http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Thousands of tonnes of toxic mercury are released into the environment every year. Much of this collects in sediment where it is converted into toxic methyl mercury, and enters the food chain ending up in the fish we eat. New research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Biotechnology, showcases genetically engineered bacteria which are not only able to withstand high levels of mercury but are also able to mop up mercury from their surroundings. http://phys.org/news232339722.html Biology Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:48:57 EST news232339722 Scientists at UC Santa Barbara and other institutions say their new research is expected to profoundly affect the field of ecology and can assist the management of ecosystems, including forests, lakes, and oceans. And it's all because of parasites. http://phys.org/news230482110.html Biology Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:48:43 EST news230482110 Antarctic krill regularly feed on the seabed, scientists have found. Until now the tiny crustaceans were thought to live mainly near the ocean surface. http://phys.org/news229609342.html Biology Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:22:40 EST news229609342 A new discovery reveals that the shrimp-like creature at the heart of the Antarctic food chain could play a key role in fertilising the Southern Ocean with iron – stimulating the growth of phytoplankton (microscopic plant-like organisms). This process enhances the ocean's capacity for natural storage of carbon dioxide. http://phys.org/news228974858.html Space & Earth Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:15:34 EST news228974858 Zooplankton can use specialised adaptations that allow them to hide from predators in areas of the ocean where oxygen levels are so low almost nothing can survive - but they may run into trouble as these areas expand under climate change. http://phys.org/news228714958.html Biology Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:56:18 EST news228714958 Debris sucked from the shoreline of Japan by the March 11 tsunami has embarked on a 10-year circuit of the North Pacific, posing an enduring threat to shipping and wildlife, a French green group says. http://phys.org/news227879029.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Jun 2011 12:43:59 EST news227879029 The deaths of over 150 dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico so far this year is due in part to the devastating 2010 BP oil spill and the chemical dispersants used to contain it, a report said Thursday. http://phys.org/news225691064.html Space & Earth Fri, 27 May 2011 05:10:01 EST news225691064 More than 900 new alien species have been encountered in the coastal environments of the eastern Mediterranean Sea in recent decades, including the poisonous pufferfish. The invasion of alien species has had the consequence that the whole food chain is changing, while there is a lack of knowledge on which to base relevant risk assessments, a four-year study conducted at the University of Gothenburg shows. http://phys.org/news225390028.html Biology Mon, 23 May 2011 17:20:40 EST news225390028 Scientists have discovered that marine diatoms, tiny phytoplankton abundant in the sea, have an animal-like urea cycle, and that this cycle enables the diatoms to efficiently use carbon and nitrogen from their environment. http://phys.org/news224337072.html Biology Wed, 11 May 2011 13:00:53 EST news224337072 On land, being small and lurking at the bottom of the food chain is a far better strategy for species survival than being big, fierce and perched on top, at least when humans are after you – just ask the mice and grizzly bears. http://phys.org/news223567114.html Biology Mon, 02 May 2011 15:00:05 EST news223567114 University of Alberta-led research has confirmed that a relatively harmless inorganic form of mercury found worldwide in ocean water is transformed into a potent neurotoxin in the seawater itself. http://phys.org/news223127288.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:48:26 EST news223127288 Ellen Silbergeld keeps the price of gold posted on the door to her office at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. The price is now at a record high (better than $1,500 an ounce) and Silbergeld, professor at Hopkins and editor-in-chief of the journal Environmental Research knows that is really bad news for the Amazon. http://phys.org/news222696825.html Space & Earth Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:50:02 EST news222696825 (AP) -- Tobacco companies in Australia will be forced to strip all logos from their cigarette packages and replace them with graphic images such as cancer-riddled mouths and sickly children under legislation unveiled Thursday - a move the government says will make Australia the world's toughest country on tobacco advertising. http://phys.org/news221371058.html Medicine & Health Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:58:02 EST news221371058 (AP) -- Drug-resistant forms of diseases such as tuberculosis are on the rise in China because of the overuse of antibiotics and urgent action is needed to reverse the problem, the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization warned Thursday. http://phys.org/news221370998.html Medicine & Health Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:56:52 EST news221370998 Southern California researchers have found evidence of ingestion of plastic among small fish in the northern Pacific Ocean in a study that they say shows the troubling effect floating litter is having on marine life in the far reaches of the world's oceans. http://phys.org/news219070399.html Biology Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:40:01 EST news219070399 Warming temperatures and melting ice in the Arctic may be behind a progressively earlier bloom of a crucial annual marine event, and the shift could hold consequences for the entire food chain and carbon cycling in the region. http://phys.org/news218309904.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:38:47 EST news218309904 The amount of the world's farmland given over to genetically modified (GM) crops grew 10% last year, with the United States remaining the biggest zone for the altered produce, according to a study released in Brazil Tuesday. http://phys.org/news217608024.html Biology Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:10:02 EST news217608024 More mercury is deposited in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. Norwegian NTNU researchers think one explanation for this may lie in the meteorological conditions in the Arctic spring and summer. http://phys.org/news215778313.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:26:09 EST news215778313 (PhysOrg.com) -- Creatures that live in the muddy sediments of estuaries have given Aberdeen scientists new insights into how critical the relationship between organisms, and the structure of the habitat they live in, is for the maintenance of a healthy ecosystem. http://phys.org/news214067081.html Biology Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:04:59 EST news214067081 New technology to make shellfish safer to eat has been pioneered by scientists at Queen's University Belfast. http://phys.org/news213946727.html Chemistry Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:39:01 EST news213946727 An interdisciplinary team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has produced a groundbreaking study of how nanoparticles are able to biomagnify in a simple microbial food chain. http://phys.org/news212075480.html Nanotechnology Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:51:59 EST news212075480 Rivers and streams supply the lifeblood of ecosystems across the globe, providing water for drinking and irrigation for humans as well as a wide array of life forms in rivers and streams from single-celled organisms all the way up to the fish humans eat. But humans and nature itself are making it tough on rivers to continue in their central role to support fish species, according to new research by a team of scientists including one from Arizona State University. http://phys.org/news206285507.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:32:10 EST news206285507 A new study from North Carolina State University finds that fish located near coal-fired power plants have lower levels of mercury than fish that live much further away. The surprising finding appears to be linked to high levels of another chemical, selenium, found near such facilities, which unfortunately poses problems of its own. http://phys.org/news205554262.html Biology Wed, 06 Oct 2010 03:24:34 EST news205554262 Climate change is causing higher air and water temperatures along the east coast of the United States. These changes have shrunk the geographic region where blue mussels are able to survive, according to findings by University of South Carolina researchers published in the Journal of Biogeography. http://phys.org/news201172170.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:09:43 EST news201172170 A cloned cow whose offspring's meat entered the British food chain may have more than 100 descendants in the country, records suggested Thursday, amid fears about their spread into the food system. http://phys.org/news200200169.html Biology Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:30:01 EST news200200169 A new article published in the July 29 issue of the international journal Nature reveals for the first time that microscopic marine algae known as "phytoplankton" have been declining globally over the 20th century. http://phys.org/news199471106.html Biology Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:00:02 EST news199471106 The functioning of marine ecosystems depends on the size and flavor of microbes at the base of the food chain. Changes to the Earth's atmosphere might rearrange that microscopic menu. Microbes that currently are the main course for other organisms might get harder to find in the future, and microbes that are now inconspicuous as members of a "rare biosphere" might become more common. http://phys.org/news199516561.html Biology Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:50:02 EST news199516561 Scientists studying the massive BP oil spill fear a decades-long, "cascading" effect on marine life that could lead to a shift in the overall biological network in the Gulf of Mexico. http://phys.org/news198654329.html Space & Earth Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:10:01 EST news198654329 (PhysOrg.com) -- Rising levels of antidepressants in coastal waters could change sea-life behaviour and potentially damage the food-chain, according to a new study. http://phys.org/news198254644.html Biology Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:44:26 EST news198254644 (PhysOrg.com) -- The issuing of oil drilling licences off the coast of South Australia poses a serious potential threat to the ecosystem that underpins the nation?s most valuable fishing industry, a Flinders University oceanographer has said. http://phys.org/news197722973.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:40:03 EST news197722973