Chemical records in teeth confirm elusive Alaska lake seals are one of a kind

Lifelong chemical records stored in the canine teeth of an elusive group of seals show that the seals remain in freshwater their entire lives and are likely a distinct population from their relatives in the ocean. Their home territory, Iliamna Lake, is in the heart of the proposed Pebble Mine project.

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Hippos, the animal silicon pumps

The excrements of hippos play an important role in the ecosystem of African lakes and rivers. Because there are fewer and fewer hippos, this ecosystem is in danger. In the long term, this could lead to food shortages at Lake Victoria.

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Water found in samples from asteroid Itokawa

Cosmochemists have made the first-ever measurements of water contained in samples from the surface of an asteroid.

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Human influence on global droughts goes back 100 years, NASA study finds

Human-generated greenhouse gases and atmospheric particles were affecting global drought risk as far back as the early 20th century, according to a new study.

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Harnessing sunlight to pull hydrogen from wastewater

Hydrogen is a critical component in the manufacture of thousands of common products from plastic to fertilizers, but producing pure hydrogen is expensive and energy intensive. Now, a research team has harnessed sunlight to isolate hydrogen from industrial wastewater, doubling the previous standard for splitting hydrogen from water in a scalable way.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2WjHrsG

Storing info in molecules, for millions of years

As the data boom continues to boom, more and more information gets filed in less and less space. Even the cloud will eventually run out of space, can't thwart all hackers, and gobbles up energy. Now, a new way to store information could stably house data for millions of years, lives outside the hackable internet, and, once written, uses no energy. All you need is a chemist, some cheap molecules, and your precious information.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2WiGDUG

First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans

So far Denisovans were only known from a small collection of fossil fragments from Denisova Cave in Siberia. A research team now describes a 160,000-year-old hominin mandible from Xiahe in China. Using ancient protein analysis the researchers found that the mandible's owner belonged to a population that was closely related to the Denisovans from Siberia. This population occupied the Tibetan Plateau in the Middle Pleistocene and was adapted to this low-oxygen environment long before Homo sapiens arrived in the region.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2USMIWs

A comprehensive map of how Alzheimer's affects the brain

Researchers performed the first comprehensive analysis of the genes altered in individual brain cells of patients with Alzheimer's disease, allowing them to identify the distinctive cellular pathways affected in neurons and other types of brain cells.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2ITMjBK

Narwhals have endured a million years with low genetic diversity, and they're thriving

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a narwhal, the Arctic whale famous for the horn-like tusk protruding from its forehead. Their work finds that compared to other Arctic marine mammals, narwhals have low genetic diversity, which typically indicates a species is struggling. However, narwhal populations number in the hundreds of thousands -- but researchers warn they are still vulnerable to climate change and human activities in the Arctic.

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Flowering plants, new teeth and no dinosaurs: New study sheds light on the rise of mammals

A new study has identified three factors critical in the rise of mammal communities since they first emerged during the Age of Dinosaurs: the rise of flowering plants; the evolution of tribosphenic molars in mammals; and the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, which reduced competition between mammals and other vertebrates in terrestrial ecosystems.

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Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns

Researchers have assessed abrupt thaw studies across the permafrost zone to estimate the overall effect. They found carbon emissions have the potential to double the climate feedback associated with permafrost thawing because abrupt thaw releases more methane. It will also have drastic effects on landscape, from altering traditional travel and hunting patterns in the North, to causing costly infrastructure damage to roads and rail lines.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2ZGcK2O

Deadly box jellyfish antidote discovered using CRISPR genome editing

Researchers studying how pain works have discovered an antidote to the deadly sting delivered by the most venomous creature on Earth -- the Australian box jellyfish. A single sting to a human causes necrosis of the skin, excruciating pain and, if the dose of venom is large enough, cardiac arrest and death within minutes. The new antidote, discovered using CRISPR genome editing techniques, blocks the symptoms within 15 minutes after contact.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2VcDY2J

As oceans warm, microbes could pump more carbon dioxide back into air, study warns

A new study suggests that carbon dioxide regeneration may become faster in many regions of the world as the oceans warm with changing climate. This, in turn, may reduce the deep oceans' ability to keep carbon locked up. The study shows that in many cases, bacteria are consuming more plankton at shallower depths than previously believed, and that the conditions under which they do this will spread as water temperatures rise.

from All Top News -- ScienceDaily http://bit.ly/2ZLSzAt