Photon hunting in the twilight zone
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
The eyes of deep-sea bioluminescent sharks have a higher rod density when compared to non-bioluminescent sharks, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien M. Claes, postdoctoral researcher from the FNRS at Universite catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and colleagues.
This adaptation is one of many these sharks use to produce and perceive bioluminescent ligh ...
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Drought hits Central America's crops, cattle
Boaco, Nicaragua (AFP) Aug 07, 2014 -
The last raindrop fell three months ago, forcing Carlos Roman to take his cattle further and further away to find water and keep them alive in Nicaragua's northeastern farmlands.
Nicaragua and the rest of Central America has been hit by a major drought that has killed thousands of cattle, dried up crops and forced cities to ration electricity.
Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala have decl ...
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Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup
Pullman WA (SPX) Aug 08, 2014 -
An international team of researchers has found extremely small habitats that increase the potential for life on other planets while offering a way to clean up oil spills on our own.
Looking at samples from the world's largest natural asphalt lake, they found active microbes in droplets as small as a microliter, which is about 1/50th of a drop of water.
"We saw a huge diversity of bac ...
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Drought and war in E.Africa put 14 million people at risk: UN
Nairobi (AFP) Aug 08, 2014 -
Poor rains and multiple conflicts across eastern Africa have put over 14 million people in need of food aid, three years since extreme drought devastated the region, the United Nations said Friday.
"The situation is very worrisome," said Matthew Conway, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Eastern Africa.
"There are similarities to the situa ...
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Megascale icebergs run aground
Bremerhaven, Germany (SPX) Aug 12, 2014 -
Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have found between Greenland and Spitsbergen the scours left behind on the sea bed by gigantic icebergs. The five lineaments, at a depth of 1,200 metres, are the lowest-lying iceberg scours yet to be found on the Arctic sea floor.
This finding provides new understanding of the dynamics of th ...
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History of fire and drought shapes the ecology of California
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 11, 2014 -
Fire season has arrived in California with vengeance in this third year of extended drought for the state. A series of large fires east of Redding and Fresno, in Yosemite, and on the Oregon border prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency on Sunday, August 3rd.
As force of destruction and renewal, fire has a long and intimate history with the ecology of California. Ecologic ...
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Water's reaction with metal oxides opens doors for researchers
Madison WI (SPX) Aug 11, 2014 -
A multi-institutional team has resolved a long-unanswered question about how two of the world's most common substances interact.
In a paper published recently in the journal Nature Communications, Manos Mavrikakis, professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his collaborators report fundamental discoveries about how water reacts with metal o ...
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