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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Mathematicians show how shallow water may help explain tsunami power

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 03:57 PM PDT

While wave watching is a favorite pastime of beach-goers, few notice what is happening in the shallowest water. A closer look by two applied mathematicians has led to the discovery of interacting X- and Y-shaped ocean waves that may help explain why some tsunamis are able to wreak so much havoc.

Jesus's wife? Scholar announces existence of a new early Christian gospel from Egypt

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:36 PM PDT

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies today.

How life arose on Earth: Researchers brew up organics on ice

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 01:22 PM PDT

Would you like icy organics with that? Maybe not in your coffee, but researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are creating concoctions of organics, or carbon-bearing molecules, on ice in the lab, then zapping them with lasers. Their goal: to better understand how life arose on Earth.

University students design unique marine-tracking device

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:41 PM PDT

Students from different disciplines came together to design a unique marine-tracking device. The device will collect data by being attached to a fish's tail. By using this technology, which can track up to 500 tail-movements per second, researchers hope to discover more about how a fish's movement relates to its behavior and growth rate.

Aldo Leopold's field notes score a lost 'soundscape'

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 12:41 PM PDT

Among his many qualities, the pioneering wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold was a meticulous taker of field notes.

Dictionary completed on language used everyday in ancient Egypt

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 11:50 AM PDT

A dictionary of thousands of words chronicling the everyday lives of people in ancient Egypt -- including what taxes they paid, what they expected in a marriage and how much work they had to do for the government -- has been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago.

Surprising demographic shifts in endangered monkey population challenge conservation expectations

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 11:50 AM PDT

At first glance, the northern muriqui monkey is a prime conservation success story. These Brazilian primates are critically endangered, but in the past 30 years a population on a private reserve has grown from just 60 individuals to some 300, now comprising almost a third of the total remaining animals. A recent analysis of the factors contributing to this population's tremendous growth reveals surprising trends that raise new questions about conservation, recovery and what constitutes a healthy population.

Sea surface temperatures reach record highs on Northeast continental shelf

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 09:15 AM PDT

During the first six months of 2012, sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem were the highest ever recorded. The annual 2012 spring plankton bloom was intense, started earlier and lasted longer than average. This has implications for marine life from the smallest creatures to the largest marine mammals like whales. Atlantic cod continued to shift northeastward from its historic distribution center.

Comet may have exploded over Canada 12,900 years ago after all

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 08:13 AM PDT

New evidence and support for a theory introduced in 2007 suggested a comet may have exploded over Canada 12,900 years ago (the Younger Dryas Boundary), killing off the Clovis people and large animals and sending the earth back into an ice age. It refutes a study in 2009 that failed to replicate the findings of the 2007 study. The key findings in this new study resulted from sampling done at an archaeological site known as Topper.

Global warming: Evolutionary straitjacket means flies can't take the heat

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 06:08 AM PDT

Many species of fruit fly lack the ability to adapt effectively to predicted increases in global temperatures and may face extinction in the near future, according to new research.

Crews uncover massive Roman mosaic in southern Turkey

Posted: 18 Sep 2012 05:39 AM PDT

An archaeological team has uncovered a massive Roman mosaic in southern Turkey -- a meticulously crafted, 1,600-square-foot work of decorative handiwork built during the region's imperial zenith. It's believed to be the largest mosaic of its type in the region and demonstrates the reach and cultural influence of the Roman Empire in the area in the third and fourth centuries A.D.

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