ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Tidal forces gave moon its shape, according to new analysis
• Supportive moms and sisters boost female baboon's rank
• Saving seeds the right way can save the world's plants
• Dimly lit working environments: Correcting body clock is possible
• Nature inspires a greener way to make colorful plastics
• Decades-old amber collection offers new views of a lost world: Tiny grasshopper encased in amber
• Mercury's bizzare magnetic field tells scientists how its interior is different from Earth's
• Scientists caution against exploitation of deep ocean
• Climate extremes are here to stay: Expect more heat waves and cold snaps
• New catalyst converts carbon dioxide to fuel
• Peru's carbon quantified: Economic and conservation boon
• Ice age lion figurine: Ancient fragment of ivory belonging to 40,000 year old animal figurine unearthed
• Chinese mosquitoes on the Baltic Sea: Ancient insect inclusions in East-Asian amber
• Fossils found in Siberia suggest all dinosaurs could have been feathered
• Soy may help women's hearts if they start early
• Research shows impact of soft drinks in meal planning
• Children whose parents spend more time cooking choose healthier foods later
• Striatal dopamine transporter binding correlates with body composition and visual attention bias for food cues in healthy young men
• Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages during adolescence impairs memory, animal study suggests
• Maternal obesity modulates offspring microflora composition and gastrointestinal functions, animal study shows
• Vaccine against tick-transmitted disease under development
• New method provides researchers with efficient tool for tagging proteins
• New gadget helps vision-impaired to read graphs
• First controlled malaria infection trial in Africa paves way for drug and vaccine development
• Researcher using next-generation sequencing, other new methods to rapidly identify pathogens

Tidal forces gave moon its shape, according to new analysis Posted: 30 Jul 2014 10:31 AM PDT The shape of the moon deviates from a simple sphere in ways that scientists have struggled to explain. A new study shows that most of the moon's overall shape can be explained by taking into account tidal effects acting early in the moon's history.

Supportive moms and sisters boost female baboon's rank Posted: 30 Jul 2014 09:02 AM PDT A study of dominance in female baboons suggests that the route to a higher rank is to maintain close ties with mom, and to have lots of supportive sisters.

Saving seeds the right way can save the world's plants Posted: 30 Jul 2014 09:02 AM PDT Exotic pests, shrinking ranges and a changing climate threaten some of the world's most rare and ecologically important plants, and so conservationists establish seed collections to save the seeds in banks or botanical gardens in hopes of preserving some genetic diversity. For decades, these seed collections have been guided by simple models that offer a one-size-fits-all approach for how many seeds to gather. A new study, however, has found that more careful tailoring of seed collections to specific species and situations is critical to preserving plant diversity.

Dimly lit working environments: Correcting body clock is possible Posted: 30 Jul 2014 09:02 AM PDT Researchers have, for the first time, conducted a study under real conditions on the body clocks of members of an international polar research station. The researchers have shown that a particular kind of artificial light is capable of ensuring that their biological rhythms are correctly synchronized despite the absence of sunlight.

Nature inspires a greener way to make colorful plastics Posted: 30 Jul 2014 07:41 AM PDT Long before humans figured out how to create colors, nature had already perfected the process -- think stunning, bright butterfly wings of many different hues, for example. Now scientists are tapping into those secrets to develop a more environmentally friendly way to make colored plastics. Their method uses structure -- or the shapes and architectures of materials -- rather than dyes, to produce colors.

Decades-old amber collection offers new views of a lost world: Tiny grasshopper encased in amber Posted: 30 Jul 2014 07:41 AM PDT Scientists are searching through a massive collection of 20-million-year-old amber found in the Dominican Republic more than 50 years ago, and the effort is yielding fresh insights into ancient tropical insects and the world they inhabited. Perhaps the most striking discovery thus far is that of a pygmy locust, a tiny grasshopper the size of a rose thorn that lived 18- to 20-million years ago and fed on moss, algae and fungi.

Mercury's bizzare magnetic field tells scientists how its interior is different from Earth's Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:43 AM PDT Mercury's interior is different from the Earth's interior in a way that explains Mercury's bizarre magnetic field, planetary physicists report. Measurements from NASA's Messenger spacecraft have revealed that Mercury's magnetic field is approximately three times stronger at its northern hemisphere than its southern one.

Scientists caution against exploitation of deep ocean Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:43 AM PDT The world's oceans are vast and deep, yet rapidly advancing technology and the quest for extracting resources from previously unreachable depths is beginning to put the deep seas on the cusp of peril, an international team of scientists has warned.

Climate extremes are here to stay: Expect more heat waves and cold snaps Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:40 AM PDT Researchers show how they've used advanced computational data science tools to demonstrate that despite global warming, we may still experience severe cold snaps due to increasing variability in temperature extremes.

New catalyst converts carbon dioxide to fuel Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:40 AM PDT Scientists have synthesized a catalyst that improves their system for converting waste carbon dioxide into syngas, a precursor of gasoline and other energy-rich products, bringing the process closer to commercial viability.

Peru's carbon quantified: Economic and conservation boon Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:40 AM PDT Today scientists unveiled the first high-resolution map of the carbon stocks stored on land throughout the entire country of Peru. The new and improved methodology used to make the map marks a sea change for future market-based carbon economies. The new carbon map also reveals Peru's extremely high ecological diversity and it provides the critical input to studies of deforestation and forest degradation for conservation, land use, and enforcement purposes.

Ice age lion figurine: Ancient fragment of ivory belonging to 40,000 year old animal figurine unearthed Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:38 AM PDT Archaeologists have found an ancient fragment of ivory belonging to a 40,000 year old animal figurine. Both pieces were found in the Vogelherd Cave in southwestern Germany, which has yielded a number of remarkable works of art dating to the Ice Age. The mammoth ivory figurine depicting a lion was discovered during excavations in 1931. The new fragment makes up one side of the figurine's head.

Chinese mosquitoes on the Baltic Sea: Ancient insect inclusions in East-Asian amber Posted: 30 Jul 2014 06:38 AM PDT The analysis of the roughly 3,000 pieces is still in its infant stage. But it is already evident that the results will be of major significance. The Baltic amber comes from the Baltic Sea region, which is almost 10,000 kilometers from Fushun. Sites rich in finds are, e.g., the coastal regions of Mecklenburg, Poland and Belarus. The pieces from the Baltic region are slightly younger than the ones from Fushun–according to estimates, about 40 to 50 million years.

Fossils found in Siberia suggest all dinosaurs could have been feathered Posted: 30 Jul 2014 02:05 AM PDT The first ever example of a plant-eating dinosaur with feathers and scales has been discovered in Russia. Previously only flesh-eating dinosaurs were known to have had feathers, so this new find raises the possibility that all dinosaurs could have been feathered.

Soy may help women's hearts if they start early Posted: 30 Jul 2014 01:34 AM PDT A diet rich in soy may help feminine hearts, but timing matters, finds a new study. "This study underscores how important it is for women to get into the best cardiovascular shape they can before menopause. The healthy habits they start then will carry them through the years to come," says one expert.

Research shows impact of soft drinks in meal planning Posted: 29 Jul 2014 07:49 PM PDT New research has looked into whether we take liquid calories into account when planning meals. Participants completed a computer-based match-fullness task which assessed the expected satiation of meals that included either a calorific drink, a non-calorific drink, or a snack with the same energy content as the calorific drink. The researchers also explored the contribution of carbonation on expected fullness.

Children whose parents spend more time cooking choose healthier foods later Posted: 29 Jul 2014 07:49 PM PDT New research suggests that the amount time parents spend on food preparation at home influences children's food intake decisions made in the laboratory without parental supervision.

Striatal dopamine transporter binding correlates with body composition and visual attention bias for food cues in healthy young men Posted: 29 Jul 2014 07:49 PM PDT Scientists have described a way that brain chemistry may make some people notice food more easily, which can tempt overeating even in people who are not overweight.

Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages during adolescence impairs memory, animal study suggests Posted: 29 Jul 2014 07:49 PM PDT Daily consumption of beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or sucrose can impair the ability to learn and remember information, particularly when consumption occurs during adolescence, a study done in rats suggests.

Maternal obesity modulates offspring microflora composition and gastrointestinal functions, animal study shows Posted: 29 Jul 2014 07:48 PM PDT Maternal obesity leads to marked changes in the offspring's gastrointestinal microflora composition and gastrointestinal function. This study suggests there are non-genetic factors that could be passed from a mother to offspring to increase the susceptibility to obesity.

Vaccine against tick-transmitted disease under development Posted: 29 Jul 2014 12:29 PM PDT An important advancement toward developing a vaccine against the debilitating and potentially deadly tick-transmitted disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis has been made by scientists. Successful vaccine development hinges on knowing what to target to prevent disease, and the research team has identified three such proteins on the surface of the HGA agent.

New method provides researchers with efficient tool for tagging proteins Posted: 29 Jul 2014 06:31 AM PDT With a new method, researchers use a piece of DNA engineered to bind to metal ions. Using this 'control stick,' they direct another piece of DNA to a metal binding site on the protein. The new method makes it possible to direct the tagging of proteins with DNA to a particular site on the protein, without genetically modifying the protein beforehand. In other words, it is possible to tag natural proteins, including antibodies.

New gadget helps vision-impaired to read graphs Posted: 29 Jul 2014 06:31 AM PDT People who are blind can now read more than just words, such as graphs and graphics, following the development of an affordable digital reading system by researchers.

First controlled malaria infection trial in Africa paves way for drug and vaccine development Posted: 28 Jul 2014 06:19 PM PDT An international research team today reports the first-ever clinical trial demonstrating controlled malaria infection in an African nation in the modern era. The study represents a significant milestone in the search for new malaria drugs and vaccines.

Researcher using next-generation sequencing, other new methods to rapidly identify pathogens Posted: 28 Jul 2014 08:31 AM PDT A recently published study looks at the discovery of porcine enterovirus G, which is an important find in the United States. The virus is thought to be benign and is not known to cause disease, but it had only been reported before in Europe and Asia. "We had isolated a virus in cells, but didn't know what it was," one researcher said. "We used next-generation sequencing to identify it, and it turned out to be porcine enterovirus G, which had been described before but had never previously been found in North America."

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