ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Silver nanoparticles may adversely affect environment
• Nut-cracking monkeys use shapes to strategize their use of tools
• Louse genetics offer clues on human migrations
• Homeric epics were written in 762 BCE, give or take, new study suggests
• Ectopic eyes function without natural connection to brain
• NASA's Aquarius sees salty shifts
• A game plan for climate change
• Feeding limbs and nervous system of one of Earth's earliest animals discovered
• Songbirds’ brains coordinate singing with intricate timing
• Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria
• Estimates reduce amount of additional land available for biofuel production by almost 80%
• Resurrection of 3-billion-year-old antibiotic-resistance proteins
• Scent of a coral: Symbiosis between two new barnacle species and a gorgonian host
• Cryopreservation: A chance for highly endangered mammals
• Discovery on animal memory opens doors to research on memory impairment diseases
• New fabrication technique could provide breakthrough for solar energy systems

Silver nanoparticles may adversely affect environment Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:35 PM PST In experiments mimicking a natural environment, researchers have demonstrated that the silver nanoparticles used in many consumer products can have an adverse effect on plants and microorganisms.

Nut-cracking monkeys use shapes to strategize their use of tools Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:35 PM PST Bearded capuchin monkeys deliberately place palm nuts in a stable position on a surface before trying to crack them open, revealing their capacity to use tactile information to improve tool use.

Louse genetics offer clues on human migrations Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:34 PM PST A new genetic analysis of human lice from across the world sheds light on the global spread of these parasites, their potential for disease transmission and insecticide resistance.

Homeric epics were written in 762 BCE, give or take, new study suggests Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:33 PM PST One of literature's oldest mysteries is a step closer to being solved. A new study dates Homer's The Iliad to 762 BCE and adds a quantitative means of testing ideas about history by analyzing the evolution of language.

Ectopic eyes function without natural connection to brain Posted: 27 Feb 2013 03:33 PM PST For the first time, scientists have shown that transplanted eyes located far outside the head in a vertebrate animal model can confer vision without a direct neural connection to the brain. Biologists used a frog model to shed new light – literally – on one of the major questions in regenerative medicine and sensory augmentation research.

NASA's Aquarius sees salty shifts Posted: 27 Feb 2013 01:51 PM PST Colorful new images chronicle the seasonal stirrings of our salty world: Pulses of freshwater gush from the Amazon River's mouth; an invisible seam divides the salty Arabian Sea from the fresher waters of the Bay of Bengal; a large patch of freshwater appears in the eastern tropical Pacific in the winter. These and other changes in ocean salinity patterns are revealed by the first full year of surface salinity data captured by NASA's Aquarius instrument.

A game plan for climate change Posted: 27 Feb 2013 12:09 PM PST Researchers have successfully piloted a process that enables natural resource managers to take action to conserve particular wildlife, plants and ecosystems as climate changes.

Feeding limbs and nervous system of one of Earth's earliest animals discovered Posted: 27 Feb 2013 10:44 AM PST Unique fossils literally 'lift the lid' on ancient creature's head to expose one of the earliest examples of food manipulating limbs in evolutionary history, dating from around 530 million years ago.

Songbirds’ brains coordinate singing with intricate timing Posted: 27 Feb 2013 10:43 AM PST As a bird sings, some neurons in its brain prepare to make the next sounds while others are synchronized with the current notes—a coordination of physical actions and brain activity that is needed to produce complex movements. The finding that may lead to new ways of understanding human speech production.

Viruses can have immune systems: A pirate phage commandeers the immune system of bacteria Posted: 27 Feb 2013 10:43 AM PST A new study reports that a viral predator of the cholera bacteria has stolen the functional immune system of bacteria and is using it against its bacterial host. This provides the first evidence that this type of virus, the bacteriophage, can acquire an adaptive immune system. The study has implications for phage therapy, the use of phages to treat bacterial diseases.

Estimates reduce amount of additional land available for biofuel production by almost 80% Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:20 AM PST Amid efforts to expand production of biofuels, scientists are reporting new estimates that downgrade the amount of additional land available for growing fuel crops by almost 80 percent.

Resurrection of 3-billion-year-old antibiotic-resistance proteins Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:20 AM PST Scientists are reporting "laboratory resurrections" of several 2-3-billion-year-old proteins that are ancient ancestors of the enzymes that enable today's antibiotic-resistant bacteria to shrug off huge doses of penicillins, cephalosporins and other modern drugs. The achievement opens the door to a scientific "replay" of the evolution of antibiotic resistance with an eye to finding new ways to cope with the problem.

Scent of a coral: Symbiosis between two new barnacle species and a gorgonian host Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:20 AM PST Two new species of sessile barnacles were discovered in the waters of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea. The newly described animals seem to demonstrate astonishing preference to a particular gorgonian (sea fan) host. Like in a love story, the recognition of "the one" is believed to happen through pheromones.

Cryopreservation: A chance for highly endangered mammals Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:19 AM PST Oocytes of lions, tigers and other cat species survive the preservation in liquid nitrogen. Scientists have now succeeded in carrying out cryopreservation of felid ovary cortex.

Discovery on animal memory opens doors to research on memory impairment diseases Posted: 27 Feb 2013 05:59 AM PST A new study offers the first evidence of source memory in a nonhuman animal. The findings have fascinating implications, both in evolutionary terms and for future research into the biological underpinnings of memory, as well as the treatment of diseases marked by memory failure such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's, or disorders such as schizophrenia, PTSD and depression.

New fabrication technique could provide breakthrough for solar energy systems Posted: 27 Feb 2013 05:59 AM PST Scientists are using a novel fabrication process to create ultra-efficient solar energy rectennas capable of harvesting more than 70 percent of the sun's electromagnetic radiation and simultaneously converting it into usable electric power.

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