ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Scientists find more precise way to turn off genes, a major goal of treatments that target cancer
• How to thrive in battery acid and among toxic metals
• 'Climate-smart strategies' proposed for spectacular US-Canadian landscape
• Stocking Florida bass in Texas reservoirs may alter stream systems connected to stocked reservoirs
• Glaciers will melt faster than ever and loss could be irreversible warn scientists
• Prairie dogs disperse when all close kin have disappeared
• Reconstruction of Earth climate history shows significance of recent temperature rise
• Bees get a buzz from flower nectar containing caffeine
• Biologists produce rainbow-colored algae
• Pushing the boundaries: Study provides key insight into how cells fuse
• Sea floor earthquake zones can act like a 'magnifying lens' strengthening tsunamis beyond what was through possible
• Key developmental mechanism in plants explained for first time
• Generations of cloned mice with normal lifespans created: 25th generation and counting
• What triggers puberty? Researchers discover mechanism that regulates steroid hormone production in fruit flies
• Pancakes with a side of math: A physiological model for sap exudation in maple trees
• Light shed on ancient origin of life
• The maternal effect: How mother deer protect their future kings
• How birds of different feathers flock together
• Discovery of genetic mechanism allowing potato cultivation in northern latitudes
• West Nile virus passes from female to eggs, but less so from larvae to adults

Scientists find more precise way to turn off genes, a major goal of treatments that target cancer Posted: 07 Mar 2013 04:06 PM PST Scientists have found a more precise way to turn off genes, a finding that will speed research discoveries and biotech advances and may eventually prove useful in reprogramming cells to regenerate organs and tissues.

How to thrive in battery acid and among toxic metals Posted: 07 Mar 2013 04:06 PM PST In the movie Alien, the title character is an extraterrestrial creature that can survive brutal heat and resist the effects of toxins. In real life, organisms with similar traits exist, such as the "extremophile" red alga Galdieria sulphuraria. In hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Galdieria uses energy from the sun to produce sugars through photosynthesis. In the darkness of old mineshafts in drainage as caustic as battery acid, it feeds on bacteria and survives high concentrations of arsenic and heavy metals. How has a one-celled alga acquired such flexibility and resilience?

'Climate-smart strategies' proposed for spectacular US-Canadian landscape Posted: 07 Mar 2013 04:06 PM PST A new report creates a conservation strategy that will promote wildlife resiliency in the Southern Canadian Rockies to the future impacts of climate change and road use. The report's "safe passages and safe havens" were informed in part by an assessment of six iconic species -- bull trout, westslope cutthroat trout, grizzly bears, wolverines, mountain goats and bighorn sheep -- five of which were ranked as highly vulnerable to projected changes.

Stocking Florida bass in Texas reservoirs may alter stream systems connected to stocked reservoirs Posted: 07 Mar 2013 01:16 PM PST A genetic analysis by biologists suggests that the stocking of Florida bass in Texas reservoirs impacts bass populations far beyond the actual stocking location.

Glaciers will melt faster than ever and loss could be irreversible warn scientists Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:54 AM PST Canada's Arctic Archipelago glaciers will melt faster than ever in the next few centuries. Scientists have shown that 20 percent of the Canadian Arctic glaciers may have disappeared by the end of this century which would amount to an additional sea level rise of 3.5 centimeters.

Prairie dogs disperse when all close kin have disappeared Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:54 AM PST Prairie dogs pull up stakes and look for a new place to live when all their close kin have disappeared from their home territory -- a striking pattern of dispersal that has not been observed for any other species.

Reconstruction of Earth climate history shows significance of recent temperature rise Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:53 AM PST Using data from 73 sites around the world, scientists have been able to reconstruct Earth's temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age, revealing that the planet today is warmer than it has been during 70 to 80 percent of the time over the last 11,300 years.

Bees get a buzz from flower nectar containing caffeine Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:52 AM PST You may need a cup of coffee to kick start the day but it seems honeybees also get their buzz from drinking flower nectar containing caffeine.

Biologists produce rainbow-colored algae Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:51 AM PST What can green algae do for science if they weren't, well, green?

Pushing the boundaries: Study provides key insight into how cells fuse Posted: 07 Mar 2013 11:51 AM PST Researchers have established a high-efficiency cell-cell fusion system, providing a new model to study how fusion works. The scientists showed that fusion between two cells is not equal and mutual as some assumed, but, rather, is initiated and driven by one of the fusion partners. The discovery, they say, could lead to improved treatments for muscular dystrophy, since muscle regeneration relies on cell fusion to make muscle fibers that contain hundreds or even thousands of nuclei.

Sea floor earthquake zones can act like a 'magnifying lens' strengthening tsunamis beyond what was through possible Posted: 07 Mar 2013 09:48 AM PST Until now, it was largely believed that the maximum tsunami height onshore could not exceed the depth of the seafloor. But new research shows that when focusing occurs, that scaling relationship breaks down and flooding can be up to 50 percent deeper with waves that do not lose height as they get closer to shore.

Key developmental mechanism in plants explained for first time Posted: 07 Mar 2013 09:47 AM PST In simple animals like the fruit fly and more recently in plants and mammals, scientists have been able to identify some of the principal players in the developmental symphony. Scientists have now explained for the first time the operation of a mechanism in plants that controls a class of key developmental regulatory genes, called homeobox genes.

Generations of cloned mice with normal lifespans created: 25th generation and counting Posted: 07 Mar 2013 09:29 AM PST Using the technique that created Dolly the sheep, researchers have identified a way to produce healthy mouse clones that live a normal lifespan and can be sequentially cloned indefinitely.

What triggers puberty? Researchers discover mechanism that regulates steroid hormone production in fruit flies Posted: 07 Mar 2013 09:29 AM PST Looking at the transformation of a fly larva into a pupa may help researchers understand the molecular mechanisms that trigger puberty. A study conducted on the fruit fly has identified an miRNA as key to the relationship between hormones that control growth and sexual maturity.

Pancakes with a side of math: A physiological model for sap exudation in maple trees Posted: 07 Mar 2013 08:07 AM PST The mechanisms behind sap exudation in sugar maple trees -- processes that trigger pressure differences causing sap to flow -- are a topic of much debate. In a new paper, researchers shed light on this subject by proposing a mathematical model for the essential physiological processes that drive sap flow.

Light shed on ancient origin of life Posted: 07 Mar 2013 08:06 AM PST Researchers discovered important genetic clues about the history of microorganisms called archaea and the origins of life itself in the first ever study of its kind. Results of their study shed light on one of Earth's oldest life forms.

The maternal effect: How mother deer protect their future kings Posted: 07 Mar 2013 06:25 AM PST Just like the classic tale of Bambi, females from the deer family are more likely to invest more in the survival and health of their male offspring if there is a good chance those sons will become a "Great Prince of the Forest."

How birds of different feathers flock together Posted: 07 Mar 2013 06:23 AM PST When different species of birds flock together, their flight formations are determined by social dynamics both between and within species.

Discovery of genetic mechanism allowing potato cultivation in northern latitudes Posted: 07 Mar 2013 06:23 AM PST An international team of scientists has discovered a genetic mechanism which allows potato plants to develop tubers during the long days of spring and summer in northern latitudes. Wild potatoes, which originate in the Andes of South America, were brought to Europe by Spanish sailors in the late 16th century. Naturally occurring near the Equator, Andean potatoes develop tubers on days which are relatively shorter than those in high latitude summer. Newly discovered mutations in a single potato gene are likely to have contributed to the widespread success of the potato, which is the third most important food crop in the world today.

West Nile virus passes from female to eggs, but less so from larvae to adults Posted: 05 Mar 2013 05:07 AM PST California researchers monitored WNV in mosquitoes in the field and in the lab, and observed how the virus is transmitted between generations and between insect stages.

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