'Bee-harming' pesticides also hit bird populations: study
Paris (AFP) July 09, 2014 -
Already suspected of killing bees, so-called "neonic" pesticides also affect bird populations, possibly by eliminating the insects they feed upon, a Dutch study said on Wednesday.
The new paper comes weeks after an international panel of 29 experts found that birds, butterflies, worms and fish were being harmed by neonicotinoid insecticides, although details of this impact were sketchy.
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Scientists show how ancient arachnid walked and hunted
Manchester, England (UPI) Jul 9, 2013 -
Scientists in United Kingdom have brought an ancient arachnid back from the dead - virtually, that is.
The remains of a 410-million-year-old arachnid were so well preserved in a thin slice of rock - unearthed in Scotland, near the Aberdeenshire town of Rhynie - researchers from the University of Manchester in England were able to observe the creature's legs and joints in remarkable d ...
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Chinese ambassador warns against 'chaos' in Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) July 09, 2014 -
China's ambassador to Britain warned Wednesday of "chaos" in Hong Kong if pro-democracy campaigners go ahead with a plan to occupy the city centre and dismissed their calls for the public to nominate candidates in leadership elections.
Discontent in Hong Kong is at its highest level in years over what is seen as increasing interference from China and Beijing's insistence that it vet candidat ...
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Flooding, havoc in Japan as Typhoon Neoguri batters mainland
Tokyo (AFP) July 10, 2014 -
Typhoon Neoguri slammed into the Japanese mainland Thursday bringing widespread flooding, ripping trees from their roots and leaving houses half-buried under mud, as tens of thousands were urged to seek shelter.
The storm, which has left several people dead and a string of damage in its wake, caused havoc in many small communities as residents struggled to keep waves of dirty water from dest ...
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Chinese dream turns sour for activists under Xi Jinping
Beijing (AFP) July 10, 2014 -
Activists, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, professors - China's new leaders have taken aim at civil society in what analysts call an effort to muffle dissent that is proving powerfully effective.
The ruling Communist Party has long maintained tight control, nipping in the bud any public outcries or organised efforts that might snowball into "social unrest" that challenges its hegemony.
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Major Air Pollution Studies to Converge Over Denver
Denver CO (SPX) Jul 09, 2014 -
Two NASA aircraft are participating in field campaigns beginning this month in Colorado that will probe the factors leading to unhealthy air quality conditions and improve the ability to diagnose air quality conditions from space.
The NASA aircraft will be joined by a research aircraft from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for flights July 16 to Aug. 16 from the Research Aviation Faci ...
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Global effort needed to stem elephant slaughter: CITES
Geneva (AFP) July 09, 2014 -
Elephants will be wiped out in some parts of Africa unless more countries get involved in efforts to prevent poaching and ivory smuggling, according to wildlife regulator CITES.
"We need to widen the net," John Scanlon, the chief of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting in Geneva this week focused o ...
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US presses China on human rights, maritime tensions
Beijing (AFP) July 09, 2014 -
The United States on Wednesday "forcefully" pressed China on festering maritime rows and human rights, even as the two countries vowed to seek cooperation rather than confrontation.
Opening two days of talks between the world's two largest economic powers, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned his Chinese counterparts that it would be "unacceptable" to try to create a new status quo in the ...
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China gave $14.4 bln in foreign aid in three years
Beijing (AFP) July 10, 2014 -
China, the world's second-largest economy after a decades-long boom, provided a total of 89.3 billion yuan (now $14.4 billion) in foreign aid in the three years to 2012, it said Thursday.
The assistance, in the form of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, went to 121 countries - 12 of them in Europe - the State Council, China's Cabinet, said in a report.
The total amoun ...
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Study reveals strong links between Antarctic climate, food web
Gloucester Point VA (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
A long-term study of the links between climate and marine life along the rapidly warming West Antarctic Peninsula reveals how changes in physical factors such as wind speed and sea-ice cover send ripples up the food chain, with impacts on everything from single-celled algae to penguins.
The study, published in Nature Communications, is authored by Dr. Grace Saba, an alumna of William and M ...
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Corals respond to climate change - fatter and more flexible
Columbus OH (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
The future health of the world's coral reefs and the animals that depend on them relies in part on the ability of one tiny symbiotic sea creature to get fat-and to be flexible about the type of algae it cooperates with.
In the first study of its kind, scientists at The Ohio State University discovered that corals-tiny reef-forming animals that live symbiotically with algae-are better able ...
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Shining light on the mystery of birds sensing spring
Nagoya, Japan (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
Professor Takashi Yoshimura and colleagues of the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (WPI-ITbM) of Nagoya University have finally found the missing piece in how birds sense light by identifying a deep brain photoreceptor in Japanese quails, in which the receptor directly responds to light and controls seasonal breeding activity.
Although it has been known for over 100 years that ver ...
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Beautiful but a threat: Tropical fish invasion destroys kelp forests
Sydney NSW (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
The migration of tropical fish as a result of ocean warming poses a serious threat to the temperate areas they invade, because they overgraze on kelp forests and seagrass meadows, a new study concludes. The harmful impact of tropical fish is most evident in southern Japanese waters and the eastern Mediterranean, where there have been dramatic declines in kelps.
There is also emerging evide ...
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Amazon logging and fires release 54m tons of carbon a year
Sao Paulo, Brazil (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
A study conducted by scientists in Brazil and the United Kingdom has quantified the impact that selective logging, partial destruction by burning, and fragmentation resulting from the development of pastures and plantations have had on the Amazon rainforest.
In combination, these factors could be removing nearly 54 million tons of carbon from the forest each year, introduced into the atmos ...
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Shark teeth offer new look at Arctic climate change
Chicago IL (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
A new study shows that some shark species may be able to cope with the decreasing salinity of Arctic waters that may come with rising temperatures. The Arctic today is best known for its tundra and polar bear population, but it wasn't always like that.
Roughly 53 to 38 million years ago during what is known as the Eocene epoch, the Arctic was more similar to a huge temperate forest with br ...
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No extra mutations in modified stem cells
La Jolla CA (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
The ability to switch out one gene for another in a line of living stem cells has only crossed from science fiction to reality within this decade. As with any new technology, it brings with it both promise-the hope of fixing disease-causing genes in humans, for example-as well as questions and safety concerns.
Now, Salk scientists have put one of those concerns to rest: using gene-editing ...
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Postcards from the Photosynthetic Edge
Berkeley CA (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
A crucial piece of the puzzle behind nature's ability to split the water molecule during photosynthesis that could help advance the development of artificial photosynthesis for clean, green and renewable energy has been provided by an international collaboration of scientists led by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the SLAC National Accelerator Labora ...
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Ranavirus potential new culprit in amphibian extinctions
Knoxville TN (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
Amphibian declines and extinctions around the world have been linked to an emerging fungal disease called chytridiomycosis, but new research from the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) shows that another pathogen, ranavirus, may also contribute.
In a series of mathematical models, researchers showed that ranavirus, which causes severe hemorrhage of inter ...
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Neandertal trait raises new questions about human evolution
St. Louis MO (SPX) Jul 11, 2014 -
Re-examination of a circa 100,000-year-old archaic early human skull found 35 years ago in Northern China has revealed the surprising presence of an inner-ear formation long thought to occur only in Neandertals.
"The discovery places into question a whole suite of scenarios of later Pleistocene human population dispersals and interconnections based on tracing isolated anatomical or genetic ...
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Japan shipping giant plans first regular Arctic route
Tokyo (AFP) July 09, 2014 -
Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on Wednesday announced plans for the world's first regular commercial shipping route through the Arctic Ocean, starting in 2018, in an attempt to reduce sailing times.
The firm said it would initially start moving liquefied natural gas from Russian's huge Yamal LNG project to markets in Europe and Asia on a trio of icebreakers, as part of a joint venture with Chin ...
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