ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Finding all asteroid threats to human populations: NASA announces asteroid grand challenge
• Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold
• Early-life air pollution linked with childhood asthma in minorities
• Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption
• Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent
• Seismic gap outside of Istanbul: Is this where the expected Marmara earthquake will originate from?
• Perching on the cliffs of New Zealand, endemic Lepidium flora faces extinction threats

Finding all asteroid threats to human populations: NASA announces asteroid grand challenge Posted: 18 Jun 2013 02:20 PM PDT NASA has announced a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them. The challenge is a large-scale effort that will use multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists. It complements NASA's recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.

Personality test finds some mouse lemurs shy, others bold Posted: 18 Jun 2013 11:14 AM PDT In the last 10 years the study of animal personality has gained ground with behavioral ecologists. Researchers have now found distinct personalities in the grey mouse lemur, the tiny, saucer-eyed primate native to the African island of Madagascar.

Early-life air pollution linked with childhood asthma in minorities Posted: 18 Jun 2013 10:18 AM PDT Scientists have found that exposure in infancy to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a component of motor vehicle air pollution, is strongly linked with later development of childhood asthma among African Americans and Latinos.

Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:51 AM PDT Researchers conclude in a new report that a global push for small hydropower projects, supported by various nations and also the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may cause unanticipated and potentially significant losses of habitat and biodiversity.

Herbal extract boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25 percent Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:51 AM PDT The herbal extract of a yellow-flowered mountain plant long used for stress relief was found to increase the lifespan of fruit fly populations by an average of 24 percent, according to researchers.

Seismic gap outside of Istanbul: Is this where the expected Marmara earthquake will originate from? Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:37 AM PDT Earthquake researchers have now identified a 30 kilometers long and ten kilometers deep area along the North Anatolian fault zone just south of Istanbul that could be the starting point for a strong earthquake. The group of seismologists say that this potential earthquake source is only 15 to 20 kilometers from the historic city center of Istanbul.

Perching on the cliffs of New Zealand, endemic Lepidium flora faces extinction threats Posted: 17 Jun 2013 08:12 AM PDT Cooks Scurvy Grass (Lepidium oleraceum) has an international claim to fame as the plant most commonly used by Captain James Cook and other 18th century explorers as an antiscorbutic. Formerly widespread on the beaches and cliffs of New Zealand, the species was by 1900 already widely acknowledged as uncommon. A detailed revision outlines a total of 16 species, describing 10 (all endemic) as new to science.

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