Put a plastic bag in your tank: Converting polyethylene waste into liquid fuel

Researchers in India have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products.

Researchers in India have developed a relatively low-temperature process to convert certain kinds of plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products. They report full details next month in the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management.

Many pundits describe the present time as the "plastic age" for good reason and as such we generate a lot plastic waste. Among that waste is the common polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which is used to make many types of container, medical and laboratory equipment, computer components and, of course, plastic bags. Recycling initiatives are in place in many parts of the world, but much of the polyethylene waste ends up in landfill, dispersed in the environment or in the sea.

Chemist Achyut Kumar Panda of Centurion University of Technology and Management Odisha, India is working with chemical engineer Raghubansh Kumar Singh of the National Institute of Technology, Orissa, India, to develop a commercially viable technology for efficiently rendering LDPE into a liquid fuel. Given that most plastics are made from petrochemicals, this solution to plastic recycling brings the life-cycle full circle allowing a second use as an oil substitute. The process could, if implemented on a large enough scale, reduce pressures on landfill as well as ameliorating the effects of dwindling oil supplies in a world with increasing demands on petrochemicals for fuel.

In their approach, the team heats the plastic waste to between 400 and 500 Celsius over a kaolin catalyst. This causes the plastic's long chain polymer chains to break apart in a process known as thermo-catalytic degradation. This releases large quantities of much smaller, carbon-rich molecules. The team used the analytical technique of gas chromatography coupled mass spectrometry to characterize these product molecules and found the components of their liquid fuel to be mainly paraffins and olefins 10 to 16 carbon atoms long. This, they explain, makes the liquid fuel very similar chemically to conventional petrochemical fuels.

In terms of the catalyst, Kaolin is a clay mineral -- containing aluminum and silicon. It acts as a catalyst by providing a large reactive surface on which the polymer molecules can sit and so be exposed to high temperature inside the batch reactor, which breaks them apart. The team optimized the reaction at 450 Celsius a temperature with the lowest amount of kaolin at which more than 70% of the liquid fuel is produced. In other words, for every kilogram of waste plastic they could produce 700 grams of liquid fuel. The byproducts were combustible gases and wax. They could boost the yield to almost 80% and minimize reaction times, but this required a lot more catalyst 1 kg of kaolin for every 2 kg of plastic.

Source: Inderscience Publishers

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The Loss of biodiversity limits toxin degradation

You might not think of microbes when you consider biodiversity, but it turns out that even a moderate loss of less than 5% of soil microbes may compromise some key ecosystem functions and could lead to lower degradation of toxins in the environment.

Research published today in the SfAM journal, Environmental Microbiology, reports that without a rich diversity of soil bacteria, specialized functions such as the removal of pesticide residues are not as effective.

Dr Brajesh Singh of the University of Western Sydney led the work, he said "If the ability of the ecosystem to remove toxins from the environment is reduced, there will be higher toxicity risks in the environment and for non-target organisms, including humans, from agricultural chemicals. It is likely that these contaminants will remain at higher levels in surface and underground water, as well. It is vital to gain a better understanding of the extent to which soil bacteria are involved in the removal of contaminants."

The reasons for, and extent of, the decline in microbial diversity in agricultural soils is likely to be complex. The team has looked specifically at long-term heavy metal pollution where metals such as cadmium, zinc, and copper build up in the environment, usually as a result of industrial use. Another source is from digested sewage sludge, which is spread in agriculture fields to supply nutrients to crops and improve soil fertility; the sludge has historically contained some heavy metals, which can become concentrated in the soil.

Although the concentration of heavy metal used this study was higher than the current EU limit, this study has confirmed that long-term exposure to such contaminants does reduce the diversity of bacteria in the soil.

With the global population set to reach nine billion by 2050, we face a challenge to feed an extra two billion mouths using the same resources that we have at present. Crop losses to pests and disease account for a large percentage of under-production and so giving up pesticides will be difficult. Similarly, the use of sludge as a fertilizer is likely to become more prevalent. Research like this allows us to understand better how to use important agrichemicals and waste products in a sustainable way and so will contribute to future food and environmental security.

Source: Wiley

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Bald reef gets new growth with seaweed transplant

Transplanted seaweed is attached to a reef by a team member. Credit: Image courtesy of University of New South Wales

Marine ecologists in Sydney have successfully restored a once thriving seaweed species, which vanished along a stretch of the city's coastline during the 1970s and 80s when there were high levels of sewage.

A team of researchers from UNSW, the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the NSW Department of Primary Industries has transplanted fertile specimens of the missing crayweed (Phyllospora comosa) onto two barren reef sites where it once grew abundantly.

They took seaweed from Palm Beach and Cronulla and transplanted it to Long Bay and Cape Banks. Their results are reported in the journal PLOS ONE.

"Seaweeds are the 'trees' of the oceans, providing habitat structure, food and shelter for other marine organisms, such as crayfish and abalone," says lead author, Dr Alexandra Campbell, from the UNSW Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation.

"The transplanted crayweed not only survived similarly to those in natural populations, but they also successfully reproduced. This creates the potential for a self-sustaining population at a place where this species has been missing for decades," she says.

Large brown seaweeds -- known as macroalgae -- along temperate coastlines, like those in NSW, also encourage biodiversity and are important to the region's fishing and tourism industries.
However, these seaweed ecosystems face increasing threats of degradation due to human impacts and ocean warming. The authors say the potential environmental and economic implications of losing these habitats would be comparable to the more highly publicised loss of Australia's tropical coral reefs.

In 2008, researchers from UNSW and the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) showed that a 70 km stretch of this important habitat-forming crayweed had vanished from the Sydney coast decades earlier, coinciding with a period known for high levels of sewage.

Despite improved water quality around Sydney after the introduction of better infrastructure in the 1990s, which pumped sewage into the deeper ocean, the 70 km gap of depleted 'underwater forest' -- between Palm Beach and Cronulla -- has never been able to recover naturally.

Now, with some well-executed intervention, it looks as though this habitat-forming crayweed could make a successful comeback in Sydney's coastal waters.

"This is an environmental good news story," says research supervisor UNSW Professor Peter Steinberg, Director of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

"This kind of restoration study has rarely been done in these seaweed-dominated habitats, but our results suggest that we may be able to assist in the recovery of underwater forests on Sydney's reefs, potentially enhancing biodiversity and recreational fishing opportunities along our coastline."

The researchers say their results could provide valuable insights for restoring similar macroalgae marine ecosystems in Australia and globally, but further research is needed to understand the complex processes that affect recruitment and survival.

This project was funded in part by a grant from the NSW Recreational Fishing Trust.


Source:  University of New South Wales

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Updating air pollution measurement methods

Launching a natural research experiment in Kathmandu, Nepal, this month using advanced monitoring methods to assess health risk from air pollution, environmental health scientist Rick Peltier at the University of Massachusetts Amherst hopes to demonstrate for the first time in a real-world setting that air pollution can and should be regulated based on toxicology variables rather than simply on the volume of particles in the air.

Recent technological advances in air quality measurement methods now make it possible and practical to monitor air pollution in a much more sophisticated way than before, Peltier says. Researchers now use X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to measure air pollution metal content, ion chromatography to identify other chemicals and other tactics to assess organic and elemental carbon levels.

Peltier says, "We're interested in how air pollution directly affects health. The current regulatory method doesn't take into account the relative toxicity of components, that is the specific chemical makeup of the air we breathe. There has been a void in the science in this field. But with this experiment, for the first time we'll have biological measurements coupled with high-quality air pollution measurements in a cohort of traffic police exposed to extreme levels of pollution."

At present, the Environmental Protection Agency monitors air quality components every three days at 350 stations across the United States, but there are no such sites in Nepal. Particulates are an important signature of traffic. A poor air quality day in Los Angeles may see 40-50 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter, Peltier says, while in Kathmandu the level can be 800-900, or about 20 times worse.

Ethically, the environmental scientist adds, it would be impossible to expose people to such pollution levels in a laboratory-based experiment, and ambient levels such as those typically observed in Kathmandu are never routinely encountered anywhere in the United States. Peltier and colleagues' study will take advantage of the fact that the traffic officers already are exposed to high air pollution levels in their normal workday.

Funded by a multinational partnership led by UMass Amherst and including the Himalayan region's Intergovernmental Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, the investigation will follow a cohort of 32 traffic control officers in Kathmandu during two seasons: Cold, dry winter from this month into March, with a second study in the hot, rainy monsoon season from June to August, when air pollution levels are lower.

Peltier observes that Nepal's capital city region has poor air quality because two-stroke gasoline and diesel engines, high pollutant emitters, are common. Also, people heat their homes with coal and kerosene and routinely burn garbage and tires outdoors. For the 3 million inhabitants this poses substantial, demonstrable health risks.

"Unfortunately, the Kathmandu metropolitan area has quite poor air quality, and it's in a valley so it is a persistent problem," he adds. "We hypothesize that toxicity is related to the chemical components of pollution. We know this is true in a Petri dish, but now we'll be able to measure it in study subjects."
Participants are 16 men and 16 women, 25 to 35 years old who have similar education and income levels. For a six-day work week, each will carry a small waist pack containing research-grade, solar-powered portable air samplers. The filters will be collected for airborne metals, ions, organic carbon and black carbon analysis. The experiment will include an intervention component, as well: For half of each study week, participants will wear high-quality, particle-filtering face masks that greatly reduce air pollution exposure.

In addition to the air filters, researchers will collect blood samples and ask the traffic officers to use a spirometer several times a day to assess lung function. Their location, activity and electrocardiogram will be continuously measured in both conditions: Breathing polluted air with and without protective face masks.

Air quality samples and the health measurement data will be analyzed at UMass Amherst and compared between the different exposure conditions. Peltier and his postdoctoral fellow Kabindra Shakya will collaborate with researcher Arnico Panday of ICIMOD, Kathmandu, which along with UMass Amherst supported the work, plus Maheswar Rupakheti of the sustainability institute in Potsdam.

Source: University of Massachusetts 

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The Science behind Hindu’s Four Ages (Chatur Yugas): Magnetogeddon may destroy the World!

Science behind Hindu’s Four Ages (Chatur Yugas): Magnetogeddon may destroy the world!

Research paper written by London Swaminathan

Research article No.1458; Dated  4th   December 2014.

The study of the earth’s magnetic field and the prediction about Magnetogeddon by the scientists justify the Hindus’ classification of Chatur Yugas. An interesting article reveals the science behind the Chatur Yugas

YugasWhat is Chatur Yuga/Four Ages?
Hindus have divided the ages of the world into four: Krita (4), Treta (3), Dwapara(2) and Kali (1).

Krita lasts for 1 ,728,000 years, Treta for 1296 000 years, Dwapara for 864,000 years and the last kali for 4,32,000 years. Four Yugas is Chatur Yuga in Sanskrit.8640,000,000 years make one Kalpa which is one day for Brahma, the Creator God, in Hinduism. He will live for 100 years like this. This cycle is never ending and the next Brhama takes over. 200 years ago it would not have made much sense. Now after the study of cosmology and the latest news about the Black Holes and other things show that the Hindus are the only one ancient race that understood the functioning of the Universe.

Hindus wrote in their scriptures that in between the Yugas there is an interval called Sandhya period and another as Sandhyansa period. Hindus also told that the time period for Devas, Gods and Humans are different.



What is Magnetogeddon?

Like Devas and Asuras churned the Milky Ocean, the earth’s stomach is also churned. When the molten iron bowel of the earth is churned, it inflates a magnetic bubble around our world. That protects us from the full radiation coming out of the sun.

 Now scientists are worried that this magnetic field is weakening and could soon flip out entirely. That means the magnetic North and South poles may trade places. European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites have been mapping the magnetic fields for the past several months. In the past 150 years the magnetic field has weakened 10 percent. This is an indication that the flip over is going to happen. That means North Pole will become South Pole and vice verse.

solar wind

Yuga= Change of Polarity

Geological evidence of preserved magnetic fields shows this happens every 400,000 years or so closer to the figure of Hindu’s 4,32,000 years of Kali Yuga. Hindus believe that the world will be destroyed at the end of Kali Yuga and then a new era will begin.

In the past, life has NOT been eradicated at the end of 400,000 years or so. But theoretically speaking extinction (MAGNETOGEDDON) is possible according to the scientists. Probably this is what Hindus meant the “destruction” at the end of each Chatur Yuga. When Krishna and Vyasa lived it was Dwapara Yuga. A great Mahabharata war occurred and Dharma and other rules changed, but the human beings survived.

Magnetic reversals don’t happen overnight. The process takes 1000 years to complete. Probably this is what Hindus called Yuga Sandhya (interval). The weakened field would expose us to higher levels of radiation, leaving power grids and satellites vulnerable

geomagnetic-field-orig

Earth is a Dynamo

Inside the earth there is molten iron. The churning of the core creates a magnetic field around the earth. (The churning is created by the rotation of the earth). This is what protects us from the Solar wind. If there is no magnetic field to protect us earth would have become desert like Mars. No life can exist.

Earth’s inner core is a 2400 km wide ball of solid iron with some nickel and sulphur and radioactive elements. Outer core is 6800 kms wide ball of liquid iron nickel and sulphur. The mantle is 2900 km deep mixture of semi molten rock. The crust is only 8 to 40 kms thick and we live on this crust. The earth is a magnetic dynamo. It is magnetic field generator.

After reading this bit of science we can sense some scientific truth in the Yuga classification and the interval periods between the Yugas. Scientists could study the weakening of magnetic fields or the flipping over (Change of polarity) by studying fossilised rocks.

Source for Science news: London metro with my interpretation of Chatur Yugas.

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Scientists uncover hidden river of rubbish threatening to devastate wildlife

The sheer amount of plastic recovered shows there is an unseen stream of rubbish flowing through London which could be a serious threat to aquatic wildlife. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Royal Holloway London

Thousands of pieces of plastic have been discovered, submerged along the river bed of the upper Thames Estuary by scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Natural History Museum.

The sheer amount of plastic recovered shows there is an unseen stream of rubbish flowing through London which could be a serious threat to aquatic wildlife. The findings, published online in Marine Pollution Bulletin, highlight the cause for concern, not only for ecosystems around the river but for the North Sea, in to which the Thames flows.

Using nets designed to catch Chinese mitten crabs, Royal Holloway and the Natural History Museum scientists documented rubbish collected during a three-month trial. More than 8,000 pieces of plastic were collected, including large numbers of cigarette packaging, food wrappers and cups, but more than a fifth of waste was made up of sanitary products.

Dr Dave Morritt, a Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology at Royal Holloway and co-author of the study says: "The unusual aspect of the study is that these nets are originally designed to trap fish and crabs moving along the river bed, so we can see that the majority of this litter is hidden below the surface. This underwater litter must be taken into account when predicting the amount of pollution entering our rivers and seas, not just those items that we can see at the surface and washed up on shore. The potential impacts this could have for wildlife are far reaching: not only are the species that live in and around the river affected, but also those in seas that rivers feed into."

The waste collected for the study is only a small snapshot of the volume of litter which may exist at the bottom of the Thames. Plastic bags and other large items were unlikely to get caught in the small nets so the true extent of the problem is still unknown.

Dr Paul Clark, a researcher, at the Natural History Museum and co-author of the study says: "All of this waste, which was mostly plastic, was hidden underwater so Londoners probably don't realise that it's there. Plastic can have a damaging impact on underwater life. Large pieces can trap animals but smaller pieces can be in advertently eaten. This litter moves up and down the river bed depending on tides. The movement causes the pieces of plastic to break down into smaller fragments. These are small enough to be eaten by even the smallest animals, which are in turn eaten by larger fish and birds. Once digested, plastic can release toxic chemicals which are then passed through the food chain. These toxic chemicals, in high doses, could harm the health of wildlife."

Scientists are increasingly pressing for changes to both policy and consumer behaviours, as the dangers of plastics become more apparent.

Source: University of Royal Holloway London

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Mining can damage fish habitats far downstream, study shows

In this image, acid is seeping from a Kentucky coal mine. 
Credit: Wesley Daniel, Michigan State University

Anglers across the nation wondering why luck at their favorite fishing spot seems to have dried up may have a surprising culprit: a mine miles away, even in a different state.

Scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) have taken a first broad look at the impacts of mines across the country- and found that mining can damage fish habitats miles downstream, and even in streams not directly connected to the mines.

The work is published in this week's issue of the journal Ecological Indicators.
"We've been surprised that even a single mine in headwaters might influence larger rivers miles downstream," said Wesley Daniel, a research associate at Michigan State University. "Mines have a much stronger influence on fishes than has been assumed. It's important, when considering the location of a new mine, to not just look local -- but look way downstream."

Mining occurs in every state for a variety of natural resources -- such as coal, precious metals, pebbles, sand and salt. Mining disrupts the environment around it, Daniel said. It can add sediments and chemicals to rivers, alter the flow of streams, lead to fewer forests in headwaters, and compact soil -- all of which can change fish habitats.

And what happens to the river or stream near the mine flows downstream and can wreak havoc on populations of trout or bass and the smaller fishes that they prefer, far from the mine's location. The study looked at areas throughout the eastern United States typically known for mining, such as Appalachia, but also included areas where little mining research has been done, such as Iowa and Illinois

Daniel works in the lab of Dana Infante, associate professor of fisheries and wildlife who studies the way landscape and land use affect water. Colleagues in her lab recently developed an algorithm capable of crunching the mountains of data that tell the connected stories of the nation's streams and rivers.

That algorithm has allowed Daniel to take a long look at how extensive the effects of mines on rivers can be. His conclusion calls mines a "regional stress" and cites the example of pollutants from a mine in a headwater stream in Kentucky disrupting the breeding grounds of bass in Tennessee rivers.
While large rivers can dilute the damage a mine may do, the small streams that feed into a watershed may be much more fragile.

"The quality of headwater streams will determine quality of rivers," Daniel said. "The condition of small streams that flow into larger rivers will affect downstream fish communities. Everything is cumulative -- again and again we can see that the effects of one mine can be associated with altered fish communities."

Along with Daniel and Infante, "Characterizing coal and mineral mines as a regional source of stress to stream fish assemblages" was written by Robert Hughes at Amnis Opes Institute; Yin-Phan Tsang, Daniel Wieferich, Kyle Herreman, Arthur Cooper and William Taylor at MSU; Peter Esselman at the U.S. Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Lizhu Wang of the International Joint Commission Great Lakes Regional Office in Detroit.

Infante, Tsang, Esselman and Taylor are affiliated with the MSU Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, an interdisciplinary research center that works in the innovative new field of coupled human and natural systems to find sustainable solutions that both benefit the environment and enable people to thrive.

The research was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Source: Michigan State University

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Laser from a plane discovers Roman goldmines in Spain

These are ancient goldmines in the Eria river valley, with channels and reservoirs for exploitation. The model generated with LiDAR data (left) allows these structures to be located on aerial photos (right). Credit: J. Fernández Lozano et al.

Hidden under the vegetation and crops of the Eria Valley, in León (Spain), there is a gold mining network created by the Romans two thousand years ago, as well as complex hydraulic works, such as river diversions, to divert water to the mines of the precious metal. Researchers from the University of Salamanca made the discovery from the air with an airborne laser teledetection system.

Las Médulas in León is considered to be the largest opencast goldmine of the Roman Empire, but the search for this metal extended many kilometres further south-east to the Erica river valley. Thanks to a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) laser system attached to an aircraft, the ancient mining works of the area and the complex hydraulics system used by the Romans in the 1st century BC to extract gold (including channels, reservoirs and a double river diversion) have been discovered.

"The volume of earth exploited is much greater than previously thought and the works performed are impressive, having achieved actual river captures, which makes this valley extremely important in the context of Roman mining in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula," as Javier Fernández Lozano, geologist at the University of Salamanca and co-author of this study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, said.

The specialists consider that the systems for the transport and storage of water were copied from those already existing in North Africa, where the Egyptians had been employing them for centuries. Some details of the methodology used appear in texts such as those of the Pliny the Elder, the Roman procurator in charge of overseeing mining in Hispania.

"We have established that the labour that went into extracting the resource until its exhaustion was so intensive that after removing the gold from surface sediments, operations continued until reaching the rocks with the auriferous quartz veins underneath," explains Fernández Lozano.

The researcher stresses that the real discoverer was the LiDAR technology: "Unlike traditional aerial photography, this airborne laser detection system allows the visualisation of archaeological remains under vegetation cover or intensely ploughed areas."

From aircraft or drones
LiDAR comprises a laser sensor which scans the ground from an aircraft or drone with geographical references provided by GPS ground stations. The data obtained is represented by point clouds, which are processed with a piece of software to construct a cartographic model where the forms are identified, such as old reservoirs or channels.

This technology was developed by NASA in the sixties to analyse the retreating sea ice in the Arctic and composition of the oceans. Since then their use has been extended to topography, cadastral mapping, geology and archaeology. According to the authors, the study of Roman mining in the Eria valley is the first piece of 'geo-archaeology' performed with LiDAR in Spain.

"Our intention is to continue working with this technique to learn more about mineral mining in the Roman Empire and clear up any mysteries such as why Rome abandoned such a precious resource as gold from one day to the next," concludes the researcher.

Source: Plataforma SINC

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Out of India: Finding the origins of horses, rhinos

An artist’s depiction of Cambaytherium thewissi. Credit: Elaine Kasmer

Working at the edge of a coal mine in India, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers and colleagues have filled in a major gap in science's understanding of the evolution of a group of animals that includes horses and rhinos. That group likely originated on the subcontinent when it was still an island headed swiftly for collision with Asia, the researchers report Nov. 20 in the online journal Nature Communications.

Modern horses, rhinos and tapirs belong to a biological group, or order, called Perissodactyla. Also known as "odd-toed ungulates," animals in the order have, as their name implies, an uneven number of toes on their hind feet and a distinctive digestive system. Though paleontologists had found remains of Perissodactyla from as far back as the beginnings of the Eocene epoch, about 56 million years ago, their earlier evolution remained a mystery, says Ken Rose, Ph.D., a professor of functional anatomy and evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Rose and his research team have for years been excavating mammal fossils in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, but in 2001 he and Indian colleagues began exploring Eocene sediments in Western India because it had been proposed that perissodactyls and some other mammal groups might have originated there. In an open-pit coal mine northeast of Mumbai, they uncovered a rich vein of ancient bones. Rose says he and his collaborators obtained funding from the National Geographic Society to send a research team to the mine site at Gujarat in the far Western part of India for two weeks at a time once every year or two over the last decade.

The mine yielded what Rose says was a treasure trove of teeth and bones for the researchers to comb through back in their home laboratories. Of these, more than 200 fossils turned out to belong to an animal dubbed Cambaytherium thewissi, about which little had been known. The researchers dated the fossils to about 54.5 million years old, making them slightly younger than the oldest known Perissodactyla remains, but, Rose says, it provides a window into what a common ancestor of all Perissodactyla would have looked like. "Many of Cambaytherium's features, like the teeth, the number of sacral vertebrae, and the bones of the hands and feet, are intermediate between Perissodactyla and more primitive animals," Rose says. "This is the closest thing we've found to a common ancestor of the Perissodactyla order."

Cambaytherium and other finds from the Gujarat coal mine also provide tantalizing clues about India's separation from Madagascar, lonely migration, and eventual collision with the continent of Asia as Earth's plates shifted, Rose says. In 1990, two researchers, David Krause and Mary Maas of Stony Brook University, published a paper suggesting that several groups of mammals that appear at the beginning of the Eocene, including primates and odd- and even-toed ungulates, might have evolved in India while it was isolated. Cambaytherium is the first concrete evidence to support that idea, Rose says. But, he adds, "It's not a simple story."

"Around Cambaytherium's time, we think India was an island, but it also had primates and a rodent similar to those living in Europe at the time," he says. "One possible explanation is that India passed close by the Arabian Peninsula or the Horn of Africa, and there was a land bridge that allowed the animals to migrate. But Cambaytherium is unique and suggests that India was indeed isolated for a while."

Rose said his team was "very fortunate that we discovered the site and that the mining company allowed us to work there," although he added, "it was frustrating to knowing that countless fossils were being chewed up by heavy mining equipment." When coal extraction was finished, the miners covered the site, he says. His team has now found other mines in the area to continue digging.

Source:  Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Artisanal gold mining and its health risks

searchers from the UPM have characterized the health risks derived from the usage of mercury in artisanal gold mining in Colombia through probabilistic models.

Researchers from the UPM have characterized the health risks derived from the usage of mercury in artisanal gold mining in Colombia through probabilistic models.

The tools developed by researchers from the Environmental Geochemistry Research and Engineering Laboratory (LI2GA) of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) have given evidences of their quantitative efficiency to problems about occupational and environmental exposures to pollutants. These tools will allow researchers to categorize risk situations and to give priority to the intervention performances, especially in regions with limited financial resources where is more complex to conduct rigorous clinical studies.

Artisanal gold mining is common in Latin-American regions, Africa and Southeast Asia where there are large socio-economic inequalities and active or abandoned goldfields. This activity is performed outside of the workplace health and safety regulations. Therefore, miners can be at risk due to possible accidents during the exploitation of deposits and due to chronic exposure to mercury. This risk of mercury poisoning is not just limited to workers but also the entire population of the mining communities.

Mercury is a toxic element that can cause neurological disorders in humans or other organism. Common exposures include inhalation of elemental mercury or consumption of fish contaminated with mercury. Mercury from artisanal gold mining is used to concentrate gold in an amalgam of both elements. Later, it is burned in order to rid of the mercury and to recover the gold. During this amalgamation process, accidental and intentional discharges of mercury can occur.

Mercury eventually ends up in nearby rivers and, consequently, in the fish tissues. The problem is that fish constitutes an essential part of the diet for the mining communities included in this research. Likewise, amalgam burning is made in small workshops, sometimes in houses. All this can cause mercury pollution in the air of workplaces, houses and outer areas of these communities.

Researchers from LI2GA of UPM collected data about biometrics, lifestyle and consumption of 12 gold mining departments in Colombia. They also collected mercury concentration air data of in the amalgamation workshops, air data of the roads of these mining communities and also data of the diverse fish species of the area.

All this data along with the quantitative data of potential toxicity of mercury were conducted by probabilistic risk assessment. The results unveiled the mercury exposure dose in these mining communities exceeded the admissible values, even reaching 200 times higher of the reference values in certain maximum exposure situations.

The general population is also exposed to unacceptable risk to health (up to 50 times higher than the recommended values) due to consumption of contaminated fish and breathing mercury vapor in the air.

The probabilistic risk assessment cannot replace the clinical research to control public health and intervention. However, it can be a useful tool to characterize and to highlight these problems in order to give priority to corrective performances.

Source:  Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

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Mapping reveals targets for preserving tropical carbon stocks

This is an image from the Peru-wide, high-resolution carbon map showing the effects of deforestation (blue; no more carbon remaining) into a region of ultra-high carbon stocks in the surrounding forest (red). You can see massive losses in the bustling city of Pucallpa (right side) and the thousands of small farmers spreading into the forest to the west of Pucallpa. Image courtesy of Greg Asner. Credit: Greg Asner

A new high-resolution mapping strategy has revealed billions of tons of carbon in Peruvian forests that can be preserved as part of an effort to sequester carbon stocks in the fight against climate change. Tropical forests convert more carbon from the atmosphere into biomass than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. However, when land is used for agriculture, as a wood source, or for mining, carbon is often released into the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change. Tropical deforestation and forest degradation account for about 10 percent of the world's carbon emissions annually.

There remain major challenges to conserving the carbon that's stored in these tropical landscapes on a national and international scale. A team led by Carnegie's Greg Asner developed a new high-resolution approach for prioritizing carbon conservation efforts throughout tropical countries. Their findings are published the week of November 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team of authors emphasized that the low cost of conducting their project means that the same approach can be rapidly implemented in any country, thereby supporting both national and international commitments to reduce and offset carbon emissions.

Many of the geographic details about the carbon that's stored in tropical forest ecosystems remain unknown. In order for people involved in conservation efforts to select new areas in which carbon stocks can be best protected and enhanced, detailed information on which areas would make the best targets for protection are necessary. This means understanding each landscape's climate, topography, geology, and hydrology.

Using advanced three-dimensional forest mapping data provided by the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO), integrated with satellite imaging data, the team was able to create a map of carbon density throughout the 128 million hectare (320 million acre) country of Peru, at a resolution of one hectare (2.5 acres).

"We found that nearly a billion metric tons of above-ground carbon stocks in Peru are at imminent risk for emission into the atmosphere due to land uses such as fossil fuel oil exploration, cattle ranching, oil palm plantations and gold mining," Asner said. "The good news is that our high-resolution mapping was able to identify three strategies for offsetting these upcoming emissions."
The team determined that there are opportunities to establish additional protected areas in some lowland Amazonian regions of Peru, where they found very high carbon densities, as well as in the so-called sub-montane region, which exists between the lowland Amazonian and Andean highland regions. Together the lowland Amazonian and sub-montane forests offer about 30 million hectares for potential new protected forest areas, which may be able to store close to 3 billion metric tons of carbon.

"Research is necessary to determine the exact state of our forests," stated Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru's Minister of Environment, "For that, the Carnegie Institution, with the support of the Peruvian Environment Ministry, has developed the first high-resolution map of Peru's carbon stocks. This new map provides the evidence needed to start negotiating in the carbon market at a bigger scale. Our government is also studying carbon stocks in the soil, and is doing a forest inventory, and we have a forest investment program. These initiatives will better prepare us to face changes in land use."
The team also asserted that there are further opportunities for offsetting future emissions by improving enforcement in areas that are already designated for protection of carbon stocks. According to their research, the majority of already protected carbon stocks exist only in 10 parks and reserves, and just four of these are fully enforced.

"Transitioning partially protected preserves to fully protected ones would help to counterbalance a great deal of the carbon that is expected to be lost due to land use in the near future," Asner said.

Source:  Carnegie Institution

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New laws threaten Brazil's unique ecosystems

Brazil's globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead, according to researchers publishing in the journal Science this week. Credit: Alexander C. Lees

Brazil´s globally significant ecosystems could be exposed to mining and dams if proposals currently being debated by the Brazilian Congress go ahead, according to researchers publishing in the journal Science this week.

The new report by a group of Brazilian and British researchers comes in the wake of Brazil´s recent presidential elections. It warns that new legislation could pose a serious threat to protected areas, weakening Brazil's international status as an environmental leader.

One of the proposals of particular concern is the call to open up 10% of the most strictly protected areas to mining. In a new analysis, the research shows that at least 20% of all Brazil´s most strictly protected areas and reserves for indigenous people overlap with areas that have been registered as under consideration for mining. In addition, many of the river systems associated with protected areas will be influenced by the construction of large hydroelectric dams.

The threat that this mining and hydropower poses to Brazil's ecosystems is not trivial. Areas of registered interest for mining include 34,117 km2 that are currently classified as strictly protected areas -- including National Parks, Biological Reserves and Wildlife Refuges. This is equivalent to an area the size of Switzerland. The situation is worse for indigenous lands, 28% of which, or 281,443 km2, overlap with areas of registered mining interest -- an area larger than the whole of the UK or the state of São Paulo.

In recent years Brazil has enjoyed increasing recognition as a world leader in combatting environmental destruction. Brazil´s protected area network is the largest in the world, while improved environmental governance in private lands has contributed to an 80% reduction in the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon over the last decade. Yet these new proposals could threaten these recent successes and undermine Brazil's reputation.

Dr Joice Ferreira, a scientist at Brazil´s agricultural research institute, Embrapa, and lead author of the study, said: "The purpose of this analysis is not to say that Brazil´s development should not benefit from its abundant natural resources, but that we should not squander our hard-won record of success and leadership in favor of fast-tracked and poorly planned development projects that leave a long legacy of environmental damage. It is possible to manage our development in a more sustainable way."

Co-author Dr Jos Barlow, a researcher at Lancaster University and a visiting professor in Brazil, said: "Rather than exploiting protected areas for short-term gains, Brazil should treasure them for the long-term benefits they can provide to society. The recent water shortages in the south east of Brazil emphasize the importance of protecting native vegetation across the country."

The authors of the study also warn that the proposals for minimizing and mitigating the environmental damage of large-scale development projects are so inadequate that even if only a fraction of these mining concessions were approved then the impacts could be enormous, especially in Brazil´s most threatened ecosystems.

Dr. Luiz Aragão a co-author of the study from Brazil´s federal space agency, INPE and the University of Exeter said: "Our concern is that even if the proposed mitigation actions were put in place they are oversimplified because they fail to take account of the indirect effects of mega-projects.
"These projects can involve thousands of workers and lead to rapid local population growth. This, combined with new roads and access routes, is a recipe for the emergence of new deforestation frontiers." explains Luiz.

The study highlights the fact that these worrying changes reflect an important shift in the support shown by Brazil´s federal government to environmental protection. These concerns come on the back of other recent changes, including the partial dismantling of Brazil´s protected area system to make way for development -- with some 44,100 km2 lost since 2008 due to downsizing or abolishment -- and the weakening of the Forest Code that gave an amnesty to landowners who deforested illegally in the past.

"Beyond the conservation and stewardship of its own biodiversity and environmental resources, so vital to the wellbeing of its citizens, Brazil plays a vital role in motivating and supporting the adoption of more sustainable development trajectories around the world," said Toby Gardner, of Stockholm Environment Institute, one of the authors of the study who has worked in the country for more than a decade. "Yet this standing is now in jeopardy."

Dr Joice Ferreira said: "The newly elected government has the chance to set the record straight and point Brazil firmly on a path of sustainable development. The authors of this report call on President Dilma and her government to ensure that individual development initiatives are subject to a comprehensive, socially inclusive, evidence-based and long-term cost-benefit analysis that compares potential environmental and social impacts against alternative development options. And also to ensure that Brazil´s renowned protected area network is given the resources it needs to manage our ecosystems sustainably.

"Above all we ask the Government to guarantee that important decisions regarding the management of Brazil´s natural resources involve the full and democratic participation of Brazilian society."

Source: Lancaster University

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A fraction of the global military spending could save the planet's biodiversity, say experts: Only one in four protected areas is well managed

This image shows Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. A fundamental step-change involving an increase in funding and political commitment is urgently needed to ensure that protected areas deliver their full conservation, social and economic potential, according to an article published today in Nature by experts from Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Credit: Julie Larsen Maher, copyright WCS

A fundamental step-change involving an increase in funding and political commitment is urgently needed to ensure that protected areas deliver their full conservation, social and economic potential, according to an article published today in Nature by experts from Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

The paper, The performance and potential of protected areas, comes ahead of the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 -- a once-in-a-decade global forum on protected areas opening next week in Sydney, Australia.

According to the authors, allocating US$45 -- $76 billion to protected areas annually -- just 2.5% of the global annual military expenditure -- could help adequately manage those areas, ensuring their potential contribution to the well-being of the planet is fully met.

Many threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, the tiger, and all rhinoceros species, as well as numerous plants, reptiles and amphibians, survive thanks to protected areas. Well-managed marine protected areas contain more than five times the total large fish biomass and 14 times the shark biomass compared with fished areas.

"Protected areas offer us solutions to some of today's most pressing challenges" says Dr James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society and The University of Queensland and lead author of the study. "But by continuing with 'business as usual', we are setting them up for failure. A step-change in the way we value, fund, govern and manage those areas is neither impossible nor unrealistic and would only represent a fraction of what the world spends annually on defense."

According to the latest data, protected areas cover around 15% of land and 3% of oceans. Experts warn, however, that despite the significant increase in their coverage over the past century, this is still short of the global 2020 targets to protect at least 17% of land and 10% of oceans. Many ecosystems remain poorly conserved because protected areas do not always encompass the most important areas for biodiversity.

In addition, the vast majority of existing protected areas that are well placed do not have sufficient resources to be effective, with some studies finding as few as one quarter of them are being effectively managed. Growing threats from climate change and the escalating poaching crisis place additional pressures on protected areas globally.

"Some of the most iconic protected areas, such as Ecuador's Galapagos National Park, are undergoing significant degradation, partly due to an inability to manage them effectively," says Professor Marc Hockings of The University of Queensland,co-author of the study and member of the IUCN WCPA. "But governments cannot be solely responsible for ensuring that protected areas fulfill their potential. We need to find new, innovative ways to fund and manage them, actively involving government, business and community groups."

The paper also highlights an alarming increase in governments -- in both developing and developed countries -- backtracking on their commitments through funding cuts and changes in policy. A recent global analysis has documented 543 instances where protected areas saw their status downgraded or removed altogether.

For example, recent cuts to the Parks Canada budget have reduced conservation spending by 15%¬. In Uganda, active oil exploration and development is occurring inside many protected areas, including Murchison Falls National Park. In Indonesia, in 2010, mining permits were issued inside 481,000 hectares of protected areas and in the Virgin Komi Forests in Russia, significant boundary changes have been made to reserves such as the Yugyd Va National Park to allow mining. The Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman was removed from the World Heritage List after the government reduced the size of the reserve by 90% to allow for oil and gas extraction.

"There is a fundamental need for an increase in support of global protected areas, including better recognition, funding, planning and enforcement" says Nigel Dudley, co-author of the paper, from Equilibrium Research and The University of Queensland, member of the IUCN WCPA. "It is government's responsibility to step up but there is also the need for the wider community to take collective responsibility for protected areas."

Protected areas conserve biodiversity and sustain a large proportion of the world's poorest people by providing them with food, water, shelter and medicine. They play a key part in climate change mitigation and adaptation and bolster national economies through tourism revenues. In Rwanda, for example, tourism revenue from visits to see mountain gorillas inside Volcanoes National Park is now the country's largest source of foreign exchange, raising US$200 million annually. In Australia, the 2012-2013 budget for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was approximately AUS$50 million, but tourism to the reef was worth more than A$5.2 billion annually to the Australian economy.

"The growth of the modern global protected area movement over the last 100 years is arguably the greatest conservation achievement," says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General. "It is also increasingly important for livelihoods and global security. The key now is for countries to recognize the return on investment that protected areas offer and realize that those places are fundamental to the future of life on earth. This is exactly what we hope to achieve at the upcoming IUCN World Parks Congress."

Effective management of protected areas, the threats they face and the solutions they offer to today's global challenges will be discussed at the IUCN World Parks Congress taking place in Sydney from 12 to 19 November 2014.

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

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Carbon dioxide converted into a valuable resource

Arshe Said, postgraduate researcher at Aalto University, operating a pilot plant that converts CO2 and slag into Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC). Credit: Image courtesy of Aalto University

Researchers at Aalto University have opened a pilot plant that converts CO2 and slag, the by-product of steel manufacturing, into a valuable mineral product. The product, Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC), is used in e.g. plastics, papers, rubbers and paints. The innovative plant represents the next stage prior commercialization of a new process that consumes CO2 in order to convert a low-value by-product into a highly valuable resource for industry.

The potential economic and environmental benefits of this new technology are significant. "We are turning the industrial solid by-product from steel-manufacturing into a product which is 50 times more valuable," says Arshe Said, a postgraduate researcher at Aalto University. "Also, this process actually consumes CO2 and acts as a CO2 sink which benefits the environment greatly."

Current methods of PCC production require burning large amounts of limestone. "The conventional method involves large mining activities and has high CO2 emissions," points out Sanni Eloneva, D.Sc. (Tech).

Carbon intensive manufacturing industries are coming under increasing pressure from bodies such as the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "We believe this pilot plant will help to efforts by these industries to conform with government imposed emissions and waste targets," explains Professor Mika Järvinen.

In 2010, 13% of the total steel slag produced in Europe (16 Mt) went to the landfill. "In theory, if all the calcium in this steel slag could be recovered, approximately 13 Mt PCC/year could be produced, simultaneously sequestering nearly 6 Mt CO2/year," Järvinen continues.

The highly promising new technology also has other potential advantages. "We are currently investigating the possibility of extracting other valuable materials from the slag after the extraction of calcium," says Said.

The pilot PCC plant is now running in Otaniemi campus of Aalto University. The method used in the pilot is based on the patent owned by Aalto University Foundation together with Åbo Akademi and Rautaruukki Oyj (now part of SSAB).

Source:  Aalto University

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Better regulations needed for deep-sea biology

Deep-sea biology. Credit: Image courtesy of Radboud University Nijmegen

Although we know relatively little about the deep sea, we do extract raw materials for electronics and medicines from it. Biologist Erik Dücker describes the history of deep-sea biology in his thesis. He also gives some pointers on policy and on how to protect this remarkable but rather inaccessible area. He will receive his PhD at Radboud University on 23 September.

Deep-sea biology involves doing research below a depth of one thousand metres. 'The upper thousand metres and the seabed are familiar areas, since they are relatively easy to research', Dücker explains, 'but we are very much in the dark, literally and metaphorically, about the area in between. Deep-sea research is extremely expensive and complicated. Just one expedition day costs $30,000. However, the field biologists that do go down to that depth discover new species on every expedition. So the prospects for new knowledge are good.'

Harvesting manganese nodules from the deep sea
Such prospects make it essential to have a clear policy. Industries like deep-sea mining will do anything to obtain licences to exploit the area, while the consequences of mining remain underexplored. For example, they want to harvest manganese nodules from the seabed. These 'lumps' have taken millions of years to grow and contain traces of the valuable rare-earth metals used to produce electronic appliances like iPhones. Inactive hydrothermal vents -- cracks in the Earth's crust -- contain such metals too.

Policy on rare-earth metals
At present, 95% of rare-earth metals come from China. Buyers (mainly Western countries) are therefore looking for alternative sources. Many have set their sights on the deep sea. However, 'harvesting manganese nodules is anything but sustainable. They are not replaceable because nodule formation is the slowest geological process we know. In addition, harvesting is technically difficult and expensive, so for a long time it was thought to be impossible. Nevertheless, experts expect this harvesting to happen on a larger scale within the next ten years, so we quickly need to agree on ways of doing this properly.'

Double role for deep-sea biologists
Dücker hopes his thesis will make policymakers realise that they not only have to protect the deep sea but also the deep-sea biologists. 'There are few deep-sea biologists, so they often have a double role. Governments as well as companies and environmental protectionists ask them to do research and to gather information. They have a heavy responsibility to deal fairly with conflicting interests and to remain autonomous.'

Source:  Radboud University Nijmegen

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The Philippine tarsier: Genetic proof of a new variety

It’s not a monkey. It’s not a lemur. It’s not an African Bush Baby or even a Madagascan Mouse. Meet the Philippine tarsier: a tiny, adorable and downright “cool” primate from Southeast Asia. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Kansas

It's not a monkey. It's not a lemur. It's not an African Bush Baby or even a Madagascan Mouse. Meet the Philippine tarsier: a tiny, adorable and downright "cool" primate from Southeast Asia.

"It's really not like any animals that Americans are familiar with," said Rafe Brown, curator-in-charge at the University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute. "A tarsier has giant eyes and ears; an extremely cute, furry body; a long tail with a furry tuft at the end; and interesting expanded fingers and toe tips that look a bit like the disks on the digits of tree frogs."

Brown said the tarsier (tar-SEER) has become the "flagship" iconic species for promoting environmental stewardship and ecotourism in the Philippines, a nation suffering from large-scale destruction of natural habitat.

"They're threatened with habitat loss due to development, mining and deforestation from the timber industry," Brown said. "On Bohol, where they are a big part of the tourist economy, literally thousands of animals are taken out of the wild, essentially harassed by tourists, and die in captivity due to the stress and inability of their captors to feed them an appropriate diet of live small animals. Tarsiers must eat an enormous amount every night to fuel their high metabolism."

Because of threats to the tarsier, conservation efforts are mounting for the charismatic animal. But these have been thwarted by a lack of research: Too little has been known about the tarsier's taxonomic diversity; there have been too few field studies; and a scarcity of genetic samples and voucher specimens in biodiversity repositories has left advocates of the tarsier in the dark. In short, to save the tarsier, experts have needed to know much more about the species.

"Basically, we can not legally protect something if we do not know that it exists," Brown said.
Today, research by Brown and colleagues published by the journal PLOS ONE will shed new light on the animal's genetic diversity and distribution. Additionally, the KU researchers have verified the presence of a new variety of tarsier, one heretofore only suspected to exist -- the Dinagat-Caraga tarsier.

"Previously tarsiers were one species, divided into three named subspecies," Brown said. "Our data disagree with that subspecies arrangement and instead demonstrate that the Philippine tarsiers are divided into three genetic units -- but these units are from different localities than the named taxa. So our data provide an objective way to restructure conservation efforts and point the resources where they need to go, in order to really have an effective impact on preserving genetic diversity in the group."

Brown's student Anthony Barley performed genetic sequencing of the tarsiers' mitochondrial DNA at KU, while fellow student Karen Olsen characterized the nuclear microsatellite loci variation of the animals.

According to Brown, the results "tell us that we need a protected area -- such as a national park -- in the ranges of each of the genetic units if our goal is to maximally preserve the genetic underpinnings of that biodiversity. Currently, the newly discovered entity, the Dinagat-Caraga tarsier, has no protection. It is known from a small island that is being extremely heavily mined. Thus, it emerges as a new lineage -- and a new major conservation urgency."

They question of just how many Philippine tarsiers exist has been "left sort of hanging" for 25 years until now, according to the researcher. The newly discovered Dinagat Island and Caraga Region tarsier was first recognized as possibly distinct by the Filipino biologist Dioscoro Rabor in the 1970s, and now is confirmed by the KU genetic analysis.

"The confirmation of Rabor's early suspicions about the Dinagat Island tarsier population was extremely exciting, and it was very satisfying to affirm his very perceptive early observations," Brown said. "He commented that it looked larger to him and had different shaped fingers and toes. I'm just glad we were able to bring new, modern tools to this problem and identify the Dinagat-Caraga tarsier as a real conservation priority."

Brown and Filipino colleagues have called for the establishment of separate tarsier sanctuaries and protection programs within the range of "at least" the three genetic entities established by the research at the Biodiversity Institute. Each, he said, merits unique strategies and programs, along with identification and remediation of conservation threats -- for instance "mining in Dinagat versus unregulated tourist industry on Bohol," he said.

To do less, Brown said, would harm the tarsier's long-term prospects, potentially depriving the Philippines and the rest of the world of one of nature's most charming and curious mammals.

"They move very rapidly and jump from tree trunk to tree trunk with 'ricochet locomotion,'" Brown said. "They bounce from small sapling trunk to trunk, then leap down to pounce on their prey. They're completely carnivorous. This is relatively unique among primates. The tarsier is famous for not eating any vegetable material of any kind. They eat insects, small snakes, lizards, small mammals and birds. They communicate with ultrasonic calls outside the range of human hearing. The tarsier is so cool!"

Source: University of Kansas

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Uranium exposure, skin cancer: Study may help explain link

Diane Stearns and NAU nursing student, Janice Wilson. Credit: Diane Stearns

After years of delving deep into DNA and researching ways in which metal damage may lead to cancer, a team of researchers is taking a step back to look at the surface where one answer may have been all along.

The varying health risks from exposure to natural uranium are well established, but Diane Stearns, professor of biochemistry at Northern Arizona University, and her team have been trying to determine if there is a link between uranium exposure and skin cancer, stating that skin may have been overlooked in the past.

In a recent article published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, the NAU team shared results from a study that explored photoactivation of uranium as a means to increase its toxicity and ability to damage DNA.

"Our hypothesis is that if uranium is photoactivated by UV radiation it could be more harmful to skin than either exposure alone," Stearns said.

Through the study, the team found that once uranium was present in the skin, exposure to UV radiation or sunlight could be chemically toxic and lead to cancerous lesions. The team members recommend that future risk assessments regarding cancer caused by uranium exposure include the possibility of photoactivation in skin.

They also propose that photoactivated uranium exposure could be even more harmful in cells that can't repair the damage on their own. Stearns explained such cases are found in individuals with Xeroderma Pigmentosum or XP, a disease that causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight.

Through research into the XP cell lines, the team discovered regional relevance for the study. The disease is prevalent on the Navajo Nation, a site of historically high levels of uranium mining and processing in the Southwest.

The 2012 documentary Sun Kissed further piqued the researchers' curiosity. The film cites the incidence of XP in the general population as one in 1 million, yet cases increase significantly to one in 30,000 in the Navajo population.

Stearns believes there may be implications that should be taken into consideration for a population like the Navajo community with carriers of XP mutations and relatively high exposure to uranium and the sun.

"We just want to make people aware that uranium exposure could contribute to skin cancer and could also be exacerbating XP," Stearns said.

Stearns said as she looks to the future, she hopes to fine-tune her understanding of the photoactivation mechanism and how it is damaging DNA. "We have predicted the link but now we would like to study it step by step to establish an even stronger connection."

Together with her Navajo students at NAU, she also hopes to determine whether the old uranium mines might explain the increase in cancer and what is being called a sudden emergence of XP on the Navajo Nation.

"I've had several Navajo students come to me because they found out I was doing uranium research and they had a relative who died of cancer and always wondered if it was uranium," Stearns said. "It's been a really personal way for them to see the value in scientific research because it can directly relate to their community."

Source: Northern Arizona University

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Heavy metals and hydroelectricity

August 2014 GSA Today cover image: The northeastern shoreline of Lake Junín, Peru. The pristine water surface belies a high level of heavy metal contamination of surface sediments. Credit: Donald T. Rodbell

Hydraulic engineering is increasingly relied on for hydroelectricity generation. However, redirecting stream flow can yield unintended consequences. In the August 2014 issue of GSA Today, Donald Rodbell of Union College-Schenectady and coauthors from the U.S. and Peru document the wholesale contamination of the Lake Junín National Reserve by acid mine drainage from the Cerro de Pasco mining district.

According to the World Bank, about 60% of Peru's electricity is generated by hydropower, which during the dry season relies heavily on glacial meltwater to augment stream flow. The ongoing reduction in ice cover in Peru that began early in the twentieth century has reduced the aerial extent of glacial ice in some areas by nearly 30%. According to this GSA Today article, climate models project that warming will be pronounced in the highest elevation regions of the tropical Andes, and thus acceleration in ice loss is likely.

To maintain dry-season river discharge and energy generation for a growing Peruvian population, the hydropower industry in Peru has turned to hydraulic engineering, including dam construction. This study highlights an unintended consequence of early dam construction in the Cerro de Pasco region of the central Peruvian Andes, a region that has been a focal point of Peruvian mining operations for centuries.

The Cerro de Pasco mining district is among the most extensively worked mining districts in Peru. Pre-colonial mining there showed some of the earliest evidence of anthropogenic lead enrichment by aerosolic fallout in nearby lakes about 600 years ago. The first copper smelter was established there in 1906, and in 1931 the new and improved Cerro smelter held monopoly over the refining of all nonferrous metals in Peru.

In order to generate hydroelectricity for Cerro de Pasco's operations, the Upamayo Dam was constructed in 1932. The Upamayo Dam is located in the uppermost reach of the Río Mantaro, immediately downstream of the confluence between the Río San Juan, which drains southward from Cerro de Pasco, and the outflow of Lake Junín, the largest lake entirely within Peru.

The location of the Upamayo Dam and the small reservoir upstream from it has resulted in the discharge of Río San Juan waters, once destined for the Río Mantaro, directly into Lake Junín. Rodbell et al.'s GSA Today paper documents the impact of acid mine drainage from Cerro de Pasco into Lake Junín, which in 1974 was designated a Peruvian National Wildlife Reserve.

As a result of the drainage, the upper several decimeters of sediment in the lake now contain levels of lead and zinc that greatly exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits for the lake basin. Today, more than 60,000 metric tons of copper, almost 900,000 metric tons of zinc, and almost 41,000 metric tons of lead are contained in the upper 50 cm of lake sediment -- the zinc tonnage representing more than five years' worth of mining production at current rates.

Rodbell and colleagues write that among the biggest challenges that will face any attempt to mitigate the environmental disaster that has befallen Lake Junín are finding ways to stop the recycling of zinc from the lake bottom and the remobilization of all metals from the seasonally exposed and submerged deposits that are trapped behind the Upamayo Dam. Finally, they note that as future hydraulic engineering projects are developed in Peru and elsewhere, it would behoove all not to repeat the mistakes that are recorded in the mud of Lake Junín.

Source: Geological Society of America

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Lead in teeth can tell a body's tale, study finds

Revealing information UF geology professor George Kamenov has published research that shows trace amounts of lead in modern and historical human teeth can give clues about where they came from. Credit: Ray Carson/UF Photography

Your teeth can tell stories about you, and not just that you always forget to floss.

A study led by University of Florida geology researcher George D. Kamenov showed that trace amounts of lead in modern and historical human teeth can give clues about where they came from. The paper will be published in the August issue of Science of The Total Environment.

The discovery could help police solve cold cases, Kamenov said. For instance, if an unidentified decomposed body is found, testing the lead in the teeth could immediately help focus the investigation on a certain geographic area. That way, law enforcement can avoid wasting resources checking for missing persons in the wrong places.

"We can use this pollution signal to figure out where these people came from," he said.
Lead is composed of four variants, called isotopes. The amount of those isotopes fluctuates in different rocks, soils and ores -- and, therefore, regions of the world.

Mining and other pollution-causing activities release that lead into the environment, and it accumulates in children's bodies as they grow because kids inhale dust and ingest soil when they put their hands in their mouths.

Tooth enamel, which develops during childhood, locks in the lead signals and preserves them.
"When you grow up, you record the signal of the local environment," Kamenov said. "If you move somewhere else, your isotope will be distinct from the local population."
Even different teeth can reveal certain facts.

First molar enamel is finished forming by age 3, so it provides information about birth and toddler years. Incisor and canine enamel starts later and finishes around age 5, so it gives insight into early childhood. The third molar enamel does not start forming until age 8, so it indicates late childhood residences.

Lead analysis can also tell what time period a body is from.

Modern and historical teeth have different signals, according to the study. The natural composition of lead changed over the past century because of mining and the use of leaded gasoline, so there's a clear distinction between modern and historical human exposure.

Using that information, archaeologists can identify early European bodies in New World areas.
"You can go back in time, look at archaeological sites and try to reconstruct human migration," Kamenov said.

But modern American teeth are like no others in the world, according to the study. Whereas available data for areas such as South America overlap with Europe, American teeth can be identified anywhere due to usage of ores with distinct isotope signals in the United States.
"What's in the environment goes into your body," Kamenov said

Source: University of Florida.

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