ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Violent solar system history uncovered by WA meteorite
• Northern Pacific's tropical anoxic zone might shrink from climate change
• Wiggly microRNA binding implies a more complex genome regulation
• Study measures steep coastal costs of China's GDP growth
• Hybrid-motor helps cells push their way through tissues
• Do women and men ride differently? Horses cannot tell the difference
• Still hot inside the Moon: Tidal heating in the deepest part of the lunar mantle
• Wild sheep show benefits of putting up with parasites
• Dynamics of microbes, nitrate revealed by study
• Regulations needed to identify potentially invasive biofuel crops
• Uranium exposure, skin cancer: Study may help explain link
• Infectious prion protein discovered in urine of patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Violent solar system history uncovered by WA meteorite Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:19 AM PDT Planetary scientists have shed some light on the bombardment history of our solar system by studying a unique volcanic meteorite recovered in Western Australia. Captured on camera seven years ago falling on the WA side of the Nullarbor Plain, the Bunburra Rockhole Meterorite has unique characteristics that suggest it came from a large asteroid that has never before been identified.

Northern Pacific's tropical anoxic zone might shrink from climate change Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:19 AM PDT A commonly held belief that global warming will diminish oxygen concentrations in the ocean looks like it may not be entirely true. According to new research, just the opposite is likely the case in the eastern tropical northern Pacific, with its anoxic zone expected to shrink in coming decades because of climate change.

Wiggly microRNA binding implies a more complex genome regulation Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:19 AM PDT Non-standard microRNA silencing interactions appear more prevalent in human biology than previously believed, suggesting more complex roles for microRNAs, and helping explain why it's been difficult to translate microRNAs into human therapy. "The findings may help explain why the microRNA field has run into difficulty when translating these powerful molecules into therapies for diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes," explains the study's senior author.

Study measures steep coastal costs of China's GDP growth Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:17 AM PDT Economic reforms declared in 1978 led to a surge of growth in China, but resulting increases in human impact activities are seriously degrading the nation's coastal ecosystems, according to a newly published analysis of economic and environmental data. Some activities may have reached a turning point, but others will need policy changes, the authors project.

Hybrid-motor helps cells push their way through tissues Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:07 AM PDT Research has uncovered how two cellular motors, previously thought to compete with each other, can actually work together to help cells squeezing through a crowded mass of cells. The study provides fresh understanding of how cells can combine accurate steering with a brute force mechanism in order to push through our body, essential when cells of our immune defense need to reach sites of inflammation, but detrimental during tumor metastasis or parasitic infection.

Do women and men ride differently? Horses cannot tell the difference Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:07 AM PDT Scientists have analyzed how horses are affected by the sex of their riders. Various parameters of stress were determined in horses and their riders when they covered an obstacle course. The results were surprising: the level of stress on a horse is independent of whether a man or a woman is in the saddle. Furthermore, the stress responses of male and female riders are essentially the same.

Still hot inside the Moon: Tidal heating in the deepest part of the lunar mantle Posted: 08 Aug 2014 08:07 AM PDT Scientists have found that there is an extremely soft layer deep inside the Moon and that heat is effectively generated in the layer by the gravity of the Earth. These findings suggest that the interior of the Moon has not yet cooled and hardened, and also that it is still being warmed by the effect of the Earth on the Moon. This research provides a chance to reconsider how both the Earth and the Moon have been evolving since their births through mutual influence until now.

Wild sheep show benefits of putting up with parasites Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:59 AM PDT In the first evidence that natural selection favors an individual's infection tolerance, researchers have found that an animal's ability to endure an internal parasite strongly influences its reproductive success. The finding could provide the groundwork for boosting the resilience of humans and livestock to infection.

Dynamics of microbes, nitrate revealed by study Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:57 AM PDT Though we know that the environmental microbiome plays a key role in mediating the persistence of biologically usable nitrogen in the environment and that microbes can perform critically different chemistry in the process, the complexity of this environmental dynamic has prevented science from clearly defining the conditions steering microbial nitrogen mediation. A new set of controlled experiments using recently developed genomic technologies have provided conclusive evidence that three critical factors steer this hugely important environmental process.

Regulations needed to identify potentially invasive biofuel crops Posted: 07 Aug 2014 11:56 AM PDT If the hottest new plant grown as a biofuel crop is approved based solely on its greenhouse gas emission profile, its potential as the next invasive species may not be discovered until it's too late. In response to this need to prevent such invasions, researchers have developed both a set of regulatory definitions and provisions and a list of 49 low-risk biofuel plants from which growers can choose.

Uranium exposure, skin cancer: Study may help explain link Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:47 AM PDT The varying health risks from exposure to natural uranium are well established, but now researchers have identified a new target organ for uranium exposure: skin. "Our hypothesis is that if uranium is photoactivated by UV radiation it could be more harmful to skin than either exposure alone," the lead researcher said.

Infectious prion protein discovered in urine of patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Posted: 07 Aug 2014 07:36 AM PDT The misfolded and infectious prion protein that is a marker for variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease – linked to the consumption of infected cattle meat – has been detected in the urine of patients with the disease. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in animals – also known as Mad Cow disease – are fatal neurodegenerative disorders. There are currently no noninvasive tools available to diagnose the disease and there are no treatments.

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