Climate change threatens to worsen US ozone pollution
Boulder CO (SPX) May 07, 2014 -
Ozone pollution across the continental United States will become far more difficult to keep in check as temperatures rise, according to new research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The detailed study shows that Americans face the risk of a 70 percent increase in unhealthy summertime ozone levels by 2050.
This is because warmer temperatures and other changes in ...
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Light-sensitive "eyes" in plants
Gothenburg, Germany (SPX) May 07, 2014 -
Most plants try to turn towards the sun. Scientists from the University of Gothenburg have worked with Finnish colleagues to understand how light-sensitive proteins in plant cells change when they discover light. The results have been published in the most recent issue of Nature.
The family of proteins involved is known as the "phytochrome" family, and these proteins are found in all plant ...
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US urges China to free activists
Washington (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Washington on Wednesday demanded the release of one of China's most celebrated human rights lawyers and other activists detained during a round-up ahead of the sensitive 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The US is "deeply concerned" over the reports of Tuesday's arrest of Pu Zhiqiang, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
He and other activists were said to ...
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Jack Ma: English teacher turned Internet visionary
Shanghai (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
After being knocked back by US venture capitalists in 1999, cash-strapped Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma persuaded friends to give him $60,000 to start an e-commerce firm called Alibaba.
Fifteen years later the company is an Internet giant and Ma, a former English teacher, is among the topmost ranks of China's super-rich with wealth estimated at $8.4 billion by Forbes magazine.
On Tuesday, ...
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Climate: Rising C02 levels to hit grain nutrition
Paris (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) will badly hit the nutritional value of key cereals, including rice and wheat, scientists warned on Wednesday.
Crop breeders should focus on the worrying vulnerability of these staples to surging carbon emissions, they added.
Reporting in the journal Nature, researchers said they had tested 41 strains of six crops grown in open fields at seven sites ...
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Small Australian marsupials in sudden decline
Sydney (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Small, furry marsupials such as the bandicoot, quoll and tree possums are in dramatic decline in Australia's north and feral cats could be the cause, according to analysis reported Wednesday.
Chris Johnson, a wildlife conservation professor from the University of Tasmania, said small mammal species were at risk of extinction across the continent, but the changes in the north were marked.
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Dinosaurs were able to heal significant bone injuries, new study reveals
Manchester, England (UPI) May 7, 2013 -
A new study reveals that dinosaurs were able to withstand and heal from bone-crushing injuries - the equivalent of which would surely kill humans and other mammals, absent immediate medical care.
Of course, it's no surprise that the rough and tumble world of the Jurassic period featured grisly injuries. But until now, scientists hadn't been able to study those injuries in detail.
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Extinction stalks Myanmar's forests
Bago, Myanmar (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Ashen earth strewn with the limbs of once-mighty trees is all that is left of the fearsome forest in central Myanmar that Wa Tote remembers from her youth.
"We would only dare enter in a big group. The forest was deep and had many wild animals. Now we cannot even find a tree's shadow to shelter under when we are tired," the 72-year-old told AFP.
At one point tigers were so common in the ...
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Obama pledges help for tornado victims in US south
Vilonia, United States (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
President Barack Obama Wednesday promised federal help for those hurt by deadly tornadoes in the southern US state of Arkansas, after inspecting damage on a brief stopover.
At least 36 people were killed when tornadoes tore through six central and southern states, including Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee last month.
"So the people of Vilonia and all the oth ...
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China reports first death from H5N6 bird flu strain
Beijing (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
A Chinese man has died from the H5N6 strain of bird flu, in what is believed to be the world's first case of human infection from the virus subtype, state media and experts said.
Tests showed the 49-year-old man, from Nanchong in the southwestern province of Sichuan, had contracted the virus, the official Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday citing local health authorities.
The patient h ...
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Three US navy planes crushed in Japan snow
Tokyo (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
At least three US Navy P-3 Orion surveillance planes were crushed "beyond repair" when unusually heavy snowfall swept across Japan in February, a US military daily reported Wednesday.
The planes were inside a contractor's hangar near the US Navy air facility in Atsugi, west of Tokyo, the Pacific Stars and Stripes said in its online edition, citing a US Naval spokeswoman.
A US Orion and s ...
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Air quality worsening in world's cities: WHO
Geneva (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Most city dwellers around the world are exposed to air pollution levels that are considered unsafe, and the situation is getting worse, according to a World Health Organization report Wednesday.
"Globally, unfortunately, the situation of air pollution is deteriorating," Maria Neira, WHO director for public health, told reporters in Geneva as she presented an updated version of the UN health ...
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Aid boom spurs Afghans to flock to landslide village
Kabul (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Crowds of outsiders have rushed to the remote Afghan village that was buried in a landslide to try to pick up aid supplies meant for survivors of the disaster, the United Nations said Wednesday.
Much of Aab Bareek in Badakhshan province was engulfed by a fast-moving tide of mud and rock that swept down onto the village last Friday, leaving almost no trace of 300 homes.
A major internatio ...
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Years of hardship loom in typhoon-ravaged Philippines
Tacloban, Philippines (AFP) May 07, 2014 -
Parts of the Philippines laid waste by Super Typhoon Haiyan are showing signs of recovery six months later but years of work lie ahead, aid officials said Wednesday.
In the central city of Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the most powerful typhoon ever to hit land, streets are free of debris and the stench of rotting flesh has disappeared.
But thousands still live in evacuation centres, ...
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McMurdo Group Completes Acquisition of Techno-Sciences
Beltsville MD (SPX) May 08, 2014 -
McMurdo Group has announced the successful acquisition of Techno-Sciences (TSi), a leading provider of SAR satellite ground stations, integrated emergency response center systems and coastal surveillance solutions.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. TSi's Beltsville, Maryland location becomes the U.S. Headquarters for McMurdo Group, a division of Orolia, global specialist in crit ...
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Tracking turtles through time
Dartmouth NH (SPX) May 08, 2014 -
Turtles are more closely related to birds and crocodilians than to lizards and snakes, according to a study from Dartmouth, Yale and other institutions that examines one of the most contentious questions in evolutionary biology.
The findings appear in the journal Evolution and Development. A PDF of the study is available on request.
The research team looked at how the major groups of ...
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The Red Sea - An Ocean Like All Others, After All
Kiel, Germany (SPX) May 08, 2014 -
Actually, the Red Sea is an ideal study object for marine geologists. There they can observe the formation of an ocean in its early phase. However, the Red Sea seemed to go through a different birthing process than the other oceans. Now, Scientists at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah were able to show that salt glaciers have distorte ...
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Redescription of the oldest-known dolphin skull sheds light on their origins and evolution
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 08, 2014 -
Dolphins are the most diverse family of living marine mammals and include species such as the bottlenose dolphin and the killer whale. However, their early evolution and fossil record has been steeped in mystery due to lack of good specimens.
A new paper published in latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology re-describes the oldest species of dolphin with a new name: Eodelphis ...
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Space brings fresh water to Morocco
Paris (ESA) May 08, 2014 -
Recycling waste water and urine into drinking water is not only for astronauts - the same method is now treating groundwater for a school in Morocco.
The village of Sidi Taibi near Kenitra, 30 km from Morroco's capital city Rabat, has grown rapidly in recent years, and providing fresh water to its inhabitants is difficult because the groundwater is so rich in nitrates and fertiliser it is ...
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Wastewater disposal may trigger quakes at a greater distance than previously thought
San Francisco CA (SPX) May 08, 2014 -
Oil and gas development activities, including underground disposal of wastewater and hydraulic fracturing, may induce earthquakes by changing the state of stress on existing faults to the point of failure. Earthquakes from wastewater disposal may be triggered at tens of kilometers from the wellbore, which is a greater range than previously thought, according to research to be presented today at ...
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