The reduction of soil carbon stock caused by the conversion of pasture areas into sugarcane plantations – a very common change in Brazil in recent years – may be offset within two or three years of cultivation. The calculation appears in a study conducted by researchers at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA) of the University of São Paulo (USP) in collaboration with colleagues from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (Esalq), also at USP. The study also included researchers from the Federal Institute of Alagoas (IFAL), the Brazilian Bioethanol Science ...

An international team of researchers have been monitoring the "heartbeats" of baby stars to test theories of how the Sun was born 4.5 billion years ago. In a paper published in Science magazine today, the team of 20 scientists describes how data from two space telescopes – the Canadian Space Agency's MOST satellite and the French CoRoT mission – have unveiled the internal structures and ages of young stars before they've even emerged as full-fledged stars. "Think of it as ultrasound of stellar embryos," explains University of British Professor Jaymie Matthews, MOST ...

VIDEO: In a young region like the so-called Christmas Tree Cluster, stars are still in the process of forming. A star is 'born' once it becomes optically visible (bottom right). During... Click here for more information. Determining the age of stars has long been a challenge for astronomers. In experiments published in the journal Science, researchers at KU Leuven's Institute for Astronomy show that 'infant' stars can be distinguished from 'adolescent' stars by measuring the acoustic ...

Edmonton, July 3, 2014 – A research team at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered a new way by which metabolism is linked to the regulation of DNA, the basis of our genetic code. The findings may have important implications for the understanding of many common diseases, including cancer. The DNA wraps around specialized proteins called histones in the cell's nucleus. Normally, histones keep the DNA tightly packaged, preventing the expression of genes and the replication of DNA, which are required for cell growth and division. ...

Powerful thunderstorms in some areas of newborn Tropical Depression 08W in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean were dropping heavy rainfall on July 3 as NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed overhead. The eighth depression of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean season formed on July 3 at 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT). It was located near 10.0 north latitude and 144.3 east longitude about 240 nautical miles south of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Tropical Depression 08W or TD08W had maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (34.5 mph/55.5 kph) and it was moving ...

A team of researchers from KU Leuven, in Belgium, has developed an economical, reliable and heavy metal-free chemical reaction that yields fully functional 1,2,3-triazoles. Triazoles are chemical compounds that can be used as building blocks for more complex chemical compounds, including pharmaceutical drugs. Leveraging the compound's surprisingly stable structure, drug developers have successfully used 1,2,3-triazoles as building blocks in various anti-HIV, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial drugs. But efforts to synthesize the compound have been hampered by one serious ...

Tropical Storm Douglas is on a weakening trend, according to the National Hurricane Center, and satellite imagery showed that the storm appeared more elongated on July 3. NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-West satellite captured visible data on Douglas just after sunrise on July 3 at 13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT). The data from GOES-West was made into an image at NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Forecaster Stewart at the National Hurricane Center cited that Douglas' thunderstorm activity had ...

A new study by biologists at San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that inhabited coral islands that engage in commercial fishing dramatically alter their nearby reef ecosystems, disturbing the microbes, corals, algae and fish that call the reef home. The study's lead author, Linda Wegley Kelly, is a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of SDSU virologist Forest Rohwer. For the study, she looked at seawater samples collected from the surfaces of reefs surrounding all 11 of the Line Islands, a chain of atolls in the central Pacific Ocean. ...

Before you swat away the next fruit fly, consider instead just how similar its biological complexities are to our own. In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers led by Deborah Kimbrell, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and their collaborators, studied how microorganisms may alter fruit flies' immunity in space and in hypergravity, or increased gravity. The article is titled "Toll Mediated Infection Response Is Altered by Gravity and Spaceflight in Drosophila." This study suggests that having normal gravity or hypergravity on the space station ...

(SALT LAKE CITY)—University of Utah researchers have discovered that an enzyme involved in intracellular signaling plays a crucial role in developing metabolic syndrome, a finding that has a U of U spinoff company developing a drug to potentially treat the condition. The researchers, led by Jared Rutter, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, hope to begin human clinical trials of a drug in the next couple of years. "The approved drug therapies do not treat or prevent this condition in most people," says Rutter, senior author of a study describing the research published ...

MILWAUKEE – Using graphene ribbons of unimaginably small widths – just several atoms across – a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has found a novel way to "tune" the wonder material, causing the extremely efficient conductor of electricity to act as a semiconductor. In principle, their method for producing these narrow ribbons – at a width roughly equal to the diameter of a strand of human DNA – and manipulating the ribbons' electrical conductivity could be used to produce nano-devices. Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms, ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It has been known for its flavorful addition to soups and as a delicacy for dogs but bone marrow fat may also have untapped health benefits, new research finds. A University of Michigan-led study shows that the fat tissue in bone marrow is a significant source of the hormone adiponectin, which helps maintain insulin sensitivity, break down fat, and has been linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-associated cancers. The findings appear in today's online-ahead-of-print issue of Cell Metabolism. Bone marrow adipose ...

When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Arthur on July 2 at 2:50 p.m. EDT on July 2, it saw a cloud-covered eye as the storm was on the way to becoming a hurricane. This visible image of Tropical Storm Arthur was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Arthur's center was over the Atlantic Ocean and east of Florida's northeast coast. By 5 a.m. EDT on July 3, Arthur's eye had formed but remained cloud covered even as the storm hit hurricane-strength with maximum sustained ...

This news release is available in German. DNA - the carrier of genetic information - is constantly threatened by damage originating from exogenous and endogenous sources. Very special DNA lesions are DNA-protein crosslinks - proteins covalently linked to DNA. So far hardly anything was known about repair mechanisms specifically targeting DNA-protein crosslinks. Stefan Jentsch's team at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, now discovered a protease that is able to chop down the protein component of DNA-protein crosslinks, thereby enabling ...

Chimpanzees are copycats and, in the process, they form new traditions that are often particular to only one specific group of these primates. Such are the findings of an international group of scientists, who waded through over 700 hours of video footage to understand how it came about that one chimpanzee stuck a piece of grass in her ear and started a new trend, and others soon followed suit. The findings of the study, led by Edwin van Leeuwen of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in The Netherlands, are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition. In ...

WASHINGTON (July 3, 2014) — For more than 40 years, physicians have treated diminished kidney function as two distinct syndromes: acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, recent epidemiologic and mechanistic studies suggest the two syndromes are not distinct entities, but interconnected. Published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, George Washington University (GW) researchers call for greater follow-up care of patients with AKI, who often present with CKD later in life, and vice versa. "Our teaching has been wrong and the approach ...

A research team from The University of Nottingham has carried out the first molecular characterisation of the African elephant's adipose tissue — body fat. This new information will form the basis of future studies aimed at securing the health and future survival of captive elephants. The population of captive elephants, both Asian and African, in Europe and North America is not self-sustaining, largely due to poor fertility, resulting in a fewer baby elephants being born. It is acknowledged that if a solution for these reproductive difficulties cannot be found quickly, ...

Millions of microbial species populate the world, but so far only a few have been identified due to the inability of most microbes to grow in the laboratory. Edgar Goluch, an engineer, and Slava Epstein, a biologist, aim to change this. The pair, both researchers at Northeastern University, has developed a device that allows scientists to cultivate a single species of bacteria that can then be studied and identified. Goluch's previous research devices incorporated permeable membranes that allow sequestered bacteria to be exposed to the nutrients and molecules of their ...

(Boston)--Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant health issue faced by women veterans, but little has been known up until now about their preferences for IPV-related care. A new study has found that most of these women support routine screening for IPV and want options, follow-up support, transparent documentation and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community resources. These findings appear in the journal Research in Nursing and Health. Although women of all socio-demographic groups are at risk for IPV, population-based research suggests that women ...

This news release is available in German and French. In Switzerland, between 7000 and 8000 persons fall ill with a campylobacter infection annually. This makes it the most frequent bacterial disease transmitted through food. Contamination of chicken meat with campylobacter bacteria during the slaughtering process is one of the known causes of the infection. An increase of campylobacteriosis case numbers is being observed throughout Europe. Human cases of campylobacteriosis must be reported to the relevant authorities in Switzerland. In Switzerland, an unusual increase ...

Persons with reduced levels of the TREM2 protein could be at greater risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or frontotemporal dementia, according to an international study which included the participation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau). The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, reveals the molecular mechanism by which the mutated forms of this protein prevent the amyloid waste cleaning process from functioning correctly and detects a lower level of ...

"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part," wrote Herman Melville in Moby Dick. Today, we no longer dread whales, but their subtlety remains. "For a long time, whales have been considered too rare to make much of a difference in the oceans," notes University of Vermont conservation biologist Joe Roman. That was a mistake. In a new paper, Roman and a team of biologists have tallied several decades of research on whales from around the world; it shows that whales, in fact, make a huge difference—they ...

A new paper by Dr. Jeremy Ross from the University of Oklahoma describes the use of tiny devices strapped to birds' backs called geolocators, which capture the individual migration routes of lark sparrows in North America. By sensing the light levels, these backpacks can pinpoint the location of a bird anywhere in the world, even if retrieving the data-logger can sometimes pose a major problem. This study, published in the online journal Animal Migration, mapped for the first time the routes traveled by three lark sparrows after they left their breeding grounds in Ohio. ...

There's more to trying to slow down climate change than just cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Technology, policies or plans that aim to do so should also take environmental factors such as water usage into account. A more integrated approach might make some options considerably more attractive than others, especially when implemented in arid countries such as Australia, advise Philip Wallis of Monash University in Australia and colleagues, in an article in Springer's journal Climatic Change. The researchers considered the example of Australia to show how water usage ...

VIDEO: Tree frogs reach great heights with their jumps, but do not cover much distance. Click here for more information. A frog's jump is not as simple as it seems....Australian scientists have discovered that different species adopt different jumping styles depending on their environment. Lead researcher, Miss Marta Vidal-Garcia ( PhD candidate, Australian National University ), found that tree dwelling frogs reached great heights but didn't cover much distance with their ...