News by Subject Biology

Nine years ago tomorrow -- April 20, 2010 -- crude oil began leaking from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig into the Gulf of Mexico in what turned out to be the largest marine oil spill in history. A long-term study suggests the oil is still affecting the salt marshes of the Gulf Coast, and reveals the key role that marsh grasses play in the overall recovery of these important coastal wetlands.

The American Bumblebee - a species once more commonly seen buzzing around Southern Ontario - is critically endangered, according to a new study led by York University. The finding, published in Journal of Insect Conservation, found the native North American species, Bombus pensylvanicus, is facing imminent extinction from Canada, considered the highest and most at-risk classification before extinction.

Researchers from the UK and Spain have identified an eco-friendly solid that could replace the inefficient and polluting gases used in most refrigerators and air conditioners.

New research reveals how soil bacteria build the only known enzyme for the destruction of the potent global warming and ozone-depleting gas nitrous oxide. Alongside carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O), commonly known as 'laughing gas', is now a cause for great concern, and there is much international focus on reducing emissions. It is hoped that the findings will help pave the way for strategies to mitigate the damaging effects of N2O.

Contamination of rice with arsenic is a major problem in some regions of the world with high rice consumption. Now, researchers reporting in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology have found a way to reduce inorganic arsenic in rice by modifying processing methods at traditional, small-scale parboiling plants in Bangladesh. The new method has the added benefit of increasing the calcium content of rice, the researchers say.

In 2015, a fluorosurfactant known by the trade name 'GenX' made headlines when researchers discovered it and related compounds in the Cape Fear River of North Carolina, a source of drinking water for many residents of the area. Now, researchers report in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology that they have detected the same per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the river, as well as some new ones, but their overall levels are decreasing.