Earth | Page 1052 | Science Codex

Study suggests expanded concept of 'urban watershed'

BALTIMORE, Md., June 14, 2012 – Within two decades, 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, and coping with the resulting urban drinking water and sanitation issues will be one of the greatest challenges of this century. A U.S. Forest Service study recently published in Urban Ecosystems proposes an expanded view of the complex world of urban water.

The study presents a new conceptual framework that addresses characteristics of watersheds that are affected by urban land uses, including:

A sea of broken promises

RIO: World leaders have made pitiful progress on their guarantee to protect global oceans from overfishing and other threats.

In a paper published today (Friday 15th June) in Science, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and world renowned researchers have reviewed commitments made by governments to protect the world's oceans and shown that there has been little success over the past 20 years.

Amazon was not all manufactured landscape, Smithsonian scientist says

Population estimates for the Amazon basin just before Europeans arrived range from 2 to 10 million people. The newly reported reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory by Smithsonian scientist Dolores R. Piperno and colleagues suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited. This clashes with the belief that most of Amazonia, including forests far removed from major rivers, was heavily occupied and modified. The team's research is published in the June 15 issue of Science.

Study finds predators have outsized influence over habitats

A grasshopper's change in diet to high-energy carbohydrates while being hunted by spiders may affect the way soil releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to Yale and Hebrew University researchers in Science.

Grasshoppers like to munch on nitrogen-rich grass because it stimulates their growth and reproduction. But when spiders enter the picture, grasshoppers cope with the stress from fear of predation by shifting to carbohydrate-rich plants, setting in motion dynamic changes to the ecosystem they inhabit.

Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy

'Green grabbing' - the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of 'green ' biofuels, carbon offsetting schemes, conservation efforts and eco-tourism initiatives – is forcing people from their homelands and increasing poverty, new research has found.

Ecosystems being 'asset-stripped' for profit is likely to cause dispossession and further poverty amongst already-poor land and resource users, according to a set of 17 new research case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, published in a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

Warmest winter months in Midwest since 1889 may have connection

COLUMBIA, Mo. – This past March was the second warmest winter month ever recorded in the Midwest, with temperatures 15 degrees above average. The only other winter month that was warmer was December of 1889, during which temperatures were 18 degrees above average. Now, MU researchers may have discovered why the weather patterns during these two winter months, separated by 123 years, were so similar. The answer could help scientists develop more accurate weather prediction models.

Making the invisible visible

While youth suicide is declining overall, the rate of youth suicide in rural America has remained steady. A key to helping rural families with children at risk of suicide is frank discussion of guns says Jonathan Singer, assistant professor of social work at Temple University and co-author of a new study that examined how clinicians, including social workers and counselors involve parents in prevention and treatment of youth suicide. The study, "Engaging parents of suicidal youth in a rural environment" was published in the May issue of Child & Family Social Work.

Switchable nano magnets

Why doctors still rely on century-old heart test

Having already survived one heart attack, she immediately went to see Dr. Gulati. To their surprise, tests involving high-tech imaging showed that Barbara's heart was normal.

But the exercise stress test told a different story.

"We found very significant disease," said Dr. Gulati. "In fact, it required having a stent placed in one coronary artery immediately and, subsequently, required another one placed just recently."

Elemental and magnetic imaging using X-rays and a microscope

A team of researchers has developed a new microscope that can image the elemental and magnetic properties of a wide range of energy-important materials that are used in devices such as solar cells and solid-state lighting.

The imager is based on a technique known as X-ray excited luminescence microscopy (XELM). It was created by hitching a standard optical microscope to a synchrotron X-ray source. Synchrotrons produce X-rays and other forms of electromagnetic radiation by sending electrons on a curved path at nearly the speed of light.

Relocating LEDs from silicon to copper enhances efficiency

Chinese researchers have succeeded in transferring gallium nitride (GaN) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on a layer of silicon to a layer of copper.

Researchers 'heal' plasma-damaged semiconductor with treatment of hydrogen radicals

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a highly promising material for a wide range of optical and high-power electronic devices, which can be fabricated by dry etching with plasmas. However, the plasma-induced defects and surface residues that remain after such processes tend to degrade the optical and electrical properties of the devices. A team of Japanese researchers has developed and tested a new way to "heal" such defects.

Web-based tool helps parents improve on kids' asthma treatment

A new study results from Seattle Children's Research Institute found that parents who used an interactive website to track their child's usage of asthma controller medications, improved compliance with asthma controller medication use.

(Photo Credit: Seattle Children's)

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Got mass? Princeton scientists observe electrons become both heavy and speedy

In a study to appear in the June 14 issue of the journal Nature, the Princeton-led team, which included scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the University of California-Irvine, used direct imaging of electron waves in a crystal. The researchers did so not only to watch the electrons gain mass but also to show that the heavy electrons are actually composite objects made of two entangled forms of the electron.

New software forecasts noise levels in the street

This application yields a prediction of urban noise levels using a dataset (street type, road conditions, average speed of the vehicles passing by, road works, etc), with a reliability of 95%.

University of Granada researchers have designed a new software solution to determine noise levels in a street in the future. This new system predicts noise frequency and the type of noise that the inhabitants of a neighborhood will have to endure. This information is of great interest to people interested in buying a new house.