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Public Release: 2-Dec-2012
 Nature NeuroscienceOrigin of intelligence and mental illness linked to ancient genetic accident Scientists have discovered for the first time how humans -- and other mammals -- have evolved to have intelligence. Researchers have identified the moment in history when the genes that enabled us to think and reason evolved. 
Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council and European Union
Contact: Tara Womersley
Public Release: 2-Dec-2012
Nature Climate ChangeRecord high for global carbon emissions Global CO2 emissions are set to rise again in 2012, reaching a record high of 35.6 billion tonnes -- according to the University of East Anglia. Contact: Lisa Horton
Public Release: 1-Dec-2012
BioScienceLong-term research reveals how climate change is playing out in real ecosystems Around the world, the effects of global climate change are increasingly evident and difficult to ignore. However, evaluations of the local effects of climate change are often confounded by natural and human induced factors that overshadow the effects of changes in climate on ecosystems. Now, a group of scientists writing in the journal BioScience report a number of surprising results that may shed more light on the complex nature of climate change.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Lori Quillen
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
NASA's TRMM satellite video reveals 2012 hurricane season rainfall The 2012 Atlantic Hurricane season was a busy one as there were 19 tropical cyclones. A new NASA animation using data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM shows rainfall from tropical cyclones in the western Atlantic, as measured from space.
NASA
Contact: Rob Gutro
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
NASA sees 'hot towers' in intensifying Typhoon Bopha Bopha intensified into a typhoon today, Nov. 30, as it continues to affect the islands in Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite captured rainfall data of Bopha and noticed "Hot Tower" thunderstorms as it was intensifying from a tropical storm into a typhoon.
NASA
Contact: Rob Gutro
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
2012 AGU Fall MeetingGeoscientists cite 'critical need' for basic research to unleash promising energy resources Developers of renewable energy and shale gas must overcome fundamental geological and environmental challenges if these promising energy sources are to reach their full potential, according to a trio of leading geoscientists. Their findings will be presented on Dec. 4, at 5:15 pm (PT), at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in Room 102 of Moscone Center West.
Stanford University, Cornell University, Colorado School of Mines
Contact: Mark Shwartz
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
GeneticsNative Americans and Northern Europeans more closely related than previously thought Using genetic analysis, scientists have discovered that Northern European populations descend from a mixture of two very different ancestral populations, and one of these populations is related to Native Americans. This discovery helps fill gaps in scientific understanding of both Native American and Northern European ancestry, while providing an explanation for some genetic similarities among what would otherwise seem to be very divergent groups.
National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health
Contact: Phyllis Edelman
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
Environmental PollutionGulf of Mexico clean-up makes 2010 spill 52-times more toxic If the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deep Water Horizon spill was a ecological disaster, the two million gallons of dispersant used to clean it up apparently made it even worse -- 52-times more toxic. That's according to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes, Mexico. Contact: Jason Maderer
Public Release: 30-Nov-2012
ScienceClearest evidence yet of polar ice losses After two decades of satellite observations, an international team of experts brought together by ESA and NASA has produced the most accurate assessment of ice losses from Antarctica and Greenland to date. This study finds that the combined rate of ice sheet melting is increasing. Contact: Robert Meisner
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
NASA sees Tropical Storm Bopha moving through Southern Yap state NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites captured images of Tropical Storm Bopha as it continues to move through Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean and trigger warnings and watches throughout.
NASA
Contact: Rob Gutro
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Journal of Biological ChemistryGarbage bug may help lower the cost of biofuel One reason that biofuels are expensive to make is that the organisms used to ferment the biomass cannot make effective use of hemicellulose, the next most abundant cell wall component after cellulose. They convert only the glucose in the cellulose, thus using less than half of the available plant material. University of Illinois researchers have been doing research at the Energy Biosciences Institute on an organism that they think could be used to solve this problem.
Energy Biosciences Institute
Contact: Susan Jongeneel
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
ScienceMore evidence for an ancient Grand Canyon For over 150 years, geologists have debated how and when one of the most dramatic features on our planet -- the Grand Canyon -- was formed. New data unearthed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology builds support for the idea that conventional models, which say the enormous ravine is five to six million years old, are way off.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Brian Bell
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Proceedings of the National Acadamy of SciencesA human-caused climate change signal emerges from the noise By comparing simulations from 20 different computer models to satellite observations, Lawrence Livermore climate scientists and colleagues from 16 other organizations have found that tropospheric and stratospheric temperature changes are clearly related to human activities. Contact: Anne Stark
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
NatureOceanic crust breakthrough: Solving a magma mystery Oceanic crust covers two-thirds of the Earth's solid surface, but scientists still don't entirely understand the process by which it is made. Analysis of more than 600 samples of oceanic crust by a team including Carnegie's Frances Jenner reveals a systemic pattern that alters long-held beliefs about how this process works, explaining a crucial step in understanding Earth's geological deep processes.
Australian National University
Contact: Frances Jenner
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Sources of E. coli are not always what they seem US Department of Agriculture scientists have identified sources of Escherichia coli bacteria that could help restore the reputation of local livestock. Studies by scientist Mark Ibekwe suggest that in some parts of California, pathogens in local waterways are more often carried there via runoff from urban areas, not from animal production facilities.
Agricultural Research Service
Contact: Ann Perry
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
NatureNew approach allows past data to be used to improve future climate projections Climate scientists are still grappling with one of the main questions of modern times: how high will global temperatures rise if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles. Many researchers are turning to the past because it holds clues to how nature reacted to climate change before the anthropogenic impact. The divergent results of this research, however, have made it difficult to make precise predictions about the impact of increased carbon dioxide on future warming. Contact: Kristina Baer
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
ScienceInternational study provides more solid measure of melting in polar ice sheets Climatologists have reconciled their measurements of ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland over the past two decades. A second article looks at how to monitor and understand accelerating losses from the planet's two largest continental ice sheets.
National Science Foundation, NASA
Contact: Hannah Hickey
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
Chinese Science BulletinAn engraved stone artifact found at the Shuidonggou Paleolithic site, northwest China An engraved stone artifact was recently discovered by archaeologists in a stone tool assemblage unearthed at Shuidonggou Paleolithic site in northwest China. It provides new evidence for the study of early modern human behavior and cognition in East Asia during the Pleistocene. This study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Chinese Science Bulletin, No. 26.
Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Knowledge Innovation Program
Contact: Yan Bei
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
2012 AGU Fall Meeting ScienceClearest evidence yet of polar ice losses The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise has confirmed that both Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice.
European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Phillip Leverhulme Prize, UK Natural Environment Research Council, and others
Contact: Esther Harward
Public Release: 29-Nov-2012
ScienceGrand Canyon as old as the dinosaurs, suggests new study led by CU-Boulder An analysis of mineral grains from the bottom of the western Grand Canyon indicates it was largely carved out by about 70 million years ago -- a time when dinosaurs were around and may have even peeked over the rim, says a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Rebecca Flowers
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
EcologyUF researcher tests powerful new tool to advance ecology, conservation A new University of Florida study shows ecologists may have been missing crucial information from animal bones for more than 150 years. Contact: Joshua Miller
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
SIAM Journal on Applied MathematicsMath detects contamination in water distribution networks A paper published earlier this month in the SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics considers the identification of contaminants in a water distribution network as an optimal control problem within a networked system.
German Research Foundation
Contact: Karthika Muthukumaraswamy
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
NatureBread wheat's large and complex genome is revealed An international team of scientists, including CSHL Professor W. Richard McCombie's group and others from the USA, UK, and Germany, has completed the first comprehensive analysis of the bread wheat genome. The study, published this month in Nature, opens up a valuable data resource to learn more about this important crop and improve wheat agriculture through gene discovery.
National Science Foundation
Contact: Edward Brydon Ph.D.
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
PLOS ONEElk more concerned by human behavior than their natural predators University of Alberta researchers discovered that elk are more frequently and more easily disturbed by human behavior such as ATV drivers than by their natural predators like bears and wolves. Contact: Brian Murphy
Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
NatureTiny algae shed light on photosynthesis as a dynamic property Many of the world's most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants got their light-harnessing organelles (chloroplasts) indirectly from other organisms through endosymbiosis. In some instances, this resulted in algae with multiple, distinct genomes, some in residual organelles (nucleomorphs). To better understand why nucleomorphs persist after endosymbiosis, an international team including researchers at the DOE Joint Genome Institute collaborated to sequence and analyze two tiny algae. Their report appeared online Nov. 29, 2012 in Nature. Contact: David Gilbert
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