ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Wasp transcriptome creates a buzz
• Hummingbird flight: Two vortex trails with one stroke
• Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere
• Clues to climate cycles dug from South Pole snow pit
• Maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years ago
• Macroweather is what you expect: Should there be a distinct category between weather and climate?
• Global surveys show environment ranks low among public concerns
• Exurban residences impact bird communities up to 200 meters away, study finds
• New maps depict potential worldwide coral bleaching by 2056
• Rethinking wind power
• March of the pathogens: Parasite metabolism can foretell disease ranges under climate change
• Scientists produce densest artificial ionospheric plasma clouds using HAARP
• Cleaning oil spills with paper mill sludge?
• Four new species of water-gliding rove beetles discovered in Ningxia, China
• Mouse mothers induce parenting behaviors in fathers with ultra-sonic noises
• Spiderman's webbing would be strong enough to stop a moving train, say physics students
• Scientists develop a whole new way of harvesting energy from the sun

Wasp transcriptome creates a buzz Posted: 25 Feb 2013 05:18 PM PST New research delivers a sting in the tail for queen wasps.  Scientists have sequenced the active parts of the genome – or transcriptome – of primitively eusocial wasps to identify the part of the genome that makes you a queen or a worker. Their work shows that workers have a more active transcriptome than queens. This suggests that in these simple societies, workers may be the 'jack-of-all-trades' in the colony - transcriptionally speaking - leaving the queen with a somewhat restricted repertoire.

Hummingbird flight: Two vortex trails with one stroke Posted: 25 Feb 2013 12:31 PM PST As of today, the Wikipedia entry for the hummingbird explains that the bird's flight generates in its wake a single trail of vortices that helps the bird hover. But after conducting experiments with hummingbirds in the lab, researchers propose that the hummingbird produces two trails of vortices -- one under each wing per stroke -- that help generate the aerodynamic forces required for the bird to power and control its flight.

Weather extremes provoked by trapping of giant waves in the atmosphere Posted: 25 Feb 2013 12:31 PM PST The world has suffered from severe regional weather extremes in recent years, such as the heat wave in the United States in 2011. Behind these devastating individual events there is a common physical cause, propose scientists in a new study. It suggests that human-made climate change repeatedly disturbs the patterns of atmospheric flow around the globe's Northern hemisphere through a subtle resonance mechanism.

Clues to climate cycles dug from South Pole snow pit Posted: 25 Feb 2013 12:31 PM PST Particles from the upper atmosphere trapped in a deep pile of Antarctic snow hold clear chemical traces of global meteorological events, climate scientists from France have found. Anomalies in oxygen found in sulfate particles coincide with several episodes of the world-wide disruption of weather known as El Nino and can be distinguished from similar signals left by the eruption of huge volcanoes, the team reports.

Maize in diets of people in coastal Peru dates to 5,000 years ago Posted: 25 Feb 2013 12:31 PM PST Scientists have concluded that during the Late Archaic, maize (corn) was a primary component in the diet of people living in the Norte Chico region of Peru, an area of remarkable cultural florescence in 3rd millennium B.C. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru.

Macroweather is what you expect: Should there be a distinct category between weather and climate? Posted: 25 Feb 2013 10:16 AM PST While short-term weather is notoriously volatile, climate is thought to represent a kind of average weather pattern over a long period. This dichotomy provides the analytical framework for scientific thinking about atmospheric variability, including climate change. But the weather-climate dichotomy paints an incomplete picture, according to a physics professor. He argues that statistical analysis shows there is a period between short-term weather and long-term climate that should be recognized as distinct.

Global surveys show environment ranks low among public concerns Posted: 25 Feb 2013 10:15 AM PST A newly released international study reveals that the issue of climate change is not a priority for people in the United States and around the world. The surveys showed that when asked to rank priority worries, people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment.

Exurban residences impact bird communities up to 200 meters away, study finds Posted: 25 Feb 2013 10:15 AM PST According to a new study impacts to bird communities from a single rural, "exurban" residence can extend up to 200 meters into the surrounding forest. The study also determined that sensitive bird species such as the hermit thrush and scarlet tanager prefer unbroken forests with no houses. Others, like the blue jay and black-capped chickadee, seem to like having, and often thrive with, human neighbors.

New maps depict potential worldwide coral bleaching by 2056 Posted: 25 Feb 2013 09:20 AM PST New maps by scientists show how rising sea temperatures are likely to affect all coral reefs in the form of annual coral bleaching events under different emission scenarios. If carbon emissions stay on the current path most of the world's coral reefs (74 percent) are projected to experience coral bleaching conditions annually by 2045, results of the study show.

Rethinking wind power Posted: 25 Feb 2013 09:19 AM PST "People have often thought there's no upper bound for wind power—that it's one of the most scalable power sources," says an applied physicist. After all, gusts and breezes don't seem likely to "run out" on a global scale in the way oil wells might run dry.

March of the pathogens: Parasite metabolism can foretell disease ranges under climate change Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:25 AM PST Researchers developed a model that can help determine the future range of nearly any disease-causing parasite under climate change, even if little is known about the organism. Their method calculates how the projected temperature change for an area would alter the creature's metabolism and life cycle.

Scientists produce densest artificial ionospheric plasma clouds using HAARP Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:25 AM PST Glow discharges in the upper atmosphere were generated to explore ionospheric phenomena and its impact on communications and space weather.

Cleaning oil spills with paper mill sludge? Posted: 25 Feb 2013 08:23 AM PST Eco-innovation is at its best when the waste of one industry becomes the raw material of another. This is precisely what a new research project CAPS, is attempting to do with waste sludge from the paper industry. Its objective is to convert it into a highly absorbent material capable of cleaning up oil and chemical spills.

Four new species of water-gliding rove beetles discovered in Ningxia, China Posted: 25 Feb 2013 07:25 AM PST Four new species of Steninae were discovered during an expedition in the Liupan Shan Natural Reserve, Ningxia, China. The scientists described a total of 17 species of these intriguing beetles that live in the dead leaf mass of the territory explored, thus marking 11 new province records and a great contribution to assessing the biodiversity of the Ningxia Autonomous Region.

Mouse mothers induce parenting behaviors in fathers with ultra-sonic noises Posted: 25 Feb 2013 07:21 AM PST Researchers have demonstrated the existence of communicative signalling from female mice that induces male parental behavior.

Spiderman's webbing would be strong enough to stop a moving train, say physics students Posted: 25 Feb 2013 06:20 AM PST In Spiderman 2, the superhero uses his webbing to bring a runaway train to a standstill moments before it plummets over the end of the track. But could a material with the strength and toughness of spiders' web really stop four crowded subway cars? According to physics students, the answer is yes.

Scientists develop a whole new way of harvesting energy from the sun Posted: 24 Feb 2013 11:29 AM PST A new method of harvesting the sun's energy is emerging. Though still in its infancy, the research promises to convert sunlight into energy using a process based on metals that are more robust than many of the semiconductors used in conventional methods.

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