A team of researchers from Columbia University (USA) has found that the numbers of deaths in Iraq to provide the media “have the potential to misinform the public and contribute to distorted perceptions and significant underestimation of the number of civilian deaths “during these years of war and occupation.

A team led by researchers from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) has described for the first time the complex genetic diversity of the community of viruses in Antarctic lakes. The study describes about 90,000 virus sequences Limnopolar Lake, located in Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island).

This is the largest number of viral families found to date in a metagenome (complete genetic information of a natural community of microorganisms) of aquatic environments, the study published this week’s magazine Science.

The main results of this study conducted by the research group of Public Health and Ecotoxicology “ToxAmb” of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Rey Juan Carlos) show the presence of 55 drugs and 3 major metabolites of therapeutic groups in major rivers Community of Madrid and the main drinking water supply areas in the region. These are called “emerging contaminants.”

The study of growth rings of trees unpublished data revealed episodes of snow avalanches in the Catalan Pyrenees for the last 40 years, according to the article published in the journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, And whose first author Elena Munten the Department of Ecology at the UB. This study examines the relationship between the rings of trees, forests and the dynamics of natural phenomena related to geomorphological processes (dendrogeomorfologia), and points to findings that could improve risk zoning and expanding natural areas significament avalanche danger typed up now in the Pyrenees of Catalonia.

The study is innovative in the territorial area of the Pyrenees, has been a collaboration between the Group Dendroecology UB Department of Ecology, led by Dr. Emilia Gutierrez and Geological Hazards Unit, led by Pere Oller of the Geological Institute of Catalonia (IGC), and also signed Carlos Garcia and Gloria Marti (Geohazards Group, IGC), Albert Garcia (UB Group Climatology

Spanish scientists have completed a draft genome sequence of the melon. The finding in the project financed by the foundation MELONOMICS Genome Spain, covers about 80% of the genome and has revealed that the melon has a genome of about 450 million base pairs in its 12 chromosomes and the first data point which contains about 26,000 genes, a number similar to the human genome.

These results, represents the work of 14 Spanish research teams, are included within the project MELONOMICS that in addition to the sequencing of a line of melon, intended to characterize a large number of varieties of this species present in the Spanish seed banks, and exploit the natural diversity of the species to generate new varieties of melon with agronomic interest.

During the year 2010 will officially celebrate the 50th anniversary of building the first laser. For many, the celebration has already begun to be met half a century of gradual discovery of the necessary ingredients. Initially, the laser seemed to be what some call “a perfect solution in search of a problem.”

Researchers at the University of Madrid (UPM) have established a method to predict and quantify the risk for landslides in quarries, one of the main causes of accidents.