Amphibians in dramatic decline; Up to 122 extinct since 1980
...seline from which we can monitor our impact on the environment over time," said Achim Steiner, Director General of IUCN-The World Conservation Union. "The fact that one third of amphibians are in a precipitous decline tells us that we are rapidly moving towards a potentially epidemic number of extinctions." ...Purdue chemists give an old laboratory 'bloodhound' a sharper nose
...eating a wand that can gather the samples from the environment quickly. "We've essentially given an old bloodhound a new nose," said Cooks, who is the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in Purdue's School of Science. "While mass spectrometry is one of our best ways to determine th...To save dolphin's dorsal fin experts combine medical technology and teamwork
... place on the active dolphin in a saltwater lagoon environment for the time it was expected to take for the soft tissue to sufficiently regenerate. The medical team employed a specially designed sling custom-made by Otter Bay Wetsuits to protect the extracellular matrix patch. Drs. Stone and Sweeney lead the te...Large-scale forces shape local ocean life, global study shows
... At the poles, partly due to the harsh environment and glacial scouring, there are fewer species. But moving closer to the equator, the number of species increases. While this is a long-held and widely accepted phenomenon on land, it has been brought into question in the past decade as scientists hav...ORNL system eliminates perchlorate, helps scientists trace source
...sence of natural or atmospheric perchlorate in the environment obviously has far-reaching ramifications, ranging from public health issues to huge liabilities that could be imposed by agricultural and environmental cleanup needs," Gu said. "It recently has been found in lettuce and milk, which begs the questions...Three years of Proba, the 'smart' satellite that runs itself
...has made it possible to better model the radiation environment around Earth. Another instrument in its payload is the Debris In-orbit Evaluator (DEBIE) which monitors tiny micrometeoroids or space debris between a centimeter to under a millimetre in diameter. About Proba Proba is a micro-satellite developed...Sandbagging cancer in the bloodstream
...mor cell to get out of the circulation and into an environment where the tumor cell can survive and propagate. Blocking the Exits Targeting growth factors like VEGF or its downstream target Src is an emerging paradigm for fighting cancer. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved Avas...New center to map DNA of key lab mice
...standing of the relationship between genes and the environment in the development of disease in humans. Almost 200 human diseases are affected by exposure to environmental substances. For most diseases, more than one gene is involved and researchers must discover the complex interplay among genes in order to und...Psychologist finds instance where 'two wrongs do make a right'
...o depend largely on accessing distinct maps of the environment within the brain, representing objects from varying locations in our field of vision by systematically varying activity in corresponding regions of the brain. "It's starting to look like the distinction between perception and action streams is an ove...Predicting infection risk of mosquito-borne disease
...a mosquito-borne infection varies depending on the environment is an important step in planning and implementing effective control measures. The rate at which humans become infected is determined by how often they are bitten by mosquitoes and the proportion of mosquitoes that are infectious. It is often assumed ...Immune system in a bottle could help prevent flu vaccine shortage
... and kill foreign invaders. "The uniformity of the environment affects the way the cells are developing," Kotov said. "This is particularly relevant for stem cells and other cells that can differentiate. These scaffolds offer a very good control over the environment." The final goal of the DARPA project will be ...Yerkes researchers to present array of new data at Society for Neuroscience Meeting
... Dr. Young: how development, social situations and environment can shape the brain mechanisms that regulate behavior. (11:30 a.m. 1 pm) Poster Presentations Dr. Smith and his research team: determined how cocaine addiction regulates metabotropic glutamate receptors in the nucleus accumbens, a key structure...Solutions to stop fishermen returning dead and dying marine animals back into sea - study
...ons of pounds and has a major impact on the marine environment worldwide. A team from the University of Newcastl... the full extent of the consequences on the marine environment are not known, discards are considered to have contributed to the growth of several seabird populati...Common household fragrances may be harming aquatic wildlife, study finds
...bach, lead author of the study. "They get into the environment through sewers and drains, but wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to handle them." First line of defense In their study, Luckenbach and Stanford biologist David Epel tested six synthetic musk compounds widely used by industry. Their goal ...'Broken' gene reveals evolution of salt retention and possible ties to hypertension
...r common genes that may have been beneficial in an environment of scarcity, but have become harmful in a world of plenty. In the modern setting, it may often be the genes that aren't damaged that predispose to disease, such as the "thrifty genes" associated with type 2 diabetes." Humans need salt, sodium chlori...Findings challenge Darwinian theory
...f hundreds of species have shown that a creature's environment can be just as key in creating differences, also k...aw never gets started. It's a clear example of how environment in some sense causes difference in form," Dr. Palmer said. Further, studies on many other plant...Food shortages threaten Antarctic wildlife
..., most of which feed on krill. By knowing how the environment affects this unique food web, we can predict how it will respond to future change....Growth factors confer immortality to sperm-generating stem cells
... some types of infertility in which the testicular environment is defective. Hiroshi Kubota, a research assistant professor of cell biology at the Penn Veterinary school, developed the serum-free culture system that enabled him, along with Brinster and researcher Mary R. Avabock, to discover the essential ingr...U-M researcher examines the cell's housekeeping habits
...r by recycling cellular parts in the nutrient-poor environment inside a tumor. Intriguingly, a line of laboratory mice with suppressed autophagy also appears to have a higher rate of spontaneous tumors, Klionsky said. Autophagy helps the cell fight infection by some kinds of invading bacteria and viruses, by ...Scientists find acid rain an unlikely ally in the battle against a greenhouse gas
... methane as a byproduct. Wetlands provide an ideal environment for these microbes. When acid rain drops sulfate onto wetlands, another type of bacteria, ones that reduce sulfate are able to outcompete the Archea, limiting the total production of methane. Wetlands may produce as much as 320 million tons of m...