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Barely Alive, Seafloor Microbes Might Resemble Exo-Organisms
Deep below the sea floor live massive colonies of primitive microbes.
Almost like one-celled zombies, these microbes use so little energy that it might be more accurate to call them undead rather than alive.
Yet scientists think that the species might provide a model for life on other planets. Even on this planet, such microbes might account for a whopping 10 percent of the Earth's biomass.
"In essence, these microbes are almost, practically dead by our normal standards," said Christopher House, a geosciences professor at Penn State University, and the lead author of the paper, in a release. "They metabolize a little, but not much."
The cold, lightless and energy-poor conditions under the seafloor provide a promising research analog for the harsh conditions in subsurface Martian soil or near hydrothermal vents on Europa, Jupiter's second moon.
"We do not expect the microbes in other places to be these microbes exactly," said House. "But, they could be living at a similar slow rate." Deep below the sea floor live massive colonies of primitive microbes. ... more -
A Painfully Early Arrival for a Summer Nuisance
A wonder to biologists, a killer in a Sherlock Holmes story and a notorious pain to people they touch, jellyfish have always been a blobbish summer menace to swimmers, fishermen and little children’s curious fingers.
But this year they have been even more of an annoyance than usual, arriving early and perplexing fishermen and beachgoers from Toms River, N.J., to Long Island and beyond. Biologists have several theories about why the jellyfish, particularly one breed, the lion’s mane, have turned out about a month before they are usually seen here.
On Sunday, scores of jellyfish were waiting at dawn when nearly 3,000 athletes jumped into the Hudson River for the swim portion of the New York City Triathlon.
“I thought the water was radioactive or something,” said one competitor, Melanie Klesse, 24, who said she was stung on the elbow.
One triathlete, a 32-year-old man, died after being pulled unconscious from the river on Sunday, but autopsy results were inconclusive Monday.
Dave Grant, the director of the Brookdale College Sandy Hook Ocean Institute, said he knew of no documented fatal sting from a lion’s mane. (The jellyfish were discovered to have murdered the unfortunate Fitzroy McPherson in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane.”)
Kenneth W. Able, director of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station in Tuckerton, N.J., said the early arrival could have something to do with recent winds from the south that blew away the sea’s warmer surface water, allowing an upwelling of cold water, which the lion’s mane loves.
Edward Enos, the superintendent of the Aquatic Resources Division for the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., said conditions may have been perfect for an unusual number of baby jellyfish, called polyps, to survive.
“It’s nature,” Mr. Enos said. “It’s like some years you have beautiful, big blooms of dandelions in your yard, and sometimes not.” A wonder to biologists, a killer in a Sherlock Holmes story and a notorious pain to people they touch, jellyfish have always been a bl... more -
Where is the biggest fish in the world?
American biologist Zeb Hogan is hunting for the biggest fish in the world. The project will take Hogan to 14 freshwater systems on six continents, including the Mekong, Nile, Mississippi and Amazon rivers. American biologist Zeb Hogan is hunting for the biggest fish in the world. The project will take Hogan to 14 freshwater systems on six... more
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Gene for alcohol resistance found
UK scientists have identified two specific genes which allow alcohol to be 'flushed' from a person's bloodstream much quicker than average. This not only means that these people can handle their drink better, but also that they will be under less risk of the carcinogenic effects of alcohol, such as developing some cancers.
The team conducting the research have estimated that as many as 25% of Britons carry one or both of these 'drinkers' genes, and "may have only half the chance of developing mouth, throat and oesophageal cancers that are strongly associated with drinking."
I'm pretty sure I'm not in that 25%, lucky them is all I can say. UK scientists have identified two specific genes which allow alcohol to be 'flushed' from a person's bloodstream much quicker than ave... more -
New weapon in the fight against obesity: Slimming bread?
Thanks to a new type of flour, the fight against obesity could receive a bready boost...I'm really sorry, it's late.
Researchers at the National Institute for Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, UK, have genetically modified forms of wheat, which when digested, relese fewer of their calories; it is also digested more slowly, helping people to feel fuller for longer.
The hope is that this product could eventually be incorporated into a range of staple foods such as pasta, bread, and other flour products, which could be much healthier than their non-GM equivalent. Thanks to a new type of flour, the fight against obesity could receive a bready boost...I'm really sorry, it's late. ... more -
Fossil gap could be a preview of our future destruction
A massive die-off of pants, recorded in the fossil record, could indicate what would happen to our planet if global warming reaces its currently predicted conclusion.
A gap in the fossil record (pictured), thought to represent a reduced abundance of plant life in the Eocene period, around 55-34 million years ago, has been interpreted by paleo-climatologists to reflect significant heating of the tropics, to an average of some 41 degrees centigrade, well above that of today.
This conclusion is important however, because it was previously assumed that the Earth's atmosphere would always act so that there is a roughly uniform, small temperature gradient from poles to tropics: But if the tropics could have become so oveheated in the past, then it bodes badly for us, in the future.
In other words, WHEN we start to feel the effects of global warming, we can't rely on some "benevolent thermostat" which will magically reequilibrate the atmosphere: we would just fry in our ignorance.
A massive die-off of pants, recorded in the fossil record, could indicate what would happen to our planet if global warming reaces its... more -
Feel good story of the day: Panda adopted by cat chokes to death on milk
Remember this touching story a few weeks ago? A baby red panda which was rejected by its mother was touchingly adopted by a house cat, cute right?
Well, tragically, it was annouced today that the cub died after "its windpipe filled with milk", indicating that it choked to death.
"The zoo had hoped the panda would be able to suckle from the cat for three months before moving onto a diet of bamboo and fruit", but unfortunately it didn't get that far.
Take away message: "Life's a bitch" ... Remember this touching story a few weeks ago? A baby red panda which was rejected by its mother was touchingly adopted by a house cat,... more -
Strange "humming" fish gives clues to human speech origins
A fish whih "hums and growls" to attract females, has lead sceintists to postulate that the origins of speech can be traced to around 400 million years ago.
Studies of the "midshipman fish", showed that the area of its brain that drives its vocalisation, is "extremely primitive", and that even very early vertebrates (which lead to our evlution), could easily have had this ability. A fish whih "hums and growls" to attract females, has lead sceintists to postulate that the origins of speech can be traced to around ... more -
Fuel From Food Waste: Bacteria Provide Power
Researchers have combined the efforts of two kinds of bacteria to produce hydrogen in a bioreactor, with the product from one providing food for the other. According to an article in the August issue of Microbiology Today, this technology has an added bonus: leftover enzymes can be used to scavenge precious metals from spent automotive catalysts to help make fuel cells that convert hydrogen into energy.
Researchers have combined the efforts of two kinds of bacteria to produce hydrogen in a bioreactor, with the product from one providin... more -
Would you? First Europeans "shunned Neanderthal sex"
Analysis of 28,000-year-old human DNA suggests that, while they may have co-existed with Neanderthals, "hybridisation" did not occur.
The 'Cro-Magnon' people were the first Homo Sapiens to colonise Europe, and lived between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago. The results showed that their DNA is a close match to modern Europeans, with no obvious Neanderthal influences.
Although this doesn't rule out the possibility that a few inter-species couples ... I'll stop there. Analysis of 28,000-year-old human DNA suggests that, while they may have co-existed with Neanderthals, "hybridisation" did not occur. ... more -
The new Ten Commandments
The simple marker which we use to classify humans, namely race, is not as easy to define as we might think.
With our improved understanding of DNA, the criteria by which you and I would typically assign people a race are exposed to be seriously flawed: Features which we notice most easily, such as skin colour, or facial structure, are often only skin deep, rather than 'gene-deep' (I'm sure someone else has coined that before now). In short, our social definitions are often completely meaningless on the genetic level.
The need for a more definitive description of what constitutues a 'race' (try to define it, it's not easy!), and furthermore how much significance we should assign it when conducting genetic, medical, psycological, or even historical studies of individuals and groups, prompted leaders in a wide range of fields: ranging from geneticists and psychologists to historians and philosophers, to come up with a set of guidlines to aid in their studies.
So here are the new and improved Ten Commandments (although, like their Biblical namesake they were not set in stone):
1. All races are created equal
2. An Argentinian and an Australian are more likely to have differences in their DNA than two Argentinians
3. A person's history isn't written only in his or her genes
4: Members of the same race may have different underlying genetics
5. Both nature and nurture play important parts in our behaviors and abilities
6. Researchers should be careful about using racial groups when designing experiments
7. Medicine should focus on the individual, not the race
8. The study of genetics requires cooperation between experts in many different fields
9. Oversimplified science feeds popular misconceptions
10. Genetics 101 should include a history of racism
The simple marker which we use to classify humans, namely race, is not as easy to define as we might think. ... more -
Slimy Science: Snails may hold key to Alzheimer's cure
The common pond snail could provide a breakthrough in the brain's ageing process, which could help in treating related diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Snails trained to associtate the flavour 'pear drop' sweets with getting a meal. When snails get older, they forget the association, and a team at the University of Brighton, England, are trying to find out why.
If they can, they could be "a step closer to discovering why human memory falters" as we get older, and so to developing drugs to combat ageing related diseases. The common pond snail could provide a breakthrough in the brain's ageing process, which could help in treating related diseases such a... more -
Sexy voice = sexy body
People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.
"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."
Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.
A symmetric body is genetically sound, scientists say, and in evolutionary terms, in the wild, it can be an important factor when selecting a mate. But sometimes changes during prenatal development can slightly skew this balance. For instance, the length ratio between index and ring fingers, known as the digit ratio, is fixed by the first trimester, a time that corresponds with vocal cord and larynx development. If the hormone surge that affects vocal development also affects finger growth, there should be a connection between an individual's voice and digit ratio.
Hughes could not demonstrate a connection between voice attractiveness and digit ratio in her previous work, possibly due to vocal changes that occur during puberty. So in the new study, about 100 individuals listened to previously recorded voices and independently rated them on nine traits important during mate selection: approachability, dominance, healthiness, honesty, intelligence, likelihood to get dates, maturity, sexiness and warmth.
Study participants generally agreed on what made a voice attractive. But when Hughes used a spectrogram to analyze these voice ratings according to different acoustic properties such as pitch, intensity, jitter and shimmer, she could not find a common feature that made these voices seem attractive.
This indicates our perceptual system may be more advanced than expected.
"We can agree on what's an attractive voice yet I can't capture it with a computer," Hughes told LiveScience.
Investigating if a combination of these properties can define an attractive voice may shed light on a connection, she said. People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear i... more -
NASA Collects Gallons of Employee Urine
From the report: Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as part of its work on the new Orion space capsule that eventually would take astronauts to the moon. From the report: Space program contractor Hamilton Sundstrand is seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Te... more
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Pleasure chemical may also control fear
Dopamine, the neurotransmitter thought to be linked to the brain's 'pleasure' response, may also play a role in triggering fear, a new study has revealed.
Researchers at the University of California conducted tests on rats: in animals in which Dopamine was deliberately blocked, the rats were found to appear much less nervous, even when a fear-controlling chemical was also removed: this would usually send them "in a tizzy".
The results indicate that dopamine, as well as being respnsible for pleasure responses, may play a role in the 'dread' response. It is also thought that too much dopamine collecting in the 'nucleus accumbens' part of the brain, which is linked to dread, "may drive paranoia in schizophrenics": in essence just an overdose of fear. Dopamine, the neurotransmitter thought to be linked to the brain's 'pleasure' response, may also play a role in triggering fear, a new... more -
Scientists: humans and machines will merge in as little as two decades
From the report: By the 2030s humans will become more non-biological than biological, capable of uploading our minds onto the Internet, living in various virtual worlds and even avoiding aging and evading death.
In the 2040s, [Scientist Ray] Kurzweil predicts non-biological intelligence will be billions of times better than the biological intelligence humans have today, possibly rendering our present brains as obsolete. From the report: By the 2030s humans will become more non-biological than biological, capable of uploading our minds onto the Interne... more -
German villagers retain 'caveman' DNA
A rare DNA pattern observed in the bones of 'cavemen': bronze age settlers which lived in Germany 3,000 years ago, is also present in locals in the same region today.
The bones of 40 Bronze age settlers, ignorantly branded 'cavemen', were discovered near the village of Nienstedt in the Harz mountains in 1994; DNA analysis later showed that they were from a single family group, and shared a distinctinve, and rare, DNA pattern.
Amazingly, when the DNA of present day locals in the same area was analysed, two people displayed the same distinctive DNA pattern; indicating that they are direct decendants of people who have not moved from the area for 3,000 years. A rare DNA pattern observed in the bones of 'cavemen': bronze age settlers which lived in Germany 3,000 years ago, is also present in ... more -
Scientists map brain's wiring diagram
Swiss and American researchers have drawn up the first high-resolution map of how some of the most important fibres in the human brain communicate... Swiss and American researchers have drawn up the first high-resolution map of how some of the most important fibres in the human brain... more
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The Bird that inspired Mozart developed 'super muscles' for its song
The vocal prowess of the European starling, the bird who's song is said to have inspired Mozart after he kept one as a pet, has been revealed by a new study.
Mozart was amazed by the variation of his bird's vocal repertoire, and scientists have now discovered that the birds' throat muscles have the ability to "contract a hundred times faster than the blink of a human eye", leading to their amazing ability to produce many different types of sound in rapid succession.
These muscle types, also observed in the zebra finch of Australia, are "the fastest contracting muscle type yet described" in any animal. The study found that their inspiring songs are made possible by muscles which can turn "individual elements of a song on and off at a rate of 250 times a second".
It is thought that such an ability may have evolved to allow better communication between birds, possibly to distinguish one's own species amongst the hundreds of others in the dawn chorus. The vocal prowess of the European starling, the bird who's song is said to have inspired Mozart after he kept one as a pet, has been r... more -
Darwin's Origin
Darwin, whose life is now almost obscured by a veil of history and controversy, is most famous for his legendary voyage on the Beagle; during which his visits to the Galapagos islands sowed the seeds that would later flourish into the theory of evolution: He stands as the first man in history able to provide an explanation for how our species came to be.
However much of his time during which he formulated his ideas was spent in quiet contemplation, often with his family in his own garden at his home in Kent, England. Also, while many people cite 'Darwin's finches' as the birds which sparked in him the theme of adaptive evolution, it was instead the pigeons which he bred at his leisure that fascinated him for most of his life.
He bred the birds to investigate, for example, how odd feather shapes and other variations could be passed down successive generations. By crossing birds with different characteristics, he also tried to determine the mechanism by which the finches he observed on the Galapagos developed their specialised beaks.
It was also on one of his many private strolls through the wooded copse in his garden, that he is said to have had his 'eureka' moment, when everything he had observed came together. It came when observing the flowers on the forest floor: Darwin noted the subtle variations between those in his garden, and those he had studied further afield. He thought to himself that "perhaps the plants have migrated down the hill ... and adapted to the slightly different environment there."
This essentially was the theory of evolution by natural selection on a small scale, but it was not until 20 years later when, threatened with a rival publication, he published his life's work in "On the Origin of Species", which stands today as one of the most enlightening works in the history of mankind.
Although his observations on the Beagle laid the foundations for his great theory, it is said that he was conscious that without formal training in Biology, he was unqualified to present what he called his "extravagant views". It was only after quiet, gradual observations in his garden, and with his pigeons, that he finally gained enough courage and certainty to publish his ideas.
Far from being the brutal theory that "survival of the fittest" (a phrase not used by Darwin himself) suggests, his was rather a quiet, elegant theory of the resourcefullness of nature, and totally undeserving of the vicious backlash which came first from Victorian society and, quite depressingly, continues to this day: How far we have come... Darwin, whose life is now almost obscured by a veil of history and controversy, is most famous for his legendary voyage on the Beagle;... more
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