ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• You are what (and where) you eat: Mercury pollution threatens Arctic foxes
• New fairyflies or mymarid wasp species named after university
• Landsat thermal sensor lights up from volcano's heat
• Climate change, not human activity, led to megafauna extinction
• The Black Sea is a goldmine of ancient genetic data
• Boosting 'cellular garbage disposal' can delay the aging process
• Bats use blood to reshape tongue for feeding
• NASA opens new era in measuring western U.S. snowpack
• Critical link in mammalian odor detection identified
• Ubiquitous engineered nanomaterials can cause lung inflammation: Substances are used in everything from paint to sporting equipment
• Zeal to ensure clean leafy greens takes bite out of riverside habitat in California
• Flame retardants, used in everyday products, may be toxic to children: Lower intelligence, hyperactivity seen
• Reversal of the Black Widow myth: Some male spiders prefer to eat old females rather than mate with them
• Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material
• Midwestern frogs decline, mammal populations altered by invasive plant, studies reveal

You are what (and where) you eat: Mercury pollution threatens Arctic foxes Posted: 06 May 2013 04:10 PM PDT New scientific results show that arctic foxes accumulate dangerous levels of mercury if they live in coastal habitats and feed on prey which lives in the ocean.

New fairyflies or mymarid wasp species named after university Posted: 06 May 2013 03:17 PM PDT An entomologist discovered a new wasp species in Russia and named it after the university, commonly abbreviated as UCR. A museum researcher had been sorting wasps from the Russian Far East, when he discovered several tiny female fairyflies, or mymarid wasps, 1.1 to 1.2 millimeters in body length. He named the species Gonatocerus ucri.

Landsat thermal sensor lights up from volcano's heat Posted: 06 May 2013 03:17 PM PDT As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia's Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air. The satellite's Operational Land Imager detected the white cloud of smoke and ash drifting northwest, over the green forests of the island and the blue waters of the tropical sea. The Thermal Infrared Sensor on LDCM picked up even more.

Climate change, not human activity, led to megafauna extinction Posted: 06 May 2013 03:17 PM PDT Most species of gigantic animals that once roamed Australia had disappeared by the time people arrived, a major review of the available evidence has concluded. The research challenges the claim that humans were primarily responsible for the demise of the megafauna in a proposed "extinction window" between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, and points the finger instead at climate change.

The Black Sea is a goldmine of ancient genetic data Posted: 06 May 2013 03:17 PM PDT When one marine paleoecologist was mining through vast amounts of genetic data from the Black Sea sediment record, he was amazed about the variety of past plankton species that left behind their genetic makeup (i.e., the plankton paleome).

Boosting 'cellular garbage disposal' can delay the aging process Posted: 06 May 2013 03:16 PM PDT Biologists have identified a gene, previously implicated in Parkinson's disease, that can delay the onset of aging and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies. This research has important potential implications for aging and disease in humans. The gene, Parkin, serves at least two vital functions. By increasing Parkin activity, the scientists extended the lifespan of the flies by more than 25 percent.

Bats use blood to reshape tongue for feeding Posted: 06 May 2013 03:14 PM PDT Scientists have found that a species of bat uses blood flow to reshape its tongue while feeding. The quick dynamic action makes the tongue an effective "mop" for nectar and could even inspire new industrial designs.

NASA opens new era in measuring western U.S. snowpack Posted: 06 May 2013 01:13 PM PDT A new NASA airborne mission has created the first maps of the entire snowpack of two major mountain watersheds in California and Colorado, producing the most accurate measurements to date of how much water they hold.

Critical link in mammalian odor detection identified Posted: 06 May 2013 01:12 PM PDT Researchers at the Monell Center have identified a protein that is critical to the ability of mammals to smell. Mice engineered to be lacking the Ggamma13 protein in their olfactory receptors were functionally anosmic – unable to smell. The findings may lend insight into the underlying causes of certain smell disorders in humans.

Ubiquitous engineered nanomaterials can cause lung inflammation: Substances are used in everything from paint to sporting equipment Posted: 06 May 2013 07:33 AM PDT Scientists have found that breathing ultrafine particles from a large family of materials that increasingly are found in a host of household and commercial products, from sunscreens to the ink in copy machines to super-strong but lightweight sporting equipment, can cause lung inflammation and damage.

Zeal to ensure clean leafy greens takes bite out of riverside habitat in California Posted: 06 May 2013 06:54 AM PDT As consumers, we like to hear that produce growers and distributors go above and beyond food safety mandates to ensure that healthy fresh fruits and vegetables do not carry bacteria or viruses that can make us sick. But in California's Salinas Valley, some more vigorous interventions are cutting into the last corners of wildlife habitat, without evidence of food safety benefits, creating tensions between wildlife preservation and food safety where none need exist.

Flame retardants, used in everyday products, may be toxic to children: Lower intelligence, hyperactivity seen Posted: 06 May 2013 06:54 AM PDT Chemicals called polybrominated diphenyl ethers have been used for decades to reduce fires in everyday products such as baby strollers, carpeting and electronics. A new study shows that prenatal exposure to the flame retardants is associated with lower intelligence and hyperactivity in early childhood.

Reversal of the Black Widow myth: Some male spiders prefer to eat old females rather than mate with them Posted: 06 May 2013 06:51 AM PDT The Black Widow spider gets its name from the popular belief that female spiders eat their male suitors after mating. However, a new study has shown that the tendency to consume a potential mate is also true of some types of male spider. The study finds that male spiders of the Micaria sociabilis species are more likely to eat the females than be eaten.

Microwave oven cooks up solar cell material Posted: 06 May 2013 06:49 AM PDT Metallurgists used an old microwave oven to produce a nanocrystal semiconductor rapidly using cheap, abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. They hope it will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and systems to convert waste heat to electricity.

Midwestern frogs decline, mammal populations altered by invasive plant, studies reveal Posted: 01 May 2013 11:51 AM PDT Researchers have discovered a new culprit contributing to amphibian decline and altered mammal distribution throughout the Midwest region -- the invasive plant European buckthorn.

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