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. The autonomous, solar-powered Zoë, which became the first robot to map microbial life during a 2005 field expedition in Chile's Atacama Desert, is heading back to the world's driest desert this month on a NASA astrobiology mission led by Carnegie Mellon University and the SETI Institute. This time, Zoë is equipped with a one-meter drill to search for subsurface life. http://phys.org/news290185109.html Space & Earth Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:58:38 EST news290185109 (Phys.org) —New research by an Indiana University scientist reveals the value of restoring wetlands and riparian habitat on agricultural lands. The study is among the first to demonstrate the water quality benefits of converting farmland back to natural habitats. http://phys.org/news289809730.html Space & Earth Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:20:01 EST news289809730 A new study has found that bacteria responsible for chronic intestinal inflammation in cattle, which have also been implicated in Crohn's disease in humans, are widespread in the UK countryside. http://phys.org/news288253289.html Biology Mon, 20 May 2013 08:10:02 EST news288253289 Harsh Bais and Janine Sherrier of the University of Delaware's Department of Plant and Soil Sciences are studying whether a naturally occurring soil bacterium, referred to as UD1023 because it was first characterized at the University, can create an iron barrier in rice roots that reduces arsenic uptake. http://phys.org/news286698051.html Space & Earth Thu, 02 May 2013 07:21:04 EST news286698051 (Phys.org) —A new study undertaken by a diverse group of scientists in Sweden has found that contrary to popular belief, most of the carbon that is sequestered in northern boreal forests comes about due to fungi that live on and in tree roots, rather than via dead needles, moss and leaf matter. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their findings after taking soil samples from 30 islands in two lakes in northern Sweden. http://phys.org/news283763470.html Space & Earth Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:20:01 EST news283763470 A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist is giving guidance to growers in Montana and the Dakotas on how grazing sheep when fields are left fallow will affect soil quality. http://phys.org/news282476711.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:45:16 EST news282476711 For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 B.C.) in Peru. One of the persistent questions has been the role of agriculture and particularly corn (maize) in the evolution of complex, centralized societies. Up until now, the prevailing theory was that marine resources, not agriculture and corn, provided the economic engine behind the development of civilization in the Andean region of Peru. http://phys.org/news281009284.html Other Sciences Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:00:09 EST news281009284 Increased levels of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), have been associated with the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, cultivation of grasslands, drainage of the land, and land use changes. Concerns about long-term shifts in climate patterns have led scientists to measure soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural landscapes and to develop methods to evaluate how changes in tillage practices affect atmospheric carbon sequestration. University of Illinois professor of soil science Kenneth Olson has used data collected over a 20-year period at Dixon Springs, Ill., to develop a new protocol for more accurately measuring the carbon removed from the atmosphere and subsequently sequestered in the soil as SOC. http://phys.org/news278937189.html Space & Earth Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:33:17 EST news278937189 The Russian Space Agency says it will send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2015 from a new launch pad in the country's Far East. http://phys.org/news277446678.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Jan 2013 04:50:01 EST news277446678 (Phys.org)—A BYU biologist is part of a team of researchers that has unlocked the "black box" to the underground world home to billions of microscopic creatures. http://phys.org/news276416427.html Biology Thu, 03 Jan 2013 06:20:40 EST news276416427 (Phys.org)—Someday, Oahu's Koolau and Waianae mountains will be reduced to nothing more than a flat, low-lying island like Midway. http://phys.org/news275294907.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:20:01 EST news275294907 Remains of dead bacteria have far greater meaning for soils than previously assumed. Around 40 per cent of the microbial biomass is converted to organic soil components, write researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the Technische Universität Dresden (Technical University of Dresden) , the University of Stockholm, the Max-Planck-Institut für Entwicklungsbiologie (Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology) and the Leibniz-Universität Hannover (Leibniz University Hannover) in the professional journal Biogeochemistry. Until now it was assumed that the organic components of the soil were comprised mostly of decomposed plant material which is directly converted to humic substances. In a laboratory experiment and in field testing the researchers have now refuted this thesis. Evidently the easily biologically degradable plant material is initially converted to microbial biomass which then provides the source material to soil organic matter. http://phys.org/news274704342.html Space & Earth Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:45:51 EST news274704342 The Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) Online Map Tool is an interactive mapping application that can display more than 30 maps of soil and related environmental characteristics for the continent of Africa. The tool creates a clickable map that lets users zoom in and examine soil characteristics from existing, legacy soil maps and data as well as a new collection of soil samples gathered by AfSIS over the past four years. http://phys.org/news274607195.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:46:42 EST news274607195 (AP)—Federal environmental regulators say they have found lingering radioactive contamination at a rocket engine test site outside of Los Angeles. http://phys.org/news274596144.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:10:01 EST news274596144 Curiosity will apparently get a sister after all and she'll be born in 2020 – rising from the ashes of a near death experience. http://phys.org/news274348538.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:20:01 EST news274348538 (Phys.org)—NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed a touch-and-go inspection of one rock on Sunday, Nov. 18, then pivoted and, on the same day, drove toward a Thanksgiving overlook location. http://phys.org/news272710339.html Space & Earth Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:52:28 EST news272710339 DNA testing, environmental sampling and radiocarbon dating are some of the tests being undertaken to determine whether the skeleton found in Leicester was once Richard III - and there are also plans to do a facial reconstruction. http://phys.org/news272198294.html Other Sciences Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:38:26 EST news272198294 The doctoral dissertation of Milja Vepsäläinen, M.Sc. (microbiology), prepared at the Finnish Environment Institute, involved developing a test pattern designed to measure soil biological diversity. The aim is to measure the activity potential of enzymes produced by soil microbes. Enzymes regulate cycling of elements in soils, and measurement allows assessing the functional diversity of soils. In addition, the results may be used as an ecosystem indicator. Since very little data on the functional diversity of soils is available, there is a clear need for methods that enable the measurement of soil-related variables. The defence will be held on 9 November 2012, at 12 noon at Building of Forest Sciences on the Viikki Campus of the University of Helsinki. http://phys.org/news271670907.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:09:20 EST news271670907 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research confirms that the time-tested practice of amending crop soils with manure also can help restore soils on damaged post-mining landscapes. http://phys.org/news270470344.html Space & Earth Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:39:38 EST news270470344 (Phys.org)—NASA's Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis. http://phys.org/news268584398.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Oct 2012 15:46:48 EST news268584398 (Phys.org) -- The RemScan device uses an infrared signal to directly measure petroleum hydrocarbons in soil. The user simply pulls the trigger for a result in 15 seconds. The traditional method for measuring petroleum contamination involves sending soil samples to a laboratory and waiting several days for the results. http://phys.org/news262341607.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:40:12 EST news262341607 The yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus, farms root aphids for sugar (honeydew) and nitrogen (protein). In turn these species of aphids have developed distinctive traits never found in free living species such as the 'trophobiotic organ' to hold honey dew for the ants. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows that over half of ant mounds contained only one of the three most common species of aphid, and two thirds of these has a single aphid clone. Even in mounds which contained more than one species of aphid 95% of the aphid chambers contained individuals of a single clone. http://phys.org/news260419782.html Biology Mon, 02 Jul 2012 03:49:56 EST news260419782 Population estimates for the Amazon basin just before Europeans arrived range from 2 to 10 million people. The newly reported reconstruction of Amazonian prehistory by Smithsonian scientist Dolores R. Piperno and colleagues suggests that large areas of western Amazonia were sparsely inhabited. This clashes with the belief that most of Amazonia, including forests far removed from major rivers, was heavily occupied and modified. The team's research is published in the June 15 issue of Science. http://phys.org/news258900498.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:00:28 EST news258900498 (Phys.org) -- A stunning discovery by Queensland University of Technology soil scientist Marek Zbik of nanoparticles inside bubbles of glass in lunar soil could solve the mystery of why the moon's surface topsoil has many unusual properties. http://phys.org/news258696330.html Space & Earth Tue, 12 Jun 2012 05:06:18 EST news258696330 Researchers who were looking for organisms that eke out a living in some of the most inhospitable soils on Earth have found a hardy few. A new DNA analysis of rocky soils in the martian-like landscape on some volcanoes in South America has revealed a handful of bacteria, fungi, and other rudimentary organisms, called archaea, which seem to have a different way of converting energy than their cousins elsewhere in the world. http://phys.org/news258397167.html Biology Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:02:40 EST news258397167 With longer and warmer days, wheat seeding and fertilizing has begun across the state. Using the right fertilizer source, rate, timing and placement is important for optimal production. Montana State University Extension offers suggestions to help guide wheat producers in spring nitrogen fertilizing decisions. http://phys.org/news254465046.html Biology Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:44:25 EST news254465046 The head of Russia's space agency said Tuesday that cosmic radiation was the most likely cause of the failure of a Mars moon probe that crashed to Earth this month, and suggested that a low-quality imported component may have been vulnerable to the radiation. http://phys.org/news247217719.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:35:26 EST news247217719 An international team of researchers including Dr. Bertrand Boeken of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suggest in a new study that plant biodiversity preservation is crucial to buffer negative effects of climate change and desertification in drylands. http://phys.org/news247146632.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:50:39 EST news247146632 Russia vowed Monday to expose the officials responsible for the failure of a Mars probe that the military said crashed into the Pacific Ocean after orbiting the Earth for more than two months. http://phys.org/news245914998.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:43:28 EST news245914998 Russia's space agency on Wednesday pinpointed the likely trajectory of its stranded Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, predicting it would crash into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta later this week. http://phys.org/news245494052.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:00:08 EST news245494052