News by Subject Biology

Injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) deep below the seabed could be an important strategy for mitigating climate change, according to some experts. However, scientists need a reliable way to monitor such sites for leakage of the greenhouse gas. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology have studied natural sources of CO2 release off the coast of Italy, using what they learned to develop models that could be applied to future storage sites.

Pollution of lakes is a worldwide problem. Restoration attempts take a lot of time and effort, and even then they might backfire. A team of researchers led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) suggests a different approach. First, you have to determine to which of four different types your lake belongs, they write in the August issue of Science of the Total Environment. Spatial differences are the key to a successful restoration recipe.

When insects carry the pollen from one flower to another to pollinate them, the pollen must attach to and detach from different surfaces. Scientists from Kiel University have discovered that the mechanisms are far more complex than previously assumed. They differ depending on the duration of the contact and the microstructure of the plant surfaces. The results could be interesting for drug delivery and for developing alternative strategies in agriculture and food production.

For the first time scientists have been able to reconstruct the chemical composition of rainwater from 300-million-year-old minerals, allowing them to unpick some of the history of Brittany and Western France since the rain fell in the late Carboniferous period, just before the time of the dinosaurs. The results point to the area being mountainous and originally located close to the Equator. This work is presented at the Goldschmidt Geochemistry congress in Barcelona.

Every day, people are exposed to myriad chemicals both natural and synthetic, some of which may affect human physical development. Researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute have discovered nacq#1, a natural compound produced by a soil roundworm that dramatically influences time to sexual maturity and lifespan in tiny amounts. Because nacq#1 and its related nuclear receptors are so similar between the worm and humans, miniscule amounts of small molecules could similarly impact human development and lifespan.

Many companies are working on materials that would be as light and resistant as plastic but at the same time fully biodegradable. What if they could be made from.....rubbish? A modern, ecological (waste-free -- the conversion of raw material to product reaches 100%) and economical (does not require high temperatures or expensive catalysts) method of obtaining organic monomers is coming into being at the IPC PAS.