ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

---

• New monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric questions
• Lizard moms may prepare their babies for a stressful world
• State of Himalayan glaciers less alarming than feared
• Strange cousins: Molecular alternatives to DNA, RNA offer new insight into life’s origins
• Ravens remember relationships they had with others
• Boundary between electronics and biology is blurring: First proof of ferroelectricity in simplest amino acid
• Deadly jellyfish weapons unraveled
• Higher concentrations of heavy metals found in post-oil spill oysters from Gulf of Mexico, experts say
• World's first handmade cloned transgenic sheep born in China
• Chernobyl radiation fells female birds, making chirping more frequent from lonely males
• Evolution: Vangas beat Darwin’s finches in diversity
• New technology uses less water and produces energy and fertilizer at the same time
• Analysis raises atmospheric, ecologic and economic doubts about forest bioenergy
• Advance could mean stain-busting super scrub brushes and other new laundry products
• Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as electricity source
• Bioreactor redesign dramatically improves yield
• Pollen levels are rising across Europe
• With age comes greater success among hunting dogs
• 3-D RNA modeling opens scientific doors

New monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric questions Posted: 19 Apr 2012 01:35 PM PDT Scientists have developed a new monitoring system to analyze and compare emissions from human-made fossil fuels and trace gases in the atmosphere, a technique that likely could be used to monitor the effectiveness of measures regulating greenhouse gases.

Lizard moms may prepare their babies for a stressful world Posted: 19 Apr 2012 11:31 AM PDT Stressed out lizard moms tend to give their developing embryos short shrift, but the hardship may ultimately be a good thing for the babies once they're born, according to a new study.

State of Himalayan glaciers less alarming than feared Posted: 19 Apr 2012 11:31 AM PDT Several hundreds of millions of people in Southeast Asia depend, to varying degrees, on the freshwater reservoirs of the Himalayan glaciers. Consequently, it is important to detect the potential impact of climate changes on the Himalayan glaciers at an early stage. Glaciologists now reveal that the glaciers in the Himalayas are declining less rapidly than was previously thought. However, the scientists see major hazard potential from outbursts of glacial lakes.

Strange cousins: Molecular alternatives to DNA, RNA offer new insight into life’s origins Posted: 19 Apr 2012 11:31 AM PDT Scientists have been investigating properties of so-called xenonucleic acids or XNAs. They have demonstrated for the first time that six of these unnatural nucleic acid polymers are capable of sharing information with DNA. One of these XNAs, a molecule referred to as anhydrohexitol nucleic acid or HNA, was capable of undergoing directed evolution and folding into biologically useful forms.

Ravens remember relationships they had with others Posted: 19 Apr 2012 10:25 AM PDT In daily life we remember faces and voices of several known individuals. Similarly, mammals have been shown to remember calls and faces of known individuals after a number of years. Ravens have now been found to differentiate individuals based on familiarity. Additionally, scientists discovered that ravens can remember the closeness they had with others for three years.

Boundary between electronics and biology is blurring: First proof of ferroelectricity in simplest amino acid Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:15 AM PDT The boundary between electronics and biology is blurring with the first detection of ferroelectric properties in an amino acid called glycine.

Deadly jellyfish weapons unraveled Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:14 AM PDT Researchers have analyzed proteins of stinging cells in the hydra freshwater polyp. The results of their research reveal a complex mixture of toxic and structural proteins that can explain the extraordinary toxicity and biophysical properties of these unique cells. They also show how the energy for discharging the toxin can be stored in the stinging cells and released at extraordinary speed.

Higher concentrations of heavy metals found in post-oil spill oysters from Gulf of Mexico, experts say Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:25 AM PDT Scientists have detected evidence that pollutants from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have entered the ecosystem's food chain. Preliminary results demonstrate that oysters collected post-spill contain higher concentrations of heavy metals in their shells, gills, and muscle tissue than those collected before the spill.

World's first handmade cloned transgenic sheep born in China Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:24 AM PDT Scientists have made a significant breakthrough in animal cloning. The world's first transgenic sheep produced with a simplified technique, handmade cloning, was successfully born on March 26, 2012.

Chernobyl radiation fells female birds, making chirping more frequent from lonely males Posted: 19 Apr 2012 07:20 AM PDT Birdsong is one of the joys of nature, but higher percentages of birds chirping near Chernobyl are a perverse indication of radiation contamination, according to a new study.

Evolution: Vangas beat Darwin’s finches in diversity Posted: 19 Apr 2012 06:08 AM PDT The diversity of the Madagascan vangas is unique. The bird family only consists of 22 species, but these cover the whole range of body size of the passerines, the bird group vangas belong to (6,000 species). Whereas smaller species use their comparatively small bill to feed by picking up insects, the largest among the vanga species may even catch amphibians with its very large bill. Thus vangas are much more diverse than Darwin's finches, known to be a model for rapid evolution. Vangidae are the only known birds which experienced two peaks of rapid diversification, new research suggests. For birds, only one such peak is common.

New technology uses less water and produces energy and fertilizer at the same time Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT Water is a valuable resource. New technologies are making it easier to handle drinking water responsibly, purify wastewater effectively and even recover biogas and fertilizer.

Analysis raises atmospheric, ecologic and economic doubts about forest bioenergy Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:53 AM PDT A large, global move to produce more energy from forest biomass may be possible and already is beginning in some places, but scientists say in a new analysis that such large-scale bioenergy production from forest biomass is unsustainable and will increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Advance could mean stain-busting super scrub brushes and other new laundry products Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:52 AM PDT Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a way to reuse -- hundreds of times -- the expensive, dirt-busting enzymes that boost the cleaning power of laundry detergents and powdered bleaches that now disappear down the drain. The discovery opens the door to new laundry products, like special scrub brushes or reusable enzyme-coated plastic flakes and strips that might be added to cheaper detergents.

Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as electricity source Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:51 AM PDT A new genre of electric power-generating stations could supply electricity for more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global potential of a little-known energy source that exists where rivers flow into the ocean, a new analysis has concluded. The process requires no fuel, is sustainable and releases no carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas).

Bioreactor redesign dramatically improves yield Posted: 18 Apr 2012 10:51 AM PDT Scientists explain why a microalgae bioreactor redesign provides an order-of-magnitude improvement over conventional cultivation methods.

Pollen levels are rising across Europe Posted: 16 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT From Reykjavik to Thessaloniki, pollen levels are on the increase. A team of researchers reports that pollen counts have already risen across Europe in recent years. Their findings are based on an analysis of pollen time series in 13 countries. This trend is more pronounced in urban areas. The scientists believe that climate change will strengthen this trend.

With age comes greater success among hunting dogs Posted: 16 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT In conducting research on hunting dogs in lowland Nicaragua, researchers have found that older and male dogs seem to enjoy better success rates than do younger and female dogs. Also, dogs are more suited to wildlife sustainability than other hunting options. Hunters with firearms tend to disproportionately hunt prey that lives in trees, including slow-breeding primates, whereas hunters with dogs tend to harvest relatively fast-breeding animals such as agoutis, pacas and armadillos.

3-D RNA modeling opens scientific doors Posted: 15 Apr 2012 12:13 PM PDT Scientists have demonstrated a simple, cost-effective technique for three-dimensional RNA structure prediction that will help scientists understand the structures, and ultimately the functions, of the RNA molecules that dictate almost every aspect of human cell behavior.

You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Environment News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610