ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Spotting ultrafine loops in the sun's corona
• Protein residues kiss, don't tell: Genomes reveal contacts, scientists refine methods for protein-folding prediction
• Woolly mammoth extinction has lessons for modern climate change
• Climate change to alter global fire risk
• Potential Iceland eruption could pump acid into European airspace
• Mosquitoes bred to be incapable of transmitting malaria
• Voicemail discovered in nature: Insects receive soil messages from the past
• Powerful new method to analyze genetic data
• Volcanic gases could deplete ozone layer
• Satellite sees smoke from Siberian fires reach the US coast
• Potential carbon capture role for new CO2-absorbing material
• Why are some people greener than others?
• Living microprocessor tunes in to feedback
• Nature or nurture? It may depend on where you live

Spotting ultrafine loops in the sun's corona Posted: 12 Jun 2012 04:32 PM PDT A key to understanding the dynamics of the sun and what causes the great solar explosions there relies on deciphering how material, heat and energy swirl across the sun's surface and rise into the upper atmosphere, or corona. Scientists have for the first time observed a new facet of the system: Especially narrow loops of solar material scattered on the sun's surface, which are connected to higher lying, wider loops.

Protein residues kiss, don't tell: Genomes reveal contacts, scientists refine methods for protein-folding prediction Posted: 12 Jun 2012 11:51 AM PDT Researchers have created a computational tool to help predict how proteins fold by finding amino acid pairs that are distant in sequence but change together. Protein interactions offer clues to the treatment of disease, including cancer.

Woolly mammoth extinction has lessons for modern climate change Posted: 12 Jun 2012 11:48 AM PDT Not long after the last ice age, the last woolly mammoths succumbed to a lethal combination of climate warming, encroaching humans and habitat change -- the same threats facing many species today.

Climate change to alter global fire risk Posted: 12 Jun 2012 11:48 AM PDT Climate change is widely expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world, with some regions, such as the western United States, seeing more frequent fires within the next 30 years, according to a new analysis. The study used 16 different climate change models to generate what the researchers said is one of the most comprehensive projections to date of how climate change might affect global fire patterns.

Potential Iceland eruption could pump acid into European airspace Posted: 12 Jun 2012 11:48 AM PDT A modern recurrence of an extraordinary type of volcanic eruption in Iceland could inject large quantities of hazardous gases into North Atlantic and European flight corridors, potentially for months at a time, a new study suggests. Using computer simulations, researchers are investigating the likely atmospheric effects if a "flood lava" eruption took place in Iceland today.

Mosquitoes bred to be incapable of transmitting malaria Posted: 12 Jun 2012 08:59 AM PDT Mosquitoes bred to be unable to infect people with the malaria parasite are an attractive approach to helping curb one of the world's most pressing public health issues, according to scientists.

Voicemail discovered in nature: Insects receive soil messages from the past Posted: 12 Jun 2012 08:59 AM PDT Insects can use plants as "green phones" for communication with other bugs. A new study now shows that through those same plants insects are also able to leave "voicemail" messages in the soil. Herbivorous insects store their voicemails via their effects on soil fungi. Researchers discovered this unique messaging service in the ragwort plant.

Powerful new method to analyze genetic data Posted: 12 Jun 2012 08:59 AM PDT Researchers have developed a powerful visual analytical approach to explore genetic data, enabling scientists to identify novel patterns of information that could be crucial to human health.

Volcanic gases could deplete ozone layer Posted: 12 Jun 2012 08:59 AM PDT Giant volcanic eruptions in Nicaragua over the past 70,000 years could have injected enough gases into the atmosphere to temporarily thin the ozone layer, according to new research. And, if it happened today, a similar explosive eruption could do the same, releasing more than twice the amount of ozone-depleting halogen gases currently in stratosphere due to humanmade emissions.

Satellite sees smoke from Siberian fires reach the US coast Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:16 AM PDT Fires burning in Siberia recently sent smoke across the Pacific Ocean and into the US and Canada. Images of data taken by the nation's newest Earth-observing satellite tracked aerosols from the fires taking six days to reach America's shores.

Potential carbon capture role for new CO2-absorbing material Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:14 AM PDT A novel porous material that has unique carbon dioxide retention properties has just been developed.

Why are some people greener than others? Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:14 AM PDT Differences in attitudes and cultural values could have far-reaching implications for the development of a sustainable global society, according to a new analysis.

Living microprocessor tunes in to feedback Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:14 AM PDT What keeps the machinery for chopping certain precursor RNA strands into functional pieces from cutting up the wrong kinds of RNA?

Nature or nurture? It may depend on where you live Posted: 12 Jun 2012 07:13 AM PDT The extent to which our development is affected by nature or nurture -- our genetic make-up or our environment -- may differ depending on where we live, according to new research.

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