ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Two new emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica
• Hurricane Sandy changes coastline in New Jersey
• Fighting bacteria with mucus: Key proteins in mucus prevent bacterial adhesion to surfaces
• Intensive farming with a climate-friendly touch: Farming/woodland mix increases yields
• Even yeast mothers sacrifice all for their babies
• Extreme weather preceded collapse of ancient Maya civilization
• Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds
• Light-based 'remote control' developed for proteins inside cells
• Corals attacked by toxic seaweed use chemical 911 signals to summon help from fish
• MicroRNAs in plants: Regulation of the regulator
• Clean-up of some U.S. contaminated groundwater sites unlikely for decades
• Fairy-wren babies need password for food
• Historic coral collapse on Great Barrier Reef
• Capturing carbon with clever trapdoors
• Gene find turns soldier beetle defense into biotech opportunity
• Meet Xenoceratops: Canada's newest horned dinosaur
• Greenland rocks provide evidence of Earth formation process
• Carbon dioxide: Our salvation from a future ice age?
• Chernobyl cleanup workers had significantly increased risk of leukemia
• Despite their thick skins, alligators and crocodiles are surprisingly touchy

Two new emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica Posted: 08 Nov 2012 03:14 PM PST While about 2500 chicks of emperor penguins are raised this year at the colony close to the French Dumont d'Urville Station, two new colonies totaling 6000 chicks have just been observed about 250 km away, near Mertz Glacier. Since a pair of emperor penguins may only successfully raise one chick a year, the population of breeding emperor penguins in this area of the Antarctic can therefore be estimated to more than about 8500 pairs, about three fold that previously thought.

Hurricane Sandy changes coastline in New Jersey Posted: 08 Nov 2012 12:20 PM PST On October 29, 2012, lives were changed forever along the shores of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and in the two dozen United States affected by what meteorologists are calling Superstorm Sandy. The landscape of the East Coast was also changed, though no geologist would ever use the word "forever" when referring to the shape of a barrier island.

Fighting bacteria with mucus: Key proteins in mucus prevent bacterial adhesion to surfaces Posted: 08 Nov 2012 12:17 PM PST Results from a recent study suggest a possible new source of protection against biofilm formation: polymers found in mucus.

Intensive farming with a climate-friendly touch: Farming/woodland mix increases yields Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST In the world of agriculture, climate protection and intensive farming are generally assumed to be a contradiction in terms. Scientists have come up with a new land development concept that could change this view.

Even yeast mothers sacrifice all for their babies Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST A mother's willingness to sacrifice her own health and safety for the sake of her children is a common narrative across cultures – and by no means unique to humans alone. Female polar bears starve, dolphin mothers stop sleeping and some spider moms give themselves as lunch for their crawly babies' first meal.

Extreme weather preceded collapse of ancient Maya civilization Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Decades of extreme weather crippled, and ultimately decimated, first the political culture and later the human population of the ancient Maya, according to a new study.

Future warming likely to be on high side of climate projections, analysis finds Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Climate model projections showing a greater rise in global temperature are likely to prove more accurate than those showing a lesser rise, according to a new analysis. The findings could provide a breakthrough in the longstanding quest to narrow the range of expected global warming.

Light-based 'remote control' developed for proteins inside cells Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Scientists have developed an intracellular remote control: a simple way to activate and track proteins, the busiest of cellular machines, using beams of light.

Corals attacked by toxic seaweed use chemical 911 signals to summon help from fish Posted: 08 Nov 2012 11:27 AM PST Corals under attack by toxic seaweed do what anyone might do when threatened -- they call for help. A new study shows that threatened corals send signals to fish "bodyguards" that quickly respond to trim back the noxious alga -- which can kill the coral if not promptly removed.

MicroRNAs in plants: Regulation of the regulator Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:18 AM PST MicroRNAs are essential regulators of the genetic program in multicellular organisms. Because of their potent effects, the production of these small regulators has itself to be tightly controlled, new research demonstrates.

Clean-up of some U.S. contaminated groundwater sites unlikely for decades Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:18 AM PST At least 126,000 sites across the US have contaminated groundwater that requires remediation, and about 10 percent of these sites are considered "complex," meaning restoration is unlikely to be achieved in the next 50 to 100 years due to technological limitations, says a new report.

Fairy-wren babies need password for food Posted: 08 Nov 2012 10:16 AM PST It's always a good idea to listen to your mother, but that goes double for baby fairy-wrens even before they are hatched. If those fairy-wren babies want to be fed, they need to have a password -- a single unique note -- taught to them by their mothers from outside the egg. The nestlings incorporate that password right into their begging calls, according to researchers.

Historic coral collapse on Great Barrier Reef Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:44 AM PST Australian marine scientists have unearthed evidence of an historic coral collapse in Queensland's Palm Islands following development on the nearby mainland. Cores taken through the coral reef at Pelorus Island confirm a healthy community of branching Acropora corals flourished for centuries before European settlement of the area, despite frequent floods and cyclone events. Then, between 1920 and 1955, the branching Acropora failed to recover.

Capturing carbon with clever trapdoors Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:44 AM PST Engineers have developed a novel method of collecting and storing carbon dioxide that will reduce the cost of separating and storing carbon dioxide. The quest to capture carbon dioxide is crucial to a cleaner future and once captured, carbon dioxide can be compressed and safely stored.

Gene find turns soldier beetle defense into biotech opportunity Posted: 08 Nov 2012 07:44 AM PST New antibiotic and anti-cancer chemicals may one day be synthesized using biotechnology, following a discovery of the three genes that combine to provide soldier beetles with their potent predator defense system.

Meet Xenoceratops: Canada's newest horned dinosaur Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:40 AM PST Scientists have named a new species of horned dinosaur (ceratopsian) from Alberta, Canada. Xenoceratops foremostensis was identified from fossils originally collected in 1958. Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest known large-bodied horned dinosaur from Canada.

Greenland rocks provide evidence of Earth formation process Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:39 AM PST Rocks dating back 3.4 billion years from south-west Greenland's Isua mountain range have yielded valuable information about the structure of the Earth during its earliest stages of development. In these rocks, which witnessed the first billion years of Earth's history researchers have highlighted a lack of neodymium-142, an essential chemical element for the study of the Earth's formation. This deficit supports the hypothesis that between 100 and 200 million years after its formation, the Earth was made up of an ocean of molten magma, which gradually cooled.

Carbon dioxide: Our salvation from a future ice age? Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:38 AM PST Humankind's emissions of fossil carbon and the resulting increase in temperature could prove to be our salvation from the next ice age. According to new research the current increase in the extent of peatland is having the opposite effect.

Chernobyl cleanup workers had significantly increased risk of leukemia Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:36 AM PST A 20-year study following 110,645 workers who helped clean up after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the former Soviet territory of Ukraine shows that the workers share a significant increased risk of developing leukemia. The results may help scientists better define cancer risk associated with low doses of radiation from medical diagnostic radiation procedures such as computed tomography scans and other sources.

Despite their thick skins, alligators and crocodiles are surprisingly touchy Posted: 08 Nov 2012 04:36 AM PST Crocodiles and alligators are notorious for their thick skin and well-armored bodies. So it comes as something of a surprise to learn that their sense of touch is one of the most acute in the animal kingdom. The crocodilian sense of touch is concentrated in a series of small, pigmented domes that dot their skin all over their body. In alligators, the spots are concentrated around their face and jaws. A new study has discovered that these spots contain a concentrated collection of touch sensors that make them even more sensitive to pressure and vibration than human fingertips.

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