Monday afternoon here in Possum Valley and the time has arrived once aain for science talk. 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 global carbon emissions reach record 10 billion tons, when the heat's on some fish can cope, rarest US bumblebee rediscovered, how sugars move through plants, sewage treatment plants may contribute to the antibiotic resistance problem, and North America's biggest dinosaur revealed. Pull up that comfy chair and grab a spot near the fireside. There is always plenty of room for everyone. Another session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment is set to begin.
Featured Stories
Threatening the future climate is the new record of global carbon emissions at 10 billion tons.
On average, fossil fuel emissions have risen by 3.1 per cent each year between 2000 and 2010 – three times the rate of increase during the 1990s. They are projected to continue to increase by 3.1 per cent in 2011.
Total emissions - which combine fossil fuel combustion, cement production, deforestation and other land use emissions - reached 10 billion tonnes of carbon1 in 2010 for the first time. Half of the emissions remained in the atmosphere, where CO2 concentration reached 389.6 parts per million. The remaining emissions were taken up by the ocean and land reservoirs, in approximately equal proportions.
Rebounding from the global financial crisis of 2008-09 when emissions temporarily decreased, last year’s high growth was caused by both emerging and developed economies. Rich countries continued to outsource part of their emissions to emerging economies through international trade.
Contributions to global emissions growth in 2010 were largest from China, the United States, India, the Russian Federation and the European Union. Emissions from the trade of goods and services produced in emerging economies but consumed in the West increased from 2.5 per cent of the share of rich countries in 1990 to 16 per cent in 2010.
Some tropical fish have a larger ability to cope with rising temperatures than thought in the past.
The two temperatures used in the trial represent likely tropical ocean temperatures at the mid-century and by 2100, based on current trends in carbon dioxide emissions by humanity. A 3 degree increase in tropical ocean temperatures is the temperature predicted to occur if humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions continue on their current trajectory.
The unusual finding suggests that some fish may have an innate ability to cope with increased sea temperatures greater than previously thought, the researchers say.
However they caution it applies so far only to a single coral reef fish species, and does not address the more complex issue of the survival of the coral habitat itself, and the effects of warming on plankton in the food chains on which fish depend.
A species of bumblebee known as “Cockerell’s Bumblebee” last seen in 1956 has been found again.
...the bee was originally described in 1913 from six specimens collected along the Rio Ruidoso, with another 16 specimens collected near the town of Cloudcroft, and one more from Ruidoso, the most recent being in 1956. No other specimens had been recorded until three more were collected on weeds along a highway north of Cloudcroft on Aug. 31, 2011.
The production of plants for human food is an increasing issue around the globe. New findings in the movement of sugars through the plant to the leaves and other edible portions may help alleviate some of those issues.
Just as it’s necessary for the human body to move nutrients to all of the organs, it is vital for green plants to transport sugars to supply its various parts. In humans, this is the circulatory system’s job. But plants do not have a heart-like pump to move these vital energy sources. Instead, plants use a molecular pump.
(snip)
The identification of the function of this missing piece of the molecular pump involved in transporting sugar in plant makes it highly likely that the animal-cell version of this same protein fulfills a similar role in animals and humans. This would be a major breakthrough for diabetes and obesity research, since a yet unidentified transporter protein is responsible for essential steps in the movement of sugars from the intestine into the blood as well as for efflux from liver cells for maintenance of blood glucose levels.
Water discharged from sewage treatment plants may contain large amounts of the genes which contribute to antibiotic resistance by bacteria.
...antibiotic-resistant bacteria — a major problem in medicine today — are abundant in the sewage that enters municipal wastewater treatment plants. Treatment is intended to kill the bacteria, and it removes many of the bacterial genes that cause antibiotic resistance. However, genes or bacteria may be released in effluent from the plant.
A new study has revealed enormous bones from North America's largest dinosaur.
The bones belong to the sauropod dinosaur Alamosaurus sanjuanensis: a long-necked plant eater related to Diplodocus. The Alamosaurus roamed what is now the southwestern United States and Mexico about 69 million years ago.
(snip)
How big? The enormity of the new bones puts Alamosaurus in the same size league as other giant sauropods from South America, including Argentinosaurus which weighed about 70 tons, and is widely considered to be the biggest dinosaur of all.
Other Worthy Stories of the Week
Potentially Earth-like planet has the right temperature for life
A new online database of habitable worlds
Two black holes weigh in at 10 billions suns
Mountains and buried ice on Mars
Giant super-Earths made of diamond are possible
The rise of atmospheric oxygen was more complicated than thought in the past
Simultaneous ice melt in the Arctic and Antarctic
Responses of Yellowstone wolves to environmental change
Meet Gordon, the world's first flash supercomputer
Fecal transplants work when the regulations do not
SETI search resumes at Allen telescope array
Hubble racks up 10,000 science papers
Much ado about space debris
Satellites track Yellowstone's underground heat
77,000-year-old evidence of 'bedding' and use of medicinal plants discovered in South African rock shelter
The world's smallest steam engine measures a few micrometers
2010 spike in ice loss lifted Greenland bedrock
Dead zones lead to shrinking habitat for blue marlin and other tropical billfish and tuna
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.
Space.com
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
At Daily Kos:
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent. OND tech Thursday by rfall.
Pique the Geek by Translator Sunday evenings about 9 Eastern time
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
All diaries with the eKos Tag
A More Ancient World by matching mole
Astro Kos
SciTech at Dkos.
Sunday Science Videos by palantir
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA image gallery or the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
Carina Nebula, NASA, Public Domain