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Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
International expedition investigates climate change, alternative fuels in Arctic NRL marine biogeochemistry and geology and geophysics scientists return from Arctic expedition exploring methane hydrate deposits in the Beaufort Sea and spatial variation of sediment contribution to Arctic climate change. Contact: Daniel Parry
Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
2009 AGU Fall MeetingNew method to measure snow, vegetation moisture with GPS may benefit farmers, meteorologists A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected to benefit meteorologists, water resource managers, climate modelers and farmers. 
National Science Foundation
Contact: Kristine Larson
Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
 Journal of Biological ChemistryJust like old times: Generating RNA molecules in water A key question in the origin of biological molecules like RNA and DNA is how they first came together billions of years ago from simple precursors. Now, in a study appearing in this week's JBC, researchers in Italy have reconstructed one of the earliest evolutionary steps yet: generating long chains of RNA from individual subunits using nothing but warm water. Contact: Nick Zagorski
Public Release: 20-Nov-2009
Renewable and Sustainable Energy ReviewsFlax and yellow flowers can produce bioethanol Surplus biomass from the production of flax sheaves, and generated from Brassica carinata, a yellow-flowered plant related to those which engulf fields in spring, can be used to produce bioethanol. This has been suggested by two studies carried out by Spanish and Dutch researchers and published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Contact: SINC
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
Darwin 2009 SciencePaleontologists find extinction rates higher in open-ocean settings during mass extinctions Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati professor of paleontology in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Michael Foote of the University of Chicago publish their research in the Nov. 20 issue of Science with their paper, "Epicontinental Seas Versus Open-Ocean Settings: The Kinetics of Mass Extinction and Origination."
NASA, National Science Foundation
Contact: Wendy Beckman
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ORNL, Los Alamos pioneer new approach to assist scientists, farmers Sustainable farming, initially adopted to preserve soil quality for future generations, may also play a role in maintaining a healthy climate, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories. Contact: Ron Walli
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
Microorganism may provide key to combating giant salvinia throughout Louisiana A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University has found that a naturally occurring microorganism acts as a natural herbicide against giant salvinia. Contact: Dave Guerin
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
SMOS satellite instrument comes alive The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the role these two key variables play in regulating Earth's water cycle. Contact: Robert Meisner
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ScienceReference genome of maize, most important US crop, is published by team co-led by CSHL scientists A four-year, multi-institutional effort co-led by three Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists culminated today in publication of a landmark series of papers in the journal Science revealing in unprecedented detail the DNA sequence of maize. Maize, or corn, as it is commonly called by North American consumers, is one of the world's most important plants and the most valuable agricultural crop grown in the United States, representing $47 billion in annual value.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Defense
Contact: Peter Tarr
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
Why Israeli rodents are more cautious than Jordanian ones A series of studies carried out at the University of Haifa have found that rodent, reptile and ant lion species behave differently on either side of the Israel-Jordan border. "The border line, which is only a demarcation on the map, cannot contain these species, but the line does restrict humans and their diverse impact on nature," says Dr. Uri Shanas. Contact: Rachel Feldman
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
Zoo KeysBoarCroc, RatCroc, DogCroc, DuckCroc and PancakeCroc Fossils of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck's bill, have been discovered in the Sahara by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno. The five crocs, three of them newly named species, were part of the bizarre world of crocs that inhabited the southern land mass known as Gondwana some 100 million years ago.
National Geographic Society
Contact: Barbara Moffett
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
Significance'Hobbits' are a new human species -- according to the statistical analysis of fossils Researchers from Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York have confirmed that Homo floresiensis is a genuine ancient human species and not a descendant of healthy humans dwarfed by disease. Using statistical analysis on skeletal remains of a well-preserved female specimen, researchers determined the "hobbit" to be a distinct species and not a genetically flawed version of modern humans. Details of the study appear in the December issue of Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, published by Wiley-Blackwell. Contact: Dawn Peters
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
NatureMysteriously warm times in Antarctica A new study of Antarctica's past climate reveals that temperatures during the warm periods between ice ages (interglacials) may have been higher than previously thought. The latest analysis of ice core records suggests that Antarctic temperatures may have been up to 6°C warmer than the present day.
British Antarctic Survey
Contact: Heather Martin
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ScienceLike humans, ants use bacteria to make their gardens grow Leaf-cutter ants, which cultivate fungus for food, have many remarkable qualities.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation
Contact: Cameron Currie
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ScienceAfter mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground sloths and giant beavers -- began their precipitous slide to extinction.
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, National Science Foundation
Contact: John Williams
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ScienceRich ore deposits linked to ancient atmosphere Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of scientists including Andrey Bekker and Doug Rumble from the Carnegie Institution have made the surprising discovery that the creation of economically important nickel ore deposits was linked to sulfur in the ancient oxygen-poor atmosphere. Contact: Douglas Rumble
Public Release: 19-Nov-2009
ScienceAmaizing: Corn genome decoded In recent years, scientists have decoded the DNA of humans and a menagerie of creatures but none with genes as complex as a stalk of corn, the latest genome to be unraveled. A team of scientists led by the Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published the completed corn genome in the Nov. 20 journal Science, an accomplishment that will speed efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet the world's growing demands for food, livestock feed and fuel.
National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Energy
Contact: Caroline Arbanas
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
American Journal of BotanyThe benefits of stress ... in plants This study finds that certain wild flax plants growing in poor soils have succeeded in balancing the stress in their lives -- these plants are less likely to experience infection from a fungal pathogen. This is the first study to attempt to quantitatively explain how plants have evolved a specialization to serpentine soils and ultimately may help to explain floristic diversity in these unique environments.
California Native Plant Society, Hardman Native Plant Research Fellowship, R. Poulin, UC Davis Genetic Resources Conservation Program
Contact: Richard Hund
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
Proceedings of the Royal Society BScientists unravel evolution of highly toxic box jellyfish With thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach ten feet in length, the 50 or so species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists and to the public. Yet little has been known about the evolution of this early branch in the animal tree of life. In a paper published today, researchers have unraveled the evolutionary relationships among the various species of box jellyfish, thereby providing insight into the evolution of their toxicity.
National Science Foundation, PADI Foundation
Contact: Shelley Dawicki
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
Berkeley Lab lends expertise to India to promote energy efficiency India may rank only a distant fourth in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, behind China, the United States and Russia, but its rapid economic growth rate coupled with aging and inefficient energy infrastructure suggest dire environmental consequences if "business as usual" continues. That's why experts from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have been working to expand collaborations with India on energy efficiency. Contact: Julie Chao
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
Research challenges for understanding landscape changes identified Nine research challenges and four research initiatives that are poised to advance the study of how Earth's landscapes change were unveiled today in a new report by the National Research Council. Contact: Jennifer Walsh
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
NASA's QuikScat and Aqua providing important data on Tropical Storm Anja Tropical Storm Anja has continued to weaken over the last 24 hours, and NASA's QuikScat satellite has confirmed that the once mighty Category 4 Cyclone is now a tropical storm in the southern Indian Ocean. Two instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite have also helped forecasters determine Anja's location and change of shape.
NASA
Contact: Rob Gutro
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
Journal of Applied PhysicsMIT: Better way to harness waste heat New MIT research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of the wasted heat produced by everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric power plants, and turn it into usable electricity. Contact: Jen Hirsch
Public Release: 18-Nov-2009
NatureOceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -- a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Kim Martineau
Public Release: 17-Nov-2009
Nature GeoscienceFossil fuel CO2 emissions up by 29 percent since 2000 The strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural "sinks" to absorb carbon is published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. Contact: Simon Dunford
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