USAID, Conservation International & Starbucks launch Conservation Coffee Alliance in Central America
...ty hotspots. The 25 biodiversity hotspots make up just 1.4 percent of the planet's surface, yet harbor more than 60 percent of all plant and animal diversity, and are under increasing threats according to CI. CI works directly with farmers to promote environmentally responsible growing practices such as ...Researchers devise potent new tools to curb ivory poaching
...ation plummeted by 60 percent from 1.3 million to just 500,000 between 1979 and 1987, largely because of... future," Wasser said. Tracking elephant ivory is just one example of the value of the sampling and statistical method, he said. The same methods can be us...Punching the timeclock of life
...well until it starts to breaks down and eventually just stops working.In research published in the Sept. 2...re we have to. "Programmed human aging is just a possibility. We don't know whether it's true yet or not," he said. "But if aging is programmed in ...Tracing genes, biologists show lizard migration is traced to Florida
...uis shows that Florida is an exporter of more than just fruit and star athletes. Studying genetic variation in the common brown lizard, Anolis sagrei, the researchers found that introduced populations of the lizard in five different countries can be traced back to the Sunshine State as their site of exp...Knock knock knocking on rhythm's neural doors
...ent like walking have considered discrete movement just the same thing slowed and aborted after only a short piece of rhythmic movement. But in a carefully arranged set of experiments, Schaal and co-workers from Pennsylvania State, and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan showed tha...Rice finds 'on-off switch' for buckyball toxicity
...ules containing 60 carbon atoms. Their diameter is just one-billionth of a meter, or one nanometer, and their discovery at Rice in 1985 is widely regarded as an early milestone in the field of nanotechnology. While buckyballs show great promise in applications as diverse as fuel cells, batteries, pharmace...Researchers create nanotubes that change colors, form 'nanocarpet' and kill bacteria
...be trained to kill bacteria, such as E. coli, with just a jab to its cell membrane. How a mere single-step synthesis of a hydrocarbon and a simple salt compound produced these unique nanotube structures with antimicrobial capability is described in a paper posted on the Web site for the Journal of the Am...Anthrax enzyme images reveal secrets of antibiotic resistance, suggest new drug design
...y to combine DHPP and pABA. "This subtle change is just enough to let DHPS prevent the antibiotic from binding to it, but not enough to disrupt the enzyme's normal work," White said. "So the bacteria evade the antibiotic and continue to make folate and survive." Based on the new understanding of the struc...Groundbreaking research could ignite new solutions to heat transfer in nano-devices
...no reason that this technique is not applicable to just about any molecule." Key to the discovery was the collaboration between the faculty members of both institutions of higher learning. A research concept developed at Scranton was put in practice using an advanced laser technology called IR Raman Spect...New signs of life found at the Poles
...cro-organisms can photosynthesise and store carbon just as much as the plants, lichens and mosses that live above ground. BAS microbiologist Dr Charles Cockell says, "Although it's usual to find micro-organisms thriving under quartz and translucent rocks in hot deserts because enough light gets through,...Poplar DNA code cracked -- a step in combating global warming?
... in Washington state (USA). The researchers needed just over two years to determine the 520 million base pairs, distributed among 19 chromosomes. By comparing the genomes of these two model organisms - Populus and Arabidopsis - scientists such as Yves Van de Peer and Pierre Rouz hope to identify the gene......ho and then back again, covering some 256 miles in just 19 days. It then trekked to Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park, and back to the Tetons in a week, a distance of 140 miles. In total, it covered some 543 miles over 42 days before its collar fell off. "This particular wolverine not only c...UAF scientists discover new marine habitat in Alaska
...boat has discovered an entirely new marine habitat just a stone's throw from shore. The discovery in June ...d there are probably more new species in them than just the rhodoliths," said Foster. "Such discoveries also send an important message about how little we k...'Fossil genes' reveal how life sheds form and function
...ing in a forward direction," that new features are just tacked on, says Sean B. Carroll, a professor of molecular biology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The other side of the coin is that we lose things. Losses as well as gains make up the story of evolutio...Green, leafy spinach may soon power cellphones and laptops
...got very little current out, mostly because we had just a thin layer of the complexes in our devices," Baldo said. "Most of the optical excitation passed straight through without being absorbed. Of the light that was absorbed, we estimate that we converted around 12 percent to charge." The researchers h...Genes expose secrets of sex on the side
...chromosome DNA than in mitochondrial DNA, which is just what earlier population genetic research found. Pa...n't say the Y chromosome is migrating more, but if just half as many males are getting their genes into the next generation on average as are females, then ...Students build submarine to track Octopuses
...automatic control next time," Vincent said. "We'll just type in the depth we want on the computer and Shadow will automatically submerge to that depth." Sub Will be Operational Next Year Although the submarine will begin shadowing octopuses next year, Vincent has plenty of ideas to keep senior design te...New sign language suggests children create language's fundamentals through learning
... language its most fundamental, universal features just by the way they learn it. As varied as they may sound to the untrained ear, all languages share certain basic traits that have been the subject of debate for decades. While some researchers have argued that these traits come hard-wired in the human ...Popular Science announces Third Annual 'Brilliant 10'
... in the field of computer graphics. Surfaces don't just reflect light, Henrik Jensen realized, they absorb it, and by looking closely at materials--be it a glass of milk or a marble slab--he learned how light makes something happen beneath the surface of everything. His ability to translate the play of li...K-State, other universities to study how climate affects plant evolution
... in Finland -- which at times during the year have just three hours of sunlight -- to the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain, Welch said. Sites also will be located in Germany and England. In addition, the K-State team is working with two private companies to build and package sensors that will be lo...