Climate change may threaten more than one million species with extinction
...ncreased about one degree Fahrenheit over the past century with accelerated warming over the past two decades. Scientists attribute the recent rise of global temperature to human induced activities that have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The buildup of greenhouse gases primarily carbon...Cells' ability to open blood's floodgates hinges on unexpected factors
... of basic cell metabolism that has persisted for a century has come a major step closer to giving up its secrets. Teams of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a mechanism that triggers increased blood flow to brain cells actively engaged in work. The findings a...AGU journal highlights - 6 January 2004
...d man-made carbondioxide increases during the 20th century to accurately account forbiospheric feedback. The researchers examined the specific impactsof elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations during theAustralian summer and report that the plant response to increasedcarbon dioxide influences atmo...Squirrel invasion sows seeds of change for future forests
...eve changes in the state's landscape over the past century have helped red squirrels gain a foothold. "The red squirrel is a symptom of an environmental problem more than a cause," Goheen said. "Red squirrels have only been able to invade here because of widespread fragmentation of forested land cleared for ...Global wetlands surveyed from space
For much of the last century wetlands have been drained or otherwise degraded, ...in the form of peatlands. Through much of the 20th century these areas were regarded as wasteland and drained for peat extraction - ending up as unproductive l......aceutical researchers and a critical asset to 21st century genomic research and drug design," said Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Helen M. Berman, director of the Protein Data Bank. "The agreement ensures and simplifies access to this important source of information f...Climate linked to reproduction of right whales
...ogram. Right whales were so named by 18th and 19th century whalers because they were the "correct species" to hunt for their monetary value, slow swimming speed, and tendency to float after being harpooned. Nearly exterminated by uncontrolled hunting, right whales have been protected by international treati...By the year 2050, human population could add 2.6 billion people, reports Rockefeller scientist
... continue the exceptional growth of this last half century without experiencing consequences." The demographi...the developing world. aging population: The 20th century will probably be the last when younger people outnumbered older ones. By 2050, there will be 2.5 peo...Wanted: Innovations to feed the hungry
...rize for determining longitude at sea, to the 20th century prizes for long-distance flight given to Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. These prizes work well when governments or philanthropists anticipate that a breakthrough would be valuable, but are unlikely to be easily sold in the marketplace or obta...Some re-established elk herds lack genetic diversity of ancestors
...ced from out-of-state herds, but early in the 20th century the small number of individuals remaining in California were used to re-establish Tule elk within the state. Both the Pennsylvania and Tule elk studies show a significant loss of genetic diversity can occur in the course of reintroduction programs an...World's most alkaline life forms found near Chicago
...ng contaminated groundwater created by more than a century of industrial iron slag dumping in southern Illinois and northern Indiana. Roadcap will present details of what appear to be the most alkaline-tolerant life known to date on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America i...Pollutant-eating microbe could speed gasworks cleanup
... to speed the cleanup of hundreds of 19th and 20th century gasworks throughout the United States where the manufacture of gas from coal for homes and street lighting left a toxic legacy in the ground. The National Science Foundation-funded research is reported in the online edition of Proceedings of the Nat...Dartmouth study advances prion disease research
...s moved slowly. The discovery more than a quarter century ago that prions were proteins, devoid of nucleic acids, upended what scientists assumed not only about disease transmission, but about life itself. All mammals have a gene to make a prion protein, but the normal prion is a different shape than the i...UCSB physicist devises way to observe protein folding
..."The fantastic advances in biology during the last century have brought us to the point where we have working knowledge of many fundamental processes. There remain, however, numerous details and enormous complexity of function and interaction that we have yet to comprehend. It has been the case in the past t...New book says Northwest salmon could face same fate as those in Northeast, England
...ter in the rivers of northeastern North America. A century after that it began again in the Pacific Northwest...llion juvenile Chinook salmon in 1896 and nearly a century later, in the early 1990s, exceeded 100 million. Yet Chinook salmon are a threatened species in the ...NIH announces strategy to accelerate medical research progress
...chart a "roadmap" for medical research in the 21st century a process that identified major opportunities and gaps in biomedical research that no single institute at NIH could tackle alone, but that the agency still needed to address. "NIH must lead the way in instituting the changes in medical research nec...NSF'S 'FIBR' to mix disciplines, use breakthroughs on 5-year explorations into biology's mysteries
...ade. "An important feature of biology in the 21st century is the opportunity to set aside barriers and tackle some of the most important and fundamental questions in biology," said Mary Clutter, NSF's Assistant Director for Biology. "FIBR is one of the ways we're supporting researchers who are moving the f...Harvard Medical School launches new department to study human biology at the level of whole systems
... ASCB's E.B. Wilson Medal, named for an early 20th century pioneer of American biology who advocated the chromosomal theory of inheritance, is awarded by scientific peers to those who have made significant and far-reaching contributions to cell biology over the course of a career. Profile of Marc Kirschner b...Tufts scientist named 'one of world's 100 top young innovators' by Technology Review Magazine
...at we feel will profoundly impact our world in the century ahead." The Emerging Technologies Conference will feature keynotes, panels and breakout discussions on the transformative technological innovations that have the potential to fuel new economic growth and dramatically change the future. Speakers incl...