ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Global precipitation linked to global warming
• Marine biology: Feast and famine on the abyssal plain
• Bacteria may allow animals to send quick, voluminous messages
• Mathematical analysis helps untangle bacterial chromosomes
• Threats to our clean water: Impacts to human and marine environments
• Nurture impacts nature: Experiences leave genetic mark on brain, behavior
• Visualizing the past: Nondestructive imaging of ancient fossils
• Methane-munching microorganisms meddle with metals
• Green poison-dart frog varies mating call to suit situation
• Changing the conversation: Polymers disrupt bacterial communication
• Waste could help fuel low carbon energy and transport
• How zinc starves lethal bacteria to stop infection
• 'Saving our Fish' needs more than ban on discarding
• Cause of genetic disorder found in 'dark matter' of DNA
• Single-cell genome sequencing gets better

Global precipitation linked to global warming Posted: 11 Nov 2013 03:55 PM PST A new study shows that observed changes in global (ocean and land) precipitation are directly affected by human activities and cannot be explained by natural variability alone.

Marine biology: Feast and famine on the abyssal plain Posted: 11 Nov 2013 03:55 PM PST Marine biologists have long been puzzled by the fact that marine snow does not supply enough food to support all the animals and microbes living in deep-sea sediments. A new article shows that blooms of algae or animals near the sea surface can deliver as much food to deep-sea organisms as would normally arrive over years or even decades.

Bacteria may allow animals to send quick, voluminous messages Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:15 PM PST Twitter clips human thoughts to a mere 140 characters. Animals' scent posts may be equally as short, relatively speaking, yet they convey an encyclopedia of information about the animals that left them. Researcher now show that the detailed scent posts of hyenas are, in part, products of symbiotic bacteria, microbes that have a mutually beneficial relationship with their hosts.

Mathematical analysis helps untangle bacterial chromosomes Posted: 11 Nov 2013 01:14 PM PST A team of researchers has analyzed how tangled DNA is unknotted and unlinked during the process of E. coli cell division, an understanding that could improve human health by leading to the design of better antibacterial drugs.

Threats to our clean water: Impacts to human and marine environments Posted: 11 Nov 2013 11:40 AM PST Despite the abundance of water on our planet, it remains a precious and sought after life sustaining resource. Without the technology to provide safe, clean water to the masses, the general public would be consuming massive amounts of deadly bacteria daily. This is a case of the natural environment endangering humans. However, this can go both ways. Every year humans endanger the lives of millions of marine animals by (accidentally) contaminating their water with oil. Oil spills dump thousands of tons of oil into the ocean every year affecting many species of animals.

Nurture impacts nature: Experiences leave genetic mark on brain, behavior Posted: 11 Nov 2013 10:14 AM PST New human and animal research released demonstrates how experiences impact genes that influence behavior and health. New insights have been made into how experience might produce long-term brain changes in behaviors like drug addiction and memory formation.

Visualizing the past: Nondestructive imaging of ancient fossils Posted: 11 Nov 2013 09:21 AM PST Well-preserved plant fossils are rare, and traditional techniques to study their internal structure, by necessity, damage the sample. A new study integrates high-resolution X-ray imaging, 3-D image segmentation, and computer animation to visualize fossil conifer seed cones without destroying the material. The technique captures X-ray images that provide virtual cross-sections of the specimen and then combines the images to produce a 3-D reconstruction.

Methane-munching microorganisms meddle with metals Posted: 11 Nov 2013 08:26 AM PST A pair of microbes on the ocean floor "eats" methane in a unique way, and a new study provides insights into their surprising nutritional requirements. Learning how these methane-munching organisms make a living in these extreme environments could provide clues about how the deep-sea environment might change in a warming world.

Green poison-dart frog varies mating call to suit situation Posted: 11 Nov 2013 07:24 AM PST In the eyes of a female poison-dart frog, a red male isn't much brighter than a green one. This does not however mean that the mating behavior of the green and red variants of the same species of frog is exactly the same.

Changing the conversation: Polymers disrupt bacterial communication Posted: 11 Nov 2013 06:15 AM PST Artificial materials based on simple synthetic polymers can disrupt the way in which bacteria communicate with each other, a new study has shown.

Waste could help fuel low carbon energy and transport Posted: 11 Nov 2013 06:13 AM PST In a time when society – and nature itself – are threatened by climate change, it seems fair to ask: Does recycling still matter? Two Swedish scientists say it does.

How zinc starves lethal bacteria to stop infection Posted: 11 Nov 2013 06:11 AM PST Researchers have found that zinc can 'starve' one of the world's most deadly bacteria by preventing its uptake of an essential metal.

'Saving our Fish' needs more than ban on discarding Posted: 10 Nov 2013 05:43 PM PST Banning the practice of throwing unmarketable or over-quota fish back into the sea is just one of the measures needed to deliver sustainable fisheries, according to new research.

Cause of genetic disorder found in 'dark matter' of DNA Posted: 10 Nov 2013 03:44 PM PST Pancreatic agenesis results in babies being born without a pancreas, leaving them with a lifetime of diabetes and problems digesting food. In a breakthrough for genetic research, scientists found that the condition is most commonly caused by mutations in a newly identified gene regulatory element in a remote part of the genome, which can now be explored thanks to advances in genetic sequencing.

Single-cell genome sequencing gets better Posted: 10 Nov 2013 03:44 PM PST Researchers have generated the most complete genome sequences from single E. coli cells and individual neurons from the human brain. Preliminary data suggest that individual neurons from the same brain have different genetic compositions. The breakthrough comes from a new single-cell genome sequencing technique that confines genome amplification to fluid-filled wells with a volume of just 12 nanoliters.

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