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Agriculture
Key: Meeting Journal Funder
Public Release: 17-May-2013
Wetlands
Front-row seats to climate change
Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns can lead to declines in southeastern frog and salamander populations, but protecting ponds can improve their plight.
US Geological Survey

Contact: hannah hamilton
hhamilton@usgs.gov
703-648-4356
United States Geological Survey

Public Release: 17-May-2013
Applications in Plant Sciences
New formula invented for microscope viewing, substitutes for federally controlled drug
In the May issue of Applications in Plant Sciences, researchers introduce Visikol, a proprietary new formulation that effectively clears organisms for viewing under microscopes. Visikol can replace chloral hydrate, which was previously one of the few high-quality clearing solutions but which is regulated by the DEA due to its use as a narcotic. The study tests Visikol's utility compared to chloral hydrate and demonstrates it as an effective replacement with a higher refractive index.
Rutgers University New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program

Contact: Beth Parada
apps@botany.org
American Journal of Botany

Public Release: 17-May-2013
PLOS ONE
New discovery of ancient diet shatters conventional ideas of how agriculture emerged
The use of new analysis techniques provides food for thought about how people lived 5,000 years ago.
Royal Society UK-China National Natural Science Foundation of China International Joint Project

Contact: Dr. Huw Barton
hjb15@le.ac.uk
01-162-522-793
University of Leicester

Public Release: 16-May-2013
Nature
Research into carbon storage in Arctic tundra reveals unexpected insight into ecosystem resiliency
When UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Seeta Sistla and her advisor, environmental studies professor Josh Schimel, went north not long ago to study how long-term warming in the Arctic affects carbon storage, they had made certain assumptions.

Contact: Sonia Fernandez
sonia.fernandez@ia.ucsb.edu
805-893-4765
University of California - Santa Barbara

Public Release: 16-May-2013
Science
Asian lady beetles use biological weapons against their European relatives
Once introduced for biological pest control, Asian lady beetle populations have been increasing uncontrollably. Scientists from Giessen University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany, have now found the reason for the animal's success. Its body fluid contains microsporidia, fungus-like protozoa that parasitize body cells and can cause immense harm to their host. The Asian lady beetle is obviously resistant to these parasites. However, transferred to native species, microsporidia can be lethal.
Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, LOEWE Initiative, Hessian Ministry of Science and Art

Contact: Heiko Vogel
hvogel@ice.mpg.de
49-364-157-1512
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Public Release: 16-May-2013
Scientific insurgents say 'Journal Impact Factors' distort science
An ad hoc coalition of unlikely insurgents -- scientists, journal editors and publishers, scholarly societies, and research funders across many scientific disciplines -- today posted an international declaration calling on the world scientific community to eliminate the role of the journal impact factor in evaluating research for funding, hiring, promotion, or institutional effectiveness.

Contact: Mark Leader
mleader@ascb.org
301-347-9317
American Society for Cell Biology

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Nature Communications
Stanford ultraresponsive magnetic nanoscavengers for next generation water purification
A new synthetic nanoparticle from Stanford Engineering could disinfect, depollute, and desalinate contaminated water and then get removed magnetically. This improves upon existing technologies through ultraresponsiveness to magnetism.

Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2245
Stanford School of Engineering

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Green Chemistry
Scientists develop 'green' pretreatment of Miscanthus for biofuels
Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating Miscanthus in the biofuel production process.

Contact: Phyllis Picklesimer
p-pickle@illinois.edu
217-244-2827
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Chemical Reviews
Keeping fruit, vegetables and cut flowers fresh longer
New technology offers the promise of reducing billions of dollars of losses that occur each year from the silent, invisible killer of fruits, vegetables and cut flowers -- a gas whose effects are familiar to everyone who has seen bananas and other fruit ripen too quickly and rot. That's the conclusion of an article in the ACS journal Chemical Reviews.

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Cotton offers a new ecologically friendly way to clean up oil spills
With the Deepwater Horizon disaster emphasizing the need for better ways of cleaning up oil spills, scientists are reporting that unprocessed, raw cotton may be an ideal, ecologically friendly answer, with an amazing ability to sop up oil. Their report, which includes some of the first scientific data on unprocessed, raw cotton's use in crude oil spills, appears in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Contact: Michael Bernstein
m_bernstein@acs.org
202-872-6042
American Chemical Society

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Nature Communications
Cells must use their brakes moderately for effective speed control
How cells regulate their own function by "accelerating and braking" is important basic knowledge when new intelligent medicines are being developed, or when plant cells are tweaked to produce more bioenergy. In a study published by Nature Communications 14 May, researchers at Uppsala and Umeĺ universities show a model of how cells' regulatory systems work.

Contact: Andreas Grönlund
andreas.gronlund@umu.se
090-786-6787
Uppsala University

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Weather
European winter weather harder to forecast in certain years
Weather forecasters have a tougher job predicting winter conditions over Europe in some years over others, concludes a new study carried out by the National Oceanography Centre.

Contact: Catherine Beswick
catherine.beswick@noc.ac.uk
0238-059-8490
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK)

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Advances in Nutrition
Don't judge the nutrient content of white vegetables by color alone
The Advances in Nutrition supplement, "White Vegetables: A Forgotten Source of Nutrients," published by the American Society for Nutrition, features an executive summary and nine papers by leading nutrition scientists that explore the state of the science on white vegetables, especially potatoes, in supporting a healthy diet.
Alliance for Potato Research and Education

Contact: Julie Larson Bricher
bricher@apre.org
503-409-9421
Quiddity Communications, Inc.

Public Release: 15-May-2013
Nature
'Fish thermometer' reveals long-standing, global impact of climate change
Climate change has been impacting global fisheries for the past four decades by driving species towards cooler, deeper waters, according to University of British Columbia scientists.

Contact: William Cheung
w.cheung@fisheries.ubc.ca
778-837-7252
University of British Columbia

Public Release: 15-May-2013
PLOS ONE
H1N1 discovered in marine mammals
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, detected the H1N1 (2009) virus in free-ranging northern elephant seals off the central California coast a year after the human pandemic began.
Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, Tagging of Pacific Predators

Contact: Tracey Goldstein
tgoldstein@ucdavis.edu
530-752-0412
University of California - Davis

Public Release: 15-May-2013
PLOS ONE
Frog once imported for pregnancy testing brought deadly amphibian disease to US, study suggests
African frogs, originally imported for early 20th century pregnancy tests, carried a deadly amphibian disease to the US, according to findings published in PLOS ONE. African Clawed Frogs have long been suspected of spreading a harmful fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. The earliest known case of the fungus was found in these frogs in their native South Africa. Now scientists have found the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the US.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Elaine Bible
ebible@sfsu.edu
415-405-3606
San Francisco State University

Public Release: 14-May-2013
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
UCLA study shows warming in central China greater than most climate models indicated
New data from Central China reveal that temperatures have risen 10 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 20,000 years in this region, an increase two to four times greater than what many scientists previously thought.

Contact: Stuart Wolpert
swolpert@support.ucla.edu
310-206-0511
University of California - Los Angeles

Public Release: 14-May-2013
Genome Biology and Evolution
Mining the botulinum genome
Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have been mining the genome of C. botulinum to uncover new information about the toxin genes that produce the potent toxin behind botulism.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Contact: Andrew Chapple
andrew.chapple@ifr.ac.uk
01-603-251-490
Norwich BioScience Institutes

Public Release: 14-May-2013
Zoonoses and Public Health
Widespread but neglected disease a health threat in Africa, Virginia Tech researchers say
Virginia Tech researchers have identified leptospirosis as a significant health threat in Botswana. The world's most common disease transmitted to humans by animals, according to the World Health Organization, leptospirosis is a two-phase disease that begins with flu-like symptoms but can cause meningitis, liver damage, pulmonary hemorrhage, renal failure, and even death if untreated.
National Science Foundation

Contact: Lynn Davis
davisl@vt.edu
540-231-6157
Virginia Tech

Public Release: 14-May-2013
Crop Science
Crop rotation with nematode-resistant wheat can protect tomatoes
A resistant strain of wheat can reduce nematode numbers in the soil and protect the next rotation of tomato plants.

Contact: Valerie Williamson
vmwilliamson@ucdavis.edu
American Society of Agronomy

Public Release: 14-May-2013
PhytoKeys
Do potatoes grow on vines? A review of the wild relatives of some favorite food plants
Solanum is is well-known for its agriculturally important species such as potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants, but also has many species that are less well known. The vining solanums related to the woody nightshade are often used as ornamentals. A new study, published in the open access journal Phytokeys, completely revises the understanding of these vining species, known as the Dulcamaroid clade, providing extensive community-shared knowledge of the genus.

Contact: Sandra Knapp
s.knapp@nhm.ac.uk
44-020-794-25171
Pensoft Publishers

Public Release: 14-May-2013
Biological Control
Flower power fights orchard pests
Washington State University researchers have found they can control one of fruit growers' more severe pests, aphids, with a remarkably benign tool: flowers. The discovery is a boon for organic as well as conventional tree fruit growers. The researchers recently published their study in the journal Biological Control. They found that plantings of sweet alyssum attracted a host of spiders and predator bugs that in turn preyed on woolly apple aphids, a pest that growers often control with chemical sprays.
Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, Washington State Commission on Pesticide Registration, Washington State University's Biologically Intensive Agriculture and Organic Farming Program

Contact: Betsy Beers
ebeers@wsu.edu
509-663-8181 x234
Washington State University

Public Release: 14-May-2013
mBio
Microbes capture, store, and release nitrogen to feed reef-building coral
Microscopic algae that live within reef-forming corals scoop up available nitrogen, store the excess in crystal form, and slowly feed it to the coral as needed, according to a study published in mBio.
European Research Council, Swiss National Science Foundation

Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology

Public Release: 14-May-2013
mBio
Corals turn to algae for stored food when times get tough
Researchers at EPFL present new evidence for the crucial role of algae in the survival of their coral hosts. Ultra-high resolution images reveal that the algae temporarily store nutrients as crystals, building up reserves for when supplies run low.

Contact: Anders Meibom
anders.meibom@epfl.ch
41-216-938-014
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Public Release: 13-May-2013
Journal of Biological Chemistry
The molecular basis of strawberry aroma
You know that summer is here when juicy red strawberries start to appear on the shelves. In Germany, this seasonal fruit has never been more popular: on average 3.5 kilos per head were consumed in 2012 -- a full kilogram more than ten years ago. Scientists from the Technische Universität München decided to find out what gives strawberries their characteristic flavor.

Contact: Barbara Wankerl
barbara.wankerl@tum.de
49-892-892-2562
Technische Universitaet Muenchen