News tagged with polyaromatic hydrocarbons

Pavement sealcoat a source of toxins in stormwater runoff

Apr 08, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 1

Driveways and parking lots may look better with a layer of sealcoat applied to the pavement, but the water running off the surface into nearby streams will be carrying more than just oxygen and hydrogen molecules. ...

Search results for polyaromatic hydrocarbons

Oil-eating microbes give clue to ancient energy source

Biology /

Sep 09, 2008 | 3.6 / 5 (14) | 0

Microbes that break down oil and petroleum are more diverse than we thought, suggesting hydrocarbons were used as an energy source early in Earth's history, scientists heard today at the Society for General Microbiology's ...

Iowa State researchers looking for catalyst that allows plants to produce hydrocarbons

Chemistry / Biochemistry

Oct 01, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

Plants and algae may be a source of green, renewable hydrocarbons that could replace the ancient, finite hydrocarbons in fossil fuels, according to a team of researchers led by Iowa State University's Jackie ...

Natural gas inhabited by unusual specialists

Biology /

Sep 20, 2007 | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 0

A German-American research team of biologists and geochemists has discovered hitherto unknown anaerobic bacteria in marine sediments which need only propane or butane for growth, as reported by the scientific journal Nature in its ...

How cheating ants give themselves away

Biology /

Jan 08, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

In ant society, workers normally give up reproducing themselves to care for their queen's offspring, who are their brothers and sisters. When workers try to cheat and have their own kids in the queen's presence, their peers ...

Hydrocarbons in the deep Earth?

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jul 26, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (42) | 27

The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years ...

Toxins in cigarette smoke prevent stem cells from becoming cartilage

Medicine & Health / Research

Mar 03, 2008 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 2

A toxic pollutant spread by oil spills, forest fires and car exhaust is also present in cigarette smoke, and may represent a second way in which smoking delays bone healing, according to research presented today at the annual ...

The microbial hydrocarbon diet

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

Jun 11, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 3

Bioremediation of industrial sites and petrochemical spillages often involves finding microbes that can gorge themselves on the toxic chemicals. This leaves behind a non-toxic residue or mineralized material. Writing in the ...

Spitzer Searches for the Origins of Life

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Jun 13, 2007 | 3.3 / 5 (3) | 0

Astronomers suspect the early Earth was a very harsh place. Temperatures were extreme, and the planet was constantly bombarded by cosmic debris. Many scientists believe that life's starting materials, or building ...

Smokeless tobacco called 'moist snuff' is contaminated with harmful substances

Chemistry / Biochemistry

Dec 03, 2009 | 1.5 / 5 (2) | 0

A new study on the smokeless tobacco product called moist snuff — placed between lip and gum — has led scientists in Minnesota to urge the tobacco industry to change manufacturing practices to reduce snuff's ...