Science Today

We humans prefer to be addressed in our right ear and are more likely to perform a task when we receive the request in our right ear rather than our left. In a series of three studies, looking at ear preference in communication between humans, Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University "Gabriele d'Annunzio" in Chieti, Italy, show that a natural side bias, depending on hemispheric asymmetry in the brain, manifests itself in everyday human behavior. One of the best known asymmetries in humans is the right ear dominance for listening to verbal stimuli, which is believed to reflect the brain's left hemisphere superiority for processing verbal information. However, until now, the majority of studies looking at ear preference in human communication have been controlled laboratory studies and there is very little published observational evidence of spontaneous ear dominance in everyday human behavior. Tommasi and Marzoli's three studies specifically observe...

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Greg Holt helped develop the erosion control industry's first cotton hydromulch "spray-on blanket." Holt is at the ARS Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit in Lubbock, Texas. Hydromulch is the bright-green mulch used in spray-on slurries that cover bare lands at construction sites and roadside projects, to prevent erosion until vegetation can be established. In the past, hydromulches were made mostly from wood and paper byproducts. Summit Seed, Inc., employee Dan Pralle sprays a test plot with one of the cotton-based hydromulches developed during the research study on value-added processing of cotton gin byproducts. (Credit: Photo by Greg Holt) . GeoSkin® Cotton Hydromulch is made from cotton gin byproducts. It is a combination hydromulch/spray-on erosion-control blanket that performs better than conventional roll-on blankets and requires significantly less labor. Holt and colleagues tested the prototype ...

Just a few short years ago, if you wanted to buy organic food, you had to make a special trip to an out-of-the-way grocery store. Today, organic products are, well, cropping up all over the place. Are they really worth the higher price or is it just another marketing maneuver? What is Organic? First, let’s take a look at what exactly it means to be organic. “Organic foods are grown without the use of chemical fertilizer or pesticides and have not been processed using irradiation or added hormones,” says Ashley Mullins, R.D., L.D., CNSC, a registered dietitian at Baylor All Saints Medical Center. “As with any product, it’s important to check the label to determine exactly what you’re getting.” Products labeled “100 percent organic” must contain only organic ingredients with the exception of water and salt, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Products labeled “organic” must contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients. Products that are made with at least 70 percent organ...

An international effort has yielded new wheat varieties resistant to a devastating fungus spreading from Africa towards Asia. The research was presented at a meeting this week (17–20 March) in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, which has attracted hundreds of crop specialists concerned with the rapid spread of Ug99 — a strain of stem rust fungus that first emerged in Uganda ten years ago. Researchers have developed around 60 new wheat varieties containing several genes with a small resistance effect to Ug99. Although such genes might not provide as much protection as genes that cause a high level of resistance, the researchers believe they will be more efficient in the long term, as they will force the fungus to overcome a wider array of genetic barriers. To obtain faster, more efficient results, the researchers continually exchanged breeding materials between the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and field stations in Njoro, Kenya, where Ug99 is well establis...

Only two years after launching an ambitious effort to save endangered crop species, the Global Crop Diversity Trust announced today it is on track to save from extinction 100,000 different varieties of food crops from 46 countries, making it one of the largest and most successful biological rescue efforts ever undertaken. "We are moving quickly to regenerate and preserve seed samples representing thousands of distinct varieties of critical food crops like rice, maize, and wheat in 46 countries that were well on their way to total extinction," said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Trust. "I think it is fair to say that without this effort, many of them would have been lost forever." In many countries, stresses as mundane as poor refrigeration and inadequate funding and as dramatic as war and economic collapse threaten seed collections of crop varieties that do not exist anywhere else in the world. The imperiled seeds targeted for rescue by the Trust are samples...

Michigan State University researchers are dramatically speeding up identification of genes that affect the structure and function of chloroplasts, which could lead to plants tailored specifically for biofuel production or delivering high levels of specific nutrients. Chloroplasts, which are specialized compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen ("fuel" for the plant) during photosynthesis. Chloroplasts also synthesize nutrients such as starch, amino acids, antioxidant vitamins and lipids, which are important to humans and other animals. "We're using this advanced technology to capture information on almost 100 traits, with an emphasis on metabolism," said Rob Last, MSU professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "We can then analyze that data and look for correlations that we wouldn't see using traditional genetic screening methods. Finding these correlations gives us a more complete understanding...

Specialty crops, including fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and nursery crops, have become increasingly important compared to other categories of agriculture in the United States over the past 50 years. These crops have continued to grow in production value, but this growth has not been matched by growth in public agricultural research spending. In fact, spending on specialty crops research has remained constant during a time period when the value of production for these crops has increased significantly. A recent article published in the August 2008 issue of HortScience reviewed trends in the economic importance of specialty crops and public funding for research on these crops. Researchers Julian M. Alston of the University of California, Davis, and Philip G. Pardey from the University of Minnesota, questioned the adequacy of funding for specialty crops and whether the share of funding allocated to research these crops should be increased. Previous research has indicate...

A team of researchers are reporting the ongoing emergence of a new species of fruit fly--and the sequential development of a new species of wasp--in the February 6 issue of the journal Science. Jeff Feder, a University of Notre Dame biologist, and his colleagues say the introduction of apples to America almost 400 years ago ultimately may have changed the behavior of a fruit fly, leading to its modification and the subsequent modification of a parasitic wasp that feeds on it. A female apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella, implants an egg into an apple. Wasps that attack the flies and eat their larvae appear to be changing on a genetic level in the same way that the flies themselves appear to be changing genetically. (Credit: Rob Oakleaf). The result is a chain reaction of biodiversity where the modification of one species triggers the sequential modification of a second, dependent species. "It's a nice demonstration of how the initial speciation of one organism opens up an o...

The discovery that butterfly wings have scales that act as tiny solar collectors has led scientists in China and Japan to design a more efficient solar cell that could be used for powering homes, businesses, and other applications in the future. In the study, Di Zhang and colleagues note that scientists are searching for new materials to improve light-harvesting in so-called dye-sensitized solar cells, also known as Grätzel cells for inventor Michael Grätzel. These cells have the highest light-conversion efficiencies among all solar cells — as high as 10 percent. Close-up of the scales of a butterfly wing. These scales have inspired more powerful solar cells. (Credit: Michael Apel, Wikipedia Commons, Public Domain Photo). The researchers turned to the microscopic solar scales on butterfly wings in their search for improvements. Using natural butterfly wings as a mold or template, they made copies of the solar collectors and transferred those light-harvesting structures to Grätzel cells...

Modifying the environment by using everything from shovels and plows to plant-derived pesticides may be as important as mosquito nets and vaccinations in the fight against malaria, according to a computerized analysis by MIT researchers. The researchers have developed a new computer model for analyzing different methods of trying to control the spread of malaria, one of the world's most-devastating diseases. Among their findings using the model is that environmental measures such as leveling the land to eliminate depressions where pools can form can be an important part of the strategy for controlling the disease. MIT civil and environmental engineering student Mustafa Dafalla '09 gathers water samples at a pond in Niger to check for malaria larvae. (Credit: Arne Bomblies). Reports on the work, carried out by Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Elfatih Eltahir and graduate students Arne Bomblies and Rebecca Gianotti, were presented this week at a meeting of the Am...

Methyl bromide (MeBr) is a highly effective broad-spectrum fumigant used extensively in U.S. agriculture to control a wide variety of pests. Under the Montreal protocol of 1991, however, MeBr was defined as one of the chemicals that contributed to the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, resulting in an incremental reduction in the amount of MeBr produced and imported in the U.S. In January 2005, a total phase out of MeBr (except for emergency and critical-use exceptions) was imposed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has indicated that the phaseout of MeBr as a preplant soil fumigant may have substantial impact on the production levels of many agricultural crops. No known single alternative fumigant, chemical, or other technology exists that can readily substitute for MeBr in efficacy, cost, ease of use, availability, worker safety, and environmental safety. Fresh-market tomatoes were planted on 124,400 acres in the United States in 2007, with a gross production value of almos...

A mystery about a disease that can destroy up to 15 percent of a cotton crop in the southeastern United States has been solved by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers. The work could save cotton crops and prevent unnecessary insecticide spraying. In 1999, scientists reported an emerging seed rot disease that was discoloring seeds and darkening fibers in cotton bolls in the southeastern states, making the crops unmarketable. It quickly spread throughout the southeastern Cotton Belt. To study the problem, plant pathologists Gino Medrano and Alois Bell of the ARS Cotton Pathology Research Unit, part of the Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center in College Station, Texas, focused on the southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula L.) as the disease-transmitting culprit. In the greenhouse, they infected cotton bolls with suspect bacteria, using a needle to penetrate the boll wall and mimic a stink bug's bite. The results showed the needle created a pathway for the bacteri...

The remarkable honey bee can tell the difference between different numbers at a glance. A fresh, astonishing revelation about the 'numeracy' of insects has emerged from new research by an international team of scientists from The Vision Centre, in Australia. In an exquisitely designed experiment, researchers led by Dr. Shaowu Zhang, Chief Investigator of The Vision Centre and Australian National University and Professor Hans Gross and Professor Juergen Tautz of Wurzburg University in Germany, have shown that bees can discriminate between patterns containing two and three dots – without having to count the dots. Layout of the Delayed Match-to-Sample (DMTS) experimental apparatus. The bee encounters and flies through the initial sample pattern (S) before traversing a 1m-long tunnel with a perspex roof. There is a baffle behind the entrance of the decision chamber and baffles behind the entrances of the choice chambers The baffles prevented the bees from experiencing the stimuli i...

An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought, UC Irvine research has found. Sulfuryl fluoride, UCI chemists discovered, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years. Prior studies estimated its atmospheric lifetime at as low as five years, grossly underestimating the global warming potential. Mads Sulbaek Andersen with Pyrex chamber. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Irvine). The fact that sulfuryl fluoride exists for decades – coupled with evidence that levels have nearly doubled in the last six years – concerns study authors Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, who discovered that chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans and other products damage the ozone layer. That finding led to a worldwide ban on CFCs. “Sulfuryl fluoride has a long enough lifetime in the atmosphere that we cann...

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and several partner institutions have published the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid scientists in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production. The comparative analysis of the sorghum genome appears in the January 29 edition of the journal Nature. Prized for its drought resistance and high productivity, sorghum is currently the second most prevalent biofuels crop in the United States, behind corn. Grain sorghum produces the same amount of ethanol per bushel as corn while utilizing one-third less water. As the technology for producing "cellulosic" (whole plant fiber-based) biofuels matures, sorghum's rapid growth--rising from eight to 15 feet tall in one season--is likely to make it desirable as a cellulosic biofuels ...

Fruit farmers in Southern Europe have been struggling for decades in a losing battle against the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, which is one of the world´s most destructive farm pests, since it lays its eggs in fruit and vegetables. The female can produce up to 800 offspring per season. The larvae or worms feed on the pulp of fruits, tunnelling through it, and reducing the fruit to an inedible mush. Medflies caught on a trap in the Neretva Valley in Croatia. Fly trapping is one means used to collect data about the Medfly population before SIT can be introduced. (Credit: Photo by R. Pereira/IAEA). The battle waged by farmers in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Medfly has been fought since the 1940s with insecticides. But the growing export market in the European Union imposes strict rules on pesticide residue limits in food. So in 2007 Croatia turned to the IAEA for help to apply the most environmentally friendly alternative to insecticide - the Sterile Insect Techniq...

Climate change will cause Europe to lose much of its biodiversity as projected by a comprehensive study on future butterfly distribution. The Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies predicts northward shifts in potential distribution area of many European butterfly species. As early warning indicators of environmental change, butterflies are a valuable tool to assess overall climate change impact and to provide some indication on the chances to come nearer to the target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 set by the EU Heads of State in 2001. The scarce copper (Lycaena virgaureae) is one of the butterflies, researchers analyzed. (Credit: Albert Vliegenthart/Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)). The Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies is based on the work of scores of scientists from across Europe. They applied climate change models to data collected by tens of thousands of volunteers. The authors say that some climate change is now inevitable and that the extent of...

New research from Monash University bee researcher Adrian Dyer could lead to improved artificial intelligence systems and computer programs for facial recognition. Dr Dyer is one of Australia's leading bee experts and his latest research shows that honeybees can learn to recognise human faces even when seen from different viewpoints. Faces can dramatically change appearance when seen from different viewpoints, since the relationship between elements like nose and eyes change depending upon viewing angle. Bees solve this difficult visual problem by averaging previously learnt views. (Credit: Monash University). Dr Dyer said the research could be applied in the areas of new technology, particularly the development of imaging systems. "What we have shown is that the bee brain, which contains less than 1 million neurons, is actually very good at learning to master complex tasks. Computer and imaging technology programmers who are working on solving complex visual recognition task...

Deep in the Peruvian rainforest, one species of dung beetle has turned from scavenger to killer. Instead of feasting on feces--as all of its brethren do--the tiny insect tears millipedes in half and dines on their innards. This dramatic change in diet is rare in the animal kingdom and is a stunning example of evolution in action. When dung beetles feed on animal droppings, they're actually after the vast numbers of bacteria that make up excrement. Believe it or not, it's a highly competitive way of life, and in some places 80 species of dung beetles fight for the same feces. That may have been what prompted one species, Deltochilum valgum, to break from the pack, says ecologist Trond Larsen of Princeton University. Curious about the feeding habits of the many types of dung beetle living in the Peruvian rainforest, Larsen and his colleagues baited traps with dung, carrion, fruits, and fungus. They also tried live millipedes, as Larsen had observed some dung beetles feeding on th...

Beekeepers say that American bees, already disappearing at a rapid rate, might suffer from competition and foreign diseases brought by their Aussie counterparts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided to continue imports of Australian bees, which had been stopped by the Australian government six weeks ago. The Australian bees are being used to replace American bees decimated by Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that has ravaged bee colonies across America. But some scientists say that the foreign bees could introduce a dangerous new parasite previously unknown to the continent. "We've got enough problems with our own bee diseases that we don't know how to treat, and they open the border to a whole new species that could carry God knows what," said North Dakota beekeeper Ken Haff, a vice president of the American Honey Producers Association, to the Associated Press. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian bees produced in n...