ScienceDaily: Top Environment News |
- Global extinction: Gradual doom is just as bad as abrupt
- A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?
- Collective action: Occupied genetic switches hold clues to cells' history
- Parasites or not? Transposable elements in DNA of fruit flies may be beneficial
- Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead'
- Heat and cold damage corals in their own ways
- Biosolar breakthrough promises cheap, easy green electricity
| Global extinction: Gradual doom is just as bad as abrupt Posted: 03 Feb 2012 08:33 AM PST Around 250 million years ago, most life on Earth was wiped out in an extinction known as the "Great Dying." Geologists have learned that the end came slowly from thousands of centuries of volcanic activity.  |
| A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago? Posted: 03 Feb 2012 07:24 AM PST They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that "bat flies" have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.  |
| Collective action: Occupied genetic switches hold clues to cells' history Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:20 AM PST If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don't have surnames, but scientists have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the molecules that activate those switches – transcription factors – can be used in a similar way, as clues to a cell's developmental history. The study also unveils a new model for how enhancers function.  |
| Parasites or not? Transposable elements in DNA of fruit flies may be beneficial Posted: 03 Feb 2012 06:18 AM PST Many living organisms suffer from parasites, which use the hosts' resources for their own purposes. The problem of parasitism occurs at all levels right down to the DNA scale. Genomes may contain up to 80% "foreign" DNA but details of the mechanisms by which this enters the host genome and how hosts attempt to combat its spread are still the subject of conjecture. Nearly all organisms contain pieces of DNA that do not really belong to them.  |
| Food poisoning: Understanding how bacteria come back from the 'dead' Posted: 02 Feb 2012 12:12 PM PST Salmonella remains a serious cause of food poisoning, in part due to its ability to thrive and quickly adapt to the different environments in which it can grow. New research has taken a detailed look at what Salmonella does when it enters a new environment, which could provide clues to finding new ways of reducing transmission through the food chain and preventing human illness.  |
| Heat and cold damage corals in their own ways Posted: 02 Feb 2012 06:46 AM PST Around the world coral reefs are facing threats brought by climate change and dramatic shifts in sea temperatures. While warming has been the primary focus for scientists and ocean policy managers, cold can also cause significant damage. Scientists have shown that cool temperatures can inflict more damage in the short term, but heat is more destructive in the long run.  |
| Biosolar breakthrough promises cheap, easy green electricity Posted: 02 Feb 2012 06:22 AM PST Scientists have developed a system that taps into photosynthetic processes to produce efficient and inexpensive energy.  |
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