Environment

ESA and friends are celebrating the success of the Living Planet program in Bergen Norway this week. It cannot be described as anything but a success actually, with a number of new advanced and innovative Earth observation satellites in orbit performing not only on target, but exceeding expectations. Earth observation from space 'celebrities' could not hide their pride when they presented the results thus far in the program. Satellites like GOCE (gravity field), CryoSat-2 (cryospheric observations), SMOS (water, salinity) were all launched the last couple of years and have started to deliver…

How do plants perceive environmental stress ? Biotic and abiotic stress induces plant response and before" dying" different levels of resistance is shown and finally plants are overcome with stress depending their level of genetic composition, environmental condition and strenght of the attacker.All efforts to arm the plants with constitutive or dynamic resistance are based on early perception and response to the attacker. Plants have some kind of "anti ballistic missile" or defence system which gets activated at the earliest and the "attacker"  is checked out or its effects…

Can elicitors like Chitosan elicite the same response as the stress signals in plants. How one can relate both the phenomenon. Do stress induced proteins also have a role in signal transduction

Sodium chloride or for that matter largely sodium acts as signal to activate various metabolic pathways in plants including response to stress. Human brain also has some kind of Sodium balance i.e. loss of electrolytes causes loss of memory and one goes to delerium .  I have seen with my own mother aged 84 lost her senses and it was disgnosed ( I am not doctor for that matter ) that her Sodium level was very low . Proper mix of electrolytes not only restored her brain and senses but she lived one full year. How do we relate Sodium response in plants and human brain. Will some doctor…

Arctic Tipping Points - #7: Can The Arctic Recover? In Arctic Tipping Points - #6: Are We There Yet? I attempted to show that there are multiple feedback mechanisms which are capable of causing a composite positive feedback effect in which Arctic sea ice once reduced beyond a limit will disperse very rapidly and will fail to recover. Since I published that Article - April 29 2010 - I have investigated the matter further.  Current satellite data and historical reports combine to suggest that this year's Arctic sea ice loss will be the greatest ever seen in human history. Throughout human…

J' Recuse! I must declare my interest right up front. I am deeply concerned that we are leaving behind us a legacy of planet-wide pollution and despoilation for those who follow us as custodians of our planet. I am not anti-oil.  I do, however, strongly favor regulation of the oil industry on the lines of the aviation industry. If the aviation regulators grounded all BritAv JingoJets after one such airliner lost its tail in midair, would anyone think it sane to seek a court injunction against that safety notice? U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman should have recused himself, rather than…

Arctic Ice June 2010 - Solstice Update This is an update to my articles Arctic Ice June 2010 and Arctic Ice June 2010 - Update, part of my ongoing series of articles about the Arctic. The NSIDC ice extent graph continues to show ice extent well below the 2007 levels. Reduced size image.  Source: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ It is not widely remembered today, but the most rapid and unusual ice loss in 2007 didn't begin until about July.  This year's ice loss didn't start to show up in graphs until the end of April, leading some bloggers to write about ice recovery and near-…

MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #3 This is part #3 of a brief explanation of the NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response System - Rapidfire - together with a Howto for citizen scientists.  The first parts were - MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #1MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #2 In this part, I'll show you some more tips on using the Arctic mosaic and images from the various bands available. Pinpointing the North Pole Why is this important?  If you can locate the pole in any downloaded near-real-time images, you can rotate any image to place North at the top,…

All one needs from fruits is their special taste. I very much like cherries of Germany in this season aAs  they are proper mix of sweet and sour which gives a special taste. What regulates their special taste . It could be enzymatic reactions or malic enzyme activity or some other enzymes of sucrose biosynthesis but how does nature perceive the signal to maintain particular taste. They shout in the market "Deutsche eardbearen"( please correct me if I spelled it wrong) among Italian , Spanian, or other countries. Deutsche eardbearen fetch more price and are sweeter. French wine is famous…

Ok, let me get one thing straight, Dogs are not responsible for global warming, humans are.  I realise there is a vocal minority out there who are climate deniers, Like the environment minister for the Saudi government.  Talk about a biased source, the total existence of the Saudi government is dependent on the sale of oil.   Unfortunately those deniers out there resort to misinformation, and ad hominem attacks on those who have done the research.  Take that climate gate fuss.  Ok, so the guy wrote some nasty emails (who hasn’t?)  how does that change the…