Laboratory Equipment

Pesticides Cause More Damage than Believed

Soil organisms, aquatic life and farmland birds may all be harmed by neonicotinoid insecticides, according to a new study by Univ. of Sussex biologist Prof. Dave Goulson.

Neonicotinoid insecticides have been in the news because of growing concern that they are linked to serious declines in bee species – resulting in a two-year EU ban in April 2013 of three neonicotinoids commonly used in Europe. But Goulson’s study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, draws together data from diverse sources including the agrochemical industry’s own research and reveals that harm to bees may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/pesticides-cause-more-damage-believed

Scientists Explore Deepest, Coldest, Hottest Places on Earth

Researchers are embarking on an ambitious four-year project to explore some of the deepest, coldest and hottest places on the planet. The aim is to collect and screen samples of mud and sediment from huge, previously untapped, oceanic trenches, more than 8,000 meters deep.

The first field tests will be carried out shortly in the Atacama Trench in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile and Peru, and then the search will journey to the Arctic waters off Norway and the Antarctic via Italian and South African partners. Deep trenches will also be accessed off New Zealand and China.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/scientists-explore-deepest-coldest-hottest-places-earth

Research Focuses on Dairy’s Environmental Impact

Researchers at the Univ. of Arkansas are attempting to help the U.S. dairy industry decrease its carbon footprint as concentrations of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere reach record levels.

In 2007, Americans consumed approximately 17.4 million metric tons of fluid milk – milk consumed as a drink or with cereal, rather than milk used in dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream. The dairy industry has set a goal of 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/research-focuses-dairys-environmental-impact

Nature, Not Government, Should Cull Wild Horse Herds

A scathing independent scientific review of wild horse roundups in the West concludes the U.S. government should let nature cull the herds.

A 14-member panel assembled by the National Science Academy’s National Research Council, at the request of the Bureau of Land Management, concluded BLM’s removal of nearly 100,000 horses from the Western range over the past decade is probably having the opposite effect of its intention to ease ecological damage and reduce overpopulated herds.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/nature-not-government-should-cull-wild-horse-herds

Environmental Policies Bring Better Health, Lives to Europe

Europeans live longer and healthier lives than in the past, partly due to successful environmental policies that have reduced the exposure to harmful environmental contaminants in air, water and food, according to a new report. However, these contaminants are still a problem, and several new health risks are emerging, for example, from new chemicals, new products and changing lifestyle patterns.

Read complete report here: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/environmental-policies-bring-better-health-lives-europe

Image of the Week: Fish Use Light, Reflection as Camouflage

Fish can hide in the open ocean by manipulating how light reflects off their skin, according to researchers at The Univ. of Texas at Austin. The discovery could someday lead to the development of new camouflage materials for use in the ocean, and it overturns 40 years of conventional wisdom about fish camouflage.

The researchers found that lookdown fish camouflage themselves through a complex manipulation of polarized light after it strikes the fish skin. In laboratory studies, they showed that this kind of camouflage outperforms by up to 80 percent the “mirror” strategy that was previously thought to be state-of-the-art in fish camouflage.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/06/image-week-fish-use-light-reflection-camouflage

GPS Signal Shows Volcanic Plumes

Scientists may be able to track dangerous ash-filled clouds by using information similar to the bars showing signal strength on a cell phone.

The new technique analyzes the GPS’s “signal strength” - the intensity of a GPS signal – as it attempts to cut through a volcanic plume. The research was published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The dangerous particles within these plumes can clog an airplane’s engines and send it plummeting from the sky.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/gps-signal-shows-volcanic-plumes

Scientists Study Coastal Alaskan Mountains, Glaciers

Geologists aboard the scientific ocean drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution have embarked on their next adventure: studying glaciers to learn how Earth’s geologic processes relate to the planet’s climate history.

In the waters near Alaska’s stunning coastal glaciers, the researchers are on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 341: Southern Alaska Margin Tectonics, Climate and Sedimentation. The ship set sail from Victoria, British Columbia. The expedition will conclude on July 29, 2013.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/scientists-study-coastal-alaskan-mountains-glaciers

Nocturnal Ants Have a Hard Time Navigating

They may be creatures of the night, but Australian bull ants have trouble finding their way home in the dark.

Scientists at Australia’s Vision Centre (VC) and the Australian National Univ.’s Research School of Biology have found that bull ants that travel at night take much longer to reach home compared to those that return at dawn. The “night travelers” are also less likely to find their nests, the study shows.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/nocturnal-ants-have-hard-time-navigating

Algae Acts as Food for Starving Coral

All over the world, coral reefs, the elaborate graceful structures that serve as the infrastructure of tropical sea life, are turning a deathly white, bleached of all life, mortally wounded. When reefs die, the metropolis of teeming life that surrounds them disappears.

Scientists in Europe found that the bleaching process that kills the reefs is even more complex than they thought. While they were at it, they discovered that the relatively new scientific imaging technique they used to observe the dying reefs may have applications for all kinds of other research, including cancer treatment studies. Science sometimes works that way.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/algae-acts-food-starving-coral

CO2 Sequestration Technique Yields ‘Supergreen’ Hydrogen Fuel

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists have discovered and demonstrated a new technique to remove and store atmospheric carbon dioxide while generating carbon-negative hydrogen and producing alkalinity, which can be used to offset ocean acidification.

The team demonstrated, at a laboratory scale, a system that uses the acidity normally produced in saline water electrolysis to accelerate silicate mineral dissolution while producing hydrogen fuel and other gases. The resulting electrolyte solution was shown to be significantly elevated in hydroxide concentration that in turn proved strongly absorptive and retentive of atmospheric CO2.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/co2-sequestration-technique-yields-supergreen-hydrogen-fuel

Four Hundred-Year-Old Plants Reawaken After Thawing

When Catherine La Farge threads her way through the recently exposed terrain left behind by retreating glaciers, she looks at the ancient plant remains a lot closer than most. Now, her careful scrutiny has revealed a startling reawakening of long-dormant plants known as bryophytes.

La Farge, a researcher in the Faculty of Science, and director and curator of the Cryptogamic Herbarium at the Univ. of Alberta, has overturned a long-held assumption that all of the plant remains exposed by retreating polar glaciers are dead. Previously, any new growth of plants close to the glacier margin was considered the result of rapid colonization by modern plants surrounding the glacier.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/four-hundred-year-old-plants-reawaken-after-thawing