Florida is 'Ground Zero' for sea level rise
Miami Beach, United States (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
Warm sunshine and sandy beaches make south Florida and its crown city, Miami, a haven for tourists, but the area is increasingly endangered by sea level rise, experts said Tuesday.
During a special Senate hearing held in Miami Beach, Senator Bill Nelson described south Florida as "Ground Zero" for climate change and its threats to coastal communities.
The perils for Miami are particularl ...
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Chimpanzees prefer firm, stable beds
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Chimpanzees may select a certain type of wood, Ugandan Ironwood, over other options for its firm, stable, and resilient properties to make their bed, according to a study published April 16, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Samson from the University of Nevada and Kevin Hunt from Indiana University.
Chimpanzees use tree branches to build beds or nests in trees. They select ...
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Today's Antarctic region once as hot as California, Florida
New Haven CT (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Parts of ancient Antarctica were as warm as today's California coast, and polar regions of the southern Pacific Ocean registered 21st-century Florida heat, according to scientists using a new way to measure past temperatures.
The findings, published the week of April 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscore the potential for increased warmth at Earth's poles an ...
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Anne Douglass - Thinks Like a Scientist
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
When faced with a complex problem, Aura project scientist and co-lead for the Chemistry Climate Model Anne Douglass instructs herself to think like a scientist.
What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard's b>mission? br> /b>
I have two roles. As Aura project scientist, my deputies, Joanna Joiner and Bryan Duncan, and ...
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New technique will accelerate genetic characterization of photosynthesis
Stanford, CA (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Photosynthesis provides fixed carbon and energy for nearly all life on Earth, yet many aspects of this fascinating process remain mysterious. For example, little is known about how it is regulated in response to changes in light intensity. More fundamentally, we do not know the full list of the parts of the molecular machines that perform photosynthesis in any organism.
A type of single-ce ...
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Researchers question published no-till soil organic carbon sequestration rates
Urbana IL (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
For the past 20 years, researchers have published soil organic carbon sequestration rates. Many of the research findings have suggested that soil organic carbon can be sequestered by simply switching from moldboard or conventional tillage systems to no-till systems. However, there is a growing body of research with evidence that no-till systems in corn and soybean rotations without cover crops, ...
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Chickens to chili peppers
Panama City, Panama (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Suddenly there was a word for chili peppers. Information about archaeological remains of ancient chili peppers in Mexico along with a study of the appearance of words for chili peppers in ancient dialects helped researchers to understand where jalapenos were domesticated and highlight the value of multi-proxy data analysis.
Their results are from one (Kraig Kraft et al.) of nine papers pre ...
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Ancient shark fossil reveals new insights into jaw evolution
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
The skull of a newly discovered 325-million-year-old shark-like species suggests that early cartilaginous and bony fishes have more to tell us about the early evolution of jawed vertebrates-including humans-than do modern sharks, as was previously thought.
The new study, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, shows that living sharks are actually quite advanced in evo ...
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Lab researcher discovers the green in Greenland
Livermore CA (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
At one point in history, Greenland was actually green and not a country covered in ice. An international team of researchers, including a former scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has discovered that ancient dirt in Greenland was cryogenically frozen for millions of years under nearly two miles of ice.
More than 2.5 million years ago. Greenland looked like the green Ala ...
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Taking the pulse of mountain formation in the Andes
Rochester NY (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Scientists have long been trying to understand how the Andes and other broad, high-elevation mountain ranges were formed. New research by Carmala Garzione, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, and colleagues sheds light on the mystery.
In a paper published in the latest Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Garzione explains that the Altiplano plat ...
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Long-term predictions for Miami sea level rise could be available relatively soon
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
Miami could know as early as 2020 how high sea levels will rise into the next century, according to a team of researchers including Florida International University scientist Rene Price.
Price is also affiliated with the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, one of 25 such NSF LTER sites in ecosystems from coral reefs to d ...
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Methane climate change risk suggested by proof of redox cycling of humic substances
Marburg, Germany (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
The recent Yokahama IPCC meeting painted a stark warning on the possible effects of gases such as methane - which has a greenhouse effect 32 times that of carbon dioxide.
Now a team of Swiss-German researchers have shown that humic substances act as fully regenerable electron acceptors which helps explain why large amount of methane are held in wetlands instead of being released to the atm ...
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Harris supplying more communications terminals to Navy
Melbourne, Fla. (UPI) Apr 22, 2013 -
Shipboard terminals that give sailors access to high-bandwidth voice and data communications have been ordered by the US Navy.
Communications company Harris Corporation said the order it received is for as many as 122 terminals and carries a value of as much as $133 million.
The terminals will be in addition to 70 terminals it has delivered to the Navy since 2008 under an indefin ...
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Sikorsky, Army demonstrate optionally piloted Black Hawk
Stratford, Conn. (UPI) Apr 22, 2013 -
An optionally-piloted variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has been put through its paces by Sikorsky Aircraft.
The demonstrator aircraft - from the company's Manned/Unmanned Resupply Aerial Lifter Program, or MURAL - was flown in cooperation with the U.S. Army, using Sikorsky's Matrix technologies and advanced ground control station technologies.
"The autonomous Black Ha ...
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Ukraine military plane hit by gunfire above rebel-held town
Kiev (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
A Ukrainian military surveillance plane was hit and damaged by small arms fire as it was on a reconnaissance flight over the rebel-held eastern town of Slavyansk, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The plane, a propellor-driven Antonov An-30, safely made an emergency landing, a ministry spokesman told AFP. None of its crew members was hurt.
"Thanks to the professional actions, militar ...
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Ukraine relaunches anti-rebel operation after Biden leaves
Kiev (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
Ukraine relaunched military operations against pro-Kremlin separatists late Tuesday, hours after US Vice President Joe Biden ended a two-day visit to Kiev in which he warned Russia over its actions in the former Soviet republic.
The US Defence Department at the same time announced it was sending 600 troops to neighbouring Poland and to Baltic countries for "exercises".
Russia already has ...
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Lockheed Martin Team's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle Tops 100,000 Testing Miles During EMD Phase
Dallas TX (SPX) Apr 23, 2014 -
The Lockheed Martin Team's Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) has achieved 100,000 miles in the government's Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) testing. In August 2013, Lockheed Martin delivered 22 JLTVs to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps for EMD testing, which will continue through the fall.
RAM testing involves a combinatio ...
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US 'closely watching' for signs of N.Korea nuclear test
Washington (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
The United States said Tuesday it was watching "very closely" following South Korean warnings that North Korea may be preparing a fourth nuclear test ahead of a visit to Seoul by President Barack Obama.
"North Korea has a history of taking provocative action and we are always mindful of the possibility that such an action could be taken," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboar ...
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'Russian Facebook' founder flees country after being pushed out
Moscow (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
The maverick founder of Russia's top social network, Pavel Durov, said Tuesday he had fled the country after selling his share in the company under pressure from the security services.
Durov told US technology news website TechCrunch he was no longer in Russia and had "no plans to go back" after social network VKontakte (In Touch) announced Monday that he had left the company.
On Monday ...
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Sweden to boost military spending over Ukraine crisis
Stockholm (AFP) April 22, 2014 -
Sweden announced Tuesday that it will increase its annual defence spending over the next 10 years, citing the crisis in Ukraine and an "unsettling" development in Russia.
The right-wing government said that spending would rise gradually until 2024, when the annual defence budget increase would be around 5.5 billion kronor (604 million euros, $835 million), more than in previous estimates. ...
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