Unique Underground Ecosystem Revealed by Hebrew University

Discovery of eight previously unknown, ancient animal species within “a new and unique underground ecosystem” in Israel was revealed today by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers.

In a press conference on the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University, the researchers said the discovery came about when a small opening was found, leading to a cave extending to a depth of 100 meters beneath the surface

Different disasters require different responses and, in turn, multiple technological solutions, which is a costly duplication of resources. REMSAT II, a project supported by ESA’s Telecommunications Department, has, however, successfully extended its forest fire fighting capabilities to the domain of flood relief, saving both resources and lives.

Already demonstrated to be a big success in aiding Canadian fire-fighters during 2004 (Related news: Using satellites in the fight against fores

With world energy prices and climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions ballooning in tandem with a surge in energy demand from the hot economies of China, India and Brazil, the world has a major stake in the success of energy reduction efforts, particularly in those three countries, warn experts concluding a four-year international project.

Without significant gains from energy efficiency efforts, China, India and Brazil within a single human generation (by 2030) will more than

“Harmless” bacteria in the digestive tracts of dairy cows, may not be so harmless after all. They may be a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes that can be transferred to more harmful, disease-causing bacteria, according to research presented today at the 106th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Orlando, Florida.

“There is concern that veterinary therapeutic usage of antibiotics in animals is responsible for the emergence of drug-resistant Salmonella.

Scientists don’t know if global warming is responsible

Atmospheric temperature measurements by U.S. weather satellites indicate Earth’s hot, tropical zone has expanded farther from the equator since 1979, says a study by scientists from the University of Utah and University of Washington.
Researchers say the apparent north-south widening of the tropics amounts to 2 degrees of latitude or 140 miles. But they do not know yet if the tropical expansion was triggered by

Minerals crunched by intense pressure near the Earth’s core lose much of their ability to conduct infrared light, according to a new study from the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory. Since infrared light contributes to the flow of heat, the result challenges some long-held notions about heat transfer in the lower mantle, the layer of molten rock that surrounds the Earth’s solid core. The work could aid the study of mantle plumes–large columns of hot upwelling magma belie

An international team of scientists has presented its findings from the first observations of the eruption of a submarine volcano that in 2004 and 2005 spewed out plumes of sulfur-rich fluid and pulses of volcanic ash 550 meters below the ocean’s surface near the Mariana Islands northwest of Guam.

Those findings will be published Thursday in Nature – just after many of those same scientists returned from another expedition to the site, where they observed new bursts of erupting

Kelp forest ecosystems that span the West Coast –– from Alaska to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula –– are at greater risk from overfishing than from the effects of run-off from fertilizers or sewage on the shore, say scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings have important implications for the design of California’s Marine Protected Areas.

In an article published in the May 26 issue of Science, scientists describe the first study to compare the top-down ver

NOAA Web site documenting month-long cruise as it happens

When most people think of Louisiana as being unique, they think of Mardi Gras, crawfish and Cajun culture. Few realize that what lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana’s coast is also unique, from the terrain and habitat to the animals living there. And two LSU researchers are diving down some 3,000 meters to explore it.

Researchers Harry Roberts and Bob Carney are combing the most unique continenta

A new tree-ring-based reconstruction of 508 years of Colorado River streamflow confirms that droughts more severe than the 2000-2004 drought occurred before stream gages were installed on the river.

The new research also confirms that using stream gage records alone may overestimate the average amount of water in the river because the last 100-year period was wetter than the average for the last five centuries.

“This work updates the original landmark Colorado River re

With an annual output of 127 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables, India lies second in the world producing country rankings, after China. Since the end of the 1990s, it has been eyeing up the export markets, in the hope of gaining in international visibility and repute. However, yields are still low, and most of what is produced is either consumed in India or lost as a result of poor postharvest management. Moreover, barely 2% of the fruit and vegetable crop is processed, and India accounts for

Using NASA’s advanced Earth-observing satellites, scientists have discovered a new opportunity to build early detection systems that might protect thousands from floods and landslides.

This potential breakthrough in disaster monitoring and warning links satellite observations of soil type, vegetation and land slope with observations of rainfall, rivers and topography.

“Flood and landslides are the most widespread natural hazards on Earth, responsible for thousands

If Earth’s past cycles of warming and cooling are any indication, temperatures by the end of the century will be even hotter than current climate models predict, according to a report by University of California, Berkeley, researchers.

The scientists based their conclusion on a study of Antarctic ice cores containing a 360,000-year record of global temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and methane – two of the major greenhouse gases implicated in global warming. They f

Selfishness is not necessarily the best survival trait for microorganisms, according to researchers studying the comparative effectiveness of ‘cheating’ and ‘cooperating’ strains of yeast.

Writing in the journal Nature today, the team reports that studies of lab-grown yeast populations suggest the benefits of cheating are eventually counterbalanced by the costs. This contradicts classic evolutionary theory, which states that in a competition for common resources the long-term win

For a decade now, ESA satellites have been continuously surveying fires burning across the Earth’s surface. Worldwide fire maps based on this data are now available to users online in near real time through ESA’s ATSR World Fire Atlas.

The ATSR World Fire Atlas (WFA) – the first multi-year global fire atlas ever developed – provides data approximately six hours after acquisition and represents an important scientific resource because fire is a major agent of environmental change.

Mystery is surrounding the huge declines of birds that migrate thousands of miles from Africa to the UK and Europe each spring.

Scientists fear that their dwindling numbers – well over 50 per cent down in some cases – may be a warning of widespread environmental damage, which could soon affect man as well.

Climate change, drought and desertification in Africa, and massive pesticide use on African farmland may all be to blame for the declines of once common UK birds such