ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Quirky Lyme disease bacteria: Unlike most organisms, they don't need iron, but crave manganese
• Seabirds need effective marine conservation in wake of discard ban, warns study
• Fossil bird study on extinction patterns could help today's conservation efforts
• Researchers alter mosquito genome with goal of controlling disease
• First images released from newest Earth observation satellite
• Enzymes allow DNA to swap information with exotic molecules
• Megavolcanoes tied to pre-dinosaur mass extinction: Apparent sudden climate shift could have analog today
• Archerfish get an eye test
• Novel insights into the evolution of protein networks
• Smelling genetic information: Molecules allow mice to sniff out the genes of other mice
• Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years linked to carbon levels
• Ants rise with temperature
• Restoration and recommendations for flood-damaged bottomlands
• Study reveals working of motor with revolution motion in bacteria-killing virus; Advances nanotechnology

Quirky Lyme disease bacteria: Unlike most organisms, they don't need iron, but crave manganese Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:57 PM PDT Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme disease -- unlike any other known organism -- can exist without iron, a metal that all other life needs to make proteins and enzymes. Instead of iron, the bacteria substitute manganese to make an essential enzyme, thus eluding immune system defenses that protect the body by starving pathogens of iron.

Seabirds need effective marine conservation in wake of discard ban, warns study Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:54 PM PDT Conservationists have renewed urgent calls for effective marine protection in European waters, after a new study revealed that the recent EU ban on fish discards could have a significant short-term impact on some seabirds.

Fossil bird study on extinction patterns could help today's conservation efforts Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:48 PM PDT A new study of nearly 5,000 Haiti bird fossils shows contrary to a commonly held theory, human arrival 6,000 years ago didn't cause the island's birds to die simultaneously.

Researchers alter mosquito genome with goal of controlling disease Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:48 PM PDT With a technique called TALENS, scientists used a pair of engineered proteins to disrupt a targeted gene in the mosquito genome, changing the eye color of ensuing generations of the insect. The method might help scientists find ways control disease transmission.

First images released from newest Earth observation satellite Posted: 21 Mar 2013 02:09 PM PDT NASA and the Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have released the first images from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite, which was launched Feb. 11.

Enzymes allow DNA to swap information with exotic molecules Posted: 21 Mar 2013 12:19 PM PDT Scientists have been hunting for a biological Rosetta Stone -- an enzyme allowing DNA's four-letter language to be written into a simpler (and potentially more ancient) molecule that may have existed as a genetic pathway to DNA and RNA in the prebiotic world. Research results demonstrate that DNA sequences can be transcribed into a molecule known as TNA and reverse transcribed back into DNA, with the aid of commercially available enzymes.

Megavolcanoes tied to pre-dinosaur mass extinction: Apparent sudden climate shift could have analog today Posted: 21 Mar 2013 11:14 AM PDT Scientists examining evidence across the world say they have linked the abrupt disappearance of half of earth's species 200 million years ago to a precisely dated set of gigantic volcanic eruptions. The eruptions may have caused climate changes so sudden that many creatures were unable to adapt -- possibly on a pace similar to that of human-influenced climate warming today. The extinction opened the way for dinosaurs to evolve and dominate the planet for the next 135 million years.

Archerfish get an eye test Posted: 21 Mar 2013 10:32 AM PDT A modified version of an eye test used to assess visual acuity in the military has been given to archerfish by scientists to help explain how these remarkable fish are able to accurately spit down tiny insects high above the water's surface.

Novel insights into the evolution of protein networks Posted: 21 Mar 2013 08:09 AM PDT System-wide networks of proteins are indispensable for organisms. Function and evolution of these networks are among the most fascinating research questions in biology. Researchers have reconstructed ancestral protein networks. The results are of high interest not only for evolutionary research but also for the interpretation of genome sequence data.

Smelling genetic information: Molecules allow mice to sniff out the genes of other mice Posted: 21 Mar 2013 08:02 AM PDT Scientists have theorized that animals and humans are able to smell certain genes linked to the immune system, which in turn influences their choice of mate. The genes in question are known as MHC (major histocompatibility complex) genes. Selecting a mate with very different MHC genes from one's own makes sense, because your offspring will then have a greater variety of immunity genes -- and a correspondingly greater resistance to disease. But until now, no scent offering information about MHC genes had been discovered among those emitted by humans and animals. Now researchers have managed to do just that.

Global nitrogen availability consistent for past 500 years linked to carbon levels Posted: 21 Mar 2013 07:51 AM PDT Despite humans increasing nitrogen production through industrialization, nitrogen availability in many ecosystems has remained steady for the past 500 years, a new study finds.

Ants rise with temperature Posted: 21 Mar 2013 05:15 AM PDT Aphaenogaster genera are abundant woodland ants that disperse most spring flower seeds. This research shows how rising minimum temperatures affect cold- and warm-adapted ants. Warming minimum temperatures allow warm-adapted ants to migrate up the mountains, replacing cold-adapted ants.

Restoration and recommendations for flood-damaged bottomlands Posted: 20 Mar 2013 11:27 AM PDT Although the 2012 drought in the Midwest may have dimmed the memories for some of the 2011 Ohio and Mississippi River flood, engineers, landowners, conservationists, crop scientists and soil scientists haven't forgotten. They are working hard to repair levees and restore the flood damaged Birds Point-New Madrid floodway in preparation for the next big flood which will eventually happen.

Study reveals working of motor with revolution motion in bacteria-killing virus; Advances nanotechnology Posted: 20 Mar 2013 06:54 AM PDT Scientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of the natural motors that are serving as models for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA or drugs into individual diseased cells. Their report reveals the innermost mechanisms of these nanomotors in a bacteria-killing virus -- and a new way to move DNA through cells.

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