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May 9 | News
An
increase in plastic debris floating in a zone between Hawaii and
California is changing the environment of at least one marine critter,
scientists recently reported. Over the past four decades, the amount of
broken-down plastic has grown significantly in a region dubbed the
"Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Most of the plastic pieces are the size
of a fingernail.
May 3 | News
To
help predict the rate at which plants respond to changing climate
conditions, researchers use experiments that manipulate the temperature
surrounding small plots of plants to gauge how specific plants will
react to higher temperatures. But wild plants are leafing out and
flowering sooner each year than predicted by results from these
experiments, according to data from a major new archive of historical
observations.
Apr 17 | News
Research
led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History shows that
ammonites—an extinct type of shelled mollusk that's closely related to
modern-day nautiluses and squids—made homes in the unique environments
surrounding methane seeps in the seaway that once covered America's
Great Plains. These findings show that mobile shelled mollusk stayed put
if conditions were right.
Mar 27 | News
From
an extensive study that grew out of an initial research cruise to the
Gulf of Mexico in October 2010, scientists have published the first
evidence of the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on deep-sea
corals. The team used underwater vehicles and 2D gas chromatography to
determine precisely the source of the petroleum hydrocarbons they found.
Mar 9 | News
Decades
ago, marine scientists made the startling discovery of hydrothermal
vents, where hot water surges from the seafloor and life thrives without
sunlight. Then they found equally unique, sunless habitats in cold
areas where methane rises from seeps on the ocean bottom. Could vents
and seeps co-exist in the deep, happily living side-by-side? No one
thought so until now.
Mar 2 | News
According
to researchers with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, there are few parallels in the geologic record for today's
rapid ocean changes. In a review of hundreds of paleoceanographic
studies, the researchers found evidence for only one period in the last
300 million years when the oceans changed as fast as today: the
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Feb 27 | News
The
size of Sifrhippus, the earliest known horse, correlates surprisingly
well with average global temperatures, according to a recent study. The
discoveries about its changes in stature, fluctuating from 12 to 8.5 to
15 lbs, offer new evidence of the cause and effect relationship between
temperature and body size. The findings also offer clues to what might
happen to animals in the near future.
Feb 21 | News
More
than 30,000 years after being stored in a squirrel’s den, Russian
researchers plucked the seeds of Silene stenophylla
from their slumber and resurrected them in the laboratory. It is the oldest
plant ever to be rejuvenated, and it is fertile, producing white flowers
and viable seeds.
Feb 14 | News
According
to a recent Rice University study, plants make predawn preparations to
fend off hungry caterpillars. Using powerful genetic analysis tools that
allow them to monitor precisely the accumulation of certain hormones,
researchers found that plant can anticipate events and respond to them
with the help of circadian-regulated genes.
Feb 9 | News
Researchers
who broke through the world’s thickest ice cap to access a the
long-hidden Lake Vostok will have to wait until December (Antarctic
summer) to determine whether their frozen sample contains ice. If it
does—and like already exists in challenging situations on Earth—it will
offer hope that life exists beyond our world.
