New analyses from KTH in Stockholm are creating order in the uncertainty that has prevailed for the last four years about how plutonium dioxide, one of the most important radioactive compounds in nuclear waste, behaves when it comes into contact with water. The findings are being published in the latest issue of Nature Materials.

In January 2000 an article was published in the American scientific journal Science. A research team had discovered that plutonium dioxide, PuO2, quite unexpectedly

For species such as corals the dispersal of their larvae and restocking of damaged reefs is critical to their ability to survive the changes produced by global warming.

In the latest issue of Ecology Letters, David Ayre and Terry Hughes from the Australia’s Wollongong and James Cook Universities have for the first time used genetic data to show that individual coral reefs within the world’s largest tropical reef system (the Great Barrier Reef) must be buffered against such change

In light-contrasted ecosystems, ambient light and background colours influence the evolution of animal coloration. Because maximal conspicuousness is achieved for signals which are rich in the colours of ambient light but poorly reflected by background, different signals will be cryptic or conspicuous at different heights in tropical rainforest.

In the forthcoming issue of Ecology Letters, Gomez and Théry compare plumages of 40 species living in French Guiana. They demonstrate that predator

Invasive alien species are one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity. Part of their success may be due to rapid evolutionary changes when invaders adapt to the novel conditions in their invaded habitats.

Invasive plants, in particular, are believed to double-profit from a loss of their natural enemies and subsequent evolution of less chemically defended but more competitive genotypes which then take over their new habitats.

A recent study soon to appear in Ecology Letters

An international team of geoscientists believes that carbon dioxide, and not changes in cosmic ray intensity, was the factor controlling ancient global temperatures. The new findings resulted from the researchers inclusion of the ocean’s changing acidity in their calculations.

“Reviewing the geologic records of carbon dioxide and glaciations, we found that carbon dioxide was low during periods of long-lived and widespread continental glaciations and high during other, warmer periods,” s

A chemical once used in pesticides in Asia has accumulated thousands of miles away in Canada, according to a University of Toronto study.

High concentrations of alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) were detected in the atmosphere of Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, says Professor Frank Wania of chemistry. The chemical was last used about 15 years ago in countries such as China and India but followed atmospheric and water flows across the Pacific, Arctic and Atl

In the March issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Max Moritz (University of California, Berkeley), Jon Keeley (US Geological Survey and University of California, Los Angeles), Edward Johnson (University of Calgary) and Andrew Schaffner (Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo) present research that challenges some of the assumptions for managing fire-prone regions. With “Testing a basic assumption of shrubland fire management: how important is fuel age?,” the authors suggest natural

Flame retardants have been showing up in some surprising places, from human breast milk to peregrine falcon eggs. Now this growing list can be expanded to include dietary supplements based on cod liver oil, according to a new study.

European scientists have found that flame retardant levels have increased significantly during the past four years in products containing cod liver oil, a common component of dietary supplements. The report appears in the April 7 edition of the Journal of Agricu

British scientists have found a natural way to produce healthier milk and butter, according to new research in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Cows fed rapeseed oil as part of their daily diet produce milk with a significantly less saturated fat. Butter made from the milk is easier to spread at fridge temperatures because it is lower in saturated fat than ordinary butter. According to Anna Fearon, one of the authors of the study: “This kind of tailored milk production could in fut

A NASA-funded study found some climate models might be overestimating the amount of water vapor entering the atmosphere as the Earth warms. Since water vapor is the most important heat-trapping greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, some climate forecasts may be overestimating future temperature increases.

In response to human emissions of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, the Earth warms, more water evaporates from the ocean, and the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases. Since

Researchers of the Kola Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, have developed an efficient method for sewage water purification from fluorine ions. Fine purification of water can be achieved through utilisation of sorbents containing titanium. In addition, the method solves the problem of recycling spent sorbents saturated with fluorine.

The majority of contemporary toothpastes contain sodium fluoride as a fluoridiser agent to reinforce enamel. In the natural environment, this subs

Tennessee could become a model for the nation when it comes to protecting the public from chemical, biological or radiological releases.

Already, sensors that are part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s SensorNet are deployed in Nashville, Knoxville and Oak Ridge, and in other parts of the nation. Additional sensors are planned for Memphis, Chattanooga and Sullivan County in Upper East Tennessee. ORNL project managers envision more being added in the next few years, eventually spanning

Current methods of predicting short-term intake of pesticide residues by humans should be improved, according to a new study published in the journal Pest Management Science.

In the article, researchers from around the world come together to review existing safety measures and make eleven recommendations based on their research. Studies suggest that a single, or short-term exposure can affect health, as well as long term exposure.

‘The publication will prove an invaluable resource

A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, has pieced together a clearer picture of how wheat has been able to adapt to such a wide range of climates and become one of the world’s staple food grains.

They accomplished this by isolating and cloning the VRN2 gene in wheat, which controls vernalization — the cold-weather requirement for triggering flowering. The findings of the study, which have practical implications for improving wheat varieties through manipulation

In a world first CSIRO Plant Industry has discovered a gene that is the ’Achilles heel’ of rust, a common disease of plants, which could save millions in breeding rust resistant plants and avert losses in food production.

“You can breed rust resistant plants, but this resistance only works when the rust fungus contains the gene we found – the ’avirulence’ gene,” says Dr Peter Dodds, CSIRO Plant Industry.

Without existing rust resistant wheat varieties Australia&#

A new study from the University of California shows, for the first time, that the deep-ocean circulation system of the north Atlantic, which controls ice-age cycles of cold and warm periods in the Northern Hemisphere, is integrally coupled to salinity levels in the Caribbean Sea.

This research reinforces concerns that global warming, by melting the glacial ice of Greenland, could quickly and profoundly change salinity and temperatures in the north Atlantic Ocean. One consequence might be mu