Pittsburgh, PA (Scicasts) - Whether it is a single rock being overturned or an entire mountaintop being removed, humans play a continuous role in environmental processes, and vice versa. Ecological scientists will discuss findings on human-ecosystem interactions—from the effects of nanomaterials on plant growth to the diversity of insect species on green roofs, and even communities of airborne microbes in hospital buildings—at the Ecological Society of America's 95th Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh from August 1-6, 2010. Here is just some of the research on humans and the environment to be presented:

Walnut Creek, CA (Scicasts) - Over the past 15 years more than a thousand microbial genomes have been sequenced at various sequencing centres in an effort to better understand their roles in tasks ranging from bioenergy to health to environmental cleanup.

Berkeley, CA (Scicasts) - A collaboration led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids.

MRSA. Clusters of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. Scanning electron micrograph. By Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images

Hinxton, UK (Scicasts) - A team of researchers has, for the first time, shown how transmission of MRSA from one person to another can be precisely tracked in a hospital setting. Using a new method which they developed the team were able to 'zoom' from large-scale inter-continental transmission events to the much finer detail of person-to-person infection of MRSA within a single hospital.

From DNA to digital information about the vast unexplored microbial world -- the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea (GEBA) pilot project led by the DOE Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), is beginning to fill in the underrepresented branches of the tree of life. Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Walnut Creek, CA (Scicasts) - The Earth is estimated to have about a nonillion (1, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000) microbes in, on, around, and under it, comprised of an unknown but very large number of distinct species. Despite the widespread availability of microbial genome data—close to 2,000 microbes have been and are being decoded to date—a vast unknown realm awaits scientists intent on exploring microorganisms that inhabit this "undiscovered country."

Jupiter, FL  (Scicasts) - According to a report from The Scripps Research Institute, scientists at the Institute have determined for the first time that prions, bits of infectious protein devoid of DNA or RNA that can cause fatal neurodegenerative disease, are capable of Darwinian evolution.

The sequence of the three subunits of the influenza virus polymerase (center) determines whether or not the enzyme works efficiently in birds, pigs or humans. A mutation in the PB2 subunit allows the bird virus to function in humans, as does switching out the bird PA subunit for a human PA subunit. Two mutations in the PB2 subunit of 2009 H1N1 allow the pig virus to work in humans. The background is a false-color electron micrograph image of influenza virions. (Andrew Mehle/UC Berkeley)

Berkeley, CA (Scicasts) - The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus used a new strategy to cross from birds into humans, a warning that it has more than one trick up its sleeve to jump the species barrier and become virulent.

London, UK (Scicasts) - The genetic changes that transformed a previously mild salmonella infection into a new antibiotic-resistant form of the disease have now been described by researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme in Kenya.

Cambridge, MA (Scicasts) - Whitehead researchers have developed a new type of genetic screen for human cells to pinpoint specific genes and proteins used by pathogens, according to their paper in Science.

This is an Anopheles gambiae mosquito sucking blood from human skin. This mosquito is the vector for malaria in Africa. Credit: Wellcome Images

Hinxton, UK (Scicasts) - According to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and published 30 December in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, malaria parasites are able to disguise themselves to avoid the host's immune system.

Heidelberg, Germany (Scicasts) - What are the bare essentials of life, the indispensable ingredients required to produce a cell that can survive on its own? Can we describe the molecular anatomy of a cell, and understand how an entire organism functions as a system? These are just some of the questions that scientists in a partnership between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centre de Regulacio Genòmica (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, set out to address. In three papers published on 27 November in Science, they provide the first comprehensive picture of a minimal cell, based on an extensive quantitative study of the biology of the bacterium that causes atypical pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The study uncovers fascinating novelties relevant to bacterial biology and shows that even the simplest of cells is more complex than expected.