Earth

Nature lovers are fascinated by the increasing number of singing birds when spring is approaching. Scientists also take advantage of this seasonal phenomenon because they are able to investigate the underlying mechanism; however the evolutionary and molecularbiological background is largely unknown.

The "Pineapple Express" has set up again and is bringing wet weather to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An animation of satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from Feb. 1 to Feb. 4, 2015 captured the movement of a stream of clouds associated with moisture that is expected to bring rain and snow to the region over the next several days.

The ''Pineapple Express'' occurs when warm air and lots of moisture are transported from the Central Pacific, near Hawaii, to the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

New evidence showing the level of atmospheric CO2 millions of years ago supports recent climate change predications from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A multinational research team, led by scientists at the University of Southampton, has analysed new records showing the CO2 content of the Earth's atmosphere between 2.3 to 3.3 million years ago, over the Pliocene.

Here's an argument for more nuclear power instead of more biofuels. As many places in the U.S. and Europe increasingly turn to biomass rather than fossil fuels for power and heat, scientists are focusing on what this trend might mean for air quality -- and human health. One study on wood-chip burners' particulate emissions, which can cause heart and lung problems, appears in the journal Energy & Fuels.

Researchers have cracked a code that governs infections by a major group of viruses including the common cold and polio.

Until now, scientists had not noticed the code, which had been hidden in plain sight in the sequence of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) that makes up this type of viral genome.

A new genus and species of flowering plants from the custard apple family, Annonaceae, has been discovered in the jungles of Gabon by French and Gabonese botanists. The extraordinary genus was named Sirdavidia, after David Attenborough to honor his influence on the life and careers of the scientists who discovered it.

One in three people say they would risk living a shorter life instead of taking a daily pill to prevent cardiovascular disease, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

Relative sea-level rise has been a major factor driving the evolution of reef systems during the Holocene.

Most models of reef evolution suggest that reefs preferentially grow vertically during rising sea level then laterally from windward to leeward, once the reef flat reaches sea level.

The largest rodent ever to have lived may have used its front teeth just like an elephant uses its tusks, a new study led by scientists at the University of York and The Hull York Medical School (HYMS) has found.

Josephoartigasia monesi, a rodent closely related to guinea pigs, lived in South America approximately 3 million years ago. It is the largest fossil rodent ever found, with an estimated body mass of 1000 kg and was similar in size to a buffalo.

ow a brilliant-green sea slug manages to live for months at a time "feeding" on sunlight, like a plant, is clarified in a recent study published in The Biological Bulletin.

The authors present the first direct evidence that the emerald green sea slug's chromosomes have some genes that come from the algae it eats.

These genes help sustain photosynthetic processes inside the slug that provide it with all the food it needs.

Volcanic ash poses a significant hazard for areas close to volcanoes and for aviation. For example, the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, clearly demonstrated that even small-to-moderate explosive eruptions, in particular if long-lasting, can paralyze entire sectors of societies, with significant, global-level, economic impacts.

In this open-access Geology article, Irene Manzella and colleagues present the first quantitative description of the dynamics of gravitational instabilities and particle aggregation based on the 4 May 2010 eruption.

Skeptics who still doubt anthropogenic climate change have now been stripped of one of their last-ditch arguments: It is true that there has been a warming hiatus and that the surface of the earth has warmed up much less rapidly since the turn of the millennium than all the relevant climate models had predicted.

However, the gap between the calculated and measured warming is not due to systematic errors of the models, as the skeptics had suspected, but because there are always random fluctuations in the Earth's climate.

Inhibiting the action of a particular enzyme dramatically slows the growth of tumor cells tied to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations which, in turn, are closely tied to breast and ovarian cancers, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems have registered tremendous progress over the past 20 years. Myriad "chip" schemes have already emerged, ranging from the lung-on-a-chip and heart-on-a-chip to the liver-on-a-chip and kidney-on-a-chip.

However, an ideal embryo-on-a-chip has not yet been developed due to challenges in condensing so many life factors inside a conventional LOC.

Podiform chromitites enclosed in depleted harzburgites of the Luobusa massif (Tibet) contain diamonds and a highly reduced trace-mineral association that suggests that the chromitites formed at ultra-high pressure (UHP) corresponding to the Transition Zone (>400 km; >12.5 GPa). However, trace-element signatures of the chromites are indistinguishable from those of typical ophiolitic chromitites (e.g. Antalya Complex, Turkey), implying primary crystallization from typical arc-type melts at shallow depths. New data on geochronology and Fe oxidation state may explain this conundrum.