Top Environment News

September 25, 2016

How Natural Selection Affects One Penguin Species

How Human Activities Can Rattle Solid Rock

Ice Man Otzi Was Murdered

Genetic Wiring of Cellular Life Revealed

Latest Headlines

updated 4:50am EDT

Peeling Back the Layers: Scientists Use New Techniques to Uncover Hidden Secrets of Plant Stem Development

Sep. 22, 2016 — Innovative new cell imaging techniques have now been pioneered to shed light on cells hidden deep inside the meristem. This ... read more

Ocean Fronts Attract Ocean Wanderers

Sep. 21, 2016 — Foraging seabirds use oceanic fronts as an efficient means to forage for food, according to an international study that could help safeguard the future of protected ... read more

Malaysia's Unique Freshwater Mussels in Danger

Sep. 21, 2016 — Peninsular Malaysia hosts at least three rare mussel species, one of which (Hyriopsis bialata) is not found anywhere else on the planet. Now investigators suggest that this species may be in danger. ... read more

More Than One in Ten UK Species Threatened With Extinction

Sep. 21, 2016 — Climate change, urban expansion and agricultural intensification blamed for risk to some of Britain's best loved species. Some of the UK's leading nature experts have delivered a clarion call for ... read more

Hunt for the Truest North

Sep. 21, 2016 — If you chop a magnet in half, you end up with two smaller magnets. Both the original and the new magnets have “north” and “south” poles. But what if single north and south poles exist, just ... read more

Fate of Turtles, Tortoises Affected More by Habitat Than Temperature

Sep. 20, 2016 — Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research. More than 60 per cent are listed as vulnerable, ... read more

Environmental DNA Provides Early Detection of Invasive Crayfish

Sep. 20, 2016 — Every plant and animal has a unique genetic composition, which makes a lake like a bowl of DNA soup—every spoonful contains the combined DNA of the lake’s inhabitants. Scientists have only ... read more

Greenland Rising as Ice Melts

Sep. 23, 2016 — A new study on the Greenland Ice Sheet provides valuable insight on climate change, using unique research methods to establish new estimates of ice loss for both modern and ... read more

Melatonin, Biological Clock Keep Singing Fish on Time

Sep. 23, 2016 — In the 1980s, people living on houseboats in the San Francisco Bay were puzzled by a droning hum of unknown origin that started abruptly in the late evening and stopped ... read more

Oxygen Levels Were Key to Early Animal Evolution, Strongest Evidence Now Shows

Sep. 23, 2016 — It has long puzzled scientists why, after 3 billion years of nothing more complex than algae, complex animals suddenly ... read more

Realistic Dinosaur Model Sheds Light on Camouflage

Conservationists Say 'sustainable' Shark Fishing Is Possible

East Antarctic Meltwater Ponds Seen for First Time

Incessant Rains Flood India's Southern State

Acidity in Atmosphere Minimized to Preindustrial Levels

Sep. 24, 2016 — New research shows that human pollution of the atmosphere with acid is now almost back to the level that it was before the pollution started with industrialization in the 1930s. The results come from ... read more

Stronger Turbine Blades With Molybdenum Silicides

Sep. 23, 2016 — Molybdenum silicides can improve the efficiency of turbine blades in ultrahigh-temperature combustion systems, researchers have ... read more

To Produce Biopharmaceuticals on Demand, Just Add Water

Sep. 23, 2016 — Researchers have created tiny freeze-dried pellets that include all of the molecular machinery needed to translate DNA into proteins, which could form the basis for on-demand production of drugs and ... read more

Underwater 'Cystoseira Zosteroides' Forests, the Mediterranean Algae, Threatened by Human Activity Impact

Sep. 23, 2016 — The effects of an intense storm every twenty-five years could make the marine alga populations of <em>Cystoseira zosteroides</em> disappear – an endemic species of the Mediterranean ... read more

Lipid Receptor Fosters Infection of the Uterus in Bitches

Sep. 23, 2016 — In the female dog, cells of the uterus can accumulate lipid droplets to form so-called foamy epithelial cells during late metoestrus. These cells produce a hormone that is involved in the ... read more

Alternative Oxidase from a Marine Animal Works in Mammals, Combats Bacterial Sepsis

Sep. 23, 2016 — Mitochondrial alternative oxidase from a sea-squirt works as a safety valve for stressed mitochondria. This property enables it to stop the runaway inflammatory process that leads to multiple organ ... read more

Long-Term Monitoring of Sapovirus Infection in Wild Carnivores in the Serengeti

Sep. 23, 2016 — Sapoviruses are an emerging group of viruses of the group of caliciviruses and well known agents of gastric enteritis, but very little is currently known about their role in wildlife ecology or the ... read more

Apple, Lettuce Can Remedy Garlic Breath

Sep. 23, 2016 — Garlic -- consumers either love or hate the taste, but one thing is for certain, no one likes it when the scent of it sticks around on their breath. Now, garlic lovers may have a new solution to ... read more

Caspian Terns Discovered Nesting 1,000 Miles Farther to the North Than Ever Recorded in Alaska

Sep. 23, 2016 — In the late summer of 2016, a field team monitored Caspian tern chicks through to fledging in Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alaska. This discovery of Caspian terns breeding above the Arctic ... read more

Fracking Causes Earthquakes, but New Research Finds Way to Make It Safer

Sep. 22, 2016 — Injecting wastewater deep underground as a byproduct of oil and gas extraction techniques that include fracking causes human-made earthquakes, new research has found. The study, which also showed ... read more

Marriage Made in Sunlight: Invention Merges Solar With Liquid Battery

Sep. 22, 2016 — As solar cells produce a greater proportion of total electric power, a fundamental limitation remains: the dark of night when solar cells go to sleep. Lithium-ion batteries are too expensive a ... read more

Unique Feeding Habits of Whales Revealed

Sep. 22, 2016 — Whales are the biggest animals to ever have existed on Earth, and yet some subsist on creatures the size of a paper clip. It's a relatively common factoid, but, in truth, how they do this is ... read more

Different Tree Species Use the Same Genes to Adapt to Climate Change, Researchers Find

Sep. 22, 2016 — Both pine and spruce use the same suite of 47 genes to adapt to geographic variation in temperature, and to appropriately time acquisition of cold hardiness -- a trait that allows plants to tolerate ... read more

Trophy Hunting of Lions Can Conserve the Species, Report Suggests

Sep. 22, 2016 — Trophy hunters can play an important role in lion conservation, researchers have shown. These findings may surprise the public, but most lion conservationists think trophy hunting could play a key ... read more

Bizarre New Species of Extinct Reptile Shows Dinosaurs Copied Body, Skull Shapes of Distant Relatives

Sep. 22, 2016 — Iconic dinosaur shapes were present for at least a hundred million years on our planet in animals before those dinosaurs themselves actually ... read more

New Model Could Point Way to Microbiome Forecasting in the Ocean

Sep. 22, 2016 — A new mathematical model integrates environmental and molecular sequence information to better explain how microbial networks drive nutrient and energy cycling in marine ... read more

Culex Mosquitoes Do Not Transmit Zika Virus, Study Finds

Sep. 22, 2016 — Important results in the fight against Zika virus has been identified by researchers: Culex mosquitoes do not appear to transmit Zika ... read more

Fish Oil May Help Improve Mood in Veterans

Sep. 22, 2016 — Low concentration of fish oil in the blood and lack of physical activity may contribute to the high levels of depressed mood among soldiers returning from combat, according to ... read more

Food Scientists Using X-Rays to Figure out Fats

Sep. 22, 2016 — Researchers studying the intimate structure of edible fats are getting help from the United States Department of Energy. The researchers hope to replace unhealthful trans and saturated fats with ... read more

How a Native Plant Ended Up on Reality TV, and Why It's at Risk

Sep. 22, 2016 — In one of television’s more bizarre recent offerings, the History Channel show “Appalachian Outlaws” follows a band of West Virginians as they hunt rugged forests for American ginseng, a ... read more

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Acidity in atmosphere minimized to preindustrial levels

Friday, September 23, 2016

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Monday, September 19, 2016