Search:   Spelling

News -07-17-05 Ice Shelf Collapse Reveals Extreme Life Forms (MSNBC News) "The collapse of a giant ice shelf in Antarctica has revealed a thriving ecosystem half a mile below the sea." "Despite near freezing and sunless conditions, a community of clams and a thin layer of bacterial mats are flourishing in undersea sediments." "Since light could not penetrate the ice or water, these organisms do not use photosynthesis to make energy. Instead, these extreme creatures get their energy from methane, Domack said today." 7-05 -07-19-05 Writing 5,000 Years Old Found (MSNBC News) "Archaeologists in Peru have found a “quipu” on the site of the oldest city in the Americas, indicating that the device, a sophisticated arrangement of knots and strings used to convey detailed information, was in use thousands of years earlier than previously believed." 7-05 -07-28-05 Dinosaur Embryo Fossils Discovered (Scientific American) "The oldest fossilized dinosaur embryos yet discovered are revealing tantalizing clues about dinosaur evolution, scientists say. Findings published today in the journal Science indicate that some of the prehistoric creatures started out on four legs before growing into bipedal behemouths. In addition, they further support the notion that newly hatched dinos did not fend for themselves and instead relied on their parents for food and nourishment." 7-05 -09-10-05 Genes Suggest Brain Still Evolving (Scientific American) "The size and complexity of the human brain sets us apart from other creatures. Now results published in the current issue of the journal Science suggest that the evolution of our gray matter is ongoing." "The research, led by Bruce T. Lahn of the University of Chicago, focused on two genes called microcephalin and ASPM." "The microcephalin variant arose about 37,000 years ago; the ASPM one just 5,800 years ago, the team reports." 9-05 -09-18-05 Genes Suggest Brain Still Evolving (New Scientist) "The human brain may still be evolving, new research suggests. New variants of two genes that control brain development have swept through much of the human population during the last several thousand years, biologists have found." "Analysing variation in the gene suggests the new Microcephalin variant arose between 60,000 and 14,000 years ago, with 37,000 years ago being the team's best estimate. The new mutation is also much more common among people from Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas than those from sub-Saharan Africa." "The team also sequenced the ASPM gene from the same original sample and again, among dozens of variants, found a defining mutation that alters the protein the gene codes for. Estimates are that the new variant of ASPM first appeared in humans somewhere between 14,000 and 500 years ago, with the best guess that it first arose 5800 years ago. It is already present in about a quarter of people alive today, and is more common in Europe and the Middle East than the rest of the world." 9-05 -10-10-05 Glowing Mosquitoes to Fight Malaria (BBC News) "A protein that makes the sex glands and sperm of male mosquitoes glow could help reduce malaria infection rates, UK scientists say." "They used the protein to tag male mosquito larvae, the genes of which can be manipulated to make them infertile." "As malaria is spread only by female mosquitoes, the scientists hope sending such sterile males into the wild could help kill off infective populations." 10-05 -10-16-05 Method May Replace Embryonic Stem Cell Destruction (CNN News) "Objections to the embryo destruction have led to a ban on federal funding for such work, which scientists say hampers research." "The new methods, detailed Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature, seek to obtain the cells without destroying embryos." "In the study, researchers plucked a single cell from eight-cell mouse embryos, which were about two days old. While fertility clinics use such a cell for genetic testing, the researchers cultured the plucked cells and found they behaved like embryonic stem cells. The embryos, meanwhile, went on to produce mice." 10-05 -10-20-05 Oldest Mummy Found in Peru (ABC News) "Archeologists have uncovered the remains of the oldest mummy ever found in Peru's capital, Lima — a high-ranking official of the Huari tribe who lived about 1,300 years ago, researchers said on Wednesday." 10-05 -10-20-05 Rat Outsmarts Scientists (USA Today) "A cunning rat released on a deserted island off New Zealand outsmarted scientists and evaded traps, baits and sniffer dogs before being captured four months later on a neighbouring island, researchers said on Wednesday." "Scientists from the University of Auckland in New Zealand released the Norway rat on the 9.5-hectare (23.5-acre) island of Motuhoropapa to find out why rats are so difficult to eradicate." "They got more than they bargained for." 10-05 -11-17-05 Gorilla Using Tools (CBS News) "A young gorilla in a Congo sanctuary is smashing palm nuts between two rocks to extract oil, surprising and intriguing scientists who say they have much to learn about what gorillas can do, and about what it says about evolution." "It had been thought that the premeditated use of stones and sticks to accomplish a task like cracking nuts was restricted to humans and the smaller, more agile chimpanzees." 9-05 -11-23-05 Science's Best Leaders (CBS News) "Embryonic stem cell researcher Woo Suk Hwang and the founders of Google, Inc., are among the 50 people named by Scientific American as having made the greatest contributions to science and technology in 2005." 11-05 -11-30-05 French Doctors Transplant a Face (CBS News) "French doctors on Wednesday claimed a world-first partial face transplant, saying a nose, lips and chin were grafted onto a 38-year-old woman disfigured by a dog bite. " 11-05 -12-08-05 Protein p25 Associated with Alzheimer's Disease -- and Creativity (HHMI.org) " Researchers have found evidence that may partially exonerate a protein known to be a culprit in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Their new studies show that the protein p25, which wreaks havoc in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, also has a good side in promoting the plasticity of the brain." 12-05. -12-09-05 "Mirror Neurons" Associated with Communication Impairment (Scientific American) "More than one in 500 children have some form of autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control. All autistic children suffer from an impaired ability to communicate and relate to others, but some of them are able to socially interact to a greater degree than their peers. A recent study of a group of these so-called high functioning autistics suggests the neurological basis for their social impairment." "Neuroscientist Mirella Dapretto of the University of California Los Angeles and her colleagues surveyed the brains of 10 autistic children and an equal number of nonautistic children as they watched and imitated 80 different faces displaying either anger, fear, happiness, sadness or no emotion." "The autistic children differed from their peers in only one respect: each showed reduced activity in the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus--a brain region located near the temple." 12-05. -12-09-05 Dog Genome Decoded to Help Study Human Diseases (Scientific American) "Because each breed represents an isolated group with discrete traits that can be linked to distinct genes--and because different breeds suffer from some of the same maladies that afflict humans, such as allergies or certain types of cancer--the dog's genome should help isolate the genetic roots of such diseases, proving dogs' utility to humanity once more." 12-05. -12-11-05 Bacteria Adapt by Swapping Genes (Scientific American) "Bacteria, like all organisms, have to make a living in an ever changing world. They face shifting climates, varying food supplies and--horror of horrors--antibiotics. How do they adapt? According to the results of a new study, simply by copying the successful innovations of their relatives." "The team revealed that the bacteria do this by using a process known as horizontal gene transfer, in which a cell passes genetic information to another cell that is not its offspring." 12-05 -12-11-05 Ice Core Extends Climate Record 650,000 Years (Scientific American) "Researchers have recovered a nearly two-mile-long cylinder of ice from eastern Antarctica that contains a record of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane--two potent and ubiquitous greenhouse gases--spanning the last two glacial periods. Analysis of this core shows that current atmospheric concentrations of CO2--380 parts per million (ppm)--are 27 percent higher than the highest levels found in the last 650,000 years." 12-05 -12-11-05 NASA Looking to Savant for Answers (Guardian Unlimited) Kim Peek "knows 9,000 books off by heart; he can direct people around US cities from maps he has memorised years ago; and he has total recall of the dates of all major world events." "Kim - now 54 - was born with a malformed cerebellum, at the base of his brain, and lacks a corpus callosum, the thick bundle of nerves that normally connects the brain's two hemispheres. As a child he was assumed to be suffering from severe mental retardation." 12-05 -12-11-05 New Theory Rejects Single-Ancestor Doctrine (Scientific American) "Instead of one universal evolutionary tree, picture a three-trunk stand sharing a communal root system. A new theory of cellular evolution published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences rejects Charles Darwin’s Doctrine of Common Descent—the idea that all organisms are derived from a single primordial ancestor. Instead, Carl Woese of the University of Illinois-Champaign proposes that the three cell types that comprise life on earth arose from three forms of proto cells that swam together in a dense genetic soup, freely sharing their DNA." "Indeed, such DNA swapping was the driving force in the evolution of unicellular organisms, Woese argues. Biologists have traditionally credited this so-called horizontal gene transfer with just a minor role in cellular evolution. But Woese asserts that only by sharing their genes—or evolutionary inventions, as he calls them—could simple cellular organizations have given rise to more complex cell designs. In the beginning, he says, primitive cells 'did not have stable genealogical records.' But eventually, these lines—including the three that spawned all extant life forms—reached what Woese terms the "Darwinian threshold," the point at which a lineage matures to genetic stability. Here the cellular organization became fixed, leading to a traceable cell line via reproduction. 'Crossing a Darwinian threshold leads to a more solidified, organized cellular design,' he explains." 12-05 -12-15-05 Judge's Decision: Intelligent Design Is Not Science (Scientific American) "The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board's ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." "Both Defendants and many of the leading proponents of ID make a bedrock assumption which is utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a supreme being and to religion in general. Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs' scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator." "To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions." 12-05 -12-15-05 Stem Cell Meltdown (Scientific American) "Flabbergasting." "That was the only word that came to mind in past weeks as the allegations and admissions continued to mount over Woo Suk Hwang's announcement from last summer that his lab had cloned embryonic stem cells from 11 human patients. It was a breathtakingly exciting advance, one that seemed to hasten the day when embryonic stem cells might be applied to treat or cure diseases. By any reckoning, it was one of the stand-out scientific achievements of the year, and it was enough to net Hwang a top spot on this year's Scientific American 50 list. But bit by bit, this milestone in stem cell technology has been crumbling away, and it's beginning to look as though there's nothing left." 12-05 -12-16-05 Gene Found for White or Brown Skin (MSNBC News) "Finding a gene behind skin pigmentation may be a big step in science, but researchers caution it has no implications for understanding race." 12-05

Italian, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,   Index, New, Search Engines, Dictionary, Bookstore, Licenses, Email Us, About Us, Link to Us, or Privacy Policy.