Tag: "methane" at biology news

New research indicates a 'troubled' greenhouse is brewing

...rocarbon pollution of the atmosphere, this natural methane oxidized to carbon dioxide and created a global greenhouse event," he explains. "The past methane outburst dwarfed even human consumption of hydrocarbons, and there is a danger that another similar ...

LUCA technologies confirms real-time methane generation

...ydrocarbon deposits (oil, oil shales, and coal) to methane is ongoing. Such Geobioreactors may offer the pote...l of turning currently finite energy reserves into methane "farms" capable of long-term, sustainable energy generation. "The hydrocarbon resources available i...

Hydrogen and methane provide raw energy for life at 'Lost City'

...s, Lost City microbes appear to live off bountiful methane and hydrogen. Absent is carbon dioxide, the key energy source for life at black-smoker vents. And there is little hydrogen sulfide and only very low traces of metals, on which many of the microbes at the other kind of vents depend. The difference in ...

It's electric: Cows show promise as powerplants

...ce isn't a new idea : some farmers already use the methane released by livestock waste to power machinery and lights. But converting methane into electricity requires costly equipment : one California farmer reportedly spent $280,000 to conv...

Discovering an ecosystem beneath a collapsed Antarctic ice shelf

...net's crust. Domack and his coauthors propose that methane from deep underwater vents likely provide the energy source capable of sustaining the chemical life at the observed 850-meter [approximately 2800-foot] depth. Such extreme cold-vent regions have previously been found near Monterey, California, where...

World-first technology enables study of ancient bacteria

...bacteria on Earth. Some of these bacteria produce methane that accumulates in "gas hydrates" ?a super concentrated methane ice that contains more carbon than all conventional fossil fuels and, therefore, a potentially enorm...

Science's Breakthrough of the Year: Watching evolution in action

...rld where infrequent but drenching rains of liquid methane shape the land and participate in a fascinating hydrologic cycle. A Rich Year for Plants: Several key molecular cues behind flowering and other plant mysteries and surprises came to light in 2005. For example, plant molecular biologists pinned down ...

Novel protein complex enables survival in hostile environment

...diate, which damages an essential component of the methane production machinery," Mukhopadhyay said. "Consequ...be directly relevant to the anaerobic oxidation of methane with sulfate, a process in which archaea closely related to methanogenic archaea are intimately invo...

Microbes under Greenland Ice may be preview of what scientists find under Mars' surface

...down at a place where Mars orbiters have found the methane concentration highest," Price said. "There are ood...me dirt, you might find them if you land where the methane oozing out of the interior is highest." Price and his colleagues published their findings last week...

Amazonian terra preta can transform poor soil into fertile

... for thousands of years and substantially reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from soils. "The result is that about 50 percent of the biomass carbon is retained," Lehmann said. "By sequestering huge amounts of carbon, this technique constitutes a much longer and significant sink for atmospheric car...

GPSDB, the free Gene and Protein Synonyms DataBase

... for thousands of years and substantially reducing methane and nitrous oxide emissions from soils. "The result is that about 50 percent of the biomass carbon is retained," Lehmann said. "By sequestering huge amounts of carbon, this technique constitutes a much longer and significant sink for atmospheric car...

Earth Rx: A microbial biotechnology prescription for global environmental health

...ever, they also can generate useful fuels, such as methane and hydrogen, and we are pursuing research on all of these renewable-energy forms." Rittmann believes the key to achieving success through microbial ecology and biotechnology is to take advantage of microbial diversity as much as possible, particu...

Carbon cycle was already disrupted millions of years ago

...that large quantities of 12C in the form of CO2 or methane were suddenly released into the atmosphere. This could have been the result of methane being released from gas hydrates which were buried in the ocean floor. It is not clear which mechani...

Plants used to detect gas leaks, from outer space!

...ury [session P3] In the UK in 2001, emission of methane from the gas distribution system was 16% of the total UK methane emissions; such losses are not only costly to the gas distributors, but can contribute to global war...

Arctic coring expedition continues to yield new clues

...r the melting of oceanic gas hydrates ?mixtures of methane and ice on the seafloor. ...

Methane-belching bugs inspire a new theory of the origin of life on Earth

... undersea microbe metabolizes carbon monoxide into methane and vinegar. What they found was not merely a pre...onent of natural gas. A detailed understanding of methane biosynthesis could lay the foundation for a new alternative energy source, by raising the possibilit...

Extraordinary life found around deep-sea gas seeps

...me, the bizarre deep-sea communities living around methane seeps off New Zealand's east coast. 'This is the...roa. Cold seeps are areas of the seafloor where methane gas or hydrogen sulphide escapes from large stores deep below. Like hydrothermal vents, cold seeps s...

Siberian lakes burp 'time-bomb' greenhouse gas

...ons - in these bubbles were the dominant source of methane from lakes," said Walter, an International Polar Y...am's calculations increase the present estimate of methane emissions from northern wetlands by between 10 and 63 percent. Walter studied a unique type of per...

From hot springs to rice farms, scientists reveal new insights into the secret lives of archaea

...hot, and the atmosphere contained large amounts of methane instead of oxygen. Although similar in size and s... archaea play an important role in the build-up of methane gas in the atmosphere. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane is about 20 times m...

Ocean seep mollusks may share evolutionary history with other deep-sea creatures

...e places where fluids rich in hydrogen sulfide and methane leak up through the ocean floor, creating a unique chemical environment where hardy bacteria process the sulfide and methane. Seep fluids are about the same temperature as surrounding waters, but similar chemically challenging environments exist at h...

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