ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Repeated exposure to major disasters does not make people mentally stronger, a recent study found: individuals who have been repeatedly exposed to major disasters show a reduction in mental health scores.

Addressing one of the most profoundly unanswered questions in biology, a team has discovered the structures of proteins that may be responsible for the origins of life in the primordial soup of ancient Earth.

Researchers have developed a new water-splitting process and material that maximize the efficiency of producing green hydrogen, making it an affordable and accessible option for industrial partners that want to convert to green hydrogen for renewable energy storage instead of conventional, carbon-emitting hydrogen production from natural gas.

Before the introduction of the domestic horse in Mesopotamia, valuable equids were being harnessed to ceremonial or military four wheeled wagons and used as royal gifts, but their true nature remained unknown. According to a palaeogenetic study, these prestigious animals were the result of a cross between a domestic donkey and a wild ass from Syria, now extinct. This makes them the oldest example of an animal hybrid produced by humans.

A new study has identified a set of cellular receptors for at least three related alphaviruses shared across mosquitoes, humans, and animals that host the virus.

Scientists have pinpointed a gene that helps deadly E. coli bacteria evade antibiotics, potentially leading to better treatments for millions of people worldwide.

Researchers studying how small worms defend themselves against pathogens have discovered a gene that acts as a first-line response against infection. They identified 'ZIP-1' as a centralized hub for immune response, a finding could have implications for understanding human immunity against viruses.

The history of life on Earth has been marked five times by events of mass biodiversity extinction caused by extreme natural phenomena. Today, many experts warn that a Sixth Mass Extinction crisis is underway, this time entirely caused by human activities. A comprehensive assessment of evidence of this ongoing extinction event was recently published.

Compost and compost-enriched soils may contain high concentrations of A. fumigatus spores, a new study has found.

Scientists have investigated how genes are accessed if so tightly packed away? How can these molecules be broken apart to promote gene expression?

The word 'honeydew' sounds benign, but the sugary waste product of aphids can promote growth of bacteria that are highly virulent to the pests, according to a new study.

Rivers need water -- a fact that may seem ridiculously obvious, but in times of increasing water development, drought, and climate change, the quantity of natural streamflow that remains in river channels is coming into question, especially in the Colorado River basin. Newly published research poses a tough question in these days of falling reservoir levels and high-stakes urban development: whether the continued development of rivers for water supply can be balanced with fish conservation.

A new study finds that while young and healthy mice show clear differences between daytime and nighttime body temperature rhythms, in older and diseased animals the difference essentially disappeared.

Evolutionary biologists describe a new gene in the Central American Midas cichlid fish and identify a variant caused by a 'jumping gene' (transposon). This variant of the 'goldentouch gene' is most likely the reason for the golden coloration that can be found in a small percentage of animals of this species complex.

Scientists have developed ways to decipher effects of the CO2 rise during the past 100 years on metabolic fluxes of the key plant species in peatlands, mosses. Analyses of cellulose in peat cores collected by collaborating scientists working in five continents indicate that a CO2-driven increase in photosynthesis of mosses is strongly dependent on the water table, which may change the species composition of peat moss communities.

Harnessing the power of genomics to find risk factors for major diseases or search for relatives relies on the costly and time-consuming ability to analyze huge numbers of genomes. Computer scientists have now leveled the playing field by creating a cloud-based platform that grants genomics researchers easy access to one of the world's largest genomics databases. Known as AnVIL (Genomic Data Science Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-space), the new platform gives any researcher with an Internet connection access to thousands of analysis tools, patient records, and more than 300,000 genomes.