Earth | Page 961 | Science Codex

Uplift of Zagros Mountains slows down convergence of two plates

Research has indicated that mountain ranges can slow down the convergence between two tectonic plates on timescales as short as a few million years, as the growing mountains provide enough tectonic force to impact plate motions.

Focusing on the convergence of the Arabian and Eurasian plates at the Zagros mountain range, which runs across Iran and Iraq, Austermann and Iaffaldano reconstructed the relative motion of the plates using published paleomagnetic data covering the past 13 million years, as well as current geodetic measurements.

Identifying the physical processes that control the stratigraphic record

The stratigraphic record, the sequential layers of sediment that geologists use to reconstruct the history of a landscape, has been described as "more gaps than record."

The record, laid down over time as sediment settles out from flowingwater, does not grow consistently. Pauses in sediment deposition can leave gaps, and periods of heightened erosion can wipe sections out.

Sea surface temperatures reach highest level in 150 years

Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.

The advisory reports on conditions in the second half of 2012.

Federally funded research & development centers employed more than 3,000 postdoctoral researchers

According to a recent report released by the National Science Foundation, 22 of the nation's 39 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) employed 3,011 postdocs in 2010, the year the latest data are available.

Three out of every four postdocs employed in the FFRDCs in 2010 were men. Foreign nationals on temporary visas made up 60 percent of all postdocs employed in FFRDCs. Men constituted a higher percentage of foreign nationals than of U.S. citizens and permanent residents--78 percent versus 72 percent.

Movement of pyrrole molecules defy 'classical' physics

New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world.

Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics - believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels – can actually impact on a molecular level.

New imaging technology could reveal cellular secrets

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have married two biological imaging technologies, creating a new way to learn how good cells go bad.

"Let's say you have a large population of cells," said Corey Neu, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. "Just one of them might metastasize or proliferate, forming a cancerous tumor. We need to understand what it is that gives rise to that one bad cell."

Ecology buys time for evolution

Songbird populations can handle far more disrupting climate change than expected. Density-dependent processes are buying them time for their battle. But without (slow) evolutionary rescue it will not save them in the end, says an international team of scientists led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) in Science this week.

Vaterite: Crystal within a crystal helps resolve an old puzzle

MADISON, Wis. – With the help of a solitary sea squirt, scientists have resolved the longstanding puzzle of the crystal structure of vaterite, an enigmatic geologic mineral and biomineral.

A form of calcium carbonate, vaterite can be found in Portland cement. Its quick transformation into other more stable forms of calcium carbonate when exposed to water helps make the cement hard and water resistant. As a biomineral, vaterite is found in such things as gallstones, fish otoliths, freshwater pearls, and the healed scars of some mollusk shells.

Keeping beverages cool in summer: It's not just the heat, it's the humidity

In spring a person's thoughts turn to important matters, like how best to keep your drink cold on a hot day. Though this quest is probably as old as civilization, University of Washington climate scientists have provided new insight.

Virginia Tech Carilion scientists image nanoparticles in action

The macroscopic effects of certain nanoparticles on human health have long been clear to the naked eye. What scientists have lacked is the ability to see the detailed movements of individual particles that give rise to those effects.

How ants change a flower's nectar content

Ants play a variety of important roles in many ecosystems. As frequent visitors to flowers, they can benefit plants in their role as pollinators when they forage on sugar-rich nectar. However, a new study reveals that this mutualistic relationship may actually have some hidden costs. By transmitting sugar-eating yeasts to the nectar on which they feed, ants may be indirectly altering the nectar-chemistry and thus affecting subsequent pollinator visitations.

Ecology hippies: A mammal and bug food co-op in the High Arctic

University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.

Rethinking early atmospheric oxygen

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A research team of biogeochemists at the University of California, Riverside has provided a new view on the relationship between the earliest accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, arguably the most important biological event in Earth history, and its relationship to the sulfur cycle.

Speeding the search for better methane capture

Like the Roman god Janus, methane presents Earth's atmosphere with two situational faces. As the main component of natural gas, methane when burned as a fuel produces less carbon dioxide than the burning of oil or coal, which makes it a plus for global climate change. However, pure methane released into the atmosphere via leaks from unconventional oil and gas extraction, coal mining or from the melting of Arctic ice is an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, contributing an estimated 30-percent of current net climate warming.

Ancient Earth crust stored in deep mantle

Washington, D.C.— Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth's crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie's Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature.