MISSOULA – A new paper co-written by four University of Montana researchers finds that humans have more than doubled tropical nitrogen inputs.

Benjamin Sullivan, a researcher working with UM College of Forestry and Conservation Professor Cory Cleveland, led the team that looked at the nitrogen cycle in tropical rain forests. Sullivan and his colleagues used a new method to demonstrate that biological nitrogen fixation in tropical rain forests may be less than a quarter of previous estimates.

Between 1889 and 2012, the Greenland sheet saw large-scale surface melting, according to the best available evidence. But claims that the melt events were driven by warming alone are incorrect, according to a new study. Ash from  northern hemisphere forest fires contributed to an extent not previously recognized.

Continued climate change could result in nearly annual widespread melting of the ice sheet's surface by the year 2100 and a positive feedback mechanism may be set in motion. Melting in the dry snow region does not contribute to sea level rise; instead, the meltwater percolates into the snowpack and refreezes, causing lower albedo and leaving the ice sheet surface even more susceptible to future melting. Albedo is the surface's ability to reflect sunlight.

Individuals are more genetically similar to their spouses than they are to randomly selected individuals from the same population, claims a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This is much different than sociological factors - it is no surprised that people tend to marry others who have similar characteristics, like religion, age, race, income and education. 

An international team has discovered what happens on a molecular basis to insects that evolved resistance to genetically modified cotton plants. 

Their findings shed light on how the global caterpillar pest called pink bollworm overcomes biotech cotton, which was designed to make the organic insect-killing bacterial protein called Bt toxin. The results could have major impacts for managing pest resistance to Bt crops. 

ATS 2014, SAN DIEGO ─ A large study of intensive care patients in California found that public reporting of patient outcomes did not reduce mortality, but did result in reduced admission of the sickest patients to the ICU and increased transfer of critically ill patients to other hospitals.

"Public reporting is designed to reduce mortality by steering patients towards high-quality hospitals and creating incentives for hospitals to adopt quality improvement programs," said Lora Reineck, MD, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. "But the reality does not necessarily meet the expectation."

Overweight political candidates have gotten fewer votes than thinner opponents, finds a new study co-authored by a Michigan State University weight bias expert.

Of course, discrimination is everywhere, it is the favored position of the humanities in trying to quantify culture. In 2008, Democrats discriminated against Senator Hillary Clinton because she was a woman while Republicans were against Senator Obama in the general election because he was black. No one ever just acknowledged he was the best candidate, even in winning we were told it was despite his race.

So political parties should be picking the thinnest candidates? That explains why Pres. Obama beat Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012. He had a smaller waist.