ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Energy within the cell: Energy-saving chaperon Hsp90
• Most recent European great ape discovered
• Major environmental study finds traces of many drugs in Swedish waters
• New information on the waste-disposal units of living cells
• Can we save the whales by putting a price on them?
• Early primate had transitional lemur-like grooming claw
• Simpler times: Did an earlier genetic molecule predate DNA and RNA?
• Evolution of complexity recreated using 'molecular time travel'

Energy within the cell: Energy-saving chaperon Hsp90 Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:06 PM PST A special group of proteins, the so-called chaperons, helps other proteins to obtain their correct conformation. Until now scientists supposed that hydrolyzing ATP provides the energy for the large conformational changes of chaperon Hsp90. Now a research team has demonstrated that Hsp90 utilizes thermal fluctuations as the driving force for its conformational changes.

Most recent European great ape discovered Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:03 PM PST Based on a hominid molar, scientists from Germany, Bulgaria and France have documented that great apes survived in Europe in savannah-like landscapes until seven million years ago.

Major environmental study finds traces of many drugs in Swedish waters Posted: 13 Jan 2012 05:49 PM PST High levels of the anti-inflammatory substance diclofenac are released from wastewater plants, according to a new study.

New information on the waste-disposal units of living cells Posted: 11 Jan 2012 12:40 PM PST Researchers have provided the most detailed look ever at the "regulatory particle" used by the proteasome - one of the most critical protein machines in living cells - to identify and degrade proteins marked for destruction. This new information holds implications for a broad range of vital biochemical processes, including transcription, DNA repair and the immune defense system.

Can we save the whales by putting a price on them? Posted: 11 Jan 2012 10:39 AM PST Every year, a group of anti-whaling nonprofit organizations that includes Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, and the World Wildlife Fund spend, by conservative estimates, some $25 million on a variety of activities intended to end commercial whaling.

Early primate had transitional lemur-like grooming claw Posted: 10 Jan 2012 04:29 PM PST A new study examines the first extinct North American primate with a toe bone showing features associated with the presence of both nails and a grooming claw, indicating our primate ancestors may have traded their flat nails for raised claws for functional purposes, much like pop icons Adele and Lady Gaga are doing today in the name of fashion.

Simpler times: Did an earlier genetic molecule predate DNA and RNA? Posted: 09 Jan 2012 07:30 AM PST Scientists have described the Darwinian evolution of functional TNA molecules from a large pool of random sequences. This is the first case where such methods have been applied to molecules other than DNA and RNA, or very close structural analogues thereof. One of the researchers said "the most important finding to come from this work is that TNA can fold into complex shapes that can bind to a desired target with high affinity and specificity."

Evolution of complexity recreated using 'molecular time travel' Posted: 08 Jan 2012 11:35 AM PST Scientists have now demonstrated how just a few small, high-probability mutations increased the complexity of a molecular machine more than 800 million years ago. By biochemically resurrecting ancient genes and testing their functions in modern organisms, the researchers showed that a new component was incorporated into the machine due to selective losses of function rather than the sudden appearance of new capabilities.

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