Cells with double vision
The complexity of the human brain is remarkable: It contains billions of nerve cells, each of which is connected with its neighbours via a number of thousands of contacts. The result is a multifaceted network which stores and processes a number of types of information. In comparison, the brain of a fly seems fairly simple with its 250 000 nerve cells. For example, a small network of only 60 nerve cells in each cerebral hemisphere suffices the........ (Added on 2/26/2009 11:01:04 PM)
Mystery of deep-sea fish with tubular eyes and transparent head
Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently solved the half-century-old mystery of a fish with tubular eyes and a transparent head. Ever since the "barreleye" fish Macropinna microstoma was first described in 1939, marine biologists have known that it's tubular eyes are very good at collecting light. However, the eyes were thought to befixed in place and seemed to provide only a "tunnel-vision" view of whatever was........ (Added on 2/26/2009 6:25:07 AM)
Gene to reduce wheat yield losses
A new gene that provides resistance to a fungal disease responsible for millions of hectares of lost wheat yield has been discovered by researchers from the US and Israel. "This is the first step to achieving more durable resistance to a devastating disease in wheat," said Dr Cristobal Uauy, co-author of the report, recently appointed to the John Innes Centre in Norwich. Resistance to stripe rust has previously been achieved using genes........(Added on 2/24/2009 6:19:22 AM)
When fish farms are built along the coast
If you are a fish eater, it's likely that the salmon you had for dinner was not caught in the wild, but was instead grown in a mesh cage submerged in the open water of oceans or bays. Fish farming, a relatively inexpensive way to provide cheap protein to a growing world population, now supplies, by some estimates, 30 percent of the fish consumed by humans. Two hundred and twenty species of finfish and shellfish are now grown in farms. ........ (Added on 2/22/2009 10:24:51 PM)
Seamounts may serve as refuges for deep-sea animals
Over the last two decades, marine biologists have discovered lush forests of deep-sea corals and sponges growing on seamounts (underwater mountains) offshore of the California coast. It has generally been assumed that a number of of these animals live only on seamounts, and are found nowhere else. However, two new research papers show that most seamount animals can also be found in other deep-sea areas. Seamounts, however, do support especially........(Added on 2/20/2009 6:24:15 AM)
Why those fruits ripen and flowers die
Best known for its effects on fruit ripening and flower fading, the gaseous plant hormone ethylene shortens the shelf life of a number of fruits and plants by putting their physiology on fast-forward. In recent years, researchers learned a lot about the different components that transmit ethylene signals inside cells. But a central regulator of ethylene responses, a protein known as EIN2, resisted all their efforts. Finally, after more than........ (Added on 2/19/2009 6:21:00 AM)
No joy in discoveries of new mammal species
In the era of global warming, when a number of researchers say we are experiencing a human-caused mass extinction to rival the one that killed off the dinosaurs, one might believe that the discovery of a host of new species would be cause for joy. Not entirely so, says Paul Ehrlich, co-author of an analysis of the 408 new mammalian species discovered since 1993. "What this paper really talks about is how little we actually know about our........(Added on 2/19/2009 6:25:31 AM)
Scientists deconstruct cell division
The last step of the cell cycle is the brief but spectacularly dynamic and complicated mitosis phase, which leads to the duplication of one mother cell into two daughter cells. In mitosis, the chromosomes condense and the nucleus breaks down. Fibrous structures called spindles form, which then move the chromosomal material toward opposite ends of a cell and help partition other cell contents. If something goes wrong, diseases such as cancer can........(Added on 2/17/2009 6:22:46 AM)
Bacteria Jump From Host to Host
All life - plants, animals, people - depends on peaceful coexistence with a swarm of microbial life that performs vital services from helping to convert food to energy to protection from disease. Now, with the help of a squid that uses a luminescent bacterium to create a predator-fooling light organ and a fish that uses a different strain of the same species of bacteria like a flashlight to illuminate the dark nooks of the reefs where it........ (Added on 2/16/2009 11:12:14 PM)
Did Early Whales Gave Birth on Land?
Two newly described fossil whales--a pregnant female and a male of the same species--reveal how primitive whales gave birth and provide new insights into how whales made the transition from land to sea. The 47.5 million-year-old fossils, discovered in Pakistan in 2000 and 2004, are described in a paper published Feb. 4, 2009, in the online journal PLoS. "This stunning discovery reinforces the belief that modern cetaceans originated from........ (Added on 2/15/2009 11:03:38 PM)
Largest Prehistoric Fossil Snake
Researchers have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas seem like garter snakes. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the size of the snake's vertebrae suggest it weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip. A paper describing the find appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "At its....... (Added on 2/14/2009 10:55:43 PM)
Preparing for climate change
The global climate is changing, and this change is already impacting food supply and security. People living in regions already affected by aridity need plants that can thrive / grow under dry conditions. One example is sorghum: Also known as milo, durra, or broomcorn, sorghum is a grass species that can grow up to five meters in height and is extremely resistant to aridity and hot conditions. The grass, which originates from Africa, can........ (Added on 2/14/2009 6:29:56 AM)
New class of genes found in mammals
A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules. Their findings, presented in the February 1st advance online issue of the journal Nature, demonstrate that this novel class of "large intervening non-coding RNAs" or "lincRNAs" plays critical roles in........ (Added on 2/17/2009 6:13:34 AM)
Genetic blueprint of key biofuels crop
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI) and several partner institutions have published the sequence and analysis of the complete genome of sorghum, a major food and fodder plant with high potential as a bioenergy crop. The genome data will aid researchers in optimizing sorghum and other crops not only for food and fodder use, but also for biofuels production. The comparative analysis of the sorghum.......(Added on 2/16/2009 6:16:06 AM)
First things first
Something important happened this week, and it’s equally important that we take note of it, even on a humble blog such as this one. A great man has done a great thing, and I truly think the world is a better place because of him I’m talking, of course, about the Florida Cracker, whose birthday it is today. So why don’t you hurry over to Pure Florida and wish the old boy well. He’s not a pup anymore, and he’s....... (Added on 1/29/2009 12:18:01 AM)
Names give cows a lotta bottle
A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, researchers at Newcastle University have found. Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have shown that by giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual, farmers can increase their annual milk yield by almost 500 pints. The study, published online today in the academic journal Anthrozoos, observed that on farms where each cow was called by her name the overall milk yield was.......(Added on 1/28/2009 6:22:22 AM)
Just Living With Females alone
Living with a female mouse can extend the reproductive life of a male mouse by as much as 20 percent, as per a research studyconducted by Ralph Brinster and a team of other scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. The study was reported online today in the journal Biology of Reproduction. The scientists hypothesize that the females' effect on the environment of the spermatogonial stem cells likely occurs........ (Added on 1/23/2009 6:12:45 AM)
How food choices influence California sea otters
Sea otters living along the central California coast risk higher exposure to disease-causing parasites as a consequence of the food they eat and where they feed. Sea otters that eat small marine snails are at a higher risk of exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, a potentially deadly protozoal pathogen, than animals that feed exclusively on other prey, while sea otters living along the coast near San Simeon and Cambria are more at risk than sea.......(Added on 1/20/2009 7:16:43 PM)
Plant flowering in different environments
It has been known for some time that plants respond to environmental cues that guide their flowering. Chief among these signals are light, temperature and vernalization, when flowering is promoted by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. In some plants, researchers have identified particular genes that deal with each of these environmental signals. But they haven't fully grasped how plants integrate these signals in nature. For example,.......(Added on 1/15/2009 7:31:30 PM)
Worldwide fish biomass and impact on climate change
Are there really plenty of fish in the sea? University of British Columbia fisheries researcher Villy Christensen gives the first-ever estimate of total fish biomass in our oceans: Two billion tonnes. And fish play a previously unrecognized but significant role in mitigating climate change by maintaining the delicate pH balance of the oceans, as per a research studypublished in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science, co-authored by.......(Added on 1/15/2009 7:22:11 PM)
