Welcome once again. Magical, marvelous Monday is here. The time has come to gather around and take a well deserved hiatus from all the politics of the day. Science talk is here. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include rare form of rock melting accounts for explosive volcanoes, using ancient animal urine to measure climate change, insecticides from genetically modified corn found in adjacent streams, carbon dioxide controls Earth temperature, both humans and nature harm food webs in rivers, and new fish species discovered in one of world's deepest ocean trenches. Come in, sit down, and relax. There is plenty of room for everyone. Settle in for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment.
Featured Stories
The world's most explosive volcanoes are for the most part contained along areas only a few tens of kilometers wide.
These volcanic chains have been responsible for the most devastating eruptions in history, such as that of Krakatoa in 1883, and the huge eruption of Toba about 74,000 years ago, whose aftermath may have come close to extinguishing the human race.
...the observed geometrical pattern can only be explained if the volcanoes are localized above the narrow regions in which mantle melts in the absence of water. Melt rising from this region blazes a trail for more water-rich magma to follow all the way to the surface where it erupts to form volcanoes.
In one of the more unusual measures of climate change one scientist is analyzing crystals formed from the urine of the rock hyrax, a species which uses the same area to urinate sometimes doing so for thousands of years.
Using forensic techniques the Leicester group has been able to identify the individual organic molecules preserved in the middens; these include compounds produced by the hyraxes' metabolism and plant-derived molecules which passed through the animals' digestive system. These 'biomarkers' provide clues as to the kind of plants the animals were eating and therefore the sort of environment they were living in. The biomarkers thus reveal insights into how the climate of the region has changed during the last 30,000 years, with a potential accuracy of a few decades to centuries.
As more crops are modified and planted concerns about their spread to the environment continue to mount.
Following an assessment of 217 stream sites in Indiana, the paper’s authors found dissolved Cry1Ab proteins from Bt (modified to ward off the corn borer) corn present in stream water at nearly a quarter of the sites, including headwater streams. Eighty-six percent of the sampled sites contained corn leaves, husks, stalks, or cobs in their channels; at 13% of these sites corn byproducts contained detectable Cry1Ab proteins. The study was conducted six months after crop harvest, indicating that the insecticidal proteins in crop byproducts can persist in the landscape.
All agricultural practices in the end effect local water supplies. The more we know about the effects the better we are able to protect our drinking water supplies in the future.
While many factors affect climate around the globe
a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study shows that the planet's temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide.
...the team identified non-condensing greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons - as providing the core support for the terrestrial greenhouse effect.
Without non-condensing greenhouse gases, water vapor and clouds would be unable to provide the feedback mechanisms that amplify the greenhouse effect.
Scientists investigating a deep ocean trench long thought to be devoid of fish discovered a new species.
The expedition to the Peru-Chile trench in the South East Pacific Ocean revealed a new species of snailfish living at 7000m, never before caught or captured on camera.
Mass groupings of cusk-eels and large crustacean scavengers were also discovered living at these depths for the first time.
Rivers around the world are a source of both water and of food.
Globally, rivers and streams are being drained due to human use and climate change. These and other human impacts alter the natural variability of river flows. Some impacted rivers have dried and no longer run, while still others have actually seen increases in the variability of flows due to storm floods. The end result is that humans and nature are conspiring to shorten food chains, particularly by eliminating top predators like many large-bodied fish.
The study hints that competing users of the river water – agricultural production and recreational uses like fishing – need to work out amenable use of rivers and streams that not only look to the immediate future, but also project long term effects of their use.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Top 20 microscope photos of the year
Taming wild grapes for better wine
Giant star goes supernova and is smothered by its own dust
Whale poop pumps up ocean health
Enzyme in saliva shapes how we sense food texture
Walking may protect your memory down the road
Birth of nanoparticles seen for the first time
'Bigfoot of ants' found (again)
Antarctic ice sheet preserves invisible mountain range
Large Hadron Collider starts edging out rivals
Growing galaxies gently
Charcoal biofilter cleans up fertilizer waste gases
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Alpha-Galileo
BBC News Science and Environment
Eureka Science News
LiveScience
New Scientist
PhysOrg.com
SciDev.net
Science/AAAS
Science Alert
Science Centric
Science Daily
Scientific American
Space Daily
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Coctail Party Physics Physics with a twist.
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Science Insider
Scientific Blogging.
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
Daily Kos University, a regular series by plf515
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
This Week in Space by nellaselim
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Weekend Science by AKMask
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
Lagoon Nebula, NASA, Public Domain