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ScienceDaily: Top Environment News |
| The impact of drugs on gut microbes is greater than we thought Posted: 08 Dec 2021 01:11 PM PST We are one of the most medicated generations of humans to live on our planet. Cardiometabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and coronary artery disease continue to increase in prevalence and together constitute the highest cause of mortality worldwide. Affected people often have to take multiple daily medications for months or even years. Researchers from the Bork group at EMBL Heidelberg, working together with a European consortium involving more than twenty European institutes, have now shown that many commonly used drugs have powerful effects on our gut microbes. These include drugs used to treat cardiometabolic disorders and antibiotics. The results were published in the journal Nature. |
| Ammonite muscles revealed in 3D from Jurassic fossil Posted: 08 Dec 2021 09:34 AM PST Researchers have revealed the soft tissues of a 165-million-year-old ammonite fossil using 3D imaging. |
| Soft tissue destruction and lower back pain Posted: 08 Dec 2021 09:31 AM PST Back pain affects many people at some point in their lives, and a common cause is damage to the squishy discs or flexible, rubbery tissues of the spine. However, observing this damage at an early stage is difficult with current imaging methods. Now, researchers report they can see microscopic soft tissue destruction in animal spines by targeting denatured collagen with fluorescent molecules. |
| Blood from marathoner mice boosts brain function in their couch-potato counterparts Posted: 08 Dec 2021 09:28 AM PST Researchers have shown that blood from young adult mice that are getting lots of exercise benefits the brains of same-aged, sedentary mice. A single protein in the blood of exercising mice seems largely responsible for that benefit. |
| UK university can reduce CO2 emissions by 4% with shorter winter semesters Posted: 08 Dec 2021 08:02 AM PST Researchers found that shifting learning weeks to the summer term and extending the winter vacation period can reduce the university's yearly CO2 emissions by more than 4%. |
| Devising new meat alternatives with 3D printing — and cocoa butter Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:01 AM PST No longer just a dream of vegetarians and vegans, fake meat is becoming more widely available in grocery stores and restaurants. And more options are almost certainly on the way. One team has now developed a new combination of plant-based ingredients tailored for 3D printing meat alternatives. Their most successful recipes required an odd-sounding addition: cocoa butter, derived from cocoa beans of chocolate fame. |
| Guidelines may promote over-diagnosis of cow's milk allergy in infants, study finds Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:01 AM PST International guidelines developed to help doctors diagnose cow's milk allergy may lead to over-diagnosis, according to new research. The study found that three-quarters of infants have two or more symptoms at some point in the first year of life which guidelines say may be caused by cow's milk allergy, yet the condition only affects one in 100. |
| Newly discovered fish songs demonstrate reef restoration success Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:01 AM PST Whoops, croaks, growls, raspberries and foghorns are among the sounds that demonstrate the success of a coral reef restoration project. |
| Streetwise bees cut corners to find food Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Bumblebees waste no time enjoying the beauty of flowers -- instead learning the bare minimum about where to land and find food, new research shows. |
| Fleshing out the bones of Quetzalcoatlus, Earth's largest flier ever Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Though discovered more than 45 years ago, fossils of Earth's largest flying animal, Quetzalcoatlus, were never thoroughly analyzed. Now, a scientific team provides the most complete picture yet of this dinosaur relative, its environment and behavior. The pterosaur, with a 40-foot wingspan, walked with a unique gait, but otherwise filled a niche much like herons today. The researchers dispel ideas that it ate carrion and walked like a vampire bat. |
| 2,700-year-old leather armor proves technology transfer happened in antiquity Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Researchers have investigated a unique leather scale armor found in the tomb of a horse rider in Northwest China. Design and construction details of the armor indicate that it originated in the Neo-Assyrian Empire between the 6th and 8th century BCE before being brought to China. |
| New research makes waves tackling the future of tsunami monitoring and modeling Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Rising sea levels are already impacting coastal residents and aggravating existing coastal hazards, such as flooding during high tides and storm surges. New research indicates that future sea-level rise will also have impacts on the heights of future tsunamis. |
| Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Mere spoonsful of soil pulled from Canada's permafrost are opening vast windows into ancient life in the Yukon, revealing rich new information and rewriting previous beliefs about the extinction dynamics, dates and survival of megafauna like mammoths, horses and other long-lost life forms. |
| Wearable sensor measures airborne nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes Posted: 08 Dec 2021 05:59 AM PST Some studies have shown that nicotine, an addictive substance in electronic cigarettes, increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory disorders. But to get a full understanding of its potential health effects, a real-time nicotine monitoring device is needed. Such a device could also help vapers -- as well as non-vapers who encounter second-hand smoke -- measure their exposure. Now, researchers report that they have developed a battery-free, wearable device that could accomplish this task. |
| CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing boosts effectiveness of ultrasound cancer therapy Posted: 08 Dec 2021 05:59 AM PST Sonodynamic therapy uses ultrasound in combination with drugs to release harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) at the site of a tumor. However, the treatment isn't very effective because cancer cells can activate antioxidant defense systems to counteract it. Now, researchers have breached these defenses with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, allowing sonodynamic therapy to effectively shrink tumors in a mouse model of liver cancer. |
| Wastewater helps decipher the popularity of new synthetic drugs Posted: 08 Dec 2021 05:59 AM PST Over the years, hundreds of new synthetic drugs that mimic the effects of illegal and legal substances have emerged. The underground nature of each drug's development and distribution makes its international popularity hard to track. Now, using wastewater from the days near the 2021 New Year holiday, researchers report an increased international usage of some synthetic drugs, including eutylone and 3-methylmethcathinone (3-MMC) compared to the previous year. |
| Future snowmelt could have costly consequences on infrastructure Posted: 07 Dec 2021 02:45 PM PST Researchers took a closer look at previous studies with snowmelt predictions, and because geographical areas respond differently to climate change, they found future snowmelt incidences could vary greatly by the late 21st century. Snowmelt could decrease over the continental U.S. and southern Canada but increase in Alaska and northern Canada resulting in larger flooding vulnerabilities and possibly causing major societal and economic consequences including costly infrastructure failures. |
| Plants struggle to keep pace with climate change in human-dominated landscapes Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:26 PM PST Researchers found that changes in plant phenology are lagging behind rising temperatures across a majority of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the most human-dominated landscapes, like crop lands. |
| SRC-2 is at the center of survival adaptations to food shortages Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:26 PM PST The steroid receptor coactivator-2 (SRC-2) is crucial to coordinate the biological responses to the lack of food. |
| Melting glaciers may produce thousands of kilometers of new Pacific salmon habitat Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:26 PM PST Retreating glaciers in the Pacific mountains of western North America could produce around 6,150 kilometers of new Pacific salmon habitat by the year 2100, according to a new study. |
| A daily dose of yogurt could be the go-to food to manage high blood pressure Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:25 PM PST Whether it's a dollop on your morning cereal or a simple snack on the go, a daily dose of yogurt could be the next go-to food for people with high blood pressure, according to new research. |
| Gas bubbles in rock pores – a nursery for life on Early Earth Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:25 PM PST Researchers create compelling scenario for the evolution of membraneless microdroplets as the origin of life. |
| Researchers say it’s time to clean up the US Clean Water Act Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:25 PM PST While the Clean Water Act successfully regulated many obvious causes of pollution, such as the dumping of wastewater, it's done less to limit more diffuse types of pollution, such as 'nonpoint source pollution' that includes agricultural runoff from fields and urban stormwater from buildings, paved surfaces and yards -- says a new study. |
| Denisovans or Homo sapiens: Who were the first to settle (permanently) on the Tibetan Plateau? Posted: 07 Dec 2021 12:25 PM PST A new paper by archaeologists at the University of California, Davis, highlights that our extinct cousins, the Denisovans, reached the "roof of the world" about 160,000 years ago -- 120,000 years earlier than previous estimates for our species -- and even contributed to our adaptation to high altitude. |
| Miniature llama antibodies could help fight SARS-CoV-2 variants Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:20 AM PST Llamas make antibodies that are much smaller than their human counterparts, yet still potent. Scientists hope that future drugs based on these molecules could provide new weapons against SARS-CoV-2. |
| Unprecedented three-dimensional X-ray microscope methodology to image plants at cellular resolution Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:20 AM PST Measuring plant phenotypes, a term used to describe the observable characteristics of an organism, is a critical aspect of studying and improving economically important crops. Phenotypes central to the breeding process include traits like kernel number in corn, seed size in wheat, or fruit color in grape. These features are visible to the naked human eye but are in fact driven by microscopic molecular and cellular processes in the plant. Using three-dimensional (3D) imaging is a recent innovation in the plant biology sector to capture phenotypes on the 'whole-plant' scale: from miniscule cells and organelles in the roots, up to the leaves and flowers. However, current 3D imaging processes are limited by time-consuming sample preparation and by imaging depth, usually reaching only a few layers of cells within a plant tissue. |
| Stem cell study paves way for manufacturing cultured meat Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST Scientists have for the first time obtained stem cells from livestock that grow under chemically defined conditions, paving the way for manufacturing cell cultured meat and breeding enhanced livestock. |
| Engineers discover what makes a tree-killing fungus so hard to put down Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST Armillaria ostoyae is a gnarly parasitic fungus with long black tentacles that spread out and attack vegetation. Not much was known about what makes fungus so hard to kill -- until now. A team of researchers has been studying the defense mechanism of the tree fungus to better understand what makes it so hearty. |
| Researchers develop an antibody-drug delivery system Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST Researchers have developed the first metal-organic framework (MOFs) antibody-drug delivery system that has the potential to fast-track potent new therapies for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases. |
| Primates vs cobras: How our last common ancestor built venom resistance Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST The last common ancestor of chimps, gorillas and humans developed an increased resistance toward cobra venom, according to new research. |
| Neurotoxin from a black widow spider examined Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST Although many people lose their nerve and panic when they see a spider, only very few of the creatures are actually dangerous. The black widow, however, is a force to be reckoned with: it catches its prey by means of nerve poison -- to be precise, latrotoxins (LaTXs). Researchers have now investigated the substance -- also with a view to medical applications. |
| Link between long-term exposure to air pollution and fatty liver disease shown Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a growing global health challenge and poses a substantial economic burden. A large-scale epidemiologic study has identified links between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and MAFLD. These links are exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyles and the presence of central obesity, report scientists. |
| Visualizing cell structures in three dimensions in mere minutes Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST Researchers have optimized a special X-ray process -- known as soft X-ray tomography -- to deliver high-resolution three-dimensional images of entire cells and their molecular structure in just a few minutes. |
| Terrain, weather can predict wild pig movements Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST Managing the United States' growing wild pig population has become a significant challenge over the past few decades, but new research may help landowners and government agencies fine-tune their strategies for limiting crop and property damage caused by the animals. |
| Wildfire smoke poses neurological hazards Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST Wildfire smoke contains microparticles that cross the blood-brain barrier, triggering neurotoxic effects. |
| CRISPRing the microbiome is just around the corner Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST CRISPR is widely used to target specific cell types, but only one at a time. Researchers have now developed methods to edit genes in multiple organisms within a diverse community of microbes simultaneously, a first step toward editing microbiomes such as those in the gut or on plants. One method assesses which microbes are editable; a second adds genes with a barcode that allows scientists to insert, track and assess insertion efficiency and specificity. |
| Iron integral to the development of life on Earth – and the possibility of life on other planets Posted: 06 Dec 2021 06:59 PM PST Iron is an essential nutrient that almost all life requires to grow and thrive. Iron's importance goes all the way back to the formation of the planet Earth, where the amount of iron in the Earth's rocky mantle was 'set' by the conditions under which the planet formed and went on to have major ramifications for how life developed. Now, scientists have uncovered the likely mechanisms by which iron influenced the development of complex life forms, which can also be used to understand how likely (or unlikely) advanced life forms might be on other planets. |
| No accounting: How two scientists are balancing the planet’s natural carbon budget Posted: 06 Dec 2021 06:59 PM PST A pair of researchers have taken a process-based modeling approach to understand how much CO2 rivers and streams contribute to the atmosphere. The team focused on the East River watershed in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, and found that their new approach is far more accurate than traditional approaches, which overestimated CO2 emissions by up to a factor of 12. |
| Burrowing critters increase risk of levee failure Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST When burrowing animals dig into earthen levees to make their homes, they can weaken the infrastructure to the point of collapse and localized flooding -- but most flood risk models don't take that into account. Researchers have developed a new method to estimate the risk of levee failure and flooding from burrowing animals like badgers and porcupines. |
| Factors that prevent mangroves from spreading in South America Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST Due to their pronounced carbon storage capacity, mangroves are an important player in climate change. But they sometimes just don't extend beyond certain latitudes, even when the sites seem suitable. Researchers have now cracked this question for the eastern coast of South America. They could show that seasonal atmospheric and oceanographic factors determine mangrove expansion and this independently of other factors such as soil, and landscape form. |
| Powerful new tool makes coral reef monitoring faster, easier, cheaper Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST As coral reefs face increasing threats around the world, a team of researchers has developed a genetic analysis tool that can determine many different types of coral on a reef with just a sample of seawater. |
| New type of earthquake discovered Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST A research team has documented a new type of earthquake in an injection environment in British Columbia, Canada. The seismic events are slower than conventional earthquakes. Their existence supports a scientific theory that until now had not been sufficiently substantiated by measurements. |
| Important role of prokaryotic viruses in sewage treatment uncovered Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST Prokaryotic viruses (phages) existing in activated sludge (AS), a biological treatment process widely used in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), act to regulate the composition of microbial community in the activated sludge. Phages are major bacterial predators, through virus-host interactions with key bacterial populations in AS systems, they can influence the removal efficiency of pollutants. Phages of high specificity could be used to curb undesired bacteria, e.g., the undesired foaming-associated filamentous bacteria that could disrupt the removal efficiency of AS system. |
| Too dry, too hot, or too wet: Increasing weather persistence in European summer Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST Global warming makes long lasting weather situations in the Northern hemisphere's summer months more likely -- which in turn leads to more extreme weather events, a novel analysis of atmospheric images and data finds. These events include heatwaves, droughts, intense rainy periods. Especially in Europe, but also in Russia, persistent weather patterns have increased in number and intensity over the last decades with weather extremes occurring simultaneously at different locations. |
| Researchers crack the synthetic code of rare molecules sought after in drug development Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST A research team has succeeded in producing two molecules that are otherwise only formed by microorganisms from extremely contaminated wastewater in an abandoned mine in South Korea. The method, which took four years to develop, could pave the way for new types of drugs. |
| Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:29 AM PST Researchers compile a dataset of over 200,000 plant species worldwide to demonstrate the extent to which species extinctions and non-native invasive plants reorganize plant communities in the Anthropocene revealing biotic homogenization results from human activity whether intentional or unintentional. |
| Common Arctic finches are all the same species Posted: 06 Dec 2021 06:17 AM PST New research could ruffle some feathers in the birding world. It finds that Redpolls, a bird found in the Arctic that will sometimes come to the Southern latitudes during the winter and can be hard to differentiate, aren't actually multiple species, genetically speaking. Instead, the three recognized species are all just one with a 'supergene' that controls differences in plumage color and morphology, making them look different. |
| Rapid test identifies antibody effectiveness against COVID-19 variants Posted: 03 Dec 2021 12:14 PM PST A new test could measure patient immunity against multiple COVID-19 variants such as Omicron and Delta at once and inform which synthetic monoclonal antibody to use for treatments. |
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