Futurity.org » University of Colorado at Boulder

‘Map of Life’ tracks animals around the globe

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:04:45 +0000

U. COLORADO/YALE (US) — The “Map of Life” online database aims to show the distribution of all living plants and animals on the planet, and is now available to the public.

The demonstration version allows users to map the known global distribution of almost 25,000 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and North American freshwater fish.

Compassion may motivate faithful less

Yasmin Anwar-UC Berkeley — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:16:53 +0000

UC BERKELEY (US) — The highly religious are less motivated by compassion when helping a stranger than are atheists, agnostics, and less religious people, according to new research.

In three experiments, social scientists found that compassion consistently drove less religious people to be more generous.

For highly religious people, however, compassion was largely unrelated to how generous they were, according to the findings, which are published in the most recent online issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Climate threat worst at seasonal icy spots

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:20:37 +0000

U. COLORADO- BOULDER (US) — Ecosystems dependent on seasonal snow and ice are the most sensitive to climate changes, according to studies that account for climate change’s “human dimension.”

The six papers appear in the April issue of the journal BioScience. The papers are tied to data gathered at 26 sites in North America, Puerto Rico, the island of Moorea near Tahiti, and Antarctica, which are known as Long-Term Ecological Research, or LTER, sites and are funded by the National Science Foundation.

University of Colorado-Boulder‘s Niwot Ridge site, one of the five original LTER sites designated by NSF in 1980, encompasses several thousand acres of subalpine forest, tundra, talus slopes, glacial lakes, and wetlands stretching up to more than 13,000 feet on top of the Continental Divide.

Greenland ice slip ‘n’ slides into ocean

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:38:23 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — A new study reports that the Greenland Ice Sheet may be sliding into the ocean faster due to massive releases of meltwater from surface lakes.

Such lake drainages may affect sea-level rise, with implications for coastal communities, according to the researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder-based Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

“This is the first evidence that Greenland’s ‘supraglacial’ lakes have responded to recent increases in surface meltwater production by draining more frequently, as opposed to growing in size,” says CIRES research associate William Colgan, who co-led the new study with computer science doctoral student Yu-Li Liang.

Permafrost thaw warmed prehistoric Earth

Paul Mannion-Sheffield — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:36:41 +0000

U. SHEFFIELD (UK) — Carbon trapped in frozen Polar Region soil likely caused prehistoric global warming, not methane gas in ocean-floor sediments, as previously thought.

As reported in Nature, scientists analyzing prehistoric global warming say thawing permafrost released massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soil of Polar Regions, exacerbating climate change through increasing global temperatures and ocean acidification.

Although the amounts of carbon involved in the ancient soil-thaw scenarios was likely much greater than today, the implications of this ground-breaking study are that the long-term future of carbon deposits locked into frozen permafrost of Polar Regions are vulnerable to climate warming caused as humans emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels for energy generation.

Via proteins, morphine effects and abuse

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:47:12 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Understanding morphine’s effects on two protein receptors in the central nervous system could help make the drug more effective and less likely to be abused.

Scientists have known that a particular protein receptor known as toll-like receptor 4, or TLR4, helps to activate inflammation-signaling pathways to attack foreign substances like bacteria and viruses, says University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Hang “Hubert” Yin of the chemistry and biochemistry department.

The new study shows opiod analgesics like morphine also trigger such neuroinflammation by first binding to an accessory protein receptor known as a myeloid differentiation protein receptor 2, or MD-2, which then works in concert with TLR4 to respond to morphine in the central nervous system, says Yin, who led the study.

South Pole Telescope hunts down dark energy

Steve Koppes-Chicago — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:56:34 +0000

U. CHICAGO (US) — Astronomers are beginning to unravel the modern mystery of dark energy based on data from the South Pole Telescope.

Recent analysis offers new support for the widely accepted explanation of dark energy, the source of the mysterious force that is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

X-ray lasers reveal magnets’ inner life

Greg Swenson-CU — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:46:04 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Using the world’s fastest light source—specialized X-ray lasers—scientists have revealed the secret inner life of magnets.

The findings, from the University of Colorado-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), could lead to faster and “smarter” computers.

Prolific pine beetles take a toll on trees

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:22:32 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — A population explosion among mountain pine beetles may help explain increased damage to forests from New Mexico to Alaska.

Long thought to produce only one generation of tree-killing offspring annually, some populations now produce two generations per year, dramatically increasing the potential for the bugs to kill lodgepole and ponderosa pine trees.

As economy grows, waistlines may follow

Amy Hodges-Rice — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:25:21 +0000

RICE / U. COLORADO (US) — Developing nations experiencing economic and social growth might also see growing waistlines among their poorest citizens, according to a new study.

Researchers found that while the growth of developing countries may improve conditions such as malnutrition and infectious disease, it may also increase obesity among people with lower socioeconomic status.