ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Gas from pollutants, forest fires at potentially toxic levels
• No evidence of polar warming during penultimate interglacial
• Replacing coal with natural gas would reduce global warming
• Droughts threaten Bornean rainforests
• Largest ancient dam built by Maya in Central America
• To clean up the mine, let fungus reproduce
• Human cells, worms, frogs and plants share mechanism for asymmetrical patterning: tubulin proteins
• Rodent robbers good for tropical trees
• Protein found in spider venom could treat muscular dystrophy
• Sun's coronal mass ejection results in aurora show on Earth
• Engineering technology reveals eating habits of giant dinosaurs
• Global warming harms lakes
• Caution needed with new greenhouse gas emission standards: New model provides lifecycle analysis of 'well-to-wheel' oil sands emissions

Gas from pollutants, forest fires at potentially toxic levels Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:48 PM PDT Forest fires and emission of air pollutants, which include fumes from vehicles running on diesel and slow burning of coal and charcoal, release isocyanic acid in the troposphere. In 2011, scientists first detected isocyanic acid in the ambient atmosphere at levels that are toxic to human populations; at concentrations exceeding 1 parts-per-billion by volume (ppbv), human beings could experience tissue decay when exposed to the toxin.

No evidence of polar warming during penultimate interglacial Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:44 PM PDT The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), driven by temperature and salinity gradients, is an important component of the climate system; it transfers an enormous amount of heat via ocean currents and atmospheric circulation to high northern latitudes and hence has bearing on climate in the region.

Replacing coal with natural gas would reduce global warming Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:43 PM PDT A debate has raged in the past couple of years as to whether natural gas is better or worse overall than coal and oil from a global warming perspective. The back-and-forth findings have been due to the timelines taken into consideration, the details of natural gas extraction, and the electricity-generating efficiency of various fuels. A new analysis which focuses exclusively on potential warming and ignores secondary considerations, such as economic, political, or other environmental concerns, finds that natural gas is better for electricity generation than coal and oil under all realistic circumstances.

Droughts threaten Bornean rainforests Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:42 PM PDT At 130 million years old, the rainforests of Southeast Asia are the oldest in the world and home to thousands of plant and animal species, some endemic to these forests. The rainforests also play important roles in modulating regional rainfall as well in the global carbon cycle.

Largest ancient dam built by Maya in Central America Posted: 16 Jul 2012 04:14 PM PDT Archeologists have identified the largest ancient dam built by the Maya in Central America. They reveal new details about sustainable water and land management among the ancient Maya.

To clean up the mine, let fungus reproduce Posted: 16 Jul 2012 12:23 PM PDT Researchers have discovered that an Ascomycete fungus that is common in polluted water produces environmentally important minerals during asexual reproduction. The key chemical in the process, superoxide, is a byproduct of fungal growth when the organism produces spores. Once released into the environment, superoxide reacts with the element manganese, producing a highly reactive mineral that aids in the cleanup of toxic metals, degrades carbon substrates, and controls the bioavailability of nutrients.

Human cells, worms, frogs and plants share mechanism for asymmetrical patterning: tubulin proteins Posted: 16 Jul 2012 12:16 PM PDT As organisms develop, their internal organs arrange in a consistent asymmetrical pattern -- heart and stomach to the left, liver and appendix to the right. But how does this happen? Biologists have produced the first evidence that a class of proteins that make up a cell's skeleton -- tubulin proteins -- drives asymmetrical patterning across a broad spectrum of species, including plants, nematode worms, frogs, and human cells, at their earliest stages of development.

Rodent robbers good for tropical trees Posted: 16 Jul 2012 12:16 PM PDT A groundbreaking yearlong study in Panama suggests that squirrel-like agoutis have taken on the seed-spreading role of extinct mastodons and other elephant-like creatures, helping the black palm tree survive in the rainforest.

Protein found in spider venom could treat muscular dystrophy Posted: 16 Jul 2012 11:26 AM PDT When a stockbroker from the Buffalo suburbs discovered that his grandson had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, he turned to medical researchers for help in developing a treatment. He found a promising new therapy involving spider venom. The therapy is not a cure. But if it works in humans, it could extend lives for years -- maybe even decades.

Sun's coronal mass ejection results in aurora show on Earth Posted: 16 Jul 2012 10:53 AM PDT Over the July 14-15, 2012 weekend and through the early morning of July 16, Earth experienced what's called a geomagnetic storm, which happens when the magnetic bubble around Earth, the magnetosphere, quickly changes shape and size in response to incoming energy from the sun. In this case that energy came from a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with a July 12 X-class flare.

Engineering technology reveals eating habits of giant dinosaurs Posted: 16 Jul 2012 07:12 AM PDT High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago. A team of international researchers used CT scans and biomechanical modelling to show that Diplodocus -- one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered -- had a skull adapted to strip leaves from tree branches.

Global warming harms lakes Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:19 AM PDT Global warming affects lakes. Based on the example of Lake Zurich, researchers have demonstrated that there is insufficient water turnover in the lake during the winter and harmful Burgundy blood algae are increasingly thriving. The warmer temperatures are thus compromising the successful lake clean-ups of recent decades.

Caution needed with new greenhouse gas emission standards: New model provides lifecycle analysis of 'well-to-wheel' oil sands emissions Posted: 13 Jul 2012 09:29 AM PDT Researchers developed a new model called GHOST (GreenHouse gas emissions of current Oil Sands Technologies), which accounted for the 'upstream' GHG emissions combined with information in the scientific literature on 'downstream' emissions.

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