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| December 28, 2013 |
 'Be different or die' does not drive evolution Oxford UK (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - A new study has found that species living together are not forced to evolve differently to avoid competing with each other, challenging a theory that has held since Darwin's Origin of Species. By focusing on ovenbirds, one of the most diverse bird families in the world, the Oxford University-led team conducted the most in-depth analysis yet of the processes causing species differences to e ... more |  |
 Brain connections may explain why girls mature faster Newcastle UK (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Newcastle University scientists have discovered that as the brain re-organises connections throughout our life, the process begins earlier in girls which may explain why they mature faster during the teenage years. As we grow older, our brains undergo a major reorganisation reducing the connections in the brain. Studying people up to the age of 40, scientists led by Dr Marcus Kaiser and Ms ... more |  |
 Telecoupling science shows China's forest sustainability packs global impact East Lansing, MI (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - As China increases its forests, a Michigan State University (MSU) sustainability scholar proposes a new way to answer the question: if a tree doesn't fall in China, can you hear it elsewhere in the world? In this week's journal Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, MSU's University Distinguished Professor Jianguo "Jack" Liu dissects the global impact of China's struggle to preserve and expa ... more |  |
Some plants may not adapt quickly to future climate change Gainesville FL (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Using the largest dated evolutionary tree of flowering plants ever assembled, a new study suggests how plants developed traits to withstand low temperatures, with implications that human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than initially thought to plants and global agriculture. The study appearing in the journal Nature and co-authored by University of Florida scientists shows ... more |  |
 Corn pest decline may save farmers money Philadelphia PA(SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Populations of European corn borer (ECB), a major corn crop pest , have declined significantly in the eastern United States, according to Penn State researchers. The decline suggests that the use of genetically modified, ECB-resistant corn hybrids - an expensive, yet effective, solution that has been widely adopted by farmers - may now be unnecessary in some areas. "ECB, which was introd ... more |  |
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 Greenland ice stores liquid water year-round Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered a new aquifer in the Greenland Ice Sheet that holds liquid water all year long in the otherwise perpetually frozen winter landscape. The aquifer is extensive, covering 27,000 square miles. The reservoir is known as a "perennial firn aquifer" because water persists within the firn - layers of snow and ice that don't melt for at least one ... more |  |
Study offers clues to how plants evolved to cope with cold Durham, NC (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Researchers have found new clues to how plants evolved to withstand wintry weather. In a study to appear in the December 22 issue of the journal Nature, the team constructed an evolutionary tree of more than 32,000 species of flowering plants - the largest time-scaled evolutionary tree to date. By combining their tree with freezing exposure records and leaf and stem data for thousands of s ... more |  |
 Scientists anticipated size and location of 2012 Costa Rica earthquake Atlanta VA (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Scientists using GPS to study changes in the Earth's shape accurately forecasted the size and location of the magnitude 7.6 Nicoya earthquake that occurred in 2012 in Costa Rica. The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the few places where land sits atop the portion of a subduction zone where the Earth's greatest earthquakes take place. Costa Rica's location therefore makes it the per ... more |  |
DNA of storied plant provides insight into the evolution of flowering plants Philadelphia PA(SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - The newly sequenced genome of the Amborella plant addresses Darwin's "abominable mystery" - the question of why flowers suddenly proliferated on Earth millions of years ago. The genome sequence sheds new light on a major event in the history of life on Earth: the origin of flowering plants, including all major food crop species. On 20 December 2013, a paper by the Amborella Genome Sequenc ... more |  |
 Quiet end and uncertain future for expelled Chinese professor Beijing (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 - Dismissed from Peking University, outspoken professor Xia Yeliang's 13 year tenure at China's most prestigious educational institution ended without fanfare, surrounded by a handful of students in a tiny, out-of-the-way fifth-floor classroom. After his final three-hour economics class had drawn to a close, the 53-year-old Xia, one of the original signatories of the pro-reform petition Charte ... more |  |
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Indonesian volcano may erupt again, keep evacuees from returning home Besaki, Indonesia (UPI) Dec 26, 2013 - Seismic activity suggests one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia may erupt again, keeping evacuees from returning home, officials say. Mount Sinabung erupted in September after being dormant for 400 years, and increased eruptions in November led to mass evacuations within a 3-mile zone around the volcano. The threat of renewed eruptions means 18,412 evacuees have little ho ... more |  |
No regrets say Greenpeace Arctic activists after UK return London (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 - Five British Greenpeace activists arrived home in defiant mood on Friday after Russia granted them an amnesty to halt their prosecution for protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic. Precisely 100 days after they were arrested on a Greenpeace ship, they flew from Saint Petersburg to Paris and then took a Eurostar train to London. Anthony Perrett, Phil Ball, Iain Rogers, Alex Harris a ... more |  |
 Pussy Riot says wants Putin out, Khodorkovsky in power Moscow (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 - The freed members of the Pussy Riot punk band said Friday they still wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin out of power and would like freed ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to replace him. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, made their call for the Russian strongman to go at their first news conference, hosted by an opposition television channel and clearly aimed at touting ... more |  |
Volcanic formation conjoins existing Japan island Tokyo (AFP) Dec 26, 2013 - A smouldering islet created by undersea volcanic eruptions off Japan's Pacific coast has melded to a nearby island, the Japanese coastguard said Thursday. Officials overflying the new landmass said it had merged at two points with Nishino-shima, an uninhabited volcanic island in the Ogasawara (Bonin) chain, some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of Tokyo. Two craters on the islet have b ... more |  |
 Hong Kong reports first H7N9 death Hong Kong (AFP) Dec 26, 2013 - A Hong Kong man infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu died on Thursday, the first such death in the city since the virus emerged there this month. The 80-year-old man was the second reported case of H7N9 infection in Hong Kong after one reported on December 2. A government spokesman confirmed the death of the man, who had been suffering from other underlying medical conditions. ... more |  |
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At least 44 dead in Brazil's flooding and landslides Brasilia (AFP) Dec 26, 2013 - At least 44 people have died and more than 60,000 have been left homeless following torrential rain in southeast Brazil over the past few weeks, officials said Thursday. In Espirito Santo state, Civil Defense officials reported a total of 27 fatalities, including eight Thursday, in what they described as the worst rains in 90 years. They said 61,379 people were forced to leave their home ... more |  |
China marks Mao's birth with noodles and red songs Shaoshan, China (AFP) Dec 26, 2013 - Admirers of Communist China's founder Mao Zedong celebrated the 120th anniversary of his birth Thursday with noodles and fireworks, as President Xi Jinping marked the occasion by visiting the controversial leader's preserved corpse. Thousands stood through the night in Shaoshan near the childhood home of Mao, who led the country for 27 years. He commands reverence among many Chinese, but ... more |  |
China icebreaker heads to science ship trapped off Antarctica Sydney, Australia (AFP) Dec 27, 2013 - A Chinese icebreaker was Friday closing in on the frozen seas where a scientific mission ship is trapped off Antarctica, as those onboard welcomed the easing of blizzard conditions. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is coordinating the rescue of the Russian passenger ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, said the boat had experienced very strong winds and limited visibility. ... more |  |
 The first cancer operation room with a navigator is created Madrid, Spain (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - A team of researchers from Gregorio Maranon Hospital, the company GMV and the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) have started the first cancer operation room with a navigator. This image-guided system will allow for increased intraoperative radiotherapy safety. The system, presented at Gregorio Maranon Hospital, permits real-time interaction with the body of the patient (with its diff ... more |  |
Deciphering the secret of the sugar beet Bielefeld, Germany (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - An international team of researchers from Bielefeld University, Germany, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG), Department of Vertebrate Genomics (H. Lehrach) in Berlin and further partners from academia and the private sector, have been able to sequence and analyse for the first time the sweet genes of beetroot. The ... more |  |
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