These rice-fish co-cultures could lessen the environmental impact of agricultural chemicals and help make rice farming more profitable,
this approach will be increasingly important for ensuring that food production provides people with enough protein.
has no specific provisions for addressing agricultural greenhouse-gas emissions. The scientists recommend that parties to the UNFCCC establish a programme to develop a global sustainable agriculture strategy,
The report also praises Australia's Carbon Farming Initiative the world's first national legislation aimed at reducing carbon emissions from farming and forestry,
and investors to generate and trade carbon credits from farming and forestry projects, and could serve as a model for similar projects in other countries.
and force out natural gas. See go. nature. com/p5fj1q for more. Events Heavenly kiss China's unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft docked with its Tiangong 1 module on 2 november,
Future medicine The US National Research Council (NRC) has called for a network that would connect patients'health records with layers of data on molecular tests, genetics,
would enable treatments to be personalized for patients, ushering in a new taxonomy of human disease based on molecular origins rather than on physical signs and symptoms.
Carbon tax Australia will introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from 1 july 2012, after the legislation passed its final barrier 墉 approval by the Senate 墉 on 8 november.
and release carbon, one of the least understood aspects of the global carbon cycle. Earthwatch has recruited more than 2,
and analyse soil samples to estimate how much carbon is captured. Forests play a huge role in regulating climates at global scale
"There are no long-term monitoring studies on biodiversity as well as carbon stocks, and very limited modelling studies on climate-change impacts, he says
from where they will start to map lunar gravity in March 2012. go. nature. com/msewftregulation of aviation's greenhouse-gas emissions is set to start in the European union.
All flights to or from Europe will have to buy carbon credits under the region's emissions trading scheme.
Mining molecular gastronomydieter Heinemann/Westend61/Corbisshrimp and tomato are paired often together in North american cuisine, because they share certain flavour compounds.
Ahnert, himself an amateur molecular gastronomist, was intrigued by the anecdotal suggestion that the reason some foods go well together is
because they contain the same flavour molecules. He and his team therefore developed networks to link flavour compounds with the ingredients found in one Korean
and two American online recipe databases, grouping recipes into North american, Western European, Latin american, Southern European or East Asian cuisine.
But in East Asian and Southern European recipes, the trend was the opposite the ingredients were less likely to share flavour compounds.
for example share flavour compounds with many other foods. Once these foods were removed from the analysis
when the team removed the most common ingredients that shared the least flavour compounds (beef, ginger, pork, cayenne, chicken and onion) from the analysis,
"It s clearly something different from shared compounds, he says.""To get a clearer idea of
I want to look at better data on flavour compounds. He has contacted therefore the owners of professional databanks to find out how much of each flavour compound is present in an ingredient.
but not the same flavour compounds, are used together. Other studies into ingredients and recipes have been conducted.
) Haemophilia B is caused by mutations in the gene that codes for the factor IX protein;
In a previous trial, protein production dropped below therapeutic levels after two months (C. S. Manno et al.
) But in the latest trial, four out of six patients were still making the protein up to 18 months after one treatment,
Both antibodies target the protein affected by HER2 mutations. See go. nature. com/hwxlbd for more.
F. Roberts/Alamyfracking worry The US Environmental protection agency (EPA) has said that chemicals associated with fracking, a controversial technique that involves pumping high-pressure fluids into shale to force out natural gas,
probably polluted water supplies in central Wyoming. Shale-gas companies have maintained that complaints of methane and other chemicals in groundwater can't definitely be linked to fracking,
despite the many public protests against the practice (pictured). The EPA's draft report was released on 8 december
The first round of greenhouse-gas reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol will expire at the end of 2012,
best chance to establish a fresh road map to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. Agreed in 1997,
the Kyoto Protocol is still the only global treaty that sets out legally binding goals for countries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
and are now demanding that poor countries sacrifice economic development to make carbon cuts. But other developing countries, acknowledging that most future emissions growth will come from once-poor nations,
The talks also moved closer to establishing a system that would allow payments to countries that reduce carbon emissions by preventing deforestation,
which countries can sell carbon credits for projects that lower greenhouse-gas emissions, such as renewable energy.
and store carbon emissions from power plants, allowing Western countries to finance these plants more cheaply in India or China.
with 5%of the carbon credits being set aside to account for any leakage of stored greenhouse gases in the 20 years after they are buried.
Deforestation accounts for about 15%of global greenhouse-gas emissions and 75%of Brazil s. Katia Abreu, a senator from the state of Tocantins and  president of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture
but also erode Brazil s reputation as a global leader in cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. One key test of Brazil's resolve will come next June,
and examines how different levels of greenhouse-gas emissions could affect sectors such as agriculture, health and infrastructure over the twenty-first century.
and expanding prospects for a low-carbon market and tourism. Although the study has been lauded for its innovative methodology,
Molecular technologies need to be made more easily available and affordable to countries at risk, and genetic surveillance more comprehensive and timely.
in theory, be engineered to produce a variety of other useful chemicals and fuels.""This is very impressive work it really is a groundbreaking achievement,
Pollutants key to climate fixbuses spew clouds of black exhaust fumes in Mexico city while, in India,
Methane leaks from gas pipelines in Russia and rice paddies in China, eventually breaking down in sunlight and contributing to the production of smog and ozone.
Rapid measures to reduce emissions of black carbon, which soaks up solar energy, and methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 Â times more potent than carbon dioxide,
while countries grapple with efforts to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas."
the assessment ranked hundreds of  options for reducing black carbon and ozone pollution according to their potential to reduce warming.
For methane, the study identified 14 control measures that would target leakage from coal mining and oil and gas operations, emissions from landfills, wastewater systems, livestock manure and rice paddies.
Black-carbon reduction would focus on cleaning up diesel vehicle emissions biomass stoves, brick kilns and coke ovens.
Modelling suggests that, together, a 75%reduction in black carbon and a 40%reduction in methane emissions over the next two decades would lower projected warming by about 0. 5 °C by 2050.
Cuts to black carbon would yield the biggest reduction in warming in Africa, south Asia and the Arctic,
and black-carbon mitigation are intentionally keeping the agenda separate from the UN climate negotiations.
and was prompted by a law passed in 2008 that was meant to support the growing efforts towards regulating greenhouse gases.
and type and volume of greenhouse gases, including the ubiquitous carbon dioxide and methane and the more esoteric fluorinated chemicals.
The data should help researchers trying to measure and track greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as those studying natural carbon cycles.
As scientists pin down exactly where anthropogenic carbon emissions are coming from, Marland says, they can separate out carbon uptake and emissions by plants and soils."
"The better we understand both the magnitude and distribution of human emissions, the better we understand what is happening in the biosphere.
Some database searches produce very familiar results. Carbon dioxide makes up about 95%of the greenhouse-gas emissions logged
(although if emissions from agriculture and other sectors in the full US inventory are included, that proportion would drop to around 83%).
And power plants overshadow any other stationary sources of greenhouse gases, accounting for about three-quarters of emissions in the inventory (see The gas tracker).
Source: EPABUT there are also some eye-opening statistics. Just 2. 5%of the facilities that have submitted data to the EPA are responsible for 45%of the emissions, for example.
And almost all of the United states emissions of trifluoromethane (also known as HFC-23), a potent greenhouse gas, come from just two facilities the Honeywell International plant in Baton rouge, Louisiana,
which is a by-product of the manufacture of the refrigerant and chemical feedstock chlorodifluoromethane. The flood of data does not mean that scientists can stop measuring greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere.
Pieter Tans and his team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, measure greenhouse-gas plumes from major facilities through a network
of tall monitoring towers, for example. The annual totals in the database will certainly help to improve their atmospheric models,
The municipal government said on 5 january that it would publicly report data on levels of particles smaller than 2. 5 micrometres across (PM2. 5),
Airline carbon row Global airlines are protesting a European law that requires them to pay for some of the carbon emissions from their flights using European airports.
Anastas, a pioneer of green chemistry, spent much of his time reforming the agency's programme for assessing the risks of individual chemicals,
The company said that its $149, 000 Ion Proton sequencer, the latest version of the Ion Personal Genome Machine that it launched late in 2010 (see Nature 475,278;
2011), would be able to sequence a genome in a day for $1, 000. Hepatitis C hopefuls Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-myers squibb of New york city has become the latest company to spend billions on the promise of hepatitis C treatments.
Georgia. Inhibitex's main asset is a compound against hepatitis C that is in phase II trials.
defusing the carbon bombenvironmentalists and many politicians have called the oil sands a planetary-scale threat as they fight to prevent further development of the resource.
it is true that greenhouse gas emissions are higher than average. But their work underscores evidence that the environmental impacts of producing the oil sands are primarily local rather than global."
"We wanted to address the carbon-bomb question, Weaver says.""And frankly, these numbers aren t as big as
They modelled the effects on global climate of the carbon emissions that would result if all of the oil available in the Alberta reserves were to be burned.
burning every tonne of carbon underground would be virtually impossible. Restricting the analysis to proven reserves those believed to be economically viable using present technologies the duo calculated a temperature increase of 0. 02 °C. Taking into account the portion of the reserve that is already under active development,
But their analysis did not delve into more subtle comparisons of the overall"life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of various fuelsoil sands are as thick and sticky as their other moniker tar sands would suggest.
But there are many varieties of crude as well as various production methods that factor into cumulative life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions.
and other factors such as the flaring of the natural gas produced as a by-product, which is common in Nigeria the dirtiest conventional oils could be just as bad or even worse than crude from the oil sands.
which reduces surface disturbance but actually increases greenhouse-gas emissions as a result of higher energy consumption. Environmentalists see the pipeline,
But barring a precipitous drop in oil prices or a sudden imposition of carbon regulations, Canada will probably find customers for its oil one way or another.
and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Governments will surely demand additional detail from scientists in the coming years
Oil-sands vote ends in deadlockan attempt to assign a carbon footprint to oil obtained from oil sands,
all fuels must be assigned a default carbon footprint. However, policy-makers are stuggling to achieve this for oil-sands oil.
They generally recognize the higher carbon footprint of oil extracted from oil sands, but do not single them out with a separate value.
when calculating the overall carbon footprint for all of Europe's petrol from 2014 onwards. Environmentalists agree that oil obtained from different sources should have different carbon footprints
but few data are available on the actual emissions generated by other sources, and that because oil-sand oil is known to generate more emissions,
Producers are awarded also credits for reducing the flaring of natural gas, which can be used to meet their fuel-quality target.
and Environment in Brussels."All fuels need correct carbon accounting to count their contribution, to reach the 6%greenhouse-gas reduction target,
she says
Ash-covered forest is'Permian Pompeii'An ancient swampy forest full of long-extinct plant species has been brought to life through analyses of well-preserved fossils entombed in a layer of volcanic ash.
as well as the size of individual ash particles, suggest that the volcanic blast occurred more than 100 kilometres away.
Proteins are large and complex so it is much harder to copy drugs based on them than small-molecule drugs (see Nature 449,274-276;
2007). ) The FDA wants firms to prove their molecules'similarity to branded biologics before the generics can be approved
but the agency provided few concrete details, instead saying that it would judge on a case-by-case basis. See go. nature. com/nhbvik for more.
Synbio troubles US synthetic biology firm Amyris which engineers microbes to process plant sugars into useful chemicals saw its share price plunge by 28%on 10 february,
after it admitted that it would not meet its production forecasts for a key chemical, farnesene.
A whiff of interstellar clouda NASA spacecraft has detected directly atoms from outside the boundary of the Solar system
It could also mean that oxygen atoms are being locked up somehow in the trace grains of dust
The findings paint the most detailed compositional picture yet of the'Local Cloud'Â the interstellar cloud of gas in
a solar wind of charged particles pushes outward and creates a bubble that extends well beyond the orbit of Pluto.
the bubble stops electrically charged atoms in their tracks and keeps them from crossing into the Solar system.
but it has detectors that are sensitive to neutral atoms that can enter the heliosphere.
these atoms are unaffected by the Sun's magnetic field. Mccomas says that it takes about 30 years for particles to cross the bubble wall at the heliosphere s edge
and travel to the inner Solar system, where they are caught by  IBEX.""I call it the 15-billion-mile hole-in-one,
IBEX found the ratio of oxygen atoms to neon atoms to be lower in the Local Cloud than the average ratios for both the Solar system and the Galaxy as a whole
Based on the speeds and directions of the neutral atoms, the IBEX team was also able to refine its picture of the shape of the heliosphere.
Mccomas says that the pressure from the incoming atoms is about 20%less than what was estimated by Ulysses.
and carbon-offset projects can result in the eviction of inhabitants of wooded areas that are bought up in exchange for carbon credits.
Although the official carbon market made little progress in last year s United nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South africa,
the voluntary carbon market is still dispossessing local custodians of their lands. For example Green Resources, a forestry company based in Oslo,
A Dutch firm s carbon-offset project in Uganda s Mount Elgon National park became unmarketable after sustained conflict with local farmers who contest the group's right to the land.
to reduce carbon emissions, leave tropical forests standing. But a widely heralded approach in which rich nations would pay poorer ones to keep their forests intact has proved trickier to deploy than many had hoped.
Carbon payments would make it easier for landowners to earn a living without clearing more land.
agricultural biotech giant Monsanto and retailer Walmart together with producers and environmentalists to negotiate environmental certification standards for products such as soya beans, palm oil,
soya and palm oil could have the greatest impact on carbon (see'Food versus forests').'With more than US$4 million in seed money from Norway, the consortium plans to announce an initial round of projects in the run-up to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de janeiro (Rio+20) in Brazil in June.
The consortium is also looking at tackling overall greenhouse-gas emissions using carbon credits, which could be sold to private investors
In conventional agricultural systems, farmers apply chemical fertilizers to fields while the crops are growing,
and co-editor of the April issue of Molecular Ecology, which is devoted to the emerging field of studying environmental DNA.
In the Molecular Ecology special issue, various research teams worked out the diet of a leopard by sequencing DNA in its faeces3;
but not how to apply them to routine biodiversity surveys, points out Mehrdad Hajibabaei, an evolutionary molecular geneticist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
In the past, researchers have examined herbal medicines by running assays for toxic compounds and using DNA tests to determine
Focusing on DNA from chloroplasts and mitochondria energy-producing structures in cells that have their own genomes the researchers produced 49,000 genetic sequences.
and carbon emissions and secures a smaller area of forest than was thought. However, the Indonesian government has confirmed its commitment to its climate-change pledge by extending the protected area
and stripping a palm-oil firm of a permit to develop carbon-rich peatland.""No other country has done anything like this,
although that in itself won t do much to reduce carbon emissions. Norway s environment minister, B ¥rd Vegar Solhjell, acknowledges the limitations of the moratorium."
and carbon-storage potential than others, says William Laurance, a forest-conservation scientist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.
Laurance does commend the Indonesian government for protecting 11.5 million hectares of forests growing on carbon-rich peatland.
If deforested, these areas could release up to eight times more carbon into the atmosphere than would dryland forests growing on mineral soil.
says Allen Van Deynze, a molecular geneticist at the Seed Biotechnology Center at the University of California,
The authors suggest that the fluke may alter the production by T lymphocytes key cells in the immune system of the protein interferon-Ã Â,
Having evolved the ability to withstand glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto s popular herbicide Roundup,
the plants can break down both of the chemicals in Dow s newly formulated herbicide Enlist."
The chief worry is that new herbicide blends will accelerate the emergence of resistance to multiple chemicals.
such as the ability to break up certain molecular structures or to confine herbicides in cell vacuoles."
"These are traits that could overcome more than one chemical mode of action and see an increase in selection pressure,
where mosquitoes are frequently resistant to compounds known as pyrethroids and even to the organochloride DDT, venerable tools of mosquito control.
Canadian company Iogen Energy in Ottawa announced on 30 april that it has shelved plans to build a large-scale facility in Manitoba to produce fuel ethanol from cellulose, the long molecular chain of sugars that forms
But cracking apart the tough cellulose molecules is a lot harder than brewing up simple sugars.
and could explain a mysterious spike in carbon-14 levels in that year's growth rings in Japanese cedar trees.
when he heard about a team of researchers in Japan who had found an odd spike in carbon-14 levels in tree rings.
which carbon-14 is formed (see'Mysterious radiation burst recorded in tree rings').'But there was a problem:
noting that the red crucifix could have been formed by sunset light illuminating high-altitude ice particles in both vertical and horizontal bands of light.
The fermented dairy product left telltale traces of fat on the ceramic fragments, suggesting a way that the region s inhabitants may have evolved to tolerate milk as adults.
using mass spectrometry to identify specific animal fats and using the relative levels of carbon isotopes to pick out more exactly the origin of those fats in 29 of the samples.
Of those 29, at least half contained fats came from dairy foods. Carbon isotopes from milk fat can also point to the sorts of food the dairy animals ate
as different plants incorporate varying amounts of carbon-13 relative to carbon-12. The team found that the milk fats came from a range of plants,
potentially suggesting that the people milking the animals moved around a lot, Evershed says. They may even have grazed their cattle up and down mountains,
depending on the season. Mark Thomas, a geneticist at University college London, calls the latest work"a very exciting finding.
He speculates that mutations that allow adults to digest lactose, or lactase persistence, that arose around 7, 000 to 8,
Tracing of the radioisotope calcium-45, for example allows sensitive measurements of calcium carbonate uptake in the skeletons of marine organisms,
W. Greenblatt/Sygma/Corbisnobel chemist dies Organic chemist William Knowles (pictured), who shared the 2001 Nobel prize in Chemistry,
Knowles worked for four decades at the agricultural giant Monsanto in St louis. He won the Nobel with Ryoji Noyori
and Barry Sharpless for his work on chemical syntheses that selectively create one of two mirror-image forms (enantiomers) of a molecule.
GM soya levy The biotechnology giant Monsanto is one step closer to losing billions of dollars in revenues from its genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready soya beans in Brazil.
Monsanto, headquartered in St louis Missouri, levies a charge on Brazilian farmers who grow soya beans that turn out to be GM.
but it is most effective with very fine particles of gold  and Madre de dios tends to yield larger, coarser grains.
Monsanto may lose GM soya royalties throughout Brazilthe biotechnology giant Monsanto is one step closer to losing billions of dollars in revenues from its genetically-modified (GM) Roundup Ready soya beans,
farmers can spray they fields with the chemical to control weeds without risking damage to their crops.
Monsanto has charged Brazilian farmers 2%of their sales of Roundup Ready soya beans, which now account for an estimated 85%Â of the nation s soya-bean crop.
Monsanto argues that most Brazilian farmers still use smuggled seeds, and that the company is consequently being deprived of revenue
that Monsanto s levy was illegal, noting that the patents relating to Roundup Ready soya beans have expired already in Brazil.
He ordered Monsanto to stop collecting royalties, and return those collected since 2004 or pay back a minimum of US$2 billion.
Monsanto appealed, and Conti's decision has been suspended for now, pending consideration by the Justice Tribune of Rio grande do Sul.
But in 2011, Monsanto had made also a parallel legal bid to the Brazilian Supreme court of Justice, the country's highest federal court.
On 12 june, the judges of the Brazilian Supreme court of Justice ruled against Monsanto, deciding unanimously that the ruling by the Justice Tribune of Rio grande do Sul,
Monsanto has declined to comment on the case. Some scientists fear that if the company is forced to repay royalties,
has a research partnership with Monsanto.""Although Embrapa has other financial sources, if the collection of royalties is interrupted then $5 million to $10 million dollars will be cut from our budget,
Monsanto charges us in double: when we buy the seeds and then when we sell the soy
But carbon seems to be the touchiest subject internationally. China does not publish official figures for carbon dioxide emissions,
"China s real carbon emissions could be higher than our provincial aggregate estimate, or even lower than our national estimate.
and to devise a carbon trading system that will be tested in seven provinces and cities next year.
"The uncertainty of their emission estimates is a great challenge for global greenhouse-gas mitigation.
and Missouri-based Monsanto expects to commercialize a genetically engineered variety soon. In the meantime, some are turning to alternative solutions."
Glybera, a treatment for a rare disease in which patients cannot produce enough lipoprotein lipase (an enzyme crucial for breaking down fat),
Ion Torrent (a subsidiary of Life Technologies. The company, based in Guilford, Connecticut, said on 23 Â July that it would attempt to win the Archon Genomics X Prize,
collecting tissue and ferrying liquid nitrogen to his remote home in Ecuador s Galapagos islands to preserve samples that might one day yield a viable cell culture.
Cruz hurried to secure a local supply of liquid nitrogen. There were two liquid nitrogen tanks on Santa cruz,
used for freezing semen for the artificial insemination of cattle in the highlands. By commandeering one tank,
Cruz got hold of enough liquid nitrogen to keep George s cells safely frozen until top-up stock could be shipped from the mainland.
Several liquid-nitrogen containers are now being relayed back and forth between the continent and the islands to keep the cells frozen until it is decided where they will be stored in the long-term.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011