Fish may only have a 3-second memory, but lobsters certainly don’t. Professor Jelle Atema’s group at the Boston University Marine Program has discovered that when two lobsters fight, the loser remembers the winner and determines the intensity of a later fight when the two meet again. Male lobsters can use the smell of urine to distinguish between individual opponents. The consequences of a ‘boxing match’ between two male lobsters, after which the ‘nose’ of either the loser or winner was disabled so t

The damage that traffic fumes can do to vegetation close to roads has been the subject of new research carried out at the University of Bradford.

PhD student Keeley Bignal monitored moss and lichen over a six-month period to compile the study. Keeley took specimens from sites where there is no pollution and placed them at various distances from busy roadsides.

She said: “We are using lichens and mosses because they are known to be sensitive to air pollution.

“Previously

Without destroying endangered freshwater mussels

In the early 1900s, there were 42 species of freshwater mussels in the North Fork of the Holston River in Southwest Virginia. There were 33 downstream of Saltville. Now there are only nine species of mussels downstream of Saltville, and none directly below Saltville. When Virginia Tech geosciences student Megan Brown of Colonial Heights, Va., decided to study the local extinctions of these creatures, some of which have been known to liv

Researchers studying the environmental consequences of acid rain have reached an important milestone, adding evidence for a theory that has been the focus of much scientific debate. Publishing in the December, 2003 issue of the Soil Science Society of America Journal, a team at the University of Maine reported that a modest addition of acid in a paired watershed experiment resulted in a decrease of crucial nutrients in forest soils.

For more than 30 years, scientists in Europe and North Amer

Obtaining quality proteins from grain legumes for both human and animal consumption is the aim of the “Grain Legumes” project, financed by the European Union VI Framework Programme for Technological Research and Development in which the Public University of Navarre is a participant.

The project, in which research teams from 67 institutions from 18 European countries and is aimed as a response to the challenge faced by the European Union in order to obtain quality plant proteins given that,

According to NASA-funded researchers, developed land in the greater Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area is projected to increase 80 percent by 2030. Scientists used a computer-based decision support model loaded with NASA and commercial satellite images to simulate three policies affecting land use.

The researchers, Claire Jantz and Scott Goetz, from the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., and the Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, Mass., also found a 39 percent increase in

The spiral troughs of Mars’ polar ice caps have been called the most enigmatic landforms in the solar system. The deep canyons spiraling out from Red Planet’s North and South poles cover hundreds of miles. No other planet has such structures.

A new model of trough formation suggests that heating and cooling alone are sufficient to form the unusual patterns. Previous explanations had focused on alternate melting and refreezing cycles but also required wind or shifting ice caps.

“I

CSIRO research has found unusual properties in ilmenite sand from the Murray Basin that could be harnessed to remove heavy metal and radioactive pollution from mine drainage, industrial waste streams, and ground water.

CSIRO scientists discovered the sand grains contains tiny holes, just nanometres across, but just the right size to potentially capture and filter out toxic pollutants from mining and other industrial wastes, as well as catalyse important industrial processes.

Dr Ian

Scientists discover a method to detect trace levels of swine antibiotics in the groundwater.

Scientists from the Department of Soil, Water, & Climate at University of Minnesota have developed a simple method to quantify two types of antibiotics in animal manures, and surface and ground waters. Chlortetracycline and tylosin antibiotics are commonly used for growth promotion in swine production.

In general, as much as 90% of antibiotics fed to food animals are excreted unchang

While climate may be impacted by carbon dioxide emissions, aerosols and other factors, a new study offers further evidence land surface changes may also play a significant role.

The study of summer climate in the United States reported changes in land cover, particularly vegetation, have impacted regional temperatures and precipitation. The study used data and computer models from NASA and other organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“The

A federal ban on two insecticides has resulted in a significant reduction in their impact on newborns’ birth weight and length, according to a new study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other private foundations.

The results of the study – the first one to demonstrate the benefits of the ban during pregnancy in human subjects – will be published in Environmental Health P

Research in Agronomy Journal suggests producers reduce seeding rates when planting Roundup Ready varieties

Roundup Ready soybean acreage has drastically increased since their introduction in 1996. Approximately 84% of Wisconsin soybeans were planted to Roundup Ready in 2003 with similar trends cross the United States. While much research had been conducted with management of conventional soybeans, little had been conducted to see how Roundup Ready soybeans compare.

The study

Gardeners will soon have access to an environmentally-friendly garden mulch product developed at the University of Leeds, thanks to a £30,000 award won by its inventor.

The straw-based mulch – called Strulch – was developed by Dr Geoff Whiteley in the School of Biology. It will be marketed by Ingwermat, a company formed to use patents developed at Leeds, with the help of the Home Grown Cereals Authority Enterprise award.

The mulch is made from shredded straw treated with iron miner

New research at the University of Leeds has overturned existing advice to farmers that has been maintaining the disease toxoplasma in the nation’s sheep flocks for years.

Toxoplasma is a disease humans catch from sheep and cats that causes human abortions and birth defects with greater frequency than rubella.

In a study of a pedigree Charolais flock and commercial flock, Dr Judith Smith (left) and her colleague Dr Geoff Hide from the University of Salford found that some sheep fami

By examining trapped air bubbles in an ice core, researchers extend atmospheric record of methyl bromide over 300 years

Human activity in the Industrial Age – approximately the last 150 years – has significantly increased atmospheric levels of methyl bromide, a gas known for harming the ozone layer in the Earth’s stratosphere.

A research team led by UC Irvine scientist Eric Saltzman reached this conclusion after examining an ice core recovered from Antarctica. By studying air

Cotton lint yields can be increased by up to 18 per cent when cotton crops are rotated with crops of a little known legume, vetch, according to a team of researchers at CSIRO Plant Industry.

Following an eight-year study the team found that vetch fixes large amounts of nitrogen, increases soil organic matter, improves soil structure, makes cultivation easier, increases soil water holding capacity and reduces the incidence of black root rot.

“Data from 2003 show when vetch is used