Earth

Every time a mosquito is lured to the scent of your skin, you're at risk of contracting malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, or another deadly disease. A study published by Cell Press December 5th in the journal Cell has revealed an important class of neurons responsible for a mosquito's attraction to human skin odor, as well as odors that stimulate and inhibit the activity of these neurons. The findings could lead to a new generation of repellants and traps for effective mosquito control worldwide.

By transducing two genes (c-MYC and BCL-XL) into iPS cells and ES cells, a Kyoto University research team led by Prof. Koji Eto at CiRA has succeeded in producing erythrocyte progenitor cells with almost unlimited ability to replicate in vitro, which they then differentiated successfully into mature erythrocytes. Although these erythrocytes consisted mostly of fetal-type hemoglobin, they were confirmed to have oxygen-carrying capacity and to have circulatory capacity following transfusion into mice.

Geoscientists at Rutgers and Tufts universities estimate that the New Jersey shore will likely experience a sea-level rise of about 1.5 feet by 2050 and of about 3.5 feet by 2100 – 11 to 15 inches higher than the average for sea-level rise globally over the century.

That would mean, the scientists say, that by the middle of the century, the one-in-10 year flood level at Atlantic City would exceed any flood known there from the observational record, including Superstorm Sandy.

The lack of interest in math or natural sciences is one of the most frequently voiced causes for concern in the debate surrounding education, at least in Germany. It has been seen time and again that pupils lose their enthusiasm for physics, chemistry and math once they reach eighth or ninth grade. But is this inevitable? And if not, how can teachers steer a different course?

Carbon dioxide pumped into the air since the Industrial Revolution appears to have changed the way the coastal ocean functions, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.

A comprehensive review of research on carbon cycling in rivers, estuaries and continental shelves suggests that collectively this coastal zone now takes in more carbon dioxide than it releases. The shift could impact global models of carbon's flow through the environment and future predictions related to climate change.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2013 – As an acoustical engineer, Craig Dolder – currently a graduate student at the University of Texas, Austin – knew that loud noises can damage hearing. Even so, when Canada's Formula 1 Grand Prix coincided with an Acoustical Society of America (ASA) meeting that he was attending in Montreal, Quebec, earlier this year, Dolder was drawn to the racetrack and the deafening roar of the Formula 1 engines.

And he brought his sound level meter with him.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Coastal portions of the world's oceans, once believed to be a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, are now thought to absorb as much as two-thirds more carbon than they emitted in the preindustrial age, researchers estimate.

Massive earthquakes that strike deep within the Earth may be more efficient at dissipating pent up energy than similar quakes near the surface, according to new research by Wei et al. The authors analyzed the rupture of the most powerful deep earthquake ever recorded.

Researchers from the University of Southampton have identified regions beneath the oceans where the igneous rocks of the upper ocean crust could safely store very large volumes of carbon dioxide.

For the past three decades, as the climate has warmed, the massive plates of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean have shrunk: In 2007, scientists observed nearly 50 percent less summer ice than had been seen in 1980.

Regional climate changes can be very rapid. A German-British team of geoscientists now reports that such a rapid climate change occurred in different regions with a time difference of 120 years. Investigation in the west German Eifel region and in southern Norway demonstrated that at the end of the last glaciation about 12,240 years before present climate became warmer, first recognised in the Eifel region and 120 years later in southern Norway. Nonetheless, the warming was equally rapid in both regions.

A team working at the SACLA X-ray Free-Electron Laser (XFEL) in Japan has succeeded in generating ultra-bright, two-color X-ray laser pulses, for the first time in the hard X-ray region. These light pulses with different wavelengths, whose time separation can be adjusted with attosecond accuracy, are very powerful tools to investigate the structure of matter and the dynamics of ultrafast physical processes and chemical reactions.

Deep inside the dramatic subpolar fjords of Antarctica, researchers from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa have discovered an unexpected abundance and diversity at the seafloor. During a recent expedition, UH scientists for the first time studied the seafloor communities of glacier dominated fjords along the west Antarctic Peninsula, a region undergoing very rapid climate warming.

PLOS ONE publishes "Assessing Dangerous Climate Change: Required Reductions of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature" from James Hansen and colleagues, and announces call for papers on responses to climate change: