ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

First dinosaur era crab fully preserved in amber discovered

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 12:02 PM PDT

Researchers describe the first crab from the Cretaceous dinosaur era preserved in amber. The study used micro CT to examine and describe Cretapsara athanata, the oldest modern-looking crab (approximately 100 million years old) and the most complete fossil crab ever discovered.

Changing ocean currents are driving extreme winter weather

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 11:00 AM PDT

Slower ocean circulation as the result of climate change could intensify extreme cold weather in the U.S., according to new research.

Termite brains can grow in anticipation of a single moment of flight and light

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

In a dampwood termite colony only a select few will, quite literally, see the light. The insects are unique due to their mating flights and the adaptability of their role within the colony, which is based on the overall needs of the group. King and queen termites must leave the nest and are the only members to go outside -- briefly --to partner off and tunnel into a new location to start another colony. Researchers investigated how this group of individuals, who are destined to leave the nest, evolve differently in the brain region that processes vision.

Researchers make hardened wooden knives that slice through steak

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

The sharpest knives available are made of either steel or ceramic, both of which are human-made materials that must be forged in furnaces under extreme temperatures. Now, researchers have developed a potentially more sustainable way to make sharp knives: using hardened wood. The method makes wood 23 times harder and a knife made from the material is nearly three times sharper than a stainless-steel dinner table knife.

Study of DNA repair boosts prospects for gene editing technology

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

Researchers have developed a new method to profile the activity of cellular genes involved in correcting DNA damage, and applied this method to pave the way for dramatic improvements to genome editing technologies.

Europeans in the Americas 1000 years ago

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

The Vikings were active in North America in the year 1021 AD. This now represents the earliest -- and only -- known year in which Europeans were present in the Americas prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492 AD. It also represents a definitive point in time by which the Atlantic Ocean had been traversed and human migration had finally encircled the globe.

Origin of domestic horses finally established

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

The modern horse was domesticated around 2200 years BCE in the northern Caucasus. In the centuries that followed it spread throughout Asia and Europe. An international team of 162 scientists collected, sequenced and compared 273 genomes from ancient horses scattered across Eurasia to come up with this finding.

Humans did not cause woolly mammoths to go extinct -- climate change did

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:59 AM PDT

Humans did not cause woolly mammoths to go extinct -- climate change did. For five million years, woolly mammoths roamed the earth until they vanished for good nearly 4,000 years ago -- and scientists have finally proved why. The hairy cousins of today's elephants lived alongside early humans and were a regular staple of their diet -- their skeletons were used to build shelters, harpoons were carved from their giant tusks, artwork featuring them is daubed on cave walls, and 30,000 years ago, the oldest known musical instrument, a flute, was made out of a mammoth bone.

Plugging into ocean waves with a flexible, seaweed-like generator

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 10:58 AM PDT

Ocean waves can be powerful, containing enough energy to push around sand, pebbles and even boulders during storms. These waves, as well as smaller, more gentle ones, could be tapped as a source of renewable energy. Now, researchers have developed flexible power generators that mimic the way seaweed sways to efficiently convert surface and underwater waves into electricity to power marine-based devices.

Urban wastes used as fertilizers contain higher PFAS than livestock manure

Posted: 20 Oct 2021 05:38 AM PDT

Because of their useful surfactant properties, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been massively produced for non-stick coatings, water-repellant fabrics and firefighting foams. However, scientists have detected these highly stable 'forever chemicals' throughout the environment, prompting toxicity concerns. Now, researchers have characterized PFAS in contemporary and historical organic waste products applied to agricultural fields in France, finding the highest amounts in urban samples, with compounds changing over time.

Scientists develop sperm cells from primate stem cells

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 07:32 PM PDT

A new study shows that functional sperm cells can be made in a dish using primate embryonic stem cells.

Small-scale foragers left more than footprints on the landscape

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 07:31 PM PDT

Archaeological sites like the Great Wall of China and the pyramids can be seen with the naked eye from space, but for ancient societies that did not build, their traces on the landscape are more difficult to find. Now researchers have used satellite data to identify areas in coastal southwest Madagascar where indigenous foragers altered their surroundings.

Cat bacteria treats mouse skin infection, may help you and your pets as well

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 09:35 AM PDT

Researchers identify a strain of bacteria on healthy cats that produces antibiotics against severe skin infections. The findings may soon lead to new bacteriotherapies for humans and their pets, wherein cat bacteria is applied via topical cream or spray.

How quickly does the climate recover?

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 09:35 AM PDT

It took the climate 20,000 to 50,000 years to stabilize after the rise in global temperatures of five to eight degrees Celsius 56 million years ago. Climate change today is causing temperatures to rise and is also increasing the likelihood of storms, heavy rain, and flooding -- the recent flood disaster in the Ahr valley in Germany is just one such example. What we need to ask ourselves in this connection is how quickly the climate can recover from the warming caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

'Ray guns' let scientists use light instead of DNA to tell plant populations apart

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 09:35 AM PDT

Using a handheld device that looks a little like a ray gun, scientists recorded how plant leaves on different Alaskan mountains reflect light. And, it turns out, different populations of plants of the same species -- for instance, plants living on neighboring mountaintops -- reflect light differently, in ways that echo their genetic variation from each other.

Viral infections could promote neurodegeneration

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 09:01 AM PDT

Some viral diseases could possibly contribute to neurodegeneration. Researchers found that certain viral molecules facilitated intercellular spreading of protein aggregates that are hallmarks of brain diseases like Alzheimer's. These findings may provide clues how acute or chronic viral infections could contribute to neurodegeneration.

More than 99.9% of studies agree: Humans caused climate change

Posted: 19 Oct 2021 05:27 AM PDT

More than 99.9% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is mainly caused by humans, according to a new survey of 88,125 climate-related studies.