rises in Biological News

Ancient reptile rises from Alberta oil sands

One of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils recovered in North America, and the oldest yet discovered from the Cretaceous Period, represents a new genus of the prehistoric aquatic predator according to University of Calgary palaeontologists who have formally described the creature after...

Crammed with charged DNA, pressure rises inside virus

It could be an artist’s depiction of someone’s stomach before and after a rather decadent meal. But it is a 3-D cryoelectron microscope reconstruction of the cross-section of a virus, before and after cramming itself full of its own DNA. The virus, phi29, has a tiny motor that pumps its DNA int...

Hunger in America rises by 43 percent over last five years

Hunger in American households has risen by 43 percent over the last five years, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data released today. The analysis, completed by the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, shows that more than 7 million people have joined ...

'Patient-choice' C-section rate rises 36%: HealthGrades study

More women choosing C-sections when no medical necessity exists - Florida, New York, New Jersey have highest rates;Nevada, Washington, Florida increase most The number of pregnant women choosing to have a "patient-choice" Cesarean section (C-section) rose by 36.6 percent from 2001 to 2003, acco...

Hybrid vehicle rebates produce scant environmental benefits, high cost

...majority, rebates are not changing behaviour they are subsidizing planned purchases." According to the study, the inefficiency of rebate programs rises disproportionately when governments increase rebate levels. "When B.C.'s rebate jumped from $1,000 to $2,000 in 2005, the actual cost of reducing carb...

Rice University researchers ask if biofuels will lead to a 'drink or drive'

...to fuel an average car for one mile. Given differing land use practices and other factors, that number decreases to 23 gallons for Iowa-grown corn and rises to 115 gallons for Texas-grown sorghum. The debate over biofuels must also "recognize the impact of increased agricultural activity on water qualit...

Toward cheap underwater sensor nets

...ck to land without any one sensor having to send a signal a long distance, which is costly in terms of energy consumption. Reconfigurable hardware rises to the top The computer scientists studied the patterns of energy consumption of underwater modems and determined that, for short distances, the h...

Satellite imagery shows fragile Wilkins Ice Shelf destabilized

... unclear how the situation will evolve. Humbert noted that, "We are not sure if a new stable ice front will now form between Latady Island, Petrie Ice rises and Dorsey Island. If the connection to Latady Island is lost, the projected loss of 3370 sq km of ice might be greater though we have no indication ...

AGU journal highlights -- March 25, 2009

... find that although fresh soot does not change below water saturation, soot particles exposed to sulfuric acid increase in mass when relative humidity rises because the acid-coated soot absorbs water. An increase in particle mass is often accompanied by a decrease in size, suggesting that conventional meas...

Scientists find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands

...timulating root growth, thus raising a marsh's soil elevation, elevated CO 2 may also increase the capacity for coastal wetlands to tolerate relative rises in sea level." Both scientists are ecologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md. These findings bear particular imp...

New simulation shows consequences of a world without Earth's natural sunscreen

...between 50 and 100 DU (down from 300-500 in 1960). The intensity of UV radiation at Earth's surface doubles; at certain shorter wavelengths, intensity rises by as much as 10,000 times. Skin cancer-causing radiation soars. "Our world avoided calculation goes a little beyond what I thought would happen," ...

Microscope reveals how bacteria 'breathe' toxic metals

... a miniaturized phonograph needle: a tiny tip dangles from a cantilever above a surface that's being studied. The cantilever measures how much the tip rises and falls as it's dragged over the surface. It can measure features smaller than a nanometer (billionth of a meter), and detect atomic forces between ...

'Climate change: Global risks, challenges and decisions'

...how that societies are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2oC will be very difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and will increase the level of climate disruption through the rest of the ce...

Crickets may predict human survivability during global warming

...egative consequences will occur." This is one of the first research projects that links Atmospheric Oceanic General Circulation Models that predict rises in temperature over time with a sound biological model that successfully predicts breeding patterns of a creature. Winterhalter is working with UCF...

Rising sea levels set to have major impacts around the world

...e plenary speech on sea level rise at the congress. These data also reveal that the rate of sea level rise is closely linked to temperature: sea level rises faster the warmer it gets. "If sea level keeps rising at a constant pace, we will end up in the middle of that 18-59 cm IPCC range by 2100," says Rahm...

Pitt researchers describe molecular '2-step' leading to protein clumps of Huntington's disease

...o glutamines, and even a polyglutamine with as many as 35 repeats may not cause Huntington's symptoms. But the risk of developing Huntington's disease rises sharply in individuals whose polyglutamine sequences are only slightly larger. A block of 40 repeats, for example, is associated with a very high like...

New explanation for a puzzling biological divide along the Malay Peninsula

...rmer graduate student Leslie Turner, now at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Ploen, Germany, say that more than 58 rapid sea level rises in the last 5 million years could account for the shift by crowding out species, particularly at the narrowest part of the peninsula called the Isthmu...

Genetic study shows direct link between vitamin D and MS susceptibility 'gene'

...ning the gene variant known as DRB1*1501 and from adjacent DNA sequences. Whilst one in 1,000 people in the UK are likely to develop MS, this number rises to around one in 300 amongst those carrying a single copy of the variant and one in 100 of those carrying two copies. Now, in a study funded by the...

Ecologists report quantifiable measures of nature's services to humans

...shorelines by wetland habitats, provides quantifiable protection to coastal communities, this service can vary over time. Much like an economic market rises and falls with prosperous and hard times, these services vary over the winter and summer months, when shoreline plants are at different densities. The...

LSUSHC researchers find potential new target for hypertension treatment

...sion," says Dr. Xia. "Blood pressure" is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways. According to the National Institutes of Health, in the United States, about 72 million ...

High school students' paper published in prestigious college math journal

... address issues associated with increased corn-derived ethanol production and fuel substitution and relate these matters to dramatic and unanticipated rises in farm commodity pricing, the future of food supplies in developing nations, the effect on carbon dioxide emissions, and the cost-effectiveness of pr...

AGU journal highlights -- Dec. 31, 2008

... scope of Earth's tropical air flows The Hadley cells form the planetary overturning circulation in the tropical atmosphere. In a Hadley cell, air rises from near the equator at the surface to the upper troposphere, moves poleward until about 30 degrees in latitude, then descends into the subtropics be...

In child care, relationships with caregivers key to children's stress levels

... Children with more clingy relationships with their teachers showed greater rises in cortisol from morning to afternoon, and children with more conflicted re...ldren suggests that secure relationships with parents protect children from rises in cortisol in stressful situations. This study, by researchers at Wash...

Acoustical Meeting, Nov. 10-14, 2008 in Miami, Florida

...sh were asked to identify short music melodies by matching the melody they heard to its visual representation (a series of arrows that indicated pitch rises and falls). They were also asked to discriminate between the melodies by indicating whether any two were identical or different. Relative to the E...

Sandia, SES win Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Innovator Award

...er, which transmits the heat energy to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electri...

Scientists map soils on an extinct American volcano

...salt, part of the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field. Capulin volcano, formed approximately 62,000 years ago, is the youngest volcano in the field. The cone rises 396 m from the plain, reaching an altitude of 2,495 m above sea level. The base of the volcano is 6.4 km in circumference, and the crater is 126 m dee...

Paleozoic 'sediment curve' provides new tool for tracking sea-floor sediment movements

...sediments were deposited, and availability of data on a worldwide basis, are allowing scientists to reconstruct sea level during the Paleozoic. The rises and falls of sea level during this period form the basis of stratigraphic interpretations of geology not only in the sea, but on land. These sea level...

Moderate quantities of dirt make more rain

...tributed." Clouds and therefore rain are only created when wet, warm air rises from the ground and the water condenses or freezes around the aerosols at a...ion can be described with a curve. Initially, the amount of energy released rises as the number of aerosols increases; it reaches a peak and then falls consi...

Dirty air brings rain -- then again, maybe not

...the critical factor controlling how the energy is distributed in the atmosphere." Clouds, and therefore precipitation, come about when moist, warm air rises from ground level and water condenses or freezes on the aerosols aloft. The energy responsible for evaporating the water from the earth's surface and ...

Hurricane Gustav

...orms that rotate around a central area of extreme low pressure. They arise in warm tropical waters that transfer their heat to the air. The warmed air rises rapidly, in the process creating low pressure at the water surface. Winds begin rushing inwards and upwards around this low-pressure zone. Instrum...

Loneliness undermines health as well as mental well-being

...ior, but loneliness is related to greater resistance to blood flow through your cardiovascular system," Cacioppo said. "Loneliness leads to higher rises in morning levels of the stress hormone cortisol, altered gene expression in immune cells, poorer immune function, higher blood pressure and an increa...

Height linked to risk of prostate cancer development and progression

...ers at four universities in England studied more than 9,000 men with and without prostate cancer and estimated that the risk of developing the disease rises by about six percent for every 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) in height a man is over the shortest group of men in the study. That means a man who is one...

Common treatment to delay labor decreases preterm infants' risk for cerebral palsy

...fate on the incidence of cerebral palsy in preterm infants." Early preterm birth is a risk factor for cerebral palsy, and the magnitude of the risk rises the earlier a baby is born. During the past 20 to 30 years, the survival of infants born severely preterm has improved dramatically, and while some re...

Ancient marine invertebrate diversity less explosive than thought

...on years ago) is lower than diversity in the Triassic (248 to 206 million years ago), indicating a dip and rise in the diversity curve. The curve then rises in the Cretaceous and remains more or less flat after that. The previously thought exponential increase in diversity is not there. "Comparing divers...

Species have come and gone at different rates than previously believed

...ears ago) is lower than diversity in the Triassic (248 to 206 million years ago), indicating a dip and rise in the diversity curve. The curve then rises in the Cretaceous and remains more or less flat after that. The previously thought exponential increase in diversity is not there. "Comparing diver...

Research required urgently to control planthopper pests

...at can destroy one-fifth of a harvest, have intensified across Asia in recent years. Major outbreaks in Vietnam in 2007 contributed to recent dramatic rises in the cost of rice, which have threatened to push millions of people deeper into poverty. If not effectively controlled, these pests could hamper ric...

The coming convergence

...Center was made possible by the malicious convergence of two separate trends in modern engineering and technology: the concentration of people in high rises within cities and the success of the passenger airline industry. The message is clear: the choices we make now will converge to create a near and dis...

NASA study links Earth impacts to human-caused climate change

...'s Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and scientists at 10 other institutions have linked physical and biological impacts since 1970 with rises in temperatures during that period. The study, to be published May 15 in the journal Nature, concludes human-caused warming is resulting in a broad ra...

Scientists compiled 20th century temperature data in Spain as evidence of climatic change

... in a temperature measurement is in the order of 0.1C, and the error of a difference between data, previously treated with the homogeneization method, rises to the order of 0.4C. This error is not negligible but anyway it is considerably smaller than the gross data. To come to conclusions that confirm c...

Coral reefs and climate change: Microbes could be the key to coral death

...eletons of calcium carbonate, are living perilously close to their upper temperature limits. This makes them very vulnerable to even small temperature rises of 1-2oC above the normal summer maximum. Many of the deaths we see in the coral reefs, which occur following coral bleaching events, when huge are...