ScienceDaily: Top Environment News |
- Corn’s genetic diversity on display in new genome study
- New findings about cancer cell growth may hold promise for future cancer treatments
- Leaping squirrels! Parkour is one of their many feats of agility
- Fasting may help ward off infections, study in mice suggests
- Bacteria navigate on surfaces using a 'sense of touch'
- Using two CRISPR enzymes, a COVID diagnostic in only 20 minutes
- Solving solar puzzle could help save Earth from planet-wide blackouts
- Up to 85 per cent of historical salmon habitat lost in Lower Fraser region
- Food or sex? Fruit flies give insight into decision-making
- Bee competitive: Research reveals the impact of natural selection on nectar supply and demand
- Scientists mail freeze-dried mouse sperm on a postcard
- Scientists ID enzyme for making key industrial chemical in plants
- Crop farmers face new disease pressures as climate changes
- New method opens the door to efficient genome writing in bacteria
- Achieving equitable access to energy in a changing climate
- Major Atlantic ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold
- Sticky toes unlock life in the trees
- Researchers track how microbiome bacteria adapt to humans via transmission
- Reducing antibiotic use in primary care may be insufficient alone to curtail antimicrobial resistance
- Microplastics in Arctic ecosystem discovered
- Muscle protein that makes vertebrates more fit linked to limited lifespan
- Mathematician reveals world’s oldest example of applied geometry
| Corn’s genetic diversity on display in new genome study Posted: 05 Aug 2021 11:12 AM PDT A new study details the genomes of 26 lines of corn from across the globe. The genomes can help scientists piece together the puzzle of corn genetics. Using these new genomes as references, plant scientists can better select for genes likely to lead to better crop yields or stress tolerance. |
| New findings about cancer cell growth may hold promise for future cancer treatments Posted: 05 Aug 2021 11:11 AM PDT For a cell to grow and divide, it needs to produce new proteins. This also applies to cancer cells. Researchers have now investigated the protein eIF4A3 and its role in the growth of cancer cells. The study shows that by blocking or reducing the production of this protein, other processes arise that cause the growth and cell division of cancer cells to cease and eventually die. |
| Leaping squirrels! Parkour is one of their many feats of agility Posted: 05 Aug 2021 11:11 AM PDT Biologists tested free-ranging squirrels to determine how quickly they adapt to the bendiness of their launching branch in order to successfully land. The squirrels learned within a few trials to leap no matter how bendy, but have a failsafe to stick the landing: claws. They also innovated, bounding off vertical surfaces to extend their range, just as parkouring humans. Incorporating such control could improve robot agility. |
| Fasting may help ward off infections, study in mice suggests Posted: 05 Aug 2021 11:06 AM PDT Fasting before and during exposure to Salmonella enterica bacteria protects mice from developing a full-blown infection, in part due to changes in the animals' gut microbiomes, according to new research. |
| Bacteria navigate on surfaces using a 'sense of touch' Posted: 05 Aug 2021 11:00 AM PDT Researchers have characterized a mechanism that allows bacteria to direct their movement in response to the mechanical properties of the surfaces the microbes move on -- a finding that could help fight certain pathogens. |
| Using two CRISPR enzymes, a COVID diagnostic in only 20 minutes Posted: 05 Aug 2021 10:38 AM PDT Today's gold standard for COVID diagnostics is qRT-PCR, but turnaround is typically more than a day. Newer assays using CRISPR enzymes require initial amplification of RNA, requiring special equipment not available in doctors' offices, workplaces, etc. By combining two different CRISPR-Cas enzymes -- Cas13 and Csm6 -- researchers have created a point of care diagnostic that provides results in under an hour, often in 20 minutes. |
| Solving solar puzzle could help save Earth from planet-wide blackouts Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:55 AM PDT Understanding the Sun's magnetic dynamo could help predict solar weather, such as potentially dangerous geothermal storms, solar flares and sunspots. Mathematicians have proposed a new model of the Sun that matches observed data. |
| Up to 85 per cent of historical salmon habitat lost in Lower Fraser region Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:55 AM PDT For perhaps the first time ever, researchers have mapped out the true extent of habitat loss for salmon in the Lower Fraser River, one of the most important spawning and rearing grounds for Pacific salmon in B.C. Salmon have lost access to as much as 85 per cent of their historical floodplain habitat -- the biologically rich wetlands next to a river or stream that typically harbor wildlife -- due to dikes and similar infrastructure, say researchers. |
| Food or sex? Fruit flies give insight into decision-making Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:55 AM PDT Individuals are likely to prioritize food over sex after being deprived of both, according to researchers who studied this behavioral conflict in fruit flies. A new study pinpointed the precise neuronal impulses triggered in flies' brains when faced with the critical choices of feeding or mating. |
| Bee competitive: Research reveals the impact of natural selection on nectar supply and demand Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Theoretical research indicates that natural selection will increase existing seasonal imbalances between the supply of nectar from flowers and the demand from bees and other insects. |
| Scientists mail freeze-dried mouse sperm on a postcard Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Scientists no longer have to worry about their bottles of mouse sperm breaking in transit. Researchers have developed a way to freeze dry sperm on a plastic sheet in weighing paper so that samples can withstand being mailed via postcard. This method allows for mouse sperm to be transported easily, inexpensively, and without the risk of glass cases breaking. |
| Scientists ID enzyme for making key industrial chemical in plants Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Scientists studying the biochemistry of plant cell walls have identified an enzyme that could turn woody poplar trees into a source for producing a major industrial chemical. The research could lead to a new sustainable pathway for making "p-hydroxybenzoic acid," a chemical building block currently derived from fossil fuels, in plant biomass. |
| Crop farmers face new disease pressures as climate changes Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Climate change will increase the burden of crop diseases in some parts of the world and reduce it in others, new research suggests. |
| New method opens the door to efficient genome writing in bacteria Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Biological engineers have devised a way to program memories into bacterial cells by rewriting their DNA. The new DNA writing technique, which the researchers call HiSCRIBE, is much more efficient than previously developed systems for editing DNA in bacteria. |
| Achieving equitable access to energy in a changing climate Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT Access to modern, reliable, and affordable energy services is a must for development and ensuring a decent quality of life. Researchers used a novel bottom-up approach to analyze how access to energy services may evolve over time under different scenarios of socioeconomic growth and policy scenarios that meet climate mitigation goals. |
| Major Atlantic ocean current system might be approaching critical threshold Posted: 05 Aug 2021 08:54 AM PDT A major Atlantic ocean current -- the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC -- may have been losing stability in the course of the last century, according to new research. A potential collapse of this ocean current system could have severe consequences. |
| Sticky toes unlock life in the trees Posted: 05 Aug 2021 07:45 AM PDT Biologists analyzed data from 2,600 lizard species worldwide and discovered that, while hundreds of different types of lizards have independently evolved arboreal lifestyles, species that possessed sticky toepads prevailed. |
| Researchers track how microbiome bacteria adapt to humans via transmission Posted: 04 Aug 2021 06:01 PM PDT New research has shed light on how transmission of gut bacteria influences its evolution and functions. |
| Posted: 04 Aug 2021 06:01 PM PDT Strategies to reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary care are insufficient alone to halt the rise in drug resistant E. coli infections in England, a new report concludes. |
| Microplastics in Arctic ecosystem discovered Posted: 04 Aug 2021 06:01 PM PDT Around the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, rhodoliths made up of coralline red algae provide ecological niches for a wide variety of organisms. A team of researchers has recently discovered a large quantity of microplastics in this ecosystem. |
| Muscle protein that makes vertebrates more fit linked to limited lifespan Posted: 04 Aug 2021 06:01 PM PDT Researchers say they have added to evidence that a protein called CaMKII improves strength, endurance, muscle health and fitness in young animals. Their experiments working with mice and fruit flies, however, found that the gene for CaMKII also contributes to an evolutionary tradeoff: increased susceptibility to age-associated diseases, frailty and mortality. |
| Mathematician reveals world’s oldest example of applied geometry Posted: 04 Aug 2021 09:35 AM PDT A scientist has revealed that an ancient clay tablet could be the oldest and most complete example of applied geometry. The surveyor's field plan from the Old Babylon period shows that ancient mathematics was more advanced than previously thought. |
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