Amazonian Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears The sight of butterflies flocking onto the heads of yellow-spotted river turtles in the western Amazon rain forest is not uncommon at least
Unlike butterflies turtles get plenty of sodium through their largely carnivorous diet. Meat contains significant levels of the salt Torres told Livescience.
But herbivores sometimes struggle to get enough sodium and other minerals he added. They end up needing this extra mineral source he said.
Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears Drinking tears Turtle tears are not the only source of such salts for butterflies;
the insects also readily get the salt from animal urine muddy river banks puddles sweaty clothes
They simply uptake salts through a process similar to absorption by placing the proboscis on the salt-laden tears and passively'feed.'
'Torres has witnessed also bees drinking turtle tears. Bees appear to annoy the turtles more than the butterflies perhaps due to their buzzing wings he said.
 The lack of salt in the region has driven other animals to exhibit unusual behaviors.
For example macaws visit clay licks to well lick clay which contains sodium and other minerals Torres said.
The tear-drinking phenomenon doesn't appear to take place often outside this region. I have been studying turtles in the wild from the northern U s. Mexico
and they said it makes sense as some turtles eliminate excess salt through their tears.
Grasslands in the Namib desert start off homogenous but sparse rainfall and nutrient-poor soil spark intense competition between the grasses according to the new theory.
and nutrients from the soil causing their weaker neighbors to die and a barren gap to form in the landscape.
and the grass-free zone becomes a reservoir for nutrients and water. With the additional resources larger grass species are then able to take root at the periphery of the gap
and nutrients are already available in the environment. On the other hand the grasses require a large reservoir to sustain themselves
if the soil is poor in water and nutrients. The researchers also discovered that rainfall strongly determines the distribution of the fairy circles across Namibia with circles only appearing in areas where there is just the right amount of rain (not too little but not too much.
and nutrients then simply watering and fertilizing the circles should cause them to close up with vegetation Tschinkel said.
and there's no evidence that the stones were collected in the course of gold prospecting as the age of the cache predates the earliest known gold artifacts from Panama by more than 2000 years Redwood said in a statement.
and blow tobacco smoke over stones to communicate with otherworldly spirits or diagnose illnesses she wrote.
and approximately 1 million deaths in the mid-19th century was triggered by a newly identified strain of potato blight that has been christened HERB-1 according to a new study.
An international team of molecular biologists studied the historical spread of Phytophthora infestans a funguslike organism that devastated potato crops and led to the famine in Ireland.
and when the HERB-1 and US-1 strains likely diverged. According to the study Phytophthora infestans originated in Mexico's Toluca Valley.
and in the early 1800s the HERB-1 Phytophthora strain emerged and was brought out of Mexico the researchers said.
By the summer of 1845 the HERB-1 strain had arrived at European ports and the potato disease spread throughout Ireland and the United kingdom causing The irish potato famine.
In the 20th century as new varieties of potatoes were introduced the HERB-1 strain was replaced eventually by the US-1 Phytophthora strain the researchers said.
Most (76 percent) had contact with chickens (including four who were poultry workers) while 20 percent reported exposure to ducks and 7 percent to swine the report said.
A ban on the sale of poultry in market stalls disinfection of markets or market closures may need to be considered to prevent the spread of the virus from animals to people the researchers said.
#New Culprit in Red Meat Linked with Heart disease The high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol in red meat have long been blamed for increasing people's risk of heart disease.
But now new research points a finger at another culprit in meat that may be tied more closely to this leading killer.
A new study reveals that a nutrient called l-carnitine which is found in red meat
and is also popular as a dietary supplement may also play a role in the development of heart disease.
In a series of experiments in people and mice scientists for the first time demonstrated that carnitine from foods as well as from supplements influenced cardiovascular risk.
We now have an understanding of a new nutritional pathway that helps explain the longstanding recognition of a link between red meat
and the development of heart disease said study researcher Dr. Stanley Hazen section head of preventive cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland Ohio.
The pathway involves the gut bacteria that metabolize carnitine in people who regularly eat meat he said.
Hazen and his research team suspected there must be something else in red meat besides its cholesterol
A carnitine connection Two years ago Hazen and his research team discovered that microorganisms in the intestines can convert substances found in choline a common dietary fat to a by-product known as TMAO trimethylamine-N-oxide.
Carnitine is a nutrient found at high levels in red meat but fish poultry milk and other dairy products are also good food sources of it.
Carnitine is also a popular over-the-counter diet supplement often billed as helping to boost energy and bulk up muscle.
It's found in some energy drinks and muscle milks. The researchers looked at fasting levelsof blood carnitine in nearly 2600 men and women.
which is basically a vegetarian diet with mice whose food was supplemented with carnitine. We saw that carnitine supplements doubled the rates of atherosclerosis in the mice Hazen said.
It did this by dramatically increasing levels of TMAO which is produced by gut bacteria that metabolize l-carnitine.
As for how carnitine in red meat may be linked with heart disease Hazen explained that chronic ingestion of carnitine fundamentally shifts the metabolism of cholesterol.
Eating carnitine causes more cholesterol to be deposited onto artery walls and less to be eliminated from the body.
what happens when people eat carnitine comparing 51 people who normally eat meat to 23 people who were vegetarian
or vegan (who consume no animal products). The researchers found that adults who avoid meat and eat fewer animal products produced much lower concentrations of TMAO in the blood compared with the meat eaters.
If you're eating a lot of red meat this study argues to consider cutting back Hazen said.
He recommended decreasing the frequency of eating red meat and its portion size. For people taking carnitine supplements Hazen said he's unaware of a compelling study that shows a dramatic benefit from them.
And taking the supplement could be influencing a person's long-term risk of heart disease he suggested.
Pass it on: A compound called carnitine found in in red meat and supplements may increase the risk of heart disease.
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#New Earth Explorer Satellite to Map Global Forests The European space agency hopes to launch a new Earth Explorer satellite in 2020 that will map the extent and composition of the world s forests.
Though flattened the ancient fruit (scientific name Physalis) looks remarkably like a modern version of the popular salsa ingredient.
Both the fossil tomatillo and today's plants have husks with five major and five minor ribs he added.
-surprise-coed-dorms-fuel-sex-drinking. html>2. 5 times more likely to binge drink</a>every week than undergrads in single-sex dorms.</
</p><p>Sorry but that double cheeseburger is still not your friend. Scientists found that eating lots of saturated fat-filled red meat
and highly processed and salted meats is associated with a higher risk of death.</</p><p>A 2009 study of more than 500000 people found that individuals who consume more of these foods have increased an risk of death from all causes
and also specifically from cancer or heart disease over a 10-year period compared with people who eat less of those meats.
The findings were detailed in a paper in the March 23 issue of the journal Archives of Internal medicine.</
</p><p>For overall mortality 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented
if people decreased their red meat consumption to the amount consumed by the bottom one-fifth of subjects in the study the researchers wrote.</
</p><p>Drinking too much alcohol can impair decision-making. And a study out this year drove this point home:
Canadian researchers reporting results that will be published in January 2011 in the journal Addiction said they ran 12 studies looking at the link between blood alcohol
and the likelihood of agreeing to<a href=http://www. myhealthnewsdaily. com/2003-drinking-alcohol-unsafe-sex. html>use a condom during sexual intercourse</a>.The more alcohol in a person'
blood alcohol levels there was a 5 percent increased likelihood of having unprotected sex.</</p x
To test the accuracy of the eye-tracking technology Yorzinski threw food into the enclosure to monitor the peahens'gaze.
When I wasn't eating or sleeping I was practicing my swing Williams famously said.
He would record every incident of gum-chewing Kendall said. 7 Personality Traits You Should Change Slugger Williams who championed cancer treatment on behalf of the Dana-Farber Cancer institute in Boston once admitted that he was horses**t to his own
There's some evidence that Jobs who was diagnosed never actually with OCPD (Kendall asserts that he's simply suggesting the diagnosis based on current criteria) also had an eating disorder that's frequently associated with OCPD.
while incubating an egg; bands are attached to the legs of birds to help scientists track
The storage room stocked at least 3000 bottles'worth of the intoxicating beverage in massive pottery jars researchers report today (Nov 22) at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Baltimore.
The ancient wine bore little resemblance to the Bordeaux and Chianti of today it was preserved
and spiced with resin and herbs including juniper mint and myrtle. The closest modern analogue is a Greek wine flavored with pine resin called retsina study researcher Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa told reporters.
If you take retsina and you pour a bit of cough syrup inside I guess you get something quite similar Yasur-Landau said.
The find is important less for the wine's palate and more for what it reveals about the culture of the ancient Canaanites a group that dominated
what is now Israel and Lebanon. See Images of the Oldest Wine cellar Discovery Yasur-Landau
and his colleagues said. Texts and inscriptions from the era describe herbal wines but this is the first true chemical evidence of their existence.
 Intoxicating discovery The wine storage room is at a site called Tel Kabri in northern Israel where archaeologists are unearthing the remains of a sprawling palace dating back to about 1700 B c. that was built
and occupied by the Canaanites. The palace was destroyed around 1600 B c. by a sudden cataclysm possibly an earthquake.
It may have been this earthquake that crushed the wine storage room leaving toppled jars for archaeologists to uncover.
The researchers were digging in a spot they believed to be outside the palace walls in July
They estimate that the jars were held in a storage room measuring about 16 feet by 26 feet (5 m by 8 m). Together the 40 jars could have held about 2000 liters (500 gallons) of wine the team said.
7 Amazing Archaeological Finds Wine chemistry At the excavation site Brandeis University researcher Andrew Koh who specializes in archaeological chemistry took shards of the pots
Tartaric and syringic acids both hallmarks of wine proved that the jars indeed held vino.
Resins would have helped preserve the wines. If the ancient wineswere anything like retsina the resins also would have lent a distinctive turpentine flavor to the beverage.
Honey sweetened the wine the researchers found and juniper mint cinnamon bark and other herbs flavored it.
The jars were remarkably consistent in their contents suggesting that winemakers were sticking to a recipe.
The vesselsare plain and without markings or labels to reveal their contents. The storage room is next to a large hall that archaeologists think was used for banquets.
Cattle bones and other signs of meat consumption have been found in the palace Yasur-Landau said.
The Canaanite leader who lived in the compound may have entertained foreign guests in the hall. The palace contains Aegean art
and the wine includes imported ingredients pointing to maritime trade around the Mediterranean. Doors from the storage room may lead to at least one other storage chamber
but the area has yet to be excavated the researchers said. Texts from the ancient town of Mari Syria describe herbed wines from this time period Yasur-Landau said.
This time we have not only the physical evidence of jars but also we have the scientific evidence for the contents of these jars he said.
The chemical analysis of the ancient wine continues erhaps in enough detail for creative winemakers to one day recreate this ancient Canaanite brew.
#On Mozambique Coast, Food Grows Alongside Species Diversity (Op-Ed) Brendan Fisher is a research scientist for World Wildlife Fund (WWF.
Food insecurity plagues one-third of households two-thirds for female-headed households. People are reliant on the condition of their farmland and fisheries.
And while only about 30 percent of households actively fish two thirds of households rely on fish protein for nutrition on a daily basis. More than 80 percent of those fishing households also farm.
or as my marine biologist friend says fish breed like rabbits. The Mozambique no-take zones are managed by the community fisheries associations
The samples included drinking water and soil from the areas as well as swabs from birds'throats. Twenty samples tested positive for the H7n9 virus all from poultry markets in Shanghai.
Ten of the positive samples were from chickens three from pigeons and seven from the surrounding environment.
and track the spread of the virus he said. In new study is published in the April issue of the journal Chinese Science Bulletin.
#Optical Technique Sorts Grapes for Wine Quality (ISNS) A team of German scientists has developed an automated process that sorts grapes into different levels of quality for winemaking.
The goal of developing the technique is to produce wines that will satisfy refined palates but cost less than current prices.
Different colors correspond to different amounts of sugar in the grapes a basic criterion for their wine-making characteristics.
the grapes for white wines Riesling and Weisser Burgunder and those for the red wines Trollinger and Lemberger.
Our experiments have proven that wine quality has improved obviously due to our sorting said Kai-Uwe Vieth of the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) in Karlsruhe Germany who oversaw
but time-consuming method used by vintners. Its high throughput allows us to harvest and select grapes
And the winemaker determines the quality by setting the appropriate parameters. So the quality does not depend on the person who does the hand-sorting.
Although optical sorting has been used for years in related industries such as the cork industry its application in the wine industry is said pretty new Anita Oberholster a specialist in enology the study of wine
The wines are currently settling and we will start chemical analysis soon she said. The German process uses a special conveying system to load de-stemmed grapes onto a belt that travels past a sorting module.
of wine. In effect the software takes over the role of categorizing individual grapes from human experts.
The technology that the process uses to separate grapes of different wine-making characteristics remains secret.
When German vineyards wanted an automatic process for sorting their grapes Fraunhofer IOSB presented an obvious choice owing to its experience developing machines that sort tobacco minerals foods and more.
and making wine out of the selected grapes Vieth said. University viticulture experts will also put the resulting wines through taste tests.
This story was provided by Inside Science News Service. A former science editor of Newsweek Peter Gwynne is a freelance science writer based in Sandwich Massachusetts i
#Organic Tomatoes Have More Vitamin c Organically grown tomatoes are more nutritious in some ways than the conventionally grown variety a new study from Brazil suggests.
The organic variety might also taste slightly different as they have higher levels of sugar
The findings contradict those of research published last September in the journal Annals of Internal medicine which reviewed more than 200 studies and found no difference between the vitamin contents of organic and conventional foods.
and Food Chemistry concluded that organic crops tend to be higher in Vitamin c and phenols and lower in protein than conventionally grown crops.
whether the nutritional differences between organic and conventionally grown foods actually translate into health benefits Lester said.
organically grown foods have a lower carbon footprint and use fewer pesticides. Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics said it's important for children to eat a diet that's high in fruits vegetables whole grains
and low-fat dairy products regardless of whether these foods are organic or conventionally grown. Organic produce tends to be more expensive than traditional produce
and not everyone may be able to afford it. The researchers of the new study hypothesize that organic foods contain higher levels of certain nutrients
because these foods are grown under more stressful conditions. The plant's response to this stress leads to increased production of certain compounds including phenols.
Lester agreed saying that one of the main stressors of organic crops is the type of fertilizer used.
This slow release of nitrogen a nutrient the plant requires puts the plants under greater stress Lester said.
Harry Klee a professor at the University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences Department who was involved not in the study said the organic tomatoes in this study might have had more nutrients not necessarily
A tomato plant only has so many nutrients and flavor chemicals to go around and a plant that has smaller fruit is better able to fill each tomato with nutrients than a plant that bears a larger fruit Klee said.
The new study conducted by researchers at the Federal University of Ceara in Brazil is published today (Feb 20) in the journal PLOS ONE.
Future frontiers of agricultural expansion will most likely be in the tropics as people clear high-biodiversity tropical forests to raise cattle grow soy
Over that same time demand for food water and energy are expected to double. If you think about today's consumption rate per billion people as a shopping cart people are filling 7 shopping carts.
A first step is to change the mentality about how people grow food and use other natural resources like forests water and energy resources.
and coucher show themselves assiduously at the dinners of the royal family...in short must ceaselessly work at having themselves noticed.
which saw the spread of jawless fish throughout the seas. Mollusks and corals also thrived in the oceans
or the vascular tissue that allows modern plants to siphon up water and nutrients. Those developments would appear in the Devonian period the next geological period of the Paleozoic.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? definitively. Long before birds evolved tetrapods began laying eggs on land for the first time during this period allowing them to break away from an amphibious lifestyle.
Trilobites were fading as fish became more diverse. The ancestors of conifers appeared and dragonflies ruled the skies.
Liver cancer can cause dark brown urine containing excess bilirubin a brownish pigment produced by the liver.
Genetic conditions that affect the breakdown of dietary nutrients can also cause blue urine. Even blue food dyes sometimes passes into pee.
Indigo and Violet In this photo the deep purple urine comes from a patient with kidney failure. The dark black one is something that you usually see in kidney failure West said.
#People With Celiac disease Don't Have To Miss the Cookout (Op-Ed) Mary Kay Sharrett R. D. L. D. of the Celiac disease Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital helps patients with celiac disease.
and charcoal grills and while that usually means a good time at a potluck style cookout for people with health concerns like celiac disease that family gathering can be a challenge.
and preparing a gluten-free option on the menu or a few which will allow for a fun stress-free holiday experience.
If you are the one hosting the cookout it is especially important to ask your guests
if there are any food allergies you should know about and pay close attention to what those food allergies mean for your menu.
and while a gluten free diet is recommended only for people with celiac disease chances are you will come in contact with someone who needs to strictly avoid gluten.
People with celiac disease really need to read the labels on condiments especially. Marinades or sauces may contain wheat especially
if they contain soy sauce. Also watch out for marinades that are made with beer. Even crumbs from food containing gluten being left behind can be harmful for a child with celiac disease
if the crumbs mix with a gluten-free dish. In order to grill safely gluten-free make sure only plain meat
and vegetables end up on the grill. Wrapping your meat or corn on the cob in foil is crucial
if you don't know if the grill has been cleaned especially after marinades containing gluten have been used or buns have been warmed on the grill.
Make sure the spatula only touches plain meats or vegetables cross-contamination with buns or marinades could be dangerous.
I also suggest bringing a gluten-free bun with you to the cookout or using a large piece of lettuce as a substitute for a hamburger bun.
Parents should also ask if the meat that a host has been prepared for a cookout is plain.
Seasoning or soup mixes containing wheat may have been added to the meat. Also meat substitutes like veggie burgers often look like the real thing
but can contain wheat. And if squeeze bottles aren't being used try to be first in line to avoid contamination from knives that have touched bread containing gluten.
Taking a gluten-free side dish with you can help your child have a safe accompaniment to the entrees.
Some options include a bowl of mixed berries baked beans corn on the cob or a gluten-free potato salad.
This is important information for everyone to know because the long-term effect of anyone with celiac disease being exposed to gluten is damage to the intestine.
Some kids experience symptoms immediately. As a result many parents choose to eat at home in a controlled environment
but group cookouts are possible if you are cautious. Instead of turning down an invitation to a cookout this holiday weekend try making one of these simple
but delicious gluten-free recipes to bring along with you. You can ensure that your child will have a safe option
and these dishes are sure to impress even those without sensitivity to gluten. Baked Beans Ingredients Directions:
Buckeye Bars*Ingredients: Directions:**Be sure to let other cookout guests know that this dish contains peanuts.
Quinoa Dip Ingredients: Directions: Mix everything together in a bowl. Serve with tortilla chips The views expressed are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was published originally on Livescience. e
#Perfect Storm: Blizzard, Shutdown Pummel South dakota Ranchers On the same week that a federal budget standoff shut down vast swaths of the U s. government a freak blizzard shut down vast swaths of South dakota.
And both disasters have combined to devastate one of the state's biggest industries. The early autumn blizzard struck the state with unexpected fury dumping a record-breaking 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow on Rapid city on Friday Oct 4.
Other parts of the state got more with some regions reporting snowdrifts almost 5 feet (1. 5 meters) deep.
As troubling as this storm was for people the blizzard was devastating for the region's cattle.
Some ranchers are reporting losses of more than 90 percent of their herds. And help unfortunately is not on its way to South dakota's $7-billion cattle industry due to the shutdown at federal agencies a shutdown that some claim the state's congressional representatives helped to create.
The 19 Weirdest Effects of the Government Shutdown As the snow melted the losses mounted for the state's ranchers who now face the grisly task of documenting the number of dead rotting cattle carcasses littering their land.
There are no words to describe the devastation and loss Joan Wink of Wink Cattle Company told Modern Farmer.
I'm not going to take photos. These deaths are too gruesome. Nobody wants to see this.
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