Earth | Page 1330 | Science Codex

Mama whales teach babies where to eat

SALT LAKE CITY – University of Utah biologists discovered that young "right whales" learn from their mothers where to eat, raising concern about their ability to find new places to feed if Earth's changing climate disrupts their traditional dining areas.

"A primary concern is, what are whales going to do with global warming, which may change the location and abundance of their prey?" asks Vicky Rowntree, research associate professor of biology and a coauthor of the new study. "Can they adapt if they learn from their mother where to feed – or will they die?"

Trailblazing rural community shows green heating oil a viable option

Local schools and homes in the small Georgian town of Reepham in Norfolk are taking part in the groundbreaking 12-month trial, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Like two million homes across the UK and Ireland, the properties depend on heating oil for warmth and hot water, and the aim of the UEA trial is to prove that environmentally-friendly renewable heating oil is a viable option.

U of Minnesota-led study reveals mysteries of deep-sea nutrients

Iron dust, the rare but necessary nutrient for most life, can not only be washed into the ocean from rivers or blown out to sea, but it can bubble up from the depths of the ocean floor, a new study led by a University of Minnesota scientist shows.

Sea level rise around North America upon collapse of Antarctic ice sheet to be higher than expected

TORONTO, ON – University of Toronto geophysicists have shown that should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse and melt in a warming world – as many scientists are concerned it will – it is the coastlines of North America and of nations in the southern Indian Ocean that will face the greatest threats from rising sea levels.

Sea level rise could be worse than anticipated

CORVALLIS, Ore. – If global warming some day causes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to collapse, as many experts believe it could, the resulting sea level rise in much of the United States and other parts of the world would be significantly higher than is currently projected, a new study concludes.

Sea-level rise around North America upon collapse of Antarctic ice sheet to be higher than expected

TORONTO, ON – University of Toronto geophysicists have shown that should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse and melt in a warming world – as many scientists are concerned it will – it is the coastlines of North America and of nations in the southern Indian Ocean that will face the greatest threats from rising sea levels.

New biomass charcoal heater: A 'new era' of efficiency and sustainability

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2009 — Millions of homes in rural areas of Far Eastern countries are heated by charcoal burned on small, hibachi-style portable grills. Scientists in Japan are now reporting development of an improved "biomass charcoal combustion heater" that they say could open a new era in sustainable and ultra-high efficiency home heating.

Their study was published in ACS' Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a bi-weekly journal.

New equation of state of seawater

VIRGINIA KEY, Fla. — Seawater is a complex, dynamic mixture of dissolved minerals, salts, and organic materials that despite scientists best efforts, presents difficulties in measuring its potential to contain and disperse energy. Like the water itself, the calculations scientists employ to measure seawater are fluid, undergoing significant revisions and clarifications over the years as research techniques and instrumentation continues to evolve.

Global warming threatens Antarctic sea life

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Climate change is about to cause a major upheaval in the shallow marine waters of Antarctica. Predatory crabs are poised to return to warming Antarctic waters and disrupt the primeval marine communities.

Researchers find earliest evidence for animal life - 635 million years ago

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – An international research team of scientists from UC Riverside, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutions has found the oldest evidence for animals in the fossil record.

The researchers examined sedimentary rocks in south Oman, and found an anomalously high amount of steroids that date back to 635 million years ago, to around the end of the last ice age. The steroids are produced by sponges – one of the simplest forms of multicellular animals.

Caltech scientists lead deep-sea discovery voyage

PASADENA, Calif.--Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an international team of collaborators have returned from a month-long deep-sea voyage to a marine reserve near Tasmania, Australia, that not only netted coral-reef samples likely to provide insight into the impact of climate change on the world's oceans, but also brought to light at least three never-before-seen species of sea life.

Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone

Increasing greenhouse gases could delay, or even postpone indefinitely the recovery of stratospheric ozone in some regions of the Earth, a new study suggests. This change might take a toll on public health.

Holy guacamole: invasive beetle threatens Florida's avocados

A researcher at North Carolina State University is tracking the movement of the Redbay Ambrosia beetle, an invasive insect that, if it spreads to southeast Florida, may severely affect the production of avocados, a $15 million to $30 million industry in the state.

Ancient geologic escape hatches mistaken for tube worms

Tubeworms have been around for millions of years and the fossil record is rich with their distinctive imprints. But a discovery made by U of C scientists found that what previous researchers had labeled as tubeworms in a formation near Denver, Colorado, are actually 70 million-year-old escape hatches for methane.

World's largest snake discovered in fossilized rainforest

Sixty million years before Jennifer Lopez starred in the film "Anaconda," the world's biggest snake slithered around northern South America. Excavations in Colombia co-organized by Carlos Jaramillo, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Jonathan Bloch, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, unearthed fossil remains of a new snake species named Titanoboa cerrejonensis.