ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

Starting antiretroviral therapy early essential to battling not one, but two killers

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 12:28 PM PST

Medication against the nonhuman primate version of HIV given two weeks after infection helped keep tuberculosis in check.

Tracking seasonal and tidal effects on wastewater pollutants in the River Ganges

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:08 AM PST

A new analysis of the River Ganges in West Bengal, India, highlights how wastewater flowing into the river impacts its water quality, and how that influence shifts with seasons and tides.

Human microbiome research excludes developing world, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST

New studies emerge daily on the effect of the human microbiome on human health: colon cancer, ulcers, and cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's disease have been associated with the communities of microbes that live in our bodies. However, global research into the human microbiome is heavily biased in favor of wealthy countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, according to a new study.

Decoding KODA production to augment stress resistance in plants

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST

KODA, an agrochemical produced in extremely low amounts, which helps plants cope with environmental stressors, has been the subject of extensive research. To bolster KODA production, researchers have developed a novel plant-based platform. Using biotechnology tools, they successfully expressed external genes that facilitate KODA production in test plant species, and further improved KODA yield through incubation over time.

How embryo cells gain independence

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST

It happens in the first hours after fertilization: The cells of the early embryo begin to independently produce proteins, the building blocks for cells and organs. Their own, uniquely composed genetic material serves as the blueprint. In vertebrates, the starting signal for this process comes from three maternal proteins that bind to the DNA of the offspring. New findings now show, using a zebrafish model, how two of these three start proteins of the egg cell elicit their roles and how they act in further development.

'Blue Blob' near Iceland could slow glacial melting

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST

A region of cooling water in the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, nicknamed the 'Blue Blob,' has likely slowed the melting of the island's glaciers since 2011 and may continue to stymie ice loss until about 2050, according to new research.

Air chemistry data from South Korea field study puts models to the test

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST

An international effort to measure air quality in South Korea, a region with complex sources of pollution, may provide new insights into the atmospheric chemistry that produces ozone pollution, according to a team of scientists.

Computer models show how crop production increases soil nitrous oxide emissions

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST

A computer modeling study shows how the emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide have increased from soils over the last century. The newly published research found the expansion of land devoted to agriculture since 1900 and intensive fertilizer inputs have predominantly driven an overall increase in nitrous oxide emissions from U.S. soils.

Climate change and extreme weather will have complex effects on disease transmission

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

Temperature fluctuations such as heatwaves can have very different effects on infection rates and disease outcomes depending on the average background temperature, says a new report.

Discovery of ancient plant fossils in Washington points to paleobotanic mystery

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

A new description of two well-preserved ancient fossil plant specimens in Washington state is prompting paleobotanists to rethink how plants might have been dispersed during the Late Cretaceous, between 66 and 100 million years ago.

When a protective gene buffers a bad one, a heart can beat

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

It was a medical mystery: When scientists induced a particular genetic mutation in mouse eggs, the resulting embryos would all die in the womb within a week. And yet, people with the same troublesome gene are thriving.

Gene editing now possible in ticks

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

Researchers have successfully used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genomes of the black-legged tick. To accomplish this feat, they developed an embryo injection protocol that overcame a major barrier in the field.

Beset in mucus, coronavirus particles likely travel farther than once thought, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:33 AM PST

A modeling study raises questions about how far droplets, like those that carry the virus that causes COVID-19, can travel before becoming harmless.

'Freeze or flee' reactions run in fish families

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:55 AM PST

Families of fish tend to share similar reactions to stressful situations, new research shows.

Accelerated ammonia synthesis holds promise for conversion of renewable energy

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:25 AM PST

Scientists reveal a way to make ammonia from its constituent molecules of nitrogen and hydrogen at ambient pressure.

Lichens are in danger of losing the evolutionary race with climate change

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 04:51 AM PST

To learn how lichens might be able to adapt to climate change, researchers examined the evolutionary history of the algae that's a part of 7,000 kinds of lichens. By studying genetic relationships between algae and building a giant family tree to show how different algae are elated to each other and how quickly they evolve, the scientists found that this algae can take hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to the changes in temperature that we expect to see over the course of this century. That means that these lichens are in dire trouble when it comes to climate change.

Reacting to a changing environment involves inhibiting previous behavior

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 05:40 PM PST

Researchers teamed up to understand the role of flexibility and inhibition in problem solving and how they relate to each other in a behaviorally flexible urban bird species, the great-tailed grackle. The researchers assessed the cognitive abilities of individuals using multiple tests, and found that self control, a form of inhibition, was linked with flexibility, the ability to change preferences when circumstances change.

Ending the debate: New research solves longstanding Antarctic climate change mystery

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST

New research definitively resolves a long-standing discrepancy in the geologic record that pitted studies of marine ice-sheet behavior against those that reconstructed past conditions on land. The research lends additional weight to evidence that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is sensitive to small changes in carbon dioxide levels and that, in the past, large portions of the ice sheet could have disappeared under carbon dioxide levels similar to today.

Tilting of Earth’s crust governed the flow of ancient megafloods

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST

As ice sheets began melting at the end of the last ice age, a series of cataclysmic floods called the Missoula megafloods scoured the landscape of eastern Washington, carving long, deep channels and towering cliffs through an area now known as the Channeled Scablands. They were among the largest known floods in Earth's history, and geologists struggling to reconstruct them have now identified a crucial factor governing their flows. A new study shows how the changing weight of the ice sheets would have caused the entire landscape to tilt, changing the course of the megafloods.

Compressing gene libraries to expand accessibility, research opportunities

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST

In image compression, a large file that could be cumbersome to store or share loses a small amount of visual information. This 'lossiness' largely preserves the image while vastly reducing its file size -- and serves as the inspiration for a new research direction in genomics, according to a professor of biomedical engineering.

Fighting poverty won’t jeopardize climate goals

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST

If the UN Sustainable Development Goal to lift over one billion people out of poverty were to be reached in 2030, the impact on global carbon emissions would be minimal. That sounds good; however, the main reason for this is the huge inequality in the carbon footprint of rich and poor nations.

Immunogenetic studies in diverse populations is essential

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 09:12 AM PST

Disease and health are the result of a complex interaction between humans and their pathogens. Genetic factors that partly determine host defenses sometimes differ significantly between people and populations. More genetic and immunological research in non-European populations will provide a better and more complete picture of how the human immune system works.

A new microscope allows for high-throughput 3D adaptive optical imaging

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 08:18 AM PST

Microscopes are an important tool in biomedical research as it allows for detailed observation and imaging of tissues. Since biological materials are opaque by their nature, severe light scattering occurs as light travels through tissues, which induces a high level of background noise and complex optical aberration. Therefore, typical light microscopes mostly allow us to see the surface of the tissues, and details that are multiple cell layers deep are out of reach for many microscopes. This makes taking high-resolution optical images of microstructures deep inside tissues highly challenging.

Researchers identify a novel PARP-like enzyme in mitochondria

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 08:17 AM PST

Researchers have just identified an ADP-ribosyltransferase enzyme that is active in the mitochondria (the organelle that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power biochemical reactions in cells) and characterized its activity. ADP-ribosyltransferases are enzymes that play a role in the modification of other proteins. The activity of this new mitochondrial enzyme, called NEURL4, is similar to that of PARP1, a nuclear enzyme well studied for its critical role in DNA damage repair and regulation of gene expression.

How climate change is destroying Arctic coasts

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 08:17 AM PST

Global warming is causing permafrost in the Arctic to thaw and sea ice to melt. As a result, coasts are less protected and are being eroded, while carbon stored in the soil and carbon dioxide are being released into the ocean and atmosphere. In a first, researchers have now calculated the future scale of these processes for the entire Arctic. Their conclusion: each degree of warming accelerates them considerably.

A new, sustainable way to make hydrogen for fuel cells and fertilizers

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 08:17 AM PST

A new sustainable and practical method for producing hydrogen from water has been discovered by a team of researchers. Unlike current methods, the new method does not require rare metals that are expensive or in short supply. Instead, hydrogen for fuel cells and agricultural fertilizers can now be produced using cobalt and manganese, two fairly common metals.

High levels of hazardous chemicals found in Canadian nail salons

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 06:58 AM PST

An assessment of chemical exposures among nail salon technicians in Canada found unexpectedly high exposures to several chemicals used as plasticizers and flame retardants.

Decline of vultures and rise of dogs carries disease risks

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 06:57 AM PST

This is a story about vultures, feral dogs, rabies -- and piles of rotting animal carcasses. Buckle up. But in the end, it's about the power of conservation to keep ecosystems, even urban ecosystems, in balance, benefiting the people who live there.

Plant smoke detectors evolve as hormone sensors

Posted: 11 Feb 2022 01:13 PM PST

Proteins discovered as 'smoke detectors' in plants that depend on fire exposure for germination have been adapted as strigolactone hormone detectors in other plants, researchers found.