Scientists conduct first remote underwater detection of harmful algae and its toxins

October 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are cultivating green algae that might help produce biofuel. From the beginning of 1950s, the Department of Energy recognized algae as a potential feedstock for energy and biofuels.

September 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has developed a sensor that works as an 'electronic nose' in sniffing out some known poisonous gases and toxins, simply by changing colors. Support for the development and application of this electronic nose comes from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health.

September 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States Naval Research Laboratory is working on a new technology that uses flashes of laser light to remotely create underwater sound. Researchers behind the project say that the new technology has the potential to expand and improve both Naval and commercial underwater acoustic applications, including undersea communications, navigation, and acoustic imaging.

August 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has shown that the method to detect contaminants in municipal water supplies that uses algae as sentinels has broader applications than previously reported. The research was done by Miguel Rodriguez Jr.

August 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using energy production from microalgae, a team of scientists is developing closed photo-bioreactors and novel cell disruption methods. Microalgae are monocellular, plant-like organisms engaged in photosynthesis and converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into biomass.

July 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A sample of the giant black mystery blob that Wainwright hunters discovered this month floating in the Chukchi Sea has been identified as algae. The blob is thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters.

July 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Soon, technology that is used to make office inkjet printers may be used to develop paper-based biosensors that can detect certain harmful toxins that can cause food poisoning or be used as bioterrorism agents. In a research, John Brennan and his research team at McMaster University, working with the Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network, describe a method for printing a toxin-detecting biosensor on paper using a FujiFilm Dimatix Materials Printer.

July 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has suggested that Coralline algae in the Mediterranean Sea lost their tropical element between 5 and 7 million years ago. The international team of researchers studied the coralline algae fossils that lived on the last coral reefs of the Mediterranean Sea between 7.24 and 5.3 million years ago.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists is developing novel underwater laser networking and imaging technologies that will be used onboard a group of small, co-operating robots, which will be able to rapidly identify and communicate potential threats in murky coastal waters. The new technology is being developed by scientists at the Ocean Visibility and Optics Laboratory at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

July 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have suggested that toxic algal blooms are created when aggressive algae kill and injure their competitors in order to absorb the nutrients they contain. "The behaviour of the algae can be compared to that of blood-sucking insects," said Per Jonsson of the Department of Marine Ecology.

May 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Stanford University scientists have found evidence that some coral reefs are adapting to the climate change and may actually survive global warming. "Corals are certainly threatened by environmental change, but this research has really sparked the notion that corals may be tougher than we thought," said Stephen Palumbi, a professor of biology and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.

May 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have detected common plant toxins that affect human health and ecosystems in smoke from forest fires. The study, which was of Ponderosa pines, was done by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

March 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have found an alga in Yellowstone National Park, US, that can detoxify arsenic. "The alga - a simple one-celled algae called Cyanidioschyzon - thrives in extremely toxic conditions and chemically modifies arsenic that occurs naturally around hot springs," said Tim McDermott, professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University.

March 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers have stumbled on an algae that detoxifies arsenic, potentially opening the way for cleaning up underground water reservoirs in West Bengal and Bangladesh contaminated with the poison. The simple, single-celled algae called Cyanidioschyzon thrives in extremely toxic conditions and chemically modifies arsenic that occurs naturally, said Tim McDermott, professor of environmental sciences at Montana State University (MSU) who led the study.

January 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Harmful algal blooms are increasingly poisoning seafood, causing respiratory and skin irritations, while killing off fish and mammals in coastal waters. Scientists presented a compilation of 21 studies outlining the role of nutrient pollution in the increasing frequency of these events.