Fossil Fish Challenge Gene Theory

New evidence from fossil fish, hundreds of millions of years old, casts doubt on current ideas about evolutionary theory.

The research, by palaeontologists Dr Philip Donoghue of the University of Bristol and Dr Mark Purnell of the University of Leicester, appears to have solved a scientific riddle by using the fossil record to explain evolutionary ‘leaps’ between species.

The scientists’ claim that these evolutionary ‘leaps

In the past 50 years, human activity has changed the diversity of life on Earth – our biodiversity – more than any other time in history. These changes include biodiversity loss that harms the natural systems, known as ecosystems, which sustain all life on the planet.

The loss of biodiversity is more harmful to some people than others. The rural poor in developing countries are often hit hardest, because they are more directly dependent on the resources and services that ecosystem

The only sugar beets growing in Texas are in the laboratory. But those few plants are getting to the root of problems throughout the sugar beet industry.

The sugar beet industry moved out of Texas in 1997 after the close of the processing plant at Hereford. But the growing research program within Texas Agricultural Experiment Station’s plant pathology lab here didn’t die.

Just the opposite, said Dr. Charlie Rush, professor and director of the plant pathology labs in Bus

The mammoth B-15A iceberg appears poised to strike another floating Antarctic ice feature, a month on from a passing blow that broke off the end of the Drygalski ice tongue. As this Envisat image reveals, this time its target is the ice tongue of the Aviator Glacier.

First discovered in 1955, and named to mark the work done by airmen to open up the Antarctic continent, the Aviator Glacier is a major valley glacier descending from the plateau of Victoria Land along the west side

A new global wind power map has quantified global wind power and may help planners place turbines in locations that can maximize power from the winds and provide widely available low-cost energy. After analyzing more than 8,000 wind speed measurements in an effort to identify the world’s wind power potential for the first time, Cristina Archer and Mark Jacobson of Stanford University suggest that wind captured at specific locations, if even partially harnessed, can generate more than eno

The world’s oldest volcano observatory has added satellites to its repertoire of instruments to monitor volcanic features flanking Naples. The result has been the most detailed view ever of ground motion in this vicinity.

When it was founded back in 1841, the Vesuvius Observatory of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology was the world’s first scientific institution devoted to volcanoes. Now its remit is more than simply scientific: the Observator

Dutch researcher Daniël van den Broek investigated bacteria which fight fungal infections in plants. Spontaneous variations in the phase of these bacteria reduce the anti-fungal protective function but increase the bacteria’s competitive advantage and with this their chances of survival.

Scientists worldwide are looking for biological alternatives to chemical pesticides in order to protect crops against pathogens. One of these is the use of bacteria which protect plants, fo

Summer in Europe means time for the beach. Testing the waters is a traditional holiday ritual: a swift hand or foot in the surf to check sea temperature. Or there is the modern approach – a flotilla of satellites identifying the warmest parts of all 2 965 500 square kilometres of the Mediterranean on a daily basis.

An updated map of the sea surface temperature (SST) of the world’s largest inland sea is generated every day as part of ESA’s Medspiration project, with an

It is not necessary to fly to the Moon to get lunar soil even if the sample is required from the other side of this planet. A meteorite originating from the other side of the Moon has recently got into the hands of scientists. The meteorite investigation required precision instruments and grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Büro Für Wissenschaftlich-Technische Zusammenarbeit Des Österreichischer Austauschdienst (Bureau for Scientific and Technical Collabration of Austr

The colossal kauri trees prevent landslides on landslide-prone slopes. This is the conclusion of Dutch-funded researcher Lieven Claessens, who developed a model for predicting landslides in the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park in New Zealand.

Claessens has discovered that the kauri trees in New Zealand prevent landslides. When these enormous conifers reached a certain age, they stabilise areas prone to landslides. This maximises the benefit the trees gain by living far longer than

Despite dozens of interceptions at U.S. ports, a public enemy has infiltrated the nation’s borders. Taken captive in Fulton County, N.Y., and identified by a Cornell University expert, the adult female alien is the only one of its kind ever discovered in the eastern United States.

The discovery of a single specimen of Sirex noctilio Fabricius, an Old World woodwasp, raises red flags across the nation because the invasive insect species has devastated up to 80 percent of p

New research explores just how regular San Andreas fault ruptures may be

The San Andreas fault is one of the most dangerous seismically active faults in the world, due to its proximity to densely populated regions of California. But how often does this fault rupture and cause a large earthquake? About every 200 years, which is coming up soon, according to an article to be published in the May 13 issue of the journal, Science.

Glenn Biasi, research assistant professor wit

New summit station planned for greenland summit camp offers space applications

Scientists are preparing to step up research in the Polar Regions, and University of Houston architecture students and staff are designing the facility at the Greenland Summit that sits atop more than 10,000 feet of ice.

The UH group was the only organization approached to submit a design proposal for the first stage of a new summit station at the peak of the Greenland ice cap. The project wa

A research team from Purdue University and the University of California, San Diego has found that the Earth’s atmosphere may be more effective at cleansing itself of smog and other damaging hydrocarbons than was once thought.

Scientists, including Joseph S. Francisco, have learned that some naturally occurring atmospheric chemicals react with sunlight more effectively than previously thought to produce substances that “scrub” the air of smog. This group of chemicals, after abso

CORAL reefs damaged in the Asian tsunami tragedy should be allowed to recover naturally before countries launch into expensive restoration plans, according to some of the world’s leading scientists.

The scientists, led by a researcher from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and who set out their views in an advisory brief for the World Bank, point to historical records of major coral reef devastation by cyclones and typhoons, which show that reefs recovered without human int

World Health Organisation personnel combating an Angolan outbreak of the lethal Marburg virus used high-resolution satellite-based urban maps provided through a pair of ESA-led activities.

The Marburg virus causes Ebola-like internal bleeding in humans, with an incubation period of between five and nine days. A Marburg outbreak was detected in Angola’s Luanda city at the start of April. It has since taken the lives of more than 255 victims, many of them children under five.