Fundamental mechanism for cell organization discovered

 

Scientists have discovered that cells use a very simple phase transition -- similar to water vapor condensing into dew -- to assemble and localize subcellular structures that are involved in formation of the embryo.

The discovery, which was made during the 2008 Physiology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), is reported in the May 21 early online edition of Science by Clifford P. Brangwynne and Anthony A. Hyman of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, and their colleagues, including Frank Jülicher of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, also in Dresden.

Working with the worm C. elegans, the scientists found that subcellular structures called P granules, which are thought to specify the "germ cells" that ultimately give rise to sperm or eggs, are liquid droplets that transition between a dissolved or condensed state. In newly fertilized one-cell embryos, the P granules are dissolving throughout the cell, like water droplets at high temperature. But prior to the first cell division, the P granules rapidly condense at one end of the cell, as if the temperature were suddenly lowered there. The progenitor germ cell subsequently forms where the P granules have condensed.

"This kind of phase transition could potentially be working for many other subcellular structures similar to P granules," Brangwynne says. P granules are ribonucleoprotein assemblies (RNPs), and a given cell may contain dozens of different types of RNPs.

"It is interesting to think about this in the context of evolution and the origin of life," he says. "What we have found is that, in some cases, simple physical-chemical mechanisms, such as a classic phase transition, give rise to subcellular structure…This is likely the kind of thing that happened in the so-called primordial soup; but it's not surprising that even highly evolved cells continue to take advantage of such mechanisms." …

Fundamental Mechanism For Cell Organization Discovered

Technorati Tags: nanotechnology,biotechnology

Climate bill packed with protections for coal industry

By Ken Ward Jr.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A climate change bill working its way through Congress this week has been packed with amendments aimed at giving the coal industry a chance to survive if technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions is eventually perfected and deployed.

Lawmakers have put off the most major pollution reductions until after 2020, have weakened carbon dioxide limits that would apply to specific coal-fired power plants, and are giving tens of billions of dollars in free pollution permits to coal-fired utilities.

While the changes weren't enough to placate the coal industry lobby, they have won backing from some key coal state lawmakers and somewhat qualified support from the United Mine Workers union.

But some environmental groups and other critics worry that the amendments go too far. They say the legislation's authors may have given coal operators and coal-fired utilities too much, especially while the bill is still early in the stages of being reviewed in the House and faces certain efforts to further water it down once it reaches the Senate.

Brent Blackwelder, president of the group Friends of the Earth, praised Chairman Henry Waxman and members of his House Energy and Commerce Committee for "their effort to find a path forward on global warming."

"Unfortunately, the result of their effort has been corrupted by members of Congress backed by oil and coal interests," Blackwelder said. …

Climate bill packed with protections for coal industry

Technorati Tags: coal,climate change

Owls replace pesticides in Israel

Owls and kestrels are being employed as agricultural pest controllers in the Middle East.

Many farmers are installing nest boxes to encourage the birds, which hunt the crop-damaging rodents.

In Israel, where there is a drive to reduce the use of toxic chemical pesticides, this has been turned into a government-funded national programme.

Jordanian and Palestinian scientists and conservation charities have joined the scheme.

According to the charity BirdLife International, hundreds of birds of prey - including many endangered species - have been killed in the region through eating rodents containing poisonous "rodenticides" sprayed on to crop fields.

But scientists in Israel are now working with farmers to combat this problem - deploying the birds as natural pest controllers.

"There is a real need to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture here," said Motti Charter, a researcher from Tel Aviv University and team leader of the Global Owl Project in Israel. …

Owls replace pesticides in Israel

Technorati Tags: green agriculture

Green activists protest at Australia power plant

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Environmental activists tried on Thursday to disrupt operations at an Australian power station that provides 8 percent of the country's coal-reliant electricity market, in a protest against government climate policies.

Greenpeace said the dawn protest by around 14 activists at the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria state was the latest part of an ongoing campaign to reduce Australia's carbon emissions.

"Australia is digging itself into a hole. By phasing out coal and investing in renewable energy, we can protect our environment and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs," said Greenpeace campaigner Simon Roz.

Hazelwood, in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, is a brown coal fueled power station with a 1,600 megawatt capacity, and supplies up to 25 percent of the state's base load electricity. The station relies on brown coal from the adjacent Morwell mine.

Majority owned by the UK-based company International Power and scheduled to be decommissioned by 2009 due to its excessive carbon dioxide emissions, the state government in 2005 extended its life until 2031.

A mine spokesman told Reuters the protest had "no impact whatsoever" on output and police removed the demonstrators, who chained themselves to a dormant digger with banners reading "coal - powering climate change." …

Green activists protest at Australia power plant

Technorati Tags: climate change,coal,Australia,activism

Indian state achieves Western standards on fraction of income: a slideshow

 

The state of Kerala in southwest India is a socio-economic abberation: despite a per capita GDP of US$247, far below the world average, its 32 million people enjoy good health care, US-level birth rates, literacy rates and life expectancies. “Demographically, in other words,” Bill McKibben wrote in 1998, “Kerala mirrors the United States on about one-seventieth the cash.” Today its economy is hurting as its foreign remittances dwindle – Kerala is known for providing much of the now shrinking Middle Eastern migrant workforce. But the template for the state's strange demographics began long before, with Hindu rulers, missionaries and then leftist governments emphasizing widespread education and health care. …

Indian State Achieves Western Standards on Fraction of Income: A Slideshow

Technorati Tags: green economy

Are vertical farms the answer after all?

High-Tech Greenhouses See 20-Fold Increase in Yields

Adam Stein of Terrapass was famously skeptical about vertical farms, describing them as "pie in the sky". So I was surprised to read one of his latest blog posts, in which he links to an LA Times article about high-tech California greenhouses that are employing vertical farming techniques, and boosting crop yields per acre by a factor of 20. Could it be that Adam was wrong about vertical farming? …

Are Vertical Farms the Answer After All?

Technorati Tags: green construction

Sonic alarm saves marine mammals from ship strike

 

By Phil McKenna

A new sonic alarm could warn off whales and manatees threatened by approaching ships. Endangered North Atlantic right whales are especially at risk from collisions – only about 350 remain, and at least a third of all right whale deaths over the last decade were due to ship strikes.

A team of researchers at Florida Atlantic University believes that many collisions occur because there is region in front of moving ships where propeller sounds are blocked.

"If the ship is wide enough, the sound of the propellers is deflected off to the sides," says Edmund Gerstein, who presents his team's findings this week to the Acoustical Society of America.

Gerstein notes that individual manatees in Florida have been hit as many as 50 times by boats. "They seem to actually seek out the quieter zone in front of the ship as a refuge," he says.

So he and his colleagues developed a small device to fit on the bow of a ship below the waterline, which emits sound waves focused into a narrow beam. Gerstein says that in preliminary testing of the device, manatees always changed course to avoid the approaching ships. …

Sonic alarm saves marine mammals from ship strike

Technorati Tags: marine mammal

Voluntary carbon markets double in 2008

Voluntary carbon markets greatly expanded in both transaction volume and value in 2008, providing critical funds for projects aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from Ecosystem Marketplace and New Carbon Finance.

Fortifying the Foundation: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2009 — a survey of over 190 voluntary carbon credit retailers, brokers, accounting registries, and exchanges — found that voluntary carbon markets transacted 123 million metric tons of carbon credits valued at $705 million in 2008, up from 65 million tons of credits valued at $331 million in 2007. …

Voluntary carbon markets double in 2008

Technorati Tags: carbon market

World Oil Production Forecast - Update May 2009

From The Oil Drum:

World oil production peaked in July 2008 at 74.82 million barrels/day (mbd) and now has fallen to about 71 mbd. It is expected that oil production will decline slowly to about December 2010 as OPEC production increases while non-OPEC production decreases. After 2010 the resulting annual production decline rate increases to 3.4% as OPEC production is unable to offset cumulative non-OPEC declines. The forecast from the IEA WEO 2008 is also shown for comparison.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) should make official statements about declining world oil production now to renew the focus on oil conservation and alternative renewable energy sources.

World Oil Production

World crude oil, condensate and oil sands production peaked in 2008 at an average of 73.78 million barrels per day (mbd) which just exceeded the previous peak of 73.74 mbd in 2005, according to recent EIA production data. Production is expected to decline further as non OPEC oil production peaked in 2004 and is forecast to decline at a faster rate in 2009 and beyond due mainly to big declines from Russia, Norway, the UK and Mexico. Saudi Arabia's crude oil production peaked in 2005. By 2011, OPEC will not have the ability to offset cumulative non OPEC declines and world oil production is forecast to stay below its 2008 peak. …

World Oil Production Forecast - Update May 2009

Technorati Tags: oil depletion,Peak Oil

Obama officials push for catch-share plan

 

The administration of President Barack Obama has asked for USD 18.6 million in fiscal 2010 budget money for new cap-and-trade regulatory fisheries programmes. The catch-share programme initiative would signify major changes in fishery management and an effort to preserve and recover wild fish stocks.

The amount requested is triple the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) bid for catch shares in its 2009 budget and about nine times over the USD 2 million it granted to catch shares last year, reports The New York Times. The NMFS received a budget proposal of USD 921 million - the proposal would amount to 2 per cent of this.

The proposal signals officials government backing for the management system, which is still in the minority but spreading ever since a federal moratorium expired five years ago.

At present, 12 catch-share programmes are in operation when two years ago there had been seven. Four more are in the implementation or development phase, NMFS said.

The scheme's supporters say it puts an end to the "race for fish," that is, when fishers race to harvest as much as they can before the fishery's total allowable catch limit is reached.

In the cap-and-trade programme, the shares of a total catch are distributed to commercial fishers, based on either their historical catch or an auction. Fishers can buy and sell their shares. …

Obama officials push for catch-share plan

Technorati Tags: overfishing,ocean overexploitation

MIT: Climate change odds much worse than thought

 

The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood of how much hotter the Earth's climate will get in this century shows that without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago -- and could be even worse than that. The study uses the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model, a detailed computer simulation of global economic activity and climate processes.

The study uses the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model, a detailed computer simulation of global economic activity and climate processes that has been developed and refined by the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change since the early 1990s. The new research involved 400 runs of the model with each run using slight variations in input parameters, selected so that each run has about an equal probability of being correct based on present observations and knowledge. Other research groups have estimated the probabilities of various outcomes, based on variations in the physical response of the climate system itself. But the MIT model is the only one that interactively includes detailed treatment of possible changes in human activities as well - such as the degree of economic growth, with its associated energy use, in different countries.

Study co-author Ronald Prinn, the co-director of the Joint Program and director of MIT's Center for Global Change Science, says that, regarding global warming, it is important "to base our opinions and policies on the peer-reviewed science," he says. And in the peer-reviewed literature, the MIT model, unlike any other, looks in great detail at the effects of economic activity coupled with the effects of atmospheric, oceanic and biological systems. "In that sense, our work is unique," he says. …

Climate Change Odds Much Worse Than Thought

Technorati Tags: climate change,MIT

Retired US generals call for low carbon revolution

James Murray, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 00:15:00

Report from influential generals and admirals warns fragile US energy infrastructure poses serious national security threat

The US needs to diversify its energy mix to incorporate more renewables, reduce its reliance on both foreign and domestic oil, improve the resilience of its energy grid, better prepare for the impact of climate change risks, and make wider use of federal procurement to drive the development of low carbon technologies.

Not the latest wish list from Greenpeace or the WWF, but a hard-hitting new report from an influential panel of retired US admirals and generals, which argues that the fragility of US energy supplies and the likely impact of climate change pose a serious security threat that is "exploitable by those who wish to do us harm".

The report, Powering America's Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security, was developed by a Military Advisory Board (MAB) of former high ranking figures from across the US military brought together by US security think tank CNA.

It recommends that a major overhaul of US energy policy is required to address burgeoning security threats, and reiterates warnings from a 2007 report which concluded that the impact of climate change would pose serious and escalating threats to US national security.

Describing the report as "a sobering but honest, and necessary assessment" of current US energy policy, MAB chairman General Charles F. "Chuck" Wald said that the current recession should not be used as an excuse to delay efforts to diversify US energy supplies.

Retired US generals call for low carbon revolution

Technorati Tags: climate change,renewable energy

Scientists make first direct observations of biological particles in high-altitude clouds

Airborne dust and microbial matter appear to play large role in ice formation in clouds

A team of atmospheric chemists has moved closer to what's considered the "holy grail" of climate change science: the first-ever direct detections of biological particles within ice clouds.

The team, led by Kimberly Prather and Kerri Pratt of the University of California at San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sampled water droplet and ice crystal residues at high speeds while flying through clouds in the skies over Wyoming.

Analysis of the ice crystals revealed that the particles that started their growth were made up almost entirely of either dust or biological material such as bacteria, fungal spores and plant material.

While it has long been known that microorganisms become airborne and travel great distances, this study is the first to yield direct data on how they work to influence cloud formation.

Results of the Ice in Clouds Experiment - Layer Clouds (ICE-L), funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), appear May 17 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

"If we understand the sources of the particles that nucleate clouds, and their relative abundance, we can determine their impact on climate," said Pratt, lead author of the paper.

The effects of tiny airborne particles called aerosols on cloud formation have been some of the most difficult aspects of weather and climate for scientists to understand.

In climate change science, which derives many of its projections from computer simulations of climate phenomena, the interactions between aerosols and clouds represent what scientists consider the greatest uncertainty in modeling predictions for the future.

"By sampling clouds in real time from an aircraft, these investigators were able to get information about ice particles in clouds at an unprecedented level of detail," said Anne-Marie Schmoltner of NSF's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, which funded the research.

"By determining the chemical composition of the very cores of individual ice particles, they discovered that both mineral dust and, surprisingly, biological particles play a major role in the formation of clouds." …

Scientists Make First Direct Observations of Biological Particles in High-Altitude Clouds

Technorati Tags: climate change

Warming climate is affecting Cascades snowpack

Seattle WA (SPX) May 18, 2009 - There has been sharp disagreement in recent years about how much, or even whether, winter snowpack has declined in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon during the last half-century.

But new research leaves little doubt that a warmer climate has a significant effect on the snowpack, as measured by water content on April 1, even if other factors keep year-to-year measurements close to normal for a period of years.

Water content can vary greatly depending on temperature and other conditions at the time of snowfall. Typically an inch of snow at temperatures near freezing will contain significantly more water than an inch of snow a colder temperatures.

"All things being equal, if you make it 1 degree Celsius warmer, then 20 percent of the snowpack goes away for the central Puget Sound basin, the area we looked at," said Joseph Casola, a University of Washington doctoral student in atmospheric sciences. …

Warming Climate Is Affecting Cascades Snowpack

Technorati Tags: climate change

Logica joins carbon software battleground

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen, Wednesday 13 May 2009 at 15:07:00

Just days after SAP buys its way into the market, UK-based Logica launches environmental reporting toolkit

Logica has become the second IT company in the past week to beef up its presence in the increasingly crowded market for carbon management software, with the launch of a new reporting application designed to help firms track their environmental performance.

The UK-based firm today unveiled a Sustainability Indicator Reporting Application (SIRA), which it said would provide firms with a central point for monitoring and managing environmental metrics, such as carbon emissions, water use and waste levels.

Judith Halkerston, UK managing director for energy, utilities and telecoms at Logica, said the new application had been developed in line with international environmental reporting standards and would help firms comply with the growing number of green regulations.

"Organisations today need to navigate their way through a maze of international environmental regulation, with a number of FTSE companies now actively reporting on their sustainability performance," she said. "Often, this requires a significant investment in resource and raises challenges to present the data in an intuitive and engaging manner." …

Logica joins carbon software battleground

Technorati Tags: green economy,carbon market

Super reefs fend off climate change

New York NY (SPX) May 07, 2009 - The Wildlife Conservation Society has announced a study showing that some coral reefs off East Africa are unusually resilient to climate change due to improved fisheries management and a combination of geophysical factors. WCS announced the results of the study at the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), which met in Phuket, Thailand.

The study, published in the online journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, provides additional evidence that globally important "super reefs" exist in the triangle from Northern Madagascar across to northern Mozambique to southern Kenya and, thus, should be a high priority for future conservation action.

Authors of the study include Tim McClanahan and Nyawira Muthiga of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Joseph Maina of the Coral Reef Conservation Project, Albogast Kamukuru of the University of Dar es Salaam's Department of Fisheries Science and Aquaculture, and Saleh A.S. Yahna of the University of Dar es Salaam's Institute of Marine Sciences and Stockholm University's Department of Zoology.

The study found that Tanzania's corals recovered rapidly from the 1998 bleaching event that had wiped out up to 45 percent of the region's corals. Along with monitoring Tanzania's reefs, WCS helps coral conservation in this region through training of park staff in protected areas.

The authors attribute the recovery of Tanzania's coral reefs due in part to direct management measures, including closures to commercial fishing.

Areas with fishery closures contained an abundance of fish that feed on algae that can otherwise smother corals, while the few sites without any specific management measures remain degraded; one site had experienced a population explosion of sea urchins-pests that feeds on corals. …

Super Reefs Fend Off Climate Change

Technorati Tags: coral,climate change

Real live astronauts are watching ‘Star Trek’ in outer space - right now

By Rebecca Cathcart

Right about now in outer space, three men are crouched in a node of the International Space Station, watching J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek on a laptop. They chose the node, said NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier, because it was “dark and quiet” and would be “a good spot” for three Star Trek fans to hunker down for the ultimate viewing experience.

“They just ended their crew day,” said Ms. Cloutier, “so they’re watching it now, or just finishing it up. They can go all day without seeing each other, so this is a good chance to get together.”

Michael Barratt, the American astronaut, requested the film before boarding a space-bound shuttle in March, said Ms. Cloutier. He told NASA officials that he was a lifelong admirer of the TV series and did not want to miss this latest big-screen installment while off-planet. It was beamed up to them - really - after being reformatted by NASA technicians in a five-hour procedure Thursday night and beamed up Friday morning.

Mr. Barratt, 50, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, 50, and Koichi Wakata, 46, of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency settled into the node, named Unity, after dinner and secured their feet with floor straps to keep from floating during the screening, she said. …

Real Live Astronauts are Watching ‘Star Trek’ in Outer Space - Right Now

Technorati Tags: space exploration