Bun in stomach, rather than oven for China panda 'mum'
Beijing (AFP) Aug 26, 2014 -
Hopes that tiny panda paws would be seen in the world's first live-broadcast cub delivery were dashed Tuesday when Chinese experts suggested the "mother" may have been focusing more on extra bun rations than giving birth.
The slated star of the show, giant panda Ai Hin, had last month shown signs of pregnancy at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre, according to state news agency ...
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China paper urges 'coercive measures' against HK protesters
Beijing (AFP) Aug 26, 2014 -
A state-run Chinese newspaper Tuesday called for "coercive measures" against pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, as China's rubber-stamp legislature mulls the election method for the city's chief executive.
Lawmakers on the standing committee of the National People's Congress on Monday started reviewing a report from Hong Kong's current Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on the issue, the ...
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Strong earthquake shakes simmering Icelandic volcano
Reykjavik (AFP) Aug 26, 2014 -
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday struck Iceland's largest volcanic system, which is on orange alert for increased potential of eruption.
A major explosion at the Bardarbunga volcano, located under a glacier, could stage a replay of the global travel chaos that followed when another Icelandic peak erupted four years ago, creating a massive ash cloud across Europe.
The tremor, registe ...
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Japan to propose 50% cut in young tuna catch
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 26, 2014 -
Japan plans to propose a 50 percent cut on catches of young bluefin tuna in the Western and Central Pacific, officials said Tuesday, in a historic shift aimed at safeguarding the at-risk species.
Tokyo - the world's biggest consumer of tuna - has been reluctant to reduce catches, despite mounting scientific evidence that stocks are near collapse.
But in what it called "an epochal move ...
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US expedition yields first breakthrough paper about life under Antarctic ice
Bozeman MT (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
The first breakthrough paper to come out of a massive U.S. expedition to one of Earth's final frontiers shows that there's life and an active ecosystem one-half mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, specifically in a lake that hasn't seen sunlight or felt a breath of wind for millions of years.
The life is in the form of microorganisms that live beneath the enormous Antar ...
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Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis
University Park PA (SPX) Aug 27, 2014 -
Bacteria that grow in environments enriched in far-red light use a previously unknown process for harvesting energy. This discovery lays the foundation for further research aimed at improving plant growth and harvesting energy from the Sun, and understanding dense blooms like those now occurring on Lake Erie and other lakes worldwide.
A paper describing the discovery will be published in t ...
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Core mechanism for root growth identified
Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Aug 26, 2014 -
During plant growth, dividing cells in meristems must coordinate transitions from division to expansion and differentiation. Three distinct developmental zones are generated: the meristem, where the cell division takes place, and elongation and differentiation zones. At the same time, plants can rapidly adjust their direction of growth to adapt to environmental conditions.
In Arabidopsis r ...
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