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Climate change: As temperatures go up, herbivore populations will go down

As climate change causes temperatures to rise, the number of herbivores will decrease, affecting the human food supply, according to new research from the University of Toronto.

In a paper being published this month in American Naturalist, a team of ecologists describe how differences in the general responses of plants and herbivores to temperature change produces predictable declines in herbivore populations. This decrease occurs because herbivores grow more quickly at high temperatures than plants do, and as a result the herbivores run out of food.

Panama REDD: Getting what you pay for in deforestation

A new report by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Canada's McGill University identifies gaps in forest monitoring and ways to improve data collection. This will produce reliable estimates of greenhouse gas emission reductions from activities aimed at reducing deforestation.

Electron superhighway: One step closer to quantum computers

HOUSTON -- Rice University physicists have created a tiny "electron superhighway" that could one day be useful for building a quantum computer, a new type of computer that will use quantum particles in place of the digital transistors found in today's microchips.

'Mirage-effect' helps researchers hide objects

Scientists have created a working cloaking device that not only takes advantage of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon, but also boasts unique features; it has an 'on and off' switch and is best used underwater.

The researchers, from the University of Dallas, Texas, have demonstrated the device's ability to make objects disappear in a fascinating video shown here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YO4TTpYg7g

Decline and recovery of coral reefs linked to 700 years of human and environmental activity

STONY BROOK, NY and STANFORD, Calif., Oct. 3, 2011–Changing human activities coupled with a dynamic environment over the past few centuries have caused fluctuating periods of decline and recovery of corals reefs in the Hawaiian Islands, according to a study sponsored in part by the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University.

Rising carbon dioxide levels at end of last ice age not tied to Pacific Ocean, as had been suspected

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- After the last ice age peaked about 18,000 years ago, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide rose about 30 percent. Scientists believe that the additional carbon dioxide -- a heat-trapping greenhouse gas -- played a key role in warming the planet and melting the continental ice sheets. They have long hypothesized that the source of the gas was the deep ocean.

Exotic quantum states: A new research approach

Theoretical physicists of the University of Innsbruck have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic, so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They linked concepts of quantum optics and condensed matter physics and show a direction to build a quantum computer which is immune against perturbations. The scientists have published their work in the journal Nature Physics.

Water molecules at the surface: When water and air meet

Findings by researchers at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute and their colleagues at Tohoku University and in the Netherlands have resolved a long-standing debate over the structure of water molecules at the water surface. Published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the research combines theoretical and experimental techniques to pinpoint, for the first time, the origin of water's unique surface properties in the interaction of water pairs at the air-water interface.

Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss occurred last winter

A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of the Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring that was caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. University of Toronto physicist Kaley Walker was part of the international team behind the study to be published online Sunday, October 2 in Nature.

Boston College Researchers discover 2 early stages of carbon nanotube growth

CHESTNUT HILL, MA -- Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows of the nanoscopic tubes, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Nanotechnology.

Scientists eye 'windows of opportunity' for adapting food crops to climate change

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK (3 OCTOBER 2011)—Responding to appeals from African leaders for new tools to deal with the effects of climate change on food production, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has released a series of studies focused on "climate proofing" crops critical to food security in the developing world.

Tenerife geology discovery is among 'world's best'

Volcanologists from the University of Leicester have uncovered one of the world's best-preserved accessible examples of a monstrous landslide that followed a huge volcanic eruption on the Canarian island of Tenerife.

Flight patterns reveal how mosquitoes find hosts to transmit deadly diseases

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The carbon dioxide we exhale and the odors our skins emanate serve as crucial cues to female mosquitoes on the hunt for human hosts to bite and spread diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

Two entomologists at the University of California, Riverside have now performed experiments to study how female Aedes aegypti -- mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever and dengue -- respond to plumes of carbon dioxide and human odor.

High-performance simulation, neutrons uncover 3 classes of protein motion

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Sept. 30, 2011 -- Molecular motion in proteins comes in three distinct classes, according to a collaboration by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, in research reported in Physical Review Letters.

The research team, directed by ORNL-UT Governor's Chairs Jeremy Smith and Alexei Sokolov, combined high-performance computer simulation with neutron scattering experiments to understand atomic-level motions that underpin the operations of proteins.

Taking the heat: Asian elephants simply 'ride out' high daytime heat load

The heat is on where elephants roam. Daytime temperatures in the natural environment of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) average between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius. Elephants do not sweat or pant to cool down and their small surface-to-volume ratio restricts heat loss. Experts have long suspected that elephants may have a heat storage mechanism similar to that used by camels and other desert mammals.