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Environmental News Network -- Know Your Environment
Researchers have gained new insight into the formation of a group of compounds found in almost all organisms, which are reportedly shown to be a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from damage by free radicals. They found that these compounds were also essential in supporting the mitochondrial energy metabolism, which is known as sulfur respiration, and identified it for the first time in humans and other mammals.
NOAA's GOES-East satellite provided days of infrared and visible imagery that showed the quick development and demise of Tropical Storm Philippe in the Atlantic Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite captured a look at Philippe when it was in its "prime" as a tropical storm near Key West.
A researcher in the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) is using genomic technology in the search for a drug to fight a parasite that costs the cattle industry worldwide billions of dollars a year.
“One aspect of my research program is to develop new drugs to treat parasites of livestock and specifically helminths — parasitic roundworms — which cost the Canadian cattle industry an estimated $210 million a year,” says James Wasmuth, associate professor of host-parasite interactions at UCVM. “This is in lost production as well as treatment. The cost in the U.S. is around $2 billion, and in Brazil it’s a $7 billion-a-year problem for their beef industry.”
In spring 2017, researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions set out to determine what and how a broad cross-section of thought leaders at private corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, and universities think about emerging environmental trends, risks, and opportunities.
Through the Emerging Environmental Issues Survey, the researchers aimed to assess both the reach and the manageability of environmental change.
Recently, scientists from Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary joined other partners from NOAA and outside organizations to conduct a rapid assessment of the Florida Coral Reef Tract, including areas in the sanctuary, following Hurricane Irma. Preliminary reports from the team found extensive shifting of sand and heavy sediment accumulation, which can smother and prevent corals from getting enough sunlight, as well as some structural damage to individual corals and the reef itself.
This effort is the first step in a longer recovery process and helps NOAA begin assessing damage and start preparing and prioritizing future restoration activities. The rapid assessment took place October 9-19.
In 1995, Adrian Piers, a veteran aquaculture consultant, imported a batch of Australian red claw crayfish to the tiny southern African monarchy of Swaziland. He began raising the attractive blue-green crustaceans — the males of which have red stripes on their claws and can weigh a little more than a pound — in ponds rented from a sugar estate, and soon found a market for them among French-style chefs in neighboring South Africa.
