EurekAlert! - Earth Science

The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.http://www.eurekalert.org en-usCopyright 2012 by the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceFri, 07 Dec 2012 14:24:03 ESTEurekAlert!http://www.eurekalert.org/images/logo.gifhttp://www.eurekalert.org The premier online source for science news since 1996. A service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.60webmaster@eurekalert.org (EurekAlert!)(<i>University of Washington</i>) Studies have shown decreasing levels of the isotope nitrogen-15 in core samples from Greenland ice starting around the time of the Industrial Revolution. New research suggests the decline corresponds to increased acidity in the atmosphere.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uow-gis120712.php Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uow-gis120712.php(<i>University of Michigan</i>) Did different species of early humans interbreed and produce offspring of mixed ancestry?http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uom-mbw120712.php Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uom-mbw120712.php(<i>Pensoft Publishers</i>) A unique hexagonal pattern has been discovered in a recently described plant-parasitic nematode worm, by a combined team of researchers from Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The study was published in the peer-reviewed, open source scientific journal ZooKeys.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/pp-apg120712.php Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/pp-apg120712.php(<i>American Society of Agronomy</i>) Canadian and French scientists have uncovered a soil microbe that degrades a common veterinary antibiotic both to protect itself and get nutrition, an ability the researchers suggest could be widespread.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/asoa-abu120612.php Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/asoa-abu120612.php(<i>American Institute of Mathematics</i>) More than 100 academic institutions and scholarly societies have joined in a major world-wide initiative: Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE2013). This year-long effort will highlight contributions of mathematics in tackling global problems, including natural disasters, climate change, sustainability, and pandemics. MPE2013 partners will sponsor workshops, research conferences, public lectures, outreach events, and educational opportunities, bringing public awareness of the interdisciplinary nature of scientific research and the unique role played by mathematics in facing global challenges.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/aiom-mtg120412.php Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/aiom-mtg120412.php(<i>California Academy of Sciences</i>) In 2012, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 137 new relatives to our family tree, enriching our understanding of the complex web of life on Earth and strengthening our ability to make informed conservation decisions. The new species include 83 arthropods, 41 fishes, seven plants, four sea slugs, one reptile, and one amphibian. They were described by more than a dozen Academy scientists along with several dozen international collaborators.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/caos-1ns120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/caos-1ns120612.php(<i>National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)</i>) Scientists have pinpointed genetic changes that allow some Ethiopians to live more than a mile above sea level without getting altitude sickness. The genes differ from those reported previously for high-altitude Tibetans, even though both groups cope with low-oxygen in similar physiological ways. The results may help scientists understand why some people are more vulnerable to low oxygen caused by factors other than altitude -- such as asthma or heart problems -- and point to new treatments.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nesc-eat120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nesc-eat120612.php(<i>Princeton University, Engineering School</i>) Princeton researchers have found a simple and economic way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, the cheap and flexible plastic devices that many scientists believe could be the future of solar power.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/pues-tsg120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/pues-tsg120612.php(<i>DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory</i>) Residential and commercial buildings of tomorrow could use less energy. Detecting parasites in biological or medical samples. Medical scans of children and people with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease could have greater clarity because of a technology developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/drnl-d2s120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/drnl-d2s120612.php(<i>Michigan State University</i>) Warning: This class will teach students to translate scientific mumbo jumbo into understandable phrases.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/msu-msm120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/msu-msm120612.php(<i>NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center</i>) NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite can estimate rainfall rates from its orbit in space, and its data is also used to compile estimated rainfall totals. NASA just released an image showing those rainfall totals over the Philippines, where severe flooding killed several hundred people. Bopha is now a tropical storm in the South China Sea.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nsfc-nct120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nsfc-nct120612.php(<i>Case Western Reserve University</i>) Highlanders in Tibet and Ethiopia share a biological adaptation that enables them to thrive in the low oxygen of high altitudes, but the ability to pass on the trait appears to be linked to different genes in the two groups, research from a Case Western Reserve University scientist and colleagues shows.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/cwru-dgb120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/cwru-dgb120612.php(<i>University of California - Santa Cruz</i>) In a surprising result, scientists at UC Santa Cruz have found that the insect-eating pallid bat is a more effective pollinator of cardon cactus flowers than a nectar-feeding specialist, the lesser long-nosed bat.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoc--ibo120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoc--ibo120612.php(<i>European Space Agency</i>) ESA joined international delegates in Doha, Qatar, to discuss how satellite observations show our planet's most sensitive areas reacting to climate change - and how this information is useful to the people living there.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/esa-ct120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/esa-ct120612.php(<i>NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center</i>) Thanks to improved data analysis techniques and a new operating mode, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is now 10 times better at catching the brief outbursts of high-energy light mysteriously produced above thunderstorms.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nsfc-fii120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/nsfc-fii120612.php(<i>Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft</i>) With gold, copper or tin and special galvanizing processes, scientists are improving the function of semi-conductors and making the manufacture of microelectronic systems a child's play. Especially the LED industry could profit from this.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/f-cga120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/f-cga120612.php(<i>Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres</i>) How well are the most important climate models able to predict the weather conditions for the coming year or even the next decade? The Potsdam scientists Dr. Dorthe Handorf and Prof. Dr. Klaus Dethloff from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have evaluated 23 climate models and published their results in the current issue of the international scientific journal Tellus A.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/haog-hcw120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/haog-hcw120612.php(<i>University of York</i>) Research led by the University of York has found that the impacts of climate change on rare plants in tropical mountains will vary considerably from site to site and from species to species.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoy-rii120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoy-rii120612.php(<i>University of Gothenburg</i>) The ice sheet in West Antarctica is melting faster than expected. New observations published by oceanographers from the University of Gothenburg and the US may improve our ability to predict future changes in ice sheet mass. The study was recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uog-wsw120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uog-wsw120612.php(<i>Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council</i>) Scientists at the Babraham Institute have gained a new understanding of when and how the DNA in developing egg and sperm cells is 'reset', in preparation for making a new embryo.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/babs-iid120612.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/babs-iid120612.php(<i>Indiana University</i>) Research by Indiana University paleobotanist David L. Dilcher and colleagues in Europe sheds new light on what Charles Darwin famously called "an abominable mystery": the apparently sudden appearance and rapid spread of flowering plants in the fossil record.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/iu-ryu120512.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/iu-ryu120512.php(<i>University of Washington</i>) Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator's buffet of flowers -- in spite of being among the insect world's picky eaters -- because of two distinct "channels" in their brains, scientists have discovered. One olfactory channel governs innate preferences of the palm-sized moths -- insects capable of traveling miles in a single night in search of favored blossoms. The other allows them to learn about alternate sources of nectar.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uow-mwt120512.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uow-mwt120512.php(<i>BioMed Central</i>) It is well known that plant growth patterns are influenced by a variety of stimuli, gravity being one amongst many. On Earth plant roots exhibit characteristic behaviors called 'waving' and 'skewing', which were thought to be gravity-dependent events. However, Arabidopsis plants grown on the International Space Station have proved this theory wrong, according to a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Plant Biology: root 'waving' and 'skewing' occur in spaceflight plants independently of gravity.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/bc-wht120512.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/bc-wht120512.php(<i>Penn State</i>) For the first time, a silicon-based optical fiber with solar-cell capabilities has been developed that is capable of being scaled up to many meters in length. The research, led by a Penn State University chemist, opens the door to the possibility of weaving together solar-cell silicon wires to create flexible, curved, or twisted solar fabrics.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/ps-fss120312.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/ps-fss120312.php(<i>University of Copenhagen</i>) The catastrophic drought last year in the Horn of Africa affected millions of people but also caused the extremely late arrival into northern Europe of several migratory songbird species, a study from University of Copenhagen published in Science now shows. Details of the migration route was revealed by data collected from small back-packs fitted on birds showing that the delay resulted from an extended stay in the Horn of Africa.http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoc-dit113012.php Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:00:00 ESThttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/uoc-dit113012.php

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