Environment News

Avoiding virus dangers in ‘domesticating’ wild plants for biofuel use
Friday, February 15, 2013 - 10:00

In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass. However, attempts to “domesticate” wild-growing plants have a downside, as it could make the plants more susceptible to any number of plant viruses.

 

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City birds that experience light at night are ready to breed earlier than their rural cousins
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 09:59

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany, recently investigated how light conditions in urban areas at night affect European blackbirds (Turdus merula). They found that animals exposed to low night-time light intensities, comparable to those found in cities, develop their reproductive system earlier: their testosterone levels rise and their testes mature earlier in the year. They also begin to sing and to moult earlier. The ever-present light pollution in cities may therefore exert a major influence on the seasonal rhythm of urban animals.

 

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NASA Satellite Data find Freshwater Losses in Middle East
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - 12:02

A new study using data from a pair of gravity-measuring NASA satellites finds that large parts of the arid Middle East region lost freshwater reserves rapidly during the past decade.

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Researchers Find Asian Needle Ants Displacing Other Aggressive Invaders
Monday, February 11, 2013 - 12:44

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that one of the most aggressive invasive ant species in the United States – the Argentine ant – appears to have met its match in the Asian needle ant. 

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Maternal Exposure to Air Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weights Worldwide
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - 14:07

Mothers who are exposed to particulate air pollution of the type emitted by vehicles, urban heating and coal power plants are significantly more likely to bear children of low birth weight, according to an international study led by researchers from UC San Francisco and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

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India joined with Asia 10 million years later than previously thought‏
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 15:04

The peaks of the Himalayas are a modern remnant of massive tectonic forces that fused India with Asia tens of millions of years ago. Previous estimates have suggested this collision occurred about 50 million years ago, as India, moving northward at a rapid pace, crushed up against Eurasia. The crumple zone between the two plates gave rise to the Himalayas, which today bear geologic traces of both India and Asia. Geologists have sought to characterize the rocks of the Himalayas in order to retrace one of the planet’s most dramatic tectonic collisions.

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