ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

A groundbreaking study is the first to analyze the relationship between group behaviors, group type, group dynamics, and kinship of beluga whales in 10 locations across the Arctic. Results show that not only do beluga whales regularly interact with close kin, including close maternal kin, they also frequently associate with more distantly related and unrelated individuals. Findings will improve the understanding of why some species are social, how individuals learn from group members and how animal cultures emerge.

Biologists have discovered a uniquely rapid form of regeneration in injured neurons and their function in the central nervous system of zebrafish. They studies the Mauthner cells, which are solely responsible for the escape behavior of the fish, and previously regarded as incapable of regeneration. However, their ability to regenerate crucially depends on the location of the injury.

New research explores how lower-latitude oceans drive complex changes in the Arctic Ocean, pushing the region into a new reality distinct from the 20th-century norm.

Strains of a common subtype of influenza virus, H3N2, have almost universally acquired a mutation that effectively blocks antibodies from binding to a key viral protein.

Perovskiet solar cells are at the center of much recent solar research. The material is cheap and almost as efficient as silicon. However, perovskite cells have a love-hate-relationship with the sun. The light they need to generate electricity, also impairs the quality of the cells, limiting efficiency and stability over time. Research now sheds new light on the causes of this degradation.

New research revealed that tiny, sunlight-absorbing particles in wildfire smoke may have less impact on climate than widely hypothesized because reactions as the plume mixes with clean air reduce its absorbing power and climate-warming effect.

Advanced herbicides and treatments for infection may result from the unraveling of a 50-year-old mystery.

Each year, wind turbines are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of airborne animals such as bats. To find a constructive way out of this ''green-green'' dilemma, companies building and running wind turbines might have to work together with environmental experts and conservationists. Yet lack of trust between them can hinder effective collaboration. Scientists show: shared values are not sufficient to build trust, as beliefs and emotions have stronger influence.

A new study may help researchers predict coral bleaching months earlier than current tools, and, for the first time, may help predict invasion events of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

People who seek novel and powerful sensations and are more prone to taking risks -- and who perceive bitter tastes more intensely -- are more likely to prefer bitter, pale-ale-style beers and drink them more often, according to sensory researchers, who conducted a study that involved blind taste tests and personality assessments.

Researchers quantified the collective action of small schools of fish using information theory. They found that groups of three act very differently compared with groups of just two. This work may help solve longstanding problems in complexity theory and allow for a clearer model of emergent behavior.