Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus found commonly in ordinary garden soil. When the spores of the fungus are inhaled, It can also cause disease–sometimes fatally in those with already compromised immune systems and respiratory disease such as COPD. Doctors who treat the illness have long-recognized that in some patients, the fungus is resistant to standard treatment with chemicals called azoles. The problem becomes potentially worse as azoles are also heavily used as farm fungicides. A team of Dutch researchers (Verweij and Kema), reporting in last December’s edition of the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases suggest that over-use of the farm fungicide may be contributing to the growing resistance of this fungus to the disease-fighting chemicals.

A group of scientists from both the public and private arenas has announced that they’ve successfully engineered a microbe that contains all the bits required to turn raw plant matter directly into diesel without any refinement or intermediary steps required.

The microbe is a modified strain of E. coli (that’s right, the same type of bugger that’s responsible for some nasty gut infections) that has been enhanced to produce tailor-made diesel molecules, alcohols and waxes directly from hemicellulose—one of the main components of plants. Not only can the microbial products be used for fuel, but the team is also setting their sights on directly producing environmentally-friendly—and industrially-necessary—surfactants, solvents and lubricants.

Yeah, that’s what I said — What?!

Apparently, Bell Labs has launched a global effort to overhaul the internet and other communication networks to make them 1,000 times greener by the year 2015!

Bell Labs is the research arm of telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent. In this effort they are coordinating with 15 other initial members from industry, academia, science labs, and NGOs, including AT&T, China Mobile, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, and MIT’s Research Laboratory for Electronics. “Green Touch” is the name being given to the consortium.

In a fortuitous discovery, chemists have stumbled on a catalyst that strips carbon dioxide from the air and converts it into a useful compound.

Researchers say the copper-based compound is not ready for primetime–removing carbon dioxide on a large scale–but they hope that the catalyst could one day remove the ubiquitous greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, turning it into organic chemicals.

Elisabeth Bouwman at Leiden University, who led the team that discovered the catalyst, said the selectivity of the new compound is “completely unexpected”.

Spiders who show off smile-like markings are much more than Internet memes and they’re not here to make you laugh, either. Just the opposite: these spiders’ bold faces serve to scare and confuse potential predators. Happy now?

Over the last few days there has been a flurry of blogging activity about a study claiming “organ-toxic effects” in mice fed with GMO corn.  The summaries of the study one sees are certainly scary, but if you read the original paper it is not nearly as clear as these commentators imply - in fact it is a really strange paper to read (seriously, have a look).  Rather than go into the many legitimate questions about this research, I will simply refer you to a very lively, but technically sharp comment stream about it.  Instead of getting into this fray I’d like to try to put this new “threat” into perspective.

A recent E.U. study found that rats who’s diets included different strains of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) corn experienced kidney, liver, and other organ damage.

The study looked at three strains of Monsanto’s GM corn: one that was “Roundup Ready” and two that were engineered to produce Bt toxin which acts as an insecticide.

Because Monsanto’s seeds are patented, researchers had to use data that came from the GM giant itself, rather than conducting their own research. Researchers had to actually take Monsanto to court to get their hands on the data for analysis!

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Give people a little winter weather and they cry out that global climate change is a myth.
Well, unfortunately, that is not the case.

Before we get too excited about the cold weather, here are a few things to look at, including the fact that the scientist who said we were entering “global cooling” doesn’t really say so at all.

2nd Hottest Year on Record, at End of Hottest Decade (So Far)
Throughout the year, as I was keeping up with the climate change news, I also saw several articles talking about how we were actually entering a cooling phase. As the year comes to a close, we can see clearly that it hasn’t started yet!

Well, they have done it before, but were stopped by the Bush administration in 2001. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has its own satellites and state-of-the-art sensors that it is going to start sharing with climate scientists again, in order to unlock some climate change and environmental mysteries.

Approximately 60 climate scientists (from academia, industry and federal agencies) have received the appropriate clearance now to access this information in order to further understand the current and future effects of climate change on the environment.

Officials state clearly that this is not taking away from other intelligence gathering missions in the least.

Meteors

(Image via EarthSky)

Meteor showers (also known as meteor storms or outbursts) are bits of debris from space that enter the earth’s atmosphere at extreme speeds. Hitting the air causes them to vaporize, which leaves the famous spark of light behind – hence the nickname “shooting star”.