gas

Anammox bacteria produce nitrogen gas in oceans' snackbar

Thirty to fifty percent of the global conversion of nutrients to nitrogen gas occurs in these areas. In 'The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States (PNAS)' of Tuesday 19 April, researchers from Bremen and Nijmegen state that this conversion is not carried out by denitrifying bacteria, as was believed for decades, but by anammox bacteria. Nitrogen compounds act as fert...

Researchers at UGA provide first look at protein expression in Chagas disease-causing parasites

Covering ship hulls with artificial shark skin could help ships sailing smoothly. The growth of marine organisms such as barnacles on ship hulls is a major cause of increased energy costs in the naval industry. Shark skin offers a structural design that prevents this so called 'bio-fouling'. Ralph Liedert from the University of Applied Sciences, Bremen, Germany, is presenting his work on t...

Ancient DNA confirms single origin of Malagasy primates

Yale biologists have managed to extract and analyze DNA from giant, extinct lemurs, according to a Yale study published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Radiocarbon dating of the bones and teeth from which the DNA was obtained reveal that each of the individuals analyzed died well over 1,000 years ago, according to the senior author, Anne Yoder, ass...

Plants used to detect gas leaks, from outer space!

Gas leaks can be potentially life threatening in the home, but the presence of gas stresses out plants too. Professor Mike Steven and colleagues from the University of Nottingham have found that changes in the physical properties of plants can act as an early warning of leaks in natural gas pipelines. "Our study was about testing the ability of satellite remote systems to monitor gas le...

Food-crop yields in future greenhouse-gas conditions lower than expected

Open-air field trials involving five major food crops grown under carbon-dioxide levels projected for the future are harvesting dramatically less bounty than those raised in earlier greenhouse and other enclosed test conditions ?and scientists warn that global food supplies could be at risk without changes in production strategies. The new findings are based on on-going open-air research a...

Healthy coral reefs of Madagascar resisting damage from climate change

Healthy coral reefs of Madagascar's northeast coast have so far resisted the damaging effects of warmer ocean temperatures attributed to global climate change, say scientists who recently studied the region. The survey of a previously unexplored region in March 2006 by scientists from Conservation International and its partners documented a much greater variety of life than expected, inclu...

Plutonium or greenhouse gases? Weighing the energy options

Can nuclear energy save us from global warming? Perhaps, but the tradeoffs involved are sobering: thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste generated each year and a greatly increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or diversion of nuclear material into terrorists' hands. So concludes University of Michigan professor Rodney Ewing, who has analyzed just how much nuclear power would n...

For super-obese patients, duodenal switch beats gastric bypass

In the first large, single-institution series directly comparing weight-loss outcomes in super-obese patients, researchers from the University of Chicago found that a newer operation, the duodenal switch, produced substantially better weight-loss outcomes than the standard operation, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. In the October issue of the Annals of Surgery, the researchers report that t...

Extraordinary life found around deep-sea gas seeps

An international team led by scientists from the United States and New Zealand have observed, for the first time, the bizarre deep-sea communities living around methane seeps off New Zealand's east coast. 'This is the first time cold seeps have been viewed and sampled in the southwest Pacific, and will greatly contribute to our knowledge of these intriguing ecosystems,' says Dr Amy Baco-T...

Developing uses for sugar-cane bagasse: Biotechnology applied to the paper industry

The principal raw material used for manufacturing paper pulp is wood. However, growing demand in the paper industry, at a time of dwindling forest resources, have compelled the sector to turn to other sources of raw materials, such as cereal straw, reeds, bamboo or sugar-cane bagasse. This residue, obtained after crushing of the cane, is already used as a source of paper-making fibres in...

Scientists discover toxin that causes gastro disease

Australian scientists have identified a highly potent toxin that causes severe gastrointestinal illnesses, including food poisoning. The research team was le...

Siberian lakes burp 'time-bomb' greenhouse gas

Frozen bubbles in Siberian lakes are releasing methane, a greenhouse gas, at rates that appear to be "... five times higher than previously estimated" and acting as a positive feedback to climate warming, said Katey Walter, in a paper published today in the journal Nature. Walter's project is the first time this type of bubbling has been accurately quantified. "We realized that our previou...

New sensor detects gaseous chemical weapon surrogates in 45 seconds

Using lasers and tuning forks, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements. The technique, called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing, or "QPAS," is now ready for prototyping and field testing. PNNL, a Departm...

New sucker-footed bat discovered in Madagascar

Scientists have discovered a new species of bat that has large flat adhesive organs, or suckers, attached to its thumbs and hind feet. This is a remarkable find because the new bat belongs to a Family of bats endemic to Madagascar--and one that was previously considered to include only one rare species. The new species, Myzopoda schliemanni, occurs only in the dry western forests of Madag...

Cow protein aids in treatment of gastrointestinal disorder

Recent evidence suggests that therapy currently used to treat Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, a major cause of upper gastrointestinal disorders, is unsuccessful in around 25 percent of cases. A new study, published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, finds that adding a bovine protein called lactoferrin to the existing treatment may yield more effective results, with fewer of...

Madagascan tropical forests return thanks to better management and well-defined ownership

A study published in the May 2nd issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, shows that although loss of tropical dry forests occurs in southern Madagascar, there are also large areas of forests regenerating. The return of forest cover was found to be substantial in the study area, with an overall net increase of 4 % during the period 1993-2000. These dry forests have the highest level of...

Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases

Snow becomes dirty when soot from tailpipes, smoke stacks and forest fires enters the atmosphere and falls to the ground. Soot-infused sn...

Envisat captures first image of Sargassum from space

S...