ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Researchers find missing component in effort to create primitive, synthetic cells
• Scientists achieve most detailed picture ever of key part of hepatitis C virus
• Fruit flies with better sex lives live longer
• Eat crow if you think I'm a bird-brain
• Mutations in mantled howler provoked by disturbances in habitat
• EU fishing fleets reap profits while taxpayers foot the bill
• Destroying greenhouse gases in environmentally-friendly way

Researchers find missing component in effort to create primitive, synthetic cells Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:14 AM PST A team of investigators working to create "protocells" -- primitive synthetic cells consisting of a nucleic acid strand encased within a membrane-bound compartment -- have found a solution to what could have been a critical problem, the potential incompatibility between a chemical requirement of RNA copying and the stability of the protocell membrane.

Scientists achieve most detailed picture ever of key part of hepatitis C virus Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:13 AM PST Scientists have determined the most detailed picture yet of a crucial part of the hepatitis C virus, which the virus uses to infect liver cells. The new data reveal unexpected structural features of this protein.

Fruit flies with better sex lives live longer Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:12 AM PST Sex may in fact be one of the secrets to good health, youth and a longer life – at least for fruit flies – suggests a new study. Sexually frustrated fruit flies in this lab lived shorter lives.

Eat crow if you think I'm a bird-brain Posted: 28 Nov 2013 07:38 AM PST Scientists have long suspected that corvids – the family of birds including ravens, crows and magpies – are highly intelligent. Now, neurobiologists have demonstrated how the brains of crows produce intelligent behavior when the birds have to make strategic decisions.

Mutations in mantled howler provoked by disturbances in habitat Posted: 28 Nov 2013 07:38 AM PST The disturbances of the habitat could be affecting the populations of the mantled howler, or golden-mantled howling monkey, (Alouatta palliate Mexicana) who in an extreme case could be developing mutations that make them less resistant to diseases and climate events.

EU fishing fleets reap profits while taxpayers foot the bill Posted: 27 Nov 2013 07:54 PM PST The European Union's taxpayers are paving the way for fishing fleets to reel in valuable catch in developing countries while fishing companies pocket the profits, according to researchers.

Destroying greenhouse gases in environmentally-friendly way Posted: 27 Nov 2013 08:03 AM PST Researchers have developed a new catalyst for the "activation" of carbon-fluorine bonds. This process has many industrial applications, among which stands out the possibility to be used to reduce existing stocks of CFCs (chloro-fluoro-carbonated compounds), known as "greenhouse gases". CFCs experienced a huge boom in the 80s, but later they were found to destroy the ozone layer because of their photochemical decomposition when they reached the upper layers of the atmosphere.

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