ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Less is more for reef-building corals: Surprisingly more flexible corals are more sensitive to environment disturbances
• Chimpanzees create 'social traditions': Unique handclasp grooming behavior reveals local difference
• Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles?
• Male snails babysit for other dads: Family secrets of marine whelk Solenosteira macrospira
• Evaluate children's stress after natural disasters
• Bright Arctic clouds formed by exhaust from final space shuttle launch
• NASA's IceBridge seeking new view of changing sea ice
• 'New England Banksia' a distinct species, botany student shows
• A new look at proteins in living cells
• Genome of diploid cotton sequenced
• Low cost, high efficiency solar technology developed
• Raccoons spreads dangerous diseases as they invade Europe, Spanish researchers find

Less is more for reef-building corals: Surprisingly more flexible corals are more sensitive to environment disturbances Posted: 28 Aug 2012 04:09 PM PDT Researchers have made a discovery that challenges a major theory in the field of coral reef ecology. The general assumption has been that the more flexible corals are, regarding which species of single-celled algae they host in coral tissues, the greater ability corals will have to survive environmental stress. However, scientists documented that the more flexible corals are, the more sensitive to environment disturbances they are.

Chimpanzees create 'social traditions': Unique handclasp grooming behavior reveals local difference Posted: 28 Aug 2012 04:08 PM PDT Researchers have revealed that chimpanzees are not only capable of learning from one another, but also use this social information to form and maintain local traditions. A recent study shows that the way in which chimpanzees groom each other depends on the community to which they belong. Specifically, it is the unique handclasp grooming behaviour that reveals this local difference.

Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles? Posted: 28 Aug 2012 02:17 PM PDT Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles? The answer may be ecological limits to species number, scientists report.

Male snails babysit for other dads: Family secrets of marine whelk Solenosteira macrospira Posted: 28 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT Pity the male of the marine whelk, Solenosteira macrospira. He does all the work of raising the young, from egg-laying to hatching -- even though few of the baby snails are his own. Throw in extensive promiscuity and sibling cannibalism, and the species has one of the most extreme life histories in the animal kingdom.

Evaluate children's stress after natural disasters Posted: 28 Aug 2012 11:33 AM PDT Some children, depending on other stressors, may have a harder time recovering from natural disasters.

Bright Arctic clouds formed by exhaust from final space shuttle launch Posted: 28 Aug 2012 10:51 AM PDT Scientists are tracking the rapid transport of the exhaust plume from the final launch of the space shuttle in July 2011. The team has found that the plume moved quickly to the Arctic, forming unusually bright polar mesospheric clouds there a day after launch.

NASA's IceBridge seeking new view of changing sea ice Posted: 28 Aug 2012 08:35 AM PDT This year scientists working on NASA's Operation IceBridge, a multi-year airborne science mission to study changing ice conditions at both poles, debuted a new data product with the potential to improve Arctic sea ice forecasts.

'New England Banksia' a distinct species, botany student shows Posted: 28 Aug 2012 08:34 AM PDT The New England Banksia is largely restricted to the eastern edge of the New England Tableland, and is common in places along Waterfall Way. Researchers have raised this flowering plant, until now classified as a variety of the Hairpin, to the taxonomic level of a distinct species.

A new look at proteins in living cells Posted: 28 Aug 2012 07:48 AM PDT Scientists have devised a new technique for examining the binding kinetics of membrane proteins.

Genome of diploid cotton sequenced Posted: 28 Aug 2012 07:47 AM PDT Scientists have completed the genome sequence and analysis of a diploid cotton -- Gossypium raimondii.

Low cost, high efficiency solar technology developed Posted: 28 Aug 2012 07:22 AM PDT Researchers have developed a new solar technology that could make solar energy more affordable, and thus speed-up its market adoption.

Raccoons spreads dangerous diseases as they invade Europe, Spanish researchers find Posted: 28 Aug 2012 04:33 AM PDT Furry, agile, intelligent and voracious: the raccoon is far from being a cuddly toy, which is what many people believe when they get one as a pet. It is more like an invader that escapes and is able to adapt and survive in new habitats. According to a study, its expansion across Spain and Europe is bringing infectious and parasitic diseases like rabies.

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