ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Glyphosate-resistant 'superweeds' may be less susceptible to diseases
• Why is Earth so dry? Planet formed from rocky debris in hotter region, inside of solar system's 'snow line'
• Cleaning with sunlight
• Two elusive and endangered snow leopards are fitted with satellite collars for the first time in Afghanistan
• Frog calls inspire a new algorithm for wireless networks
• A bright future -- with algae: Diatoms as templates for tomorrow's solar cells
• Glacier break creates ice island twice size of Manhattan
• Global health impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster
• Reconstructing the diet of African hominid Australopithecus anamensis
• New inexpensive earthquake resistant houses
• What we know and don't know about Earth's missing biodiversity

Glyphosate-resistant 'superweeds' may be less susceptible to diseases Posted: 17 Jul 2012 10:13 AM PDT Scientists searching for clues to understand how superweeds obtain resistance to the popular herbicide glyphosate may have been missing a critical piece of information, a study shows.

Why is Earth so dry? Planet formed from rocky debris in hotter region, inside of solar system's 'snow line' Posted: 17 Jul 2012 10:12 AM PDT A new analysis of the common accretion-disk model explaining how planets form in a debris disk around our Sun uncovered a possible reason for Earth's comparative dryness. The study found that our planet formed from rocky debris in a dry, hotter region, inside of the so-called "snow line." The snow line in our solar system currently lies in the middle of the asteroid belt, a reservoir of rubble between Mars and Jupiter; beyond this point, the Sun's light is too weak to melt the icy debris left over from the protoplanetary disk. Previous accretion-disk models suggested that the snow line was much closer to the Sun 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth formed.

Cleaning with sunlight Posted: 17 Jul 2012 08:29 AM PDT The sun breaks through the clouds -- and surfaces start cleaning themselves! It may sound like magic, but in fact it's all thanks to the addition of titanium dioxide molecules. Activated by UV light, they trigger a reaction which destroys bacteria, algae and fungi, keeping items such as the armrests of garden chairs nice and clean.

Two elusive and endangered snow leopards are fitted with satellite collars for the first time in Afghanistan Posted: 17 Jul 2012 08:17 AM PDT Two snow leopards were captured, fitted with satellite collars, and released for the first time in Afghanistan by a team of Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists and Afghan veterinarians conducting research during a recent expedition.

Frog calls inspire a new algorithm for wireless networks Posted: 17 Jul 2012 07:01 AM PDT Males of the Japanese tree frog have learnt not to use their calls at the same time so that the females can distinguish between them. Scientists in Spain have used this form of calling behavior to create an algorithm that assigns colours to network nodes -- an operation that can be applied to developing efficient wireless networks.

A bright future -- with algae: Diatoms as templates for tomorrow's solar cells Posted: 17 Jul 2012 07:01 AM PDT Long before humankind invented silicon-based solar cells, nature had already found a way to use silica to harness the power of the sun -- in the form of algae. Researchers are now using diatoms and other single-celled algae as templates for developing tomorrow's solar cells.

Glacier break creates ice island twice size of Manhattan Posted: 17 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT An ice island twice the size of Manhattan has broken off from Greenland's Petermann Glacier, according to researchers. This marks the second massive break in two years.

Global health impacts of the Fukushima nuclear disaster Posted: 17 Jul 2012 05:49 AM PDT In the first detailed analysis of the global health effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, researchers estimate the number of deaths and cases of cancer worldwide resulting from the release of radiation.

Reconstructing the diet of African hominid Australopithecus anamensis Posted: 17 Jul 2012 05:48 AM PDT The diet of Australopithecus anamensis, a hominid that lived in the east of the African continent more than 4 million years ago, was very specialized and, according to a new study, it included foods typical of open environments (seeds, sedges, grasses, etc.), as well as fruits and tubers.

New inexpensive earthquake resistant houses Posted: 17 Jul 2012 05:48 AM PDT Researchers have successfully tested a new system to build earthquake resistant houses of high interest to third world countries with earthquakes.

What we know and don't know about Earth's missing biodiversity Posted: 17 Jul 2012 05:48 AM PDT Most of the world's species are still unknown to science although many researchers grappled to address the question of how many species there are on Earth over the recent decades. Estimates of non-microbial diversity on Earth provided by researchers range from 2 million to over 50 million species, with great uncertainties in numbers of insects, fungi, nematodes, and deep-sea organisms.

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