Scientists from Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the US have identified a genetic mechanism that regulates growth in chickens. The study is based on two chicken selection lines, where one is bred for high growth and the other one for low. The researchers show that a network of four interacting genes explains half of the difference in body weight between the lines. The results may be of great significance for genetic studies of complex diseases such as obesity

Growing bamboo on their land could help African farmers to improve the safety of their food crops and generate precious additional income, researchers at the University of Nottingham believe.

Academics in the University’s School of Biosciences are working with colleagues in Kenya to examine whether bamboo could be used to remove potentially harmful contaminants from soil and provide extra income for subsistence farmers.

Training in how to grow bamboo and new skills such as

Millet and sorghum are major food crops in the Sahel, where they have been diversified quite considerably. However, the existing capital is likely to shrink as a result of human activity, in terms of socioeconomic development and environmental changes, particularly climate change. While there have been very few large-scale studies of the issue to date, CIRAD and its partners are beginning to reap the first results of a project funded by the Institut français de la biodiversité (IFB). The aim is

A new theory to explain global warming was revealed at a meeting at the University of Leicester (UK) and is being considered for publication in the journal “Science First Hand”. The controversial theory has nothing to do with burning fossil fuels and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. According to Vladimir Shaidurov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the apparent rise in average global temperature recorded by scientists over the last hundred years or so could be due to atmospheric changes tha

Researchers from the University of Essex have discovered a deep-sea oasis with new microbial life forms that could have significant implications for biotechnology. The findings have been published this week in the journal Nature.

The researchers have found that microbial activity, biomass and diversity are greatly increased at the interface between seawater and a salt-saturated brine lake, 3.3 kilometres below the surface of the Mediterranean. These life forms could have signif

A new chemical process for removing unwanted minerals from coal could lead to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power stations.

There is already a way of burning coal in a cleaner, more efficient fashion that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions: this is where the coal is turned into a gas and used to drive a turbine. However, problems with cleaning the coal before it is burnt have made generating electricity in this way very expensive. This new chemical p

The amount of data acquired by satellites is increasing at an exponential rate, and researchers are learning about the value of this data in fighting epidemic outbreaks as a result of the ESA’s Epidemio project.

“I was negative about the role satellites could play in addressing epidemics, but now I am positive,” Penelope Vernatsou of the Swiss Tropical Institute in Switzerland said. The ESA-funded Epidemio project was developed in January 2004 to illustrate the benefits of remo

A recently published study in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research indicates that fuel reduction treatments should simultaneously take place in the overstory, understory, and on the ground to adequately reduce fire severity. Thinning trees without treating surface fuels does not reduce mortality adequately because mortality can occur from hot fires on the ground, as well as fires that burn through the tree crowns.

The study, “Fuel Treatments Alter the Effects of Wildfire in a M

Studies have shown that over the last 40 years, a warming climate has been accompanied by fewer rain- and snow-producing storms in mid-latitudes around the world, but the storms that are happening are a little stronger with more precipitation. A new analysis of global satellite data suggests that these storm changes are affecting strongly the Earth’s water cycle and air temperatures and creating contrasting cooling and warming effects in the atmosphere.

The mid-latitudes extend f

It’ll be a snap to identify gemstones once Robert Downs finishes his library of spectral fingerprints for all the Earth’s minerals.

Downs is almost halfway there. So far, the associate professor of geosciences at The University of Arizona in Tucson has cataloged about 1,500 of the approximately 4,000 known minerals using a technique called Raman spectroscopy. The effort is known as the RRUFF Project.

“We’re developing a tricorder,” Downs said, referri

One problem confronting the oil industry is that extracted mineral oil (due to increasing scarcity) is becoming heavier and ’dirtier’. This is reflected, for instance, in a higher content of aromatics (which among other things lead to soot emissions during combustion in diesel engines) and of sulphur (which among things causes acid rain). At the same time, the global ceilings for aromatics and sulphur content in fuels are becoming increasingly strict.

The Delft-based PhD studen

Like an armada of small rototillers, female salmon can industriously churn up entire stream beds from end to end, sometimes more than once, using just their tails.

For decades ecologists have believed that salmon nest-digging triggered only local effects. But a University of Washington researcher writes in this month’s BioScience journal that the silt, minerals and nutrients that are unleashed have ecosystemwide effects, causing changes in rivers and lakes far from the nests.

Earth history has been punctuated by several mass extinctions rapidly wiping out nearly all life forms on our planet. What causes these catastrophic events? Are they really due to meteorite impacts? Current research suggests that the cause may come from within our own planet – the eruption of vast amounts of lava that brings a cocktail of gases from deep inside the Earth and vents them into the atmosphere.

University of Leicester geologists, Professor Andy Saunders and Dr Marc Reichow, are

One year from now the biggest internationally coordinated research effort for 50 years will begin as thousands of scientists from 60 countries focus their attention on the Polar Regions. Together they will tackle the urgent environmental issues facing society. Rapid climate change is already changing our planet affecting the Arctic’s native peoples. Today (Tuesday 14 March) at the launch of a major science initiative – International Polar Year – at the Wellcome Trust, leading scientists outline pl

Satellite images acquired by ESA’s ERS-2 revealed the recently discovered changes in Yellowstone’s caldera are the result of molten rock movement 15 kilometres below the Earth’s surface, according to a recent study published in Nature.

Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry, InSAR for short, Charles Wicks, Wayne Thatcher and other U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists mapped the changes in the northern rim of the caldera, or crater, and discovered it had risen about 13

Business-as-usual approach threatens world energy supplies and environment, but affordable, effective solutions appear within reach

Implementing a plan to keep rising carbon dioxide levels from reaching potentially dangerous levels could cost less than 1 percent of gross world product as of 2050, a cost that is well within reach of developed and developing nations alike. However, without simultaneous progress in the way energy is found, transformed, transported and used, the