ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Best romantic singers are male bats
• Microbes can influence evolution of their hosts
• Evolutionary changes could aid fisheries
• Widely used pesticide toxic to honeybees
• Chimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events
• European fish stocks poised for recovery
• Movement without muscles study in insects could inspire robot and prosthetic limb developments
• Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division
• Hurricane season: Predicting in advance what could happen
• This fungus cell only looks like the 405 freeway
• Southern California crustacean sand-dwellers suffering localized extinctions
• Irish potato famine-causing pathogen even more virulent now
• Why crop rotation works: Change in crop species causes shift in soil microbes
• Infection biology: How Legionella subverts to survive
• New methods to visualize bacterial cell-to-cell communication
• Ice age figurine's head found: Archaeologists put new and old finds together to reassemble ancient work of art
• Shorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain

Best romantic singers are male bats Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:25 AM PDT Male bats appear to be the sexy singers of the animal world: they have learned to vocalize in a specific way to attract females, but once they have their attention, they change their tune – literally. They then produce a more creative array of sounds to entertain and keep the females interested.

Microbes can influence evolution of their hosts Posted: 18 Jul 2013 11:24 AM PDT Contrary to current scientific understanding, it appears that our microbial companions play an important role in their hosts' evolution. A new study provides the first direct evidence that these microbes can contribute to the origin of new species by reducing the viability of hybrids produced between males and females of different species.

Evolutionary changes could aid fisheries Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:07 AM PDT Sustainable fishing practices could lead to larger fishing yields in the long run, according to a new study that models in detail how ecology and evolution affect the economics of fishing.

Widely used pesticide toxic to honeybees Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT New research concludes that the absence of mortality does not always indicate functional integrity.

Chimpanzees and orangutans remember distant past events Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT We humans can remember events in our lives that happened years ago, with those memories often surfacing unexpectedly in response to sensory triggers like flavor or scent. Now, researchers have evidence to suggest that chimpanzees and orangutans have similar capacities. In laboratory tests, both primate species were clearly able to recollect a tool-finding event that they had experienced just four times three years earlier and a singular event from two weeks before, the researchers show.

European fish stocks poised for recovery Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:06 AM PDT The results of a major international effort to assess the status of dozens of European fish stocks find that many of those stocks in the northeast Atlantic are being fished sustainably today and that, given time, those populations should continue to recover. The findings come as surprisingly good news amid widespread criticism that the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy is failing, the researchers say.

Movement without muscles study in insects could inspire robot and prosthetic limb developments Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:05 AM PDT Neurobiologists have shown that insect limbs can move without muscles -- a finding that may provide engineers with new ways to improve the control of robotic and prosthetic limbs.

Bearing witness to the phenomenon of symmetric cell division Posted: 18 Jul 2013 10:04 AM PDT For more than 125 years, scientists have been peering through microscopes, carefully watching cells divide. Until now, however, none has actually seen how cells manage to divide precisely into two equally-sized daughter cells during mitosis. Such perfect division depends on the position of the mitotic spindle (chromosomes, microtubules, and spindle poles) within the cell, and it's now clear that human cells employ two specific mechanisms during the portion of division known as anaphase to correct mitotic spindle positioning.

Hurricane season: Predicting in advance what could happen Posted: 18 Jul 2013 08:13 AM PDT Scientists have studied how hurricanes and other disasters disrupt critical infrastructure, such as roads, electricity and water systems.

This fungus cell only looks like the 405 freeway Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:13 AM PDT Mathematicians have created a video of a live fungus, with many millions of nuclei in a single cell.

Southern California crustacean sand-dwellers suffering localized extinctions Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:13 AM PDT Two types of small beach critters -- both cousins of the beloved, backyard roly-poly -- are suffering localized extinctions in Southern California at an alarming rate, says a new study. As indicator species for beach biodiversity at large, their disappearance suggests a looming threat to similar sand-dwelling animals across the state and around the world.

Irish potato famine-causing pathogen even more virulent now Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:13 AM PDT The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants.

Why crop rotation works: Change in crop species causes shift in soil microbes Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:12 AM PDT Shift in soil microbes triggers cycle to improve yield, plant nutrition and disease resistance. New research could help explain the dramatic effect on soil health and yield of crop rotation.

Infection biology: How Legionella subverts to survive Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:11 AM PDT Bacteria of the genus Legionella have evolved a sophisticated system to replicate in the phagocytic cells of their hosts. Researchers have now identified a novel component of this system.

New methods to visualize bacterial cell-to-cell communication Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:11 AM PDT Researchers have developed a live-cell fluorescent labeling that makes bacterial cell-to-cell communication pathways visible. The communication between bacterial cells is essential in the regulation of processes within bacterial populations, such as biofilm development.

Ice age figurine's head found: Archaeologists put new and old finds together to reassemble ancient work of art Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:11 AM PDT Researchers have successfully re-attached the newly discovered head of a prehistoric mammoth-ivory figurine discovered in 1931. The head was found during renewed excavations at Vogelherd Cave, site of the original dig in 1931.

Shorebirds prefer a good body to a large brain Posted: 18 Jul 2013 07:09 AM PDT In many animal species, males and females differ in terms of their brain size. The most common explanation is that these differences stem from sexual selection. But predictions are not always certain. Scientists have discovered that a group of coastal birds, shorebirds, do not choose their mates by brain size but "on their physiques".

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