Science360 News Service: Breaking Story

Commonly Used Pesticide Turns Honey Bees Into 'Picky Eaters'

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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A small dose of a commonly used crop pesticide turns honey bees into "picky eaters" and affects their ability to recruit their nestmates to otherwise good sources of food.

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Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a small dose of a commonly used crop pesticide turns honey bees into “picky eaters” and affects their ability to recruit their nestmates to otherwise good sources of food. The results of their experiments, detailed in this week's issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology, have implications for what pesticides should be applied to bee-pollinated crops and shed light on one of the main culprits suspected to be behind the recent declines in honey bee colonies.

Since 2006, beekeepers in North America and Europe have lost about one-third of their managed bee colonies each year due to "colony collapse disorder." While the exact cause is unknown, researchers believe pesticides have contributed to this decline. One group of crop pesticides, called "neonicotinoids," has received particular attention from beekeepers and researchers.

Image credit: Thinkstock

Beetle-infested Pine Trees Contribute To Air Pollution And Haze In Forests

Thu, 24 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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The hordes of bark beetles that have bored their way through more than 6 billion trees in the western United States and British Columbia since the 1990s do more than kill stately pine, spruce and other trees.

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Results of a new study find that these pests can make trees release up to 20 times more of the organic substances that foster haze and air pollution in forested areas.

A paper reporting the findings appears today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, published by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

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US Forest Service

Study Shows Availability Of Hydrogen Controls Chemical Structure Of Graphene Oxide

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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A recent study shows that the availability of hydrogen plays a significant role in determining the chemical and structural makeup of graphene oxide, a material that has potential uses in nano-electronics, nano-electromechanical systems, sensing, composites, optics, catalysis and energy storage.The study also found that after the material is produced, its structural and chemical properties continue to evolve for more than a month as a result of continuing chemical reactions with hydrogen. Understanding the properties of graphene oxide – and how to control them – is important to realizing potential applications for the material.

Image credit: Gary Meek

Relationship Between Social Status And Wound-Healing In Wild Baboons

Tue, 22 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Turns out it's not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon. A new study finds that high-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries, and are less likely to become ill than other males.

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Turns out it's not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon. Results of a study by University of Notre Dame biologist Beth Archie and colleagues from Princeton University and Duke University finds that high-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries, and are less likely to become ill than other males. Archie, Jeanne Altman of Princeton and Susan Roberts of Duke examined health records from the Amboseli Baboon Research Project in Kenya. They published their results in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers found that high rank is associated with faster wound-healing.

Image credit: Elizabeth Miller

Pollination With Precision: How Flowers Do It

Mon, 21 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Flowers make certain that gamete fusion has successfully occurred before other pollen grains are repelled. That allows the process of fertilization to continue if the first pollen grain turns out to have been a dud.

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Brown University biologists report that flowers have evolved an elegant safeguard system to ensure that only the minimum necessary number of pollen tubes will reach each ovule. The discovery of how flowers manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth. In order for the flowers to succeed in pollination, exactly two fertile sperm should reach the two cells in each ovule — no more, no less. No ovule should be left out, either because too many tubes have gone elsewhere, or because the delivered sperm don't work. Mark Johnson, associate professor of biology at Brown and senior author on the paper detailing the discovery added that, "Until fusion has happened, there's no guarantee that you'll have successful seed formation.”

Image credit: Mike Cohea/Brown University

Ancient Giant Turtle Fossil Revealed

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia. The turtle in question is Carbonemys cofrinii, which means “coal turtle,” and is part of a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The fossil was named Carbonemys because it was discovered in 2005 in a coal mine that was part of northern Colombia’s Cerrejon formation. The specimen’s skull measures 24 centimeters, roughly the size of a regulation NFL football. The shell which was recovered nearby - and is believed to belong to the same species - measures 172 centimeters, or about 5 feet 7 inches, long. That’s the same height as Edwin Cadena, the NC State doctoral student who discovered the fossil.

Image credit: Liz Bradford

OMG! Texting Ups Truthfulness, IPhone Study Suggests

Thu, 17 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Text messaging is a surprisingly good way to get candid responses to sensitive questions, according to study.

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Results of a new study suggest that people are more likely to disclose sensitive information via text messages than in voice interviews.

“This is sort of surprising," says lead researcher Fred Conrad, “since many people thought that texting would decrease the likelihood of disclosing sensitive information because it creates a persistent, visual record of questions and answers that others might see on your phone and in the cloud.”

Image credit: Thinkstock

Questions About Incredible Sea Turtle Migration Answered By Scientists

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Researchers reveal the most comprehensive perspective to date on precisely how young loggerhead sea turtles stay on course during one of the longest and most spectacular migrations on Earth.

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Immediately after emerging from their underground nests on the lush beaches of eastern Florida, loggerhead sea turtles scramble into the sea and embark alone on a migration that takes them around the entire North Atlantic basin. Survivors of this epic migration eventually return to North America's coastal waters. The most comprehensive perspective to date on precisely how young loggerheads navigate their transoceanic migration was recently published in two complementary papers produced by a research team led by Kenneth J. Lohmann, a marine biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Kenneth Lohmann, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cellular Secrets Of Plant Fatty Acid Production Understood

Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Scientists have discovered three similar proteins that could soon translate into positive results for bio-renewable fuels, commodity chemicals like plastics, food security and nutrition and biomedicine.

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A curious twist in a family of plant proteins called chalcone-isomerase recently was discovered by Salk Institute for Biological Studies scientist Joseph Noel and colleagues at Iowa State University led by Eve Wurtele. Pursuing basic scientific discovery, they found three similar proteins that could soon translate into positive results for bio-renewable fuels, commodity chemicals like plastics, food security and nutrition and biomedicine. The findings, reported recently in the advance online publication of the journal Nature, may lead to higher-yield crops and quantities of oils, help to address growing world demands for food and fuel, and mitigate environmental pressures on stressed ecosystems.

Image credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

Researchers Gain Greater Insight Into Earthquake Cycles

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

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Scientists have developed a dynamic computer model that is the first to show the full history of a fault segment. The model may allow researchers to forecast the range of potential earthquakes on a fault segment, which could be used to further assess seismic hazard and improve building designs.

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Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed the first computer model of an earthquake-producing fault segment that reproduces, in a single physical framework, the available observations of both the fault's seismic (fast) and aseismic (slow) behavior. Models like this one may allow geoscientists to forecast the range of potential earthquakes on a fault segment, which could be used to further assess seismic hazard and improve building designs.

Image credit: Sylvain Barbot / Caltech