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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

ScienceDaily: Top Environment News


Hiding in plain sight: New species of bird discovered in Cambodia's capitol Phnom Penh

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 02:22 PM PDT

A team of scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife International, and other groups have discovered a new species of bird with distinct plumage and a loud call living not in some remote jungle, but in a capital city of 1.5 million people.

Human and canine lymphomas share molecular similarities, first large-scale comparison shows

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 11:09 AM PDT

Humans and their pet dogs are close, so close that they both develop a type of cancer called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In humans it's the most common lymphoma subtype while in dogs, it's one of the most common cancers in veterinary oncology.

How reliable are microchips for horse identification?

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:12 AM PDT

Until recently, horses were generally branded to be able to identify individual animals. Since this practice gives rise to longstanding wounds and brand marks cannot be reliably read, there has been a gradual switch towards the use of microchips. But how reliably can microchips be located and read, and are the horses injured by having chips implanted?

Clearing up confusion on future of Colorado River flows

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:09 AM PDT

Leading experts on water issues in the Western U.S. have come together to establish what is known about the future of Colorado River water, and to understand the wide range of estimates for future flows.

New palm-sized microarray technique grows 1,200 individual cultures of microbes

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:41 AM PDT

A new palm-sized microarray that holds 1,200 individual cultures of fungi or bacteria could enable faster, more efficient drug discovery, according to a new study.

A slimy marine organism fit for biofuel and salmon feed

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:38 AM PDT

It sounds too good to be true: a common marine species that consumes microorganisms and can be converted into much-needed feed for salmon or a combustible biofuel for filling petrol tanks. And it can be cultivated in vast amounts: 200 kg per square metre of ocean surface area.

Hunger affects decision-making and perception of risk

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:38 AM PDT

Hungry people are often difficult to deal with. A good meal can affect more than our mood, it can also influence our willingness to take risks. This phenomenon is also apparent across a very diverse range of species in the animal kingdom. Experiments conducted on the fruit fly, Drosophila, have shown that hunger not only modifies behavior, but also changes pathways in the brain.

New kind of signalling mechanism in plant cells discovered

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:36 AM PDT

Plants possess receptors which are similar to the glutamate receptors in the brain of humans and animals. Biochemists have discovered that these receptors do not, however, recognize the amino acid glutamate, but many other different amino acids.

Resourceful microbes reign in world's oceans

Posted: 24 Jun 2013 02:32 PM PDT

Using cutting-edge technology on a large scale for the first time, researchers have discovered that marine microbes are adapted to narrow and specialized niches, a finding pivotal to detecting and mitigating human impacts in the ocean. High-throughput single cell genomics was used read genetic information from microbes that were previously inaccessible to scientific investigation, opening a new chapter in exploring the microbial life that dominates marine ecosystems.

Higher levels of stray gases found in water wells near shale gas sites

Posted: 24 Jun 2013 12:26 PM PDT

Homeowners living within one kilometer of shale gas wells appear to be at higher risk of having their drinking water contaminated by stray gases, according to a new study.

NMR advance brings proteins into the open

Posted: 24 Jun 2013 12:26 PM PDT

A key protein interaction, common across all forms of life, had eluded scientists' observation until a team of researchers cracked the case by combining data from four different techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Pareiasaur: Bumpy beast was a desert dweller

Posted: 24 Jun 2013 12:26 PM PDT

During the Permian era, animal and plant life were dispersed broadly across Pangea, and a new study supports the idea that there was an isolated desert in the middle of Pangea with its own fauna. Roaming this desert was a very distinctive creature known as a pareiasaur. Pareiasaurs were large, herbivorous reptiles that were common across Pangea during the Middle and Late Permian, about 266-252 million years ago.

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