Biogeochemists from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research have shown that prehistoric tropical oceans were no less than five to eight degrees warmer than they are now. Their findings have been published in the December issue of the renowned American journal Geology.

During the mid-Cretaceous period, some 90 to 120 million years ago, the seawater around the equator had a temperature of 30 to 37 degrees Celsius, which is five to eight degrees higher than the temperature now. This wa

An international group of scientists is warning that the traditional Christmas snack of Brazil nuts could be under threat if intensive harvesting practices continue in persistently exploited areas.

Writing in this week’s edition of the international journal Science (19 December 2003) the main author of the report, Dr Carlos Peres of the University of East Anglia, says: “The clear message is that current Brazil nut harvesting practices at many Amazonian forest sites are not sustainable in the

A team of researchers led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a family of proteins that connect the immune system to the body’s lipids – the fat molecules that are a major building block of the human body.

“This is the first time someone has shown how the immune system and lipid metabolism merge,” says Associate Professor Luc Teyton, M.D., Ph.D., of Scripps Research. Teyton is the lead author of the study.

In the study, Teyton and his colleagues wer

Studies of the unique landscape in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica provide new insights into the origin of similar features on Mars and provide one line of evidence that suggests the Red Planet has recently experienced an ice age, according to a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

The distribution of hexagonal mounds and other features on the Martian surface at mid-latitudes similar to those in the Dry Valleys also supports previous scientific assertions that a significant amou

Scientist plans similar studies on tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay

A study released in early December by a group of scientists shows that hormones leaking into streams from cattle feedlots are altering the sexual characteristics of wild fish.

Edward Orlando, assistant professor of biology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM), was the leading author in the study that included researchers from five U.S. institutions. The scientists examined minnows in three streams

Assuming that oil spills such as the one that devastated Alaska’s Prince William Sound almost 15 years ago and other toxic insults to the environment have only short-term impacts on coastal marine ecosystems has been a big mistake, a new study shows.

Oil’s negative effects last far longer, scientists now say, and the findings should be a wake-up call for better environmental research and protection.

The study, conducted by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill res

New findings may have implications for the stability of today’s climate

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside and Columbia University have found evidence of the release of an enormous quantity of methane gas as ice sheets melted at the end of a global ice age about 600 million years ago, possibly altering the ocean’s chemistry, influencing oxygen levels in the ocean and atmosphere, and enhancing climate warming because methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Th

Antibiotics used on swine farms may stir controversy about their potential role in the rise of anti-bacterial resistance, but a new study says their use means significant production efficiency and a 9 percent boost in pork producer profits.

The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, provides an economically detailed look at the use of antibiotics for growth promotion following dramatic changes that have altered the face of the U.S. swine

In an effort to stamp out one of the most costly quality control problems facing the Australian wool industry, CSIRO Livestock Industries – with assistance from the Australian Sheep Industry CRC – is investigating which Merino sheep genes are responsible for producing black or piebald offspring.

According to research team leader, Dr Belinda Norris, while the Australian Merino is renowned for its uniformly white fleece, a significant proportion of the national flock may carry gene(s) that ca

It’s hardly an appealing thought but the overpowering fragrance of mothballs in a large wind tunnel could provide the key to improving air quality in our towns and cities.

The tests will improve our understanding of how pollution and heat behave at street level so that more effective ventilation methods can be developed.

The research will be carried out by scientists at the University of Reading in collaboration with EnFlo, based at the University of Surrey, with funding from the

UK Team is first to use DNA-based techniques to analyse content of spiders’ guts to identify prey

DNA found in a spider’s stomach could herald a breakthrough in the fight against farm pests, which cause millions of dollars of damage to crops.

Cardiff University, UK, scientists, led by Dr Bill Symondson in the School of Biosciences, have become the first to use DNA-based techniques to analyse the content of spiders’ guts to identify the prey they have eaten in

Research news from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

15 December 2003: The presence of E.coli bacteria, found in foods such as egg white and apple juice, is a major public health concern. The bacteria have, in the past, been inactivated by heat pasteurisation — which can affect flavour and consistency. New evidence published in the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, however, suggests that UV irradiation may prove to be a better and more cost effective method

Radioactive potassium, common enough on Earth to make potassium-rich bananas one of the “hottest” foods around, appears also to be a substantial source of heat in the Earth’s core, according to recent experiments by University of California, Berkeley, geophysicists.

Radioactive potassium, uranium and thorium are thought to be the three main sources of heat in the Earth’s interior, aside from that generated by the formation of the planet. Together, the heat keeps the mantle actively churning

Using the perspective of the last few centuries and millennia, speakers in a press conference at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco will discuss the latest research involving climate reconstructions and different climate models.

The press conference features Caspar Ammann of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colo.; Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York; and Tom Crowley of Duke University, Durham

Using a suite of microwave remote sensing instruments aboard satellites, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and the University of Montana, Missoula, have observed a recent trend of earlier thawing across the northern high latitudes. This regional thawing trend, advancing almost one day a year since 1988, has the potential to alter the cycle of atmospheric carbon dioxide intake and release by vegetation and soils across the region, potentially resultin

NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) is sending home important scientific data and spectacular 3-D views of Earth’s polar ice sheets, clouds, mountains, and forestlands. The data are helping scientists understand how life on Earth is affected by changing climate.

The principal objective of the ICESat mission, and its Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) instrument, is to measure the surface elevations of the large ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland