ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• How to survive the iciest of waters
• Watching the production of new proteins in live cells
• Scientists shut down reproductive ability, desire in pest insects
• Sea otters promote recovery of seagrass beds
• Future water levels of crucial agricultural aquifer forecast
• Breakthrough in DNA editing technology
• RNA double helix structure identified using synchrotron light
• Earlier peak for Spain's glaciers
• Insight into the origin of the genetic code
• Insight into marine life's ability to adapt to climate change
• Carbon-sequestering ocean plants may cope with climate changes over the long run
• Changing river chemistry affects Eastern US water supplies
• Climate change: Ocean acidification amplifies global warming
• A skeleton for chromosomes
• Creating plants that make their own fertilizer

How to survive the iciest of waters Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:55 PM PDT How does the bald notothen, a small fish that lives in the freezing, icy waters of Antarctica, manage to survive? Clues are to be had from the genes it expresses. By comparing the notothen transcriptome against that of the tropical zebrafish (Danio rerio), biologists were able to highlight 58 elements thought to play essential roles in icy water survival.

Watching the production of new proteins in live cells Posted: 26 Aug 2013 03:31 PM PDT Researchers have made a significant step in understanding and imaging protein synthesis, pinpointing exactly where and when cells produce new proteins. They have developed a new technique to produce high-resolution imaging of newly synthesized proteins inside living cells.

Scientists shut down reproductive ability, desire in pest insects Posted: 26 Aug 2013 03:29 PM PDT Entomologists have identified a neuropeptide named natalisin that regulates the sexual activity and reproductive ability of insects. The finding may open new possibilities for environmentally friendly pest management.

Sea otters promote recovery of seagrass beds Posted: 26 Aug 2013 03:27 PM PDT Scientists studying the decline and recovery of seagrass beds in one of California's largest estuaries have found that recolonization of the estuary by sea otters was a crucial factor in the seagrass comeback.

Future water levels of crucial agricultural aquifer forecast Posted: 26 Aug 2013 03:05 PM PDT A study focuses on future availability of groundwater in the High Plains Aquifer. It finds that if current irrigation trends continue, 69 percent of the groundwater stored in the aquifer will be depleted in 50 years.

Breakthrough in DNA editing technology Posted: 26 Aug 2013 03:05 PM PDT Scientists have found a way to apply a powerful new DNA-editing technology more broadly than ever before.

RNA double helix structure identified using synchrotron light Posted: 26 Aug 2013 11:36 AM PDT Scientists successfully crystallized a short RNA sequence, poly (rA)11, and confirmed the hypothesis of a poly (rA) double-helix.

Earlier peak for Spain's glaciers Posted: 26 Aug 2013 09:31 AM PDT Over much of the planet, glaciers were at their greatest extent roughly 20,000 years ago. But according to geologists, that wasn't true in at least one part of southern Europe. Due to local effects of temperature and precipitation, the local glacial maximum occurred considerably earlier, around 26,000 years ago.

Insight into the origin of the genetic code Posted: 26 Aug 2013 09:31 AM PDT An analysis of enzymes that load amino acids onto transfer RNAs -- an operation at the heart of protein translation -- offers new insights into the evolutionary origins of the modern genetic code, researchers report.

Insight into marine life's ability to adapt to climate change Posted: 26 Aug 2013 07:01 AM PDT A study into marine life around an underwater volcanic vent in the Mediterranean, might hold the key to understanding how some species will be able to survive in increasingly acidic sea water should anthropogenic climate change continue.

Carbon-sequestering ocean plants may cope with climate changes over the long run Posted: 26 Aug 2013 07:01 AM PDT A year-long experiment on tiny ocean organisms called coccolithophores suggests that the single-celled algae may still be able to grow their calcified shells even as oceans grow warmer and more acidic in Earth's near future. The study stands in contrast to earlier studies suggesting that coccolithophores would fail to build strong shells in acidic waters.

Changing river chemistry affects Eastern US water supplies Posted: 26 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT Human activity is changing the basic chemistry of large rivers in the Eastern US, with potentially major consequences for urban water supplies and aquatic ecosystems, a new study has found.

Climate change: Ocean acidification amplifies global warming Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:58 AM PDT Scientists have demonstrated that ocean acidification may amplify global warming through the biogenic production of the marine sulfur component dimethylsulphide (DMS). Ocean acidification has the potential to speed up global warming considerably, according to new research.

A skeleton for chromosomes Posted: 26 Aug 2013 06:58 AM PDT Scientists have found that the structure of chromosomes is supported by a kind of molecular skeleton, made of cohesin.

Creating plants that make their own fertilizer Posted: 24 Aug 2013 10:15 AM PDT Since the dawn of agriculture, people have exercised great ingenuity to pump more nitrogen into crop fields. Farmers have planted legumes and plowed the entire crop under, strewn night soil or manure on the fields, shipped in bat dung from islands in the Pacific or saltpeter from Chilean mines and plowed in glistening granules of synthetic fertilizer made in chemical plants. No wonder biologist Himadri Pakrasi's team is excited by the project they are undertaking. If they succeed, the chemical apparatus for nitrogen fixation will be miniaturized, automated and relocated within the plant so nitrogen is available when and where it is needed -- and only then and there.

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