ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Museum find proves exotic ‘big cat’ prowled British countryside a century ago
• Scientists detect 'dark lightning' energy burst linked to visible lightning
• Just what makes that little old ant… change a flower's nectar content?
• Rethinking early atmospheric oxygen: Possibility of more dynamic biological oxygen cycle on early Earth than previously supposed
• Gut bacteria byproduct predicts heart attack and stroke
• Mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic
• New battery design could help solar and wind power the grid
• Ancient Earth crust stored in deep mantle
• Functional potential of genes: Pushing the boundaries of transcription
• A simple solution to air pollution from wood-burning cookstoves
• Humans passing drug resistance to wildlife in protected areas in Africa
• What planets are made of: Findings establish counterintuitive potential planet-forming materials
• Ice tubes in polar seas -- 'brinicles' or 'sea stalactites' -- provide clues to origin of life
• Fighting bacteria with new genre of antibodies
• Deep, permeable soils buffer impacts of crop fertilizer on Amazon streams
• Sunlit snow triggers atmospheric cleaning, ozone depletion in the Arctic
• Tinkerbella nana: A new representative from the world of fairyflies
• Malaria parasite protein identified as potential new target for drug treatment
• High-nutrition and disease-resistant purple and yellow-fleshed potato clones obtained

Museum find proves exotic ‘big cat’ prowled British countryside a century ago Posted: 24 Apr 2013 07:24 PM PDT The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum's underground storeroom proves that a non-native 'big cat' prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century. The animal's skeleton and mounted skin was analyzed and Aberystwyth universities and found to be a Canadian lynx – a carnivorous predator more than twice the size of a domestic cat.

Scientists detect 'dark lightning' energy burst linked to visible lightning Posted: 24 Apr 2013 06:03 PM PDT Researchers have identified a burst of high-energy radiation known as 'dark lightning" immediately preceding a flash of ordinary lightning. The new finding provides observational evidence that the two phenomena are connected, although the exact nature of the relationship between ordinary bright lightning and the dark variety is still unclear, the scientists said.

Just what makes that little old ant… change a flower's nectar content? Posted: 24 Apr 2013 03:52 PM PDT Ants play a variety of important roles in many ecosystems. As frequent visitors to flowers, they can benefit plants in their role as pollinators when they forage on sugar-rich nectar. However, a new study reveals that this mutualistic relationship may actually have some hidden costs.

Rethinking early atmospheric oxygen: Possibility of more dynamic biological oxygen cycle on early Earth than previously supposed Posted: 24 Apr 2013 03:52 PM PDT Using a quantitative model, a research team of biogeochemists has provided a new view on the relationship between the earliest accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, arguably the most important biological event in Earth's history, and its relationship to the sulfur cycle. Their model, the researchers argue, is one step toward a more integrated view of how Earth's crust, mantle and atmosphere interact in the global sulfur cycle.

Gut bacteria byproduct predicts heart attack and stroke Posted: 24 Apr 2013 03:52 PM PDT A microbial byproduct of intestinal bacteria contributes to heart disease and serves as an accurate screening tool for predicting future risks of heart attack, stroke and death in persons not otherwise identified by traditional risk factors and blood tests, according to new research.

Mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic Posted: 24 Apr 2013 01:11 PM PDT Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?

New battery design could help solar and wind power the grid Posted: 24 Apr 2013 11:06 AM PDT Researchers have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.

Ancient Earth crust stored in deep mantle Posted: 24 Apr 2013 10:27 AM PDT Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth's crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research now demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago.

Functional potential of genes: Pushing the boundaries of transcription Posted: 24 Apr 2013 10:26 AM PDT Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes.

A simple solution to air pollution from wood-burning cookstoves Posted: 24 Apr 2013 10:26 AM PDT Wood-burning cookstoves, used by millions of people worldwide, cause air pollution, disease and death. A team of university students studied the problem and came up with a simple, low-cost solution: better ventilation.

Humans passing drug resistance to wildlife in protected areas in Africa Posted: 24 Apr 2013 09:55 AM PDT Researchers have discovered that humans are passing antibiotic resistance to wildlife, especially in protected areas where numbers of humans are limited. In the case of banded mongoose in a Botswana study, multidrug resistance among study social groups, or troops, was higher in the protected area than in troops living in village areas. The study also reveals that humans and mongoose appear to be readily exchanging fecal microorganisms, increasing the potential for disease transmission.

What planets are made of: Findings establish counterintuitive potential planet-forming materials Posted: 24 Apr 2013 09:54 AM PDT Scientists have made a startling prediction that challenges existing chemical models and current understanding of planetary interiors -- magnesium oxide, a major material in the formation of planets, can exist in several different compositions.

Ice tubes in polar seas -- 'brinicles' or 'sea stalactites' -- provide clues to origin of life Posted: 24 Apr 2013 08:23 AM PDT Life on Earth may have originated not in warm tropical seas, but with weird tubes of ice -- sometimes called "sea stalactites" -- that grow downward into cold seawater near the Earth's poles, scientists are reporting.

Fighting bacteria with new genre of antibodies Posted: 24 Apr 2013 08:23 AM PDT In an advance toward coping with bacteria that shrug off existing antibiotics and sterilization methods, scientists are reporting development of a new family of selective antimicrobial agents that do not rely on traditional antibiotics. They report on these synthetic colloid particles, which can be custom-designed to recognize the shape of specific kinds of bacteria and inactivate them.

Deep, permeable soils buffer impacts of crop fertilizer on Amazon streams Posted: 24 Apr 2013 08:23 AM PDT A new study in the fast-changing southern Amazon -- a region marked by widespread replacement of native forest by cattle ranches and croplands -- suggests that some of the damaging impacts of agricultural fertilization on local streams may be buffered by the deep, highly permeable soils that characterize large areas of the expanding cropland.

Sunlit snow triggers atmospheric cleaning, ozone depletion in the Arctic Posted: 24 Apr 2013 08:23 AM PDT Researchers have discovered that sunlit snow is the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone.

Tinkerbella nana: A new representative from the world of fairyflies Posted: 24 Apr 2013 07:30 AM PDT A new genus and species of fairyfly, Tinkerbella nana (Mymaridae), is described from Costa Rica. It is compared with the related species Kikiki huna Beardsley and Huber, which holds the record for the smallest winged insect. The new genus and species is named after the fairy Tinker Bell in the 1904 play "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie.

Malaria parasite protein identified as potential new target for drug treatment Posted: 24 Apr 2013 05:13 AM PDT Scientists have discovered how a protein within the malaria parasite is essential to its survival as it develops inside a mosquito. They believe their findings identify this protein as a potential new target for drug treatments to prevent malaria being passed to humans. The researchers found that when this protein – a transporter responsible for controlling the level of calcium inside cells – is absent during the parasite's sexual reproduction stages inside a mosquito, the parasite dies before developing fully.

High-nutrition and disease-resistant purple and yellow-fleshed potato clones obtained Posted: 24 Apr 2013 05:10 AM PDT Agricultural researchers have created four new potato clones which are characterized by their high antioxidant content, their good production both in size and number of tubers, as well as by their resistance to the usual diseases of this crop. The clones were obtained by natural methods through crossing varieties from South America with commercial varieties used in Europe. The result was three clones of the purple-fleshed potato and one with a markedly yellow flesh.

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