Environment

Although scientists have speculated over the negative effects of environmental toxins for years, new data suggest that certain environmental toxins may disrupt the normal growth and hormonal development of girls. Some of these toxins, such as the mycoestrogen zearalenone (ZEA) produced by the Fusarium fungus species, can be found naturally in the environment, have properties similar to the female reproductive hormone estrogen, and are also structurally similar to anabolic growth agents used in animal breeding. A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics suggests that…

Yulex Corporation, a Maricopa, Arizona company that develops clean technologies to derive bio-based materials and products including natural latex, rubber and renewable energy sources from the desert plant guayule (why-YOU-lee), has added two experts in its efforts to create new industrial products from the crop. Dr. Lauren Johnson, a leading expert in plant breeding, joins Yulex Corporation as Agricultural Research Director and Jim Mitchell joins as Senior Director of Technology Development respectively. Guayule produces a natural rubber with fewer proteins and does not produce the allergic…

There's renewed interested in guayule and lesquerella, two native Texas plants, said Dr. Mike Foster, a research scientist with the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Lubbock Texas AgriLife Research. Guayule produces a natural rubber with fewer proteins that does not produce the allergic reaction common rubber sometimes does. Lesquerella produces oil similar to that of castor. All U.S. castor oil is imported. Guayule for rubber “There are about 300 medical devices that require natural rubber,” he said. “Many occupations require people to wear gloves and the guayule natural…

We might think we control the climate but unless we harness the powers of our microbial co-habitants on this planet we might be fighting a losing battle. Humans mostly affect the atmosphere indirectly by our activities. Most human-induced methane comes from livestock, rice fields and landfill but in all of those places, microbes are actually responsible for producing the methane, 150 million tons per year. Microbes in wetlands produce an additional 100 million tons and those that live inside termites release 20 million tons of methane annually. 90 billion tons of carbon per year is absorbed…

In the most recent edition of the Lancet, Cambridge scientists Drs. Oliver Jones and Julian Griffin highlight the need to research the possible link between persistent organic pollutants (POPs, a group which includes many pesticides) and insulin resistance, which can lead to adult onset diabetes. In their commentary, Dr Jones and Dr. Griffin cite peer reviewed research, including that of Dr. D. Lee, et al, which demonstrated a very strong relationship between the levels of POPs in blood, particularly organochlorine compounds, and the risk of type 2 diabetes. “Of course correlation does not…

Baking soda is one of those wonder substances with useful applications far beyond simple baked goods. We all know we can open a box and leave it in our fridge to combat odors. But as a result of innovative work done by Skyonic Corporation in Texas, baking soda may become one of our greatest weapons against carbon emissions and global warming as well. Skyonic has developed a “post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration technology that works with any large-scale stationary CO2 emitter” (e.g.- coal, natural gas or oil fired power plant). The process removes heavy metals, acid gasses,…

The preservation of coastal ecosystem services such as clean water, storm buffers or fisheries protection does not have to be an all-or-nothing approach, a new study indicates, and a better understanding of how ecosystems actually respond to protection efforts in a “nonlinear” fashion could help lead the way out of environmental-versus-economic gridlock. There may be much better ways to provide the majority of environmental protection needed while still maintaining natural resource-based jobs and sustainable communities, scientists from 13 universities and research institutes will suggest…

Vegetable-tanned leather, a bio-diesel ready engine and sustainable carpet materials? It's the luxury SUV Leonardo DiCaprio won't be afraid to drive. The LRX hybrid cross-coupe concept is Land Rover's attempt to create a new market - expensive autos for progressive rich people. It's also the first all-new Land Rover since Gerry McGovern became the company's design director. LRX is conceived as being powered by a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel engine, capable of running on bio-diesel. In combination with other Land Rover technologies, this powertrain could reduce fuel consumption by as much as 30…

By any measure, Dr. Alan Grainger, Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Leeds, is an internationally-renowned expert on tropical deforestation. He is the author of numerous scientific papers since 1978 and a book, Controlling Tropical Deforestation, published in 1993. He gained his doctorate the University of Oxford in 1987 for producing the world's first global computer simulation model of the tropical forests. Yet all that will be called into question because he states in a study published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences that claims about tropical…

The loss of deep-sea species poses a severe threat to the future of the oceans, suggests a new report in Current Biology. In a global-scale study, the researchers found some of the first evidence that the health of the deep sea, as measured by the rate of critical ecosystem processes, increases exponentially with the diversity of species living there. “For the first time, we have demonstrated that deep-sea ecosystem functioning is closely dependent upon the number of species inhabiting the ocean floor,” said Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marche, in Italy. “This shows that…