Posts tagged biology
Study suggests life may have originated before Earth itself.
A new paper suggests that life on Earth could be 9.7 billion years old - more than 5 billion years older than Earth itself.
The authors argue that it may be possible to measure the rate at which the genetic complexity of life has increased on Earth, as measured by the number of non-redundant functional nucleotides in organisms. This growth has continued exponentially, in a similar way to Moores Law, allowing the team to work backwards to a date when just a single base pair indicates the start of life on Earth.
Let’s suppose for a minute that these guys are correct and ask about the implications of the idea. They say there is good evidence that bacterial spores can be rejuvenated after many millions of years, perhaps stored in ice.
190 million year old dinosaur embryos uncovered.
Organic remains and dinosaur embryos have been uncovered in China, according to a new study in Nature. The discovery reveals for the first time how dinosaurs grew and developed inside their eggs, showing that “dinosaurs, like modern birds, moved around inside their eggs. It represents the first evidence of such movement in a dinosaur”, according to the project leader.
The organic remains discovered was collagen, found inside bone. Finding the organic matter still intact has also raised hopes that DNA may be able to be retrieved.
Automated system recognizes spiders by their webs.
Researchers at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have developed a system able to interpret photos of spider webs to identify the species of spider that built them, with 99.6 percent accuracy.
Although the software is run on a desktop computer at the moment, it would be easy to see this technology being incorporated into a useful smartphone app in the future. Maybe even some sort of… web app.
Protesters capture photos of genetically modified ‘winged pigs’.
Animal rights activists in Russia have captured images of a genetically modified pig, in a breeding program that now seems to be over a year old - the first images were seen of the pigs here last year, when the pigs were given ‘wings’ in a world first research program.
While the anonymous group didn’t say exactly where the photos were taken, they have released two shots showing one pig apparently managing to lift its own body weight with its wings.
Image: Embryonic Bat.
The image shows how the digits - which will become the wings - are so clear in form so early in development.
Tiny implant can transmit realtime blood data to your doctor.
Researchers at Switzerlands EPFL have demonstrated a 14mm long implant, able to analyse up to five proteins and organic acids in the blood simultaneously, and transmit the data to a doctor.
The data transmission works in several stages, with the implant using radio waves to transmit to a patch on the skin (which also provides power back to the implant through the patients skin). The patch then uses bluetooth to transmit data to a smartphone, which can then feed it into a web-based database accessible by a doctor.
The implant could be particularly useful in chemotherapy applications. Currently, oncologists use occasional blood tests to evaluate their patients’ tolerance to a particular treatment dosage. In these conditions, it is very difficult to administer the optimal dose. De Micheli is convinced his system will be an important step towards better, more personalized medicine. “It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient’s individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests.”
In patients withchronic illness, the implants could send alerts even before symptoms emerge, and anticipate the need for medication. “In a general sense, our system has enormous potential in cases where the evolution of a pathology needs to be monitored or the tolerance to a treatment tested.”
Ancient fossils found in meteorite.
A newly published research paper reveals an analysis of fragments of a fireball that appeared in the sky over Sri Lanka late last year. Researchers at Cardiff University analysed many samples collected in the following days, and after ruling out terrestrial contamination on three different pieces, have found carbon-rich microfossil structures within the rocks.
According to the team, their analysis “provides clear and convincing evidence that these obviously ancient remains of extinct marine algae found embedded in the Polonnaruwa meteorite are indigenous to the stones and not the result of post-arrival microbial contaminants”.
Although the research shows the stone pieces came from space, the paper could not reveal for certain where they originally came from. In fact they could be from Earth - a remnant of one of many asteroid impacts in Earths history which eject rocks into space. This is unlikely, however, as one of the structures found on the stones is so extremely long and thin it seems to have been formed in a low-gravity, low-pressure environment.
Caffeine shown to increase memory in bees.
A new study has revealed that some plants, like the coffee plant Coffea, use caffeine to enhance long-term memory in honey bees. The nectar in their flowers contains low levels of caffeine which the bees also find rewarding, increasing the chances the bees will visit again.
While caffeine is thought to have primarily developed as a toxin to repel herbivores such as slugs, it seems it also gives the bees a real buzz.
“We show that caffeine—a compound whose ecological role is mainly to deter and poison herbivores—actually acts like a drug in an ecologically relevant context,” Wright said. “The plant is secretly drugging the pollinator. It may help the bee, but the plant cares more about having a pollinator with high fidelity!”
The effects of caffeine on learning and memory in people is not as clear. “But I think there is overwhelming evidence that we return again and again to consume caffeine because of the way we feel after drinking it,” Wright said.
First set of brain mapping data released by the HCP.
The Human Connectome Project (HCP) is a five year project launched in 2009 to build a “network map” of the human brain. Data from 1,200 healthy adults is being gathered using two different methods, using two different MRI approaches.
This week the first set of data has been released to the scientific community, with a whopping 2 terabytes in the initial release. Regular updates will be available every three months.
By providing what is hopes is an “unparalleled compilation of neural data, with an interface to graphically navigate this data”, the HCP hopes to achieve never before realized conclusions about the brain, in a similar way to the human genome project.
Check out the data here.
New study shows that life on Earth may have seeded from comets.
An experiment carried out at the University of California shows that the complex building blocks of life could have been created on icy interplanetary dust and then carried to Earth aboard a comet or possibly meteorites, jump-starting life.
The team used an ultra-high vacuum chamber, cooled to 10 degrees above absolute zero, and simulated an icy snowball in space using carbon dioxide, ammonia, and other chemicals such as methane and ethane. High energy electrons were then passed through the chamber to simulate cosmic rays in space, which caused the chemicals to react and form the complex organic compounds essential to life.
At UC Berkeley, UC Berkeley chemists Richard Mathies and Amanda Stockton then analyzed the organic residues through the Mars Organic Analyzer, an instrument that Mathies designed for ultrasensitive detection and identification of small organic molecules in the solar system. The analysis revealed the presence of complex molecules — nine different amino acids and at least two dipeptides — capable of catalyzing biological evolution on earth.
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