Selecting life: Scientists find new way to search for origin of life
... geochemical world to a biological one almost four billion years ago. Scientists understand several probable steps in the origin of life, notably how the first organic molecules could have formed. In fact, prebiotic synthesis processes are now thought to have been so productive that the ancient Earth must...ESSP launches new Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
...eding a population that is expected to peak at 1.6 billion by 2030. MAIRS addresses the interaction between humans and the environment in Monsoon Asia in order to support strategies for sustainable development. Key research questions include: Is the Asian monsoon system resilient to this human transformat...ESA joins UN climate talks in Kenya
...reased their emissions by 11 percent. Around 25 billion tonnes of extra carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere annually by human activities, mainly through wildfires, land clearance and the burning of fossil fuels. The total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a quarter sin...A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide
...c costs of lead poisoning in U.S. children are $43 billion annually; for methylmercury toxicity, $8.7 billion each year. "Other harmful consequences from lead exposure include shortened attention spans, slowe...Early Earth haze may have spurred life, says University of Colorado study
...ould have been present for many millions or even a billion years on Earth while life was evolving." According to co-author Melissa Trainer of CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, the study was the first to measure the chemical properties of aerosols by irradiating methane and carbon d...UCSD scientists establish connection between life today and ancient changes in ocean chemistry
...heory that the rise in atmospheric oxygen some 2.3 billion years ago, and attendant shifts in ocean chemistry...gically caused rise in atmospheric oxygen some 2.3 billion years ago, highlighting the co-evolution of biology and geochemistry on a global scale. "Here, a ...Green plants share bacterial toxin
...mething important because it's been retained for a billion years of evolution of plant chloroplasts," said Peter Armstrong, professor of molecular and cellular biology at UC Davis and senior author on the paper. Endotoxin is better known to bacteriologists and physicians as part of the outer coat of Gram-ne...Learning how nature splits water
BERKELEY, CA -- About 3.2 billion years ago, primitive bacteria developed a way to harness sunlight to split water molecules into protons, electrons and oxygen, the cornerstone of photosynthesis that led to atmospheric oxygen and more complex forms of life -- in other words, the worl...Dartmouth study contributes to research addressing malnutrition and iron deficiency
...der in the world today, afflicting more than three billion people worldwide. Most of these people rely on plants for their dietary iron. However, plants are not high in iron, and the limited availability of iron in the soil can limit plant growth. Our study certainly suggests that iron storage in the vacuole...Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron
...isorder in the world today, afflicting more than 3 billion people worldwide," said Mary Lou Guerinot, a biologist at Dartmouth College in N.H. and the principal investigator on the study. "Most of these people rely on plants for their dietary iron, but plants are not high in iron, and the limited availabilit...Study finds periodontal treatment does not lower preterm birth risk
... mothers and ultimately reduce the estimated $26.2 billion annual cost to the nation for preterm births. Over the last two decades, scientists have generated data in observational studies that suggest periodontal disease during pregnancy might be one of those elusive risk factors. The theory is based ...MIT survey: Climate change tops Americans' environmental concerns
...llion U.S. households, total payments would be $25 billion per year. "That's real money," said Herzog. "While... of Energy's budget for energy R&D is now about $2 billion per year. "Another reading of this outcome is that people want not a little bit more spent but rathe...MRSA vaccine shows promise in mouse study
...n days in excess hospital length of stay, and $9.5 billion in excess charges. Physicians are particularly concerned about S. aureus because of its ability to survive in the presence of antibiotics designed to kill it. In 1972, according to the Centers for Disease Control, only two percent of S. aureus infec...Scientists convert modern enzyme into its hypothesized ancestor
.... "It's as if we turned back the clock nearly 2.5 billion years, to the time when oxygen first appeared in E...hotosynthetic organisms appeared on Earth some 2.5 billion years ago, pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, organisms with enzymes capable of deactivating these ...Bee genome information housed at Texas A&M University
...interest. Honey bees contribute an estimated $15 billion per year in agricultural value through their pollination of fruit, nut and vegetable crops, Weaver said. "It's also estimated that one out of three bites on your table is a direct consequence of honey bee pollination," he said. "Honey bee biologi...Secrets revealed in sequencing of honey bee genome
...esearch Facility. "Honey bees account for 10 to 20 billion dollars of food produced in America alone, per year," he said. Honey bees are also very valuable to scientists as model research organisms. "In biology and biomedicine, honey bees are used to study many diverse areas, including allergic disease, deve...Lehigh scientist receives NHGRI grant to streamline, expand use of genome sequencing
..., it still costs roughly $10 million to sequence 3 billion base pairs, or the amount of DNA found in the genomes of humans and other mammals. The NHGRI's near-term goal is to lower the coast of sequencing a mammalian-sized genome to $100,000. This would allow researchers to sequence the genomes of hundreds,...Discovery about evolution of fungi has implications for humans, says U of M researcher
...scovered that fungi split from animals about 1.538 billion years ago, whereas plants split from animals about 1.547 billion years ago. This means fungi split from animals 9 million years after plants did, in which case fungi...Bacteria that use radiated water as food
... space is a metamorphosed basalt that is about 2.7 billion years old. How surface-related Firmicutes and other species managed to colonize an area so deep within Earth's crust is a mystery. Some surface Firmicutes species are known to consume sulfate and hydrogen as a way to get energy for growth. Other bac...Decisions on the first round of the excellence initiative announced
...the Joint Commission. Funding: A total of 1.9 billion euros have been earmarked for the promotion of top-level research as part of the Excellence Initiative (2006 to 2011). According to an agreement between the states and the federal government regarding the approximate amounts for the individual fundin...