ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about environmental issues when couched in terms of fending off threats to 'purity'
• As Amazon urbanizes, rural fires burn unchecked
• Inspiration from a porcupine's quills
• Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer 'designer' drug
• Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also wiped out the 'Obamadon'
• BPA in dog training aids: High estrogen-mimicking chemical concentrations found in dog training batons
• Quantifying corn rootworm damage
• Gender differences found in seasonal auditory changes
• Citizen science more than a century later: Ordinary people go online to track Gulf oil spill
• Wind and solar power paired with storage could power grid 99.9 percent of the time
• Mining ancient ores for clues to early life
• Structure of carbon's 'Hoyle state' revealed
• From fish to man: Research reveals how fins became legs
• Smuggler's tunnels: Detecting tunnels using seismic waves not as simple as it sounds
• Tracking gene flow in marine plant evolution
• Onion soaks up heavy metal: Bioremediation with waste food
• Elk bones tell stories of life, death, and habitat use at Yellowstone National Park
• Ancient drawings in Peruvian desert: New light on the Nazca Lines
• New approach could help resolve mountaintop mining issues
• What it is to be a queen bee?
• Higher carbon dioxide levels mean poorer wheat quality
• First harbor of ancient Rome rediscovered

Conservatives can be persuaded to care more about environmental issues when couched in terms of fending off threats to 'purity' Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:37 PM PST When it comes to climate change, deforestation and toxic waste, the assumption has been that conservative views on these topics are intractable. But new research suggests that such viewpoints can be changed after all, when the messages about the need to be better stewards of the land are couched in terms of fending off threats to the "purity" and "sanctity" of Earth and our bodies.

As Amazon urbanizes, rural fires burn unchecked Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:08 PM PST Many Amazonians are moving out of the countryside, in search of economic opportunities in newly booming Amazonian cities. The resulting depopulation of rural areas, along with spreading road networks and increased drought, are causing more and bigger fires to ravage vast stretches, say researchers in a new study.

Inspiration from a porcupine's quills Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:08 PM PST Researchers hope to exploit the porcupine quill's unique properties to develop new types of adhesives, needles and other medical devices.

Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer 'designer' drug Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:08 PM PST Biologists have succeeded in genetically engineering algae to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer. Their achievement opens the door for making these and other "designer" proteins in larger quantities and much more cheaply than can now be made from mammalian cells.

Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also wiped out the 'Obamadon' Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:08 PM PST The asteroid collision widely thought to have killed the dinosaurs also led to extreme devastation among snake and lizard species, according to new research -- including the extinction of a newly identified lizard named Obamadon gracilis.

BPA in dog training aids: High estrogen-mimicking chemical concentrations found in dog training batons Posted: 10 Dec 2012 01:07 PM PST Sometimes orange, sometimes white, dog trainers often use plastic fetching batons called bumpers to teach dogs how to retrieve. But researchers have discovered that the dogs also may fetch a mouthful of potentially dangerous chemicals at the same time.

Quantifying corn rootworm damage Posted: 10 Dec 2012 11:52 AM PST Every year farmers spend a lot of money trying to control corn rootworm larvae, which are a significant threat to maize production in the United States and, more recently, in Europe. Researchers have been working on validating a model for estimating damage functions.

Gender differences found in seasonal auditory changes Posted: 10 Dec 2012 11:52 AM PST Auditory systems differ between sexes in sparrows depending on the season, a neuroscientist has found. The work adds to our knowledge of how the parts of the nervous system, including that of humans, are able to change.

Citizen science more than a century later: Ordinary people go online to track Gulf oil spill Posted: 10 Dec 2012 11:52 AM PST Researchers report on a new form of "citizen science," concluding that it can help assess health and environmental threats, such as those posed by the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. The researcher studied reports to an online Oil Spill Map and discovered that citizen science can red-flag potential hazards quickly and offers specific local information that often fails to make it into official scientific reports.

Wind and solar power paired with storage could power grid 99.9 percent of the time Posted: 10 Dec 2012 10:35 AM PST Renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid 99.9 percent of the time by 2030 at costs comparable to today's electricity expenses, according to new research. A well-designed combination of wind power, solar power and storage in batteries and fuel cells would nearly always exceed electricity demands while keeping costs low, scientists found.

Mining ancient ores for clues to early life Posted: 10 Dec 2012 10:35 AM PST An analysis of sulfide ore deposits from one of the world's richest base-metal mines confirms oxygen levels were extremely low on Earth 2.7 billion years ago, but also shows that microbes were actively feeding on sulfate in the ocean and influencing seawater chemistry during that geological period. The research provides new insight into how ancient metal-ore deposits can be used to better understand the chemistry of the ancient oceans -- and the early evolution of life.

Structure of carbon's 'Hoyle state' revealed Posted: 10 Dec 2012 09:47 AM PST A researcher has taken a "snapshot" of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible. And the picture looks like a bent arm.

From fish to man: Research reveals how fins became legs Posted: 10 Dec 2012 09:45 AM PST Vertebrates' transition to living on land, instead of only in water, represented a major event in the history of life. Now, researchers provide new evidence that the development of hands and feet occurred through the gain of new DNA elements that activate particular genes.

Smuggler's tunnels: Detecting tunnels using seismic waves not as simple as it sounds Posted: 10 Dec 2012 09:42 AM PST You'd think it would be easy to use seismic waves to find tunnels dug by smugglers of drugs, weapons or people. You'd be wrong. Scientists are now working to improve the detection of shallow tunnels, with the ultimate goal of helping detect tunnels for areas where they could pose a threat.

Tracking gene flow in marine plant evolution Posted: 10 Dec 2012 08:24 AM PST A new method that could give a deeper insight into evolutionary biology. Biologists identified the segregation of genes that a marine plant underwent during its evolution. They found that the exchange of genes, or gene flow, between populations of a marine plant went westward from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

Onion soaks up heavy metal: Bioremediation with waste food Posted: 10 Dec 2012 08:23 AM PST Onion and garlic waste from the food industry could be used to mop up hazardous heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, mercury and tin in contaminated materials, according to a new research.

Elk bones tell stories of life, death, and habitat use at Yellowstone National Park Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:16 AM PST Concentrations of elk bones and antlers provide baseline ecological data complementary to aerial counts Yellowstone National Park, adding a historical component to live observation. Because bones can last decades to centuries in the Yellowstone environment they can put relatively recent data from direct observation into broader context for managers looking at long-range planning, helping to sort out important changes from the noise of cyclical booms, busts and shifts in landscape use.

Ancient drawings in Peruvian desert: New light on the Nazca Lines Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:14 AM PST Archaeologists gain insight into ancient desert drawings – by walking them. Archaeologists have completed highly detailed research into the Nazca Lines – enigmatic drawings created between 2,100 and 1,300 years ago in the Peruvian desert.

New approach could help resolve mountaintop mining issues Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:13 AM PST A progressive approach to resolve the complex issues surrounding mountaintop mining needs to incorporate good civic science and meaningful routes for public involvement, researchers say.

What it is to be a queen bee? Posted: 10 Dec 2012 05:07 AM PST Queen sweat bees 'choose' the role of their daughters, according to a new study. The amount of food provided for the developing larvae determines whether the daughter becomes a worker or a new queen.

Higher carbon dioxide levels mean poorer wheat quality Posted: 10 Dec 2012 05:06 AM PST Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have a negative impact on the protein content of wheat grain and thus its nutritional quality.

First harbor of ancient Rome rediscovered Posted: 10 Dec 2012 05:06 AM PST Archaeologists had unearthed the great ancient monuments of Ostia, but the location of the harbor which supplied Rome with wheat remained to be discovered. Thanks to sedimentary cores, this "lost" harbor has finally been located northwest of the city of Ostia, on the left bank of the mouth of the Tiber.

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