Ecology

Beating superbugs with a high-tech cleanser
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are one of the top three threats to human health. Patients in hospitals are especially at risk, with almost 100,000 deaths due to infection every year in the U.S. alone.

New disinfection technique could revolutionize hospital room cleaning
A Queen's University infectious disease expert has collaborated in the development of a disinfection system that may change the way hospital rooms all over the world are cleaned as well as stop bed bug outbreaks in hotels and apartments.

World's most extreme deep-sea vents revealed
Scientists have revealed details of the world's most extreme deep-sea volcanic vents, 5 kilometres down in a rift in the Caribbean seafloor.

Global warming caused by greenhouse gases delays natural patterns of glaciation
Unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are disrupting normal patterns of glaciation, according to a study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher and published online Jan. 8 in Nature Geoscience.

New cores from glacier in the Eastern European Alps may yield new climate clues
Researchers are beginning their analysis of what are probably the first successful ice cores drilled to bedrock from a glacier in the eastern European Alps.

Researchers identify molecular 'culprit' in rise of planetary oxygen
A turning point in the history of life occurred 2 billion to 3 billion years ago with the unprecedented appearance and dramatic rise of molecular oxygen. Now researchers report they have identified an enzyme that was the first - or among the first - to generate molecular oxygen on Earth.

Atlantic circulation remains stable for now
One of the most important factors influencing Europe's climate will not experience any significant change, at least in the near future. Atlantic circulation, which involves the Gulf Stream and thus is often mistakenly called by that name, will not diminish over the next four years. The world's first prediction of the future development of Atlantic overturning circulation was generated by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg and the University of Hamburg, using a model of Atlantic circulation. Their prognosis was only possible because the scientists were able to check the model's predictions against real-world measurements.

Satellite imagery detects thermal uplift signal of underground nuclear tests
A new analysis of satellite data from the late 1990s documents for the first time the "uplift" of ground above a site of underground nuclear testing, providing researchers a potential new tool for analyzing the strength of detonation.

Team finds natural reasons behind nitrogen-rich forests
Many tropical forests are extremely rich in nitrogen even when there are no farms or industries nearby, says Montana State University researcher Jack Brookshire.

Researchers discover particle which could 'cool the planet'
Scientists have shown that a new molecule in the earth's atmosphere has the potential to play a significant role in off-setting global warming by cooling the planet.

Life discovered on dead hydrothermal vents
Scientists at USC have uncovered evidence that even when hydrothermal sea vents go dormant and their blistering warmth turns to frigid cold, life goes on. Or rather, it is replaced.

Waiting for Death Valley's big bang
In California's Death Valley, death is looking just a bit closer. Geologists have determined that the half-mile-wide Ubehebe Crater, formed by a prehistoric volcanic explosion, was created far more recently than previously thought-and that conditions for a sequel may exist today.

Does the La Niña weather pattern lead to flu pandemics?
Worldwide pandemics of influenza caused widespread death and illness in 1918, 1957, 1968, and 2009. A new study examining weather patterns around the time of these pandemics finds that each of them was preceded by La Niña conditions in the equatorial Pacific.

Treasure trove of wildlife found in Peru park
The Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Peru program announced the discovery of 365 species previously undocumented in Bahuaja Sonene National Park (BSNP) in southeastern Peru.

UNH ocean scientists shed new light on Mariana Trench
An ocean mapping expedition has shed new light on the deepest place on Earth, the 2,500-kilometer long Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean near Guam. Using a multibeam echo sounder, state-of-the-art equipment for mapping the ocean floor, scientists from the University of New Hampshire Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center found four "bridges" spanning the trench and measured its deepest point with greater precision than ever before.

Temperate freshwater wetlands are 'forgotten' carbon sinks
A new study comparing the carbon-holding power of freshwater wetlands has produced measurements suggesting that wetlands in temperate regions are more valuable as carbon sinks than current policies imply, according to researchers.

Scientists 'record' magnetic breakthrough
An international team of scientists has demonstrated a revolutionary new way of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard drive technology.

A novel, reliable and rapid method for detecting living bacteria
One of the major challenges in terms of microbiological quality control and public health is to be able to count and identify, both quickly and simultaneously, the bacteria living in an environment. An innovative and reliable method has recently been developed by a team from the Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne of the Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) and the Laboratoire de Glycochimie Moléculaire et Macromoléculaire of the Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud).

Scientists drill two miles down to ancient lake Vostok
Russian scientists finished penetrating more than two miles through the Antarctic ice sheet to Lake Vostok, a huge freshwater lake that has been buried under the ice for millions of years. The feat has taken two decades to accomplish, but the scientists won't know what they've found until next year - the team quickly exited the research station, located in the middle of the continent 800 miles from the South Pole, to avoid increasingly harsh polar conditions.

Building blocks of early Earth survived collision that created Moon
Unexpected new findings by a University of Maryland team of geochemists show that some portions of the Earth's mantle (the rocky layer between Earth's metallic core and crust) formed when the planet was much smaller than it is now, and that some of this early-formed mantle survived Earth's turbulent formation, including a collision with another planet-sized body that many scientists believe led to the creation of the Moon.