ to be created at a particular location within a vertebrate organism. Using genetic manipulation of membrane voltage in Xenopus (frog) embryos, biologists were able to cause tadpoles to grow eyes outside of the head area. The researchers achieved most surprising results when they manipulated membrane voltage of cells in the tadpole's back and tail, well outside of where the eyes could normally form.

A 'wild card' in your genes

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:30 AM PST

The human genome and the endowments of genes in other animals and plants are like a deck of poker cards containing a "wild card" that in a genetic sense introduces an element of variety and surprise that has a key role in life. That's what scientists are describing in a review of more than 100 studies on the topic.

Sewage treatment plants may contribute to antibiotic resistance problem

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:30 AM PST

Water discharged into lakes and rivers from municipal sewage treatment plants may contain significant concentrations of the genes that make bacteria antibiotic-resistant. That's the conclusion of a new study on a sewage treatment plant on Lake Superior in the Duluth, Minn., harbor.

North America's biggest dinosaur revealed

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST

New research has unveiled enormous bones from North America's biggest dinosaur. Researchers collected two gigantic vertebrae and a femur in New Mexico. The bones belong to the sauropod dinosaur Alamosaurus sanjuanensis: a long-necked plant eater related to Diplodocus. The Alamosaurus roamed what is now the southwestern United States and Mexico about 69 million years ago.

Solar power much cheaper to produce than most analysts realize, study finds

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST

The public is being kept in the dark about the viability of solar photovoltaic energy, according to a new study.

World's first super predator had remarkable vision

Posted: 07 Dec 2011 10:29 AM PST

Scientists working on fossils from Kangaroo Island, South Australia, have found eyes belonging to a giant 500 million-year-old marine predator that sat at the top of the earth's first food chain.

Insecticides an increasing problem in future for streams in Europe

Posted: 06 Dec 2011 10:14 AM PST

Europe's streams will in future be more heavily polluted with insecticides than before. The risks for streams caused by the use of insecticides in agriculture will increase significantly in many regions of Europe, and particularly in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and in Central Europe, according to scientists.

Stinky frogs are a treasure trove of antibiotic substances

Posted: 30 Nov 2011 07:04 AM PST

Some of the nastiest smelling creatures on Earth have skin that produces the greatest known variety of antibacterial substances that hold promise for becoming new weapons in the battle against antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are reporting. Their research is on amphibians so smelly (like rotten fish, for instance) that scientists term them "odorous frogs."

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