Earth | Page 917 | Science Codex

Microbes help beetles defeat plant defenses

Some symbiotic bacteria living inside Colorado potato beetles can trick plants into reacting to a microbial attack rather than that of a chewing herbivore, according to a team of Penn State researchers who found that the beetles with bacteria were healthier and grew better.

"For the last couple of decades, my lab has focused on induced defenses in plants," said Gary W. Felton, professor and head of entomology. "We had some clues that oral secretions of beetles suppressed defenses, but no one had followed up on that research."

Chemists develop new approaches to understanding disturbing trends near Earth's surface

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — Chemists who are members of the American Chemical Society (ACS), collaborating with scientists from other fields through the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE), have discovered disturbing climate trends close to Earth's surface.

The chemistry behind the character of bourbon, scotch and rye

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — Whiskeys have long captivated the senses of connoisseurs, whether with smokiness and a whiff of vanilla or a spicy character with hints of caramel, and now, the emerging chemistry of "brown spirits" is proving that they have distinct chemical signatures to match the complex combinations of grains, barrels, aging and other factors that yield the liquid gold poured into each bottle.

Breaking deep-sea waves reveal mechanism for global ocean mixing

Waves breaking over sandy beaches are captured in countless tourist photos. But enormous waves breaking deep in the ocean are seldom seen, although they play a crucial role in long-term climate cycles.

A University of Washington study for the first time recorded such a wave breaking in a key bottleneck for circulation in the world's largest ocean. The study was published online this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Rainfall in South Pacific was more variable before 20th century

A new reconstruction of climate in the South Pacific during the past 446 years shows rainfall varied much more dramatically before the start of the 20th century than after. The finding, based on an analysis of a cave formation called a stalagmite from the island nation of Vanuatu, could force climate modelers to adjust their models. The models are adjusted to match the current levels of climate variability that are smaller now than they were in the recent past for this region.

New 10 second sourcing technology set to transform archaeology

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed a method of sourcing obsidian artefacts that takes only 10 seconds – dozens of times faster than the current methods – with a handheld instrument that can be used at archaeological excavations.

Temperature in the quantum world

How does a classical temperature form in the quantum world? An experiment at the Vienna University of Technology has directly observed the emergence and the spreading of a temperature in a quantum system. Remarkably, the quantum properties are lost, even though the quantum system is completely isolated and not connected to the outside world. The experimental results are being published in this week's issue of "Nature Physics".

Quantum and Classical Physics: From the Microscopic to the Macroscopic World

Scientific symposium today on green chemistry and the environment

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — Chemical processes are involved in production of almost 96 percent of all manufactured goods, and some of the latest advances in efforts to redesign those processes from the ground up are on the agenda here today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Artificial lung to remove carbon dioxide -- from smokestacks

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21st century vision toxicity testing and risk assessment for agrochemicals

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — How will emerging 21st century toxicity testing technologies impact agricultural products? How do they fit in the life cycle of discovery, regulatory registration and product defense or product stewardship? What's the outlook for improved, science-informed hazard prediction and risk assessment?

Chemical & Engineering News celebrates its 90th anniversary

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2013 — A weekly news magazine that has been around since before Time began celebrates its 90th anniversary this week with a special issue commemorating chemistry's contributions over the past nine decades to medicine, industry and other scientific advances that have improved people's lives. The magazine is Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), a publication of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

Climate change will upset vital ocean chemical cycles

New research from the University of East Anglia shows that rising ocean temperatures will upset natural cycles of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorous.

Plankton plays an important role in the ocean's carbon cycle by removing half of all CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and storing it deep under the sea – isolated from the atmosphere for centuries.

Findings published today in the journal Nature Climate Change reveal that water temperature has a direct impact on maintaining the delicate plankton ecosystem of our oceans.

Nobel laureates and their research teams at American Chemical Society meeting

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 — New discoveries from the labs of several Nobel laureates will be presented here this week during the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. Research from the laureates' teams will be among almost 7,000 presentations during the event.

They are Ei-ichi Negishi, Ph.D.; Richard Schrock, Ph.D.; George A. Olah, Ph.D.; and Roald Hoffmann, Ph.D.

Flowers get their colors through predictable genetic changes

The amazing diversity of flower colors among species is often controlled by a predictable set of genes, suggesting that evolution may be repeatable.

In a review of the published literature, researchers from the University of Oregon revealed that mutations in a single gene are responsible for much of this diversity. Although mutations in at least ten genes are capable of causing similar changes in color, mutations in only one of these genes are believed to be preferentially targeted by natural selection.

Hawaiian Islands formed through extrusive volcanic activity

Scientists generally believe that the Hawaiian Islands formed primarily through endogenous growth, or intrusion, in which hot magma intrudes into a rock and then solidifies before it reaches the surface.

However, a new study suggests that the islands may actually have formed primarily through extrusion, which occurs when a volcano erupts and magma reaches the surface and flows away from the eruption site before cooling and solidifying.