Clipmarks | pokkets's 'human' clips

Scientists map Neanderthal maternal DNA

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:46:14 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: 38,000 years wasn't that long ago. They became extinct shortly afterward (as far as we know) after dwindling around Western Europe. It's easy to wonder what may have happened if they were isolated in an area that was free of Homo sapiens sapiens (So smart that we have to repeat it to ourselves to remove any doubt.)

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Jennifer Viegas

DNA extracted from a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal bone has enabled scientists to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome for the human-like species, say scientists.

The remarkable feat, which appears in the journal Cell, has led to at least three major discoveries about the extinct stocky European individuals, representing a breakthrough for studies on the evolution of the human family.

"This is the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence from an extinct hominid,"says lead author Dr Richard Green.

Green, a researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany

concluded that the Neanderthal mitochondria falls outside the range of variation found in humans today, offering no evidence that interbreeding occurred

Clearer is the fact that Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor around 660,000 years ago.

researchers based this initially upon prior research that determined humans and chimpanzees diverged

six to eight million years ago

Eye shaped camera provides sharper focus

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:45:46 GMT

clipped by: pokkets

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Julie Steenhuysen

Scientists from the US have built an eye-shaped camera using standard sensor materials, which they believe could improve the performance of digital cameras and enhance imaging of the human body.

The device might even lead to the development of prosthetic devices including a bionic eye

"This is the first time we've demonstrated a camera on a curved surface to really make it look like a human eye," says Professor Yonggang Huang of Northwestern University, Illinois, who reports his findings in Nature.

Huang, who worked on the project with Professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, developed a

solution to the long-running problem of transferring microelectronic components onto a curved surface without breaking them.

a mesh-like material made up of tiny squares that

are connected by tiny wires that give each component the ability to mould to a curved surface.

"This approach allows us to put electronics in places where we couldn't before,"

Ancient bones may hold clues to TB

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:49:37 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They think there is enough Tuberculosis DNA to give clues to how it has evolved.(And where it's going?), and find new ways to fight it

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Ori Lewis

A team of German, Israeli and Palestinian researchers is studying ancient bones found in the biblical city of Jericho for clues that could help scientists combat tuberculosis.

"We see a re-emerging wave of tuberculosis all over the world and ... perhaps learning from the past will help us understand the present," says Professor Andreas Nerlich from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich.

Nerlich and other researchers in the team have begun studying 6000-year-old bones unearthed in Jericho more than a half-century ago by British anthropologist Dr Kathleen Kenyon, in what is now the occupied West Bank.

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is a deadly infectious bacterial disease that usually attacks the lungs. Acknowledged as a disease of crowds, it is transmitted from human to human living in close contact.

Many of the bones show signs of tuberculosis, suggesting the disease afflicted a significant proportion of the population of the ancient world.

3D renderings of the human body

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:07:38 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Rather than imagine what goes on in the body, now CGI can create images that can seem almost as alive as we are .The technology used is only at a relatively primitive stage. Can't wait until they introduce holograms. It leaves 'Fantastic Voyage.' a cheap trick of the 1950s.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Animals with Expression-and attitude

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:49:26 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Some of them look almost human,and nearly as weird, some of them just have a different number of legs. I probably got carried away with the pictures, but couldn't choose, and aren't really sure if there can be too many pictures.

Clip Source: fun.blogonline.ru

Tags: animals, funny, photos, weird, expression, human, attitude

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:04:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Robots are not human, but humans aren’t the only things that have emotions,” she said. “The question for robots is not, Will they ever have human emotions? Dogs don’t have human emotions, either, but we all agree they have genuine emotions. The question is, what are the emotions that are genuine for the robot?”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

There is ongoing debate about what constitutes life. Synthetic bacteria for example, are created by man and yet also alive. Some go so far as to say that robot “emotions” may already have occurred—that current robots have not only displayed emotions, but in some ways have experienced them.

“We’re all machines,” says Rodney Brooks author of “Flesh and Machines,” and former director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, “Robots are made of different sorts of components than we are — we are made of biomaterials; they are silicon and steel — but in principle, even human emotions are mechanistic.” A robot’s level of a feeling like sadness could be set as a number in computer code, he said. But isn’t a human’s level of sadness basically a number, too, just a number of the amounts of various neurochemicals circulating in the brain? Why should a robot’s numbers be any less authentic than a human’s?

Tags: robotics, intelligence, life

Worm-like Marine Animal Providing Fresh Clues About Human Evolution

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:47:15 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The human genome has only about 25 percent more genes than the amphioxus genome, according to Holland. During evolution, humans have duplicated genes for different functions. Such duplication has given humans and other vertebrates a much larger "toolkit" for making various structures that are absent in amphioxus, including cells for pigment and collagen type II-based cartilage, for example.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Research on the genome of a marine creature led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego is shedding new light on a key area of the tree of life.

Linda Holland, a research biologist at Scripps Oceanography, and her colleagues from the United States, Europe and Asia, have deciphered and analyzed fundamental elements of the genetic makeup of a small, worm-like marine animal called amphioxus, also known as a lancelet.

Amphioxus is not widely known to the general public, but is gaining interest in scientific circles because of its position as one of the closest living invertebrate relatives of vertebrates.

Although amphioxus split from vertebrates more than 520 million years ago, its genome holds tantalizing clues about evolution.

Because amphioxus is evolving slowly--its body plan remains similar to that of fossils from the Cambrian time--the animal serves as an intriguing comparison point for tracing how vertebrates have evolved and adapted.

Tags: evolution, marine life, genome

6 iconoclastic discoveries about the brain

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:02:06 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: let go of the dogma

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Neuroscience, like all other branches of science, is fraught with dogmatic ideas about its subject matter. A number of principles have emerged, principles that have been regarded as fundamental to our understanding of brain function.

But the human brain is an organ of bewildering complexity - it is often referred to as the most complex object in the known universe - which doesn't give up its secrets easily. After 100 years of scientific investigation, we still know very little about it.

Dogma 1:

The adult human brain is not plastic.

Dogma 2: The adult human brain cannot regenerate

Dogma 3:

Neurons are the functional elements of the nervous system

Dogma 4:

Neurotransmitters are released from the nerve terminal

Dogma 5:

Neurons are binary switches.

Dogma 6:

Neurons communicate with each other by propagating action potentials

Tags: brain, discoveries, neuroscience, clipversity

Will We Recognize The Future?

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:18:37 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: A talk with Ray Kurzweil.

Clip Source: www.sciencefriday.com

(broadcast Friday, June 6th, 2008)

Technology is ever-changing -- and changing ever faster. But what happens when the rate of technological change becomes so fast that the fundamental nature of what it means to be human changes, too? In this segment, Ira talks with inventor, technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil about the idea of 'the Singularity' -- what happens when technology advances so much that it's impossible to predict what happens next. Will artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology be able to completely reshape what it means to be human?

more audio options

streaming: RM WM
download: mp3
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podcast (what's this?)

Tags: singularity, ray kurzweil, future

Scientists probe the memory of bees

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:19:12 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The clip suggests that bees brain wiring is divided in a way that is reminiscent of the hemispheres in the human brain. From what I remember, bees had brains long before humans, so perhaps it is the other way around

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Stephen Pincock

Honey bees are able to remember the scent of the flowers they visit by allocating different types of memory to their tiny brains, new research suggests.

Bees can do extraordinarily complex things with their pinsized brains

Emeritus Professor Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia and Professor Giorgio Vallortigara, of the University of Trento in Italy report their findings this week in the journal PLoS ONE.

The researchers show that bee brains are divided into two halves with different functions in a way that is reminiscent of the hemispheres of the human brain.

"When we asked the bee to recall with its left antenna coated, it could recall the memory of the two scents for up to about three hours, but it wasn't as good thereafter," Rogers says.

"On the other hand, if we coated the right antenna and tested its recall, then initially it didn't do well, but after six hours it could recall."

Obviously they're wired up very efficientl

New evidence from oldest human settlement in the Americas

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:45:47 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.vanderbilt.edu

N ew evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.

The study was conducted by a team of anthropologists, geologists and botanists headed by Vanderbilt University's Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Tom Dillehay and is reported in the May 9 issue of the journal Science.

The paper, which includes the first new data reported from the site in 10 years, includes the identification of nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 to 13,980 years ago, confirming that the upper layer of the site, labeled Monte Verde II, was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas.

Tags: america, archealogy, discovery

15 Things It Took Me Over 50 Years To Learn

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:14:30 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”

Clip Source: www.awesomeology.com

15 Things It Took Me Over 50 Years To Learn

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

You should not confuse your career with your life.

Never lick a steak knife.

There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.

The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.

A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)

Your friends love you anyway.

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.

Tags: aging

European Values - The Ideology of Fortress Europe?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:36:52 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

Are the values of human rights specific to European civilisation, marking the continent off from other regions of the world? Traugott Schoefthaler takes a critical look at the positions of European think tanks and foundations.

↗"Europäische Werte"-Debatte - Ideologie der Festung Europa?

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

Many had hoped that the use of human rights as an ideological weapon during the Cold War would have come to an end with the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna in 1993, solemnly declaring all human rights as "a coherent whole".

The recent debate about "European values" highlights two alternative options – a substantive option, insisting in deeply rooted cultural differences between Europe and other regions, and a commitment option, focusing on Europe's commitment to the implementation of universal values which are – at least on paper – shared by the international community.

The first option guides the new European values network, established by Czech, Polish and German civil society organizations. It insists in the specificity of "European values" vis-à-vis other regions and, especially, vis-à-vis Islam.

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

An alternative option

promotes intercultural dialogue as a key dimension of co-development of Europe and "all regions with which Europe maintains relations".

Tags: europe, european union, turkey, islam, european values

Wrangle With CIA Over ‘Ghost Prisoners’get disappeared--what then

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:30:49 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And when you or I get disappeared, what then...when will we stop this shit?

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

NEW YORK — The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has refused to release more than 7,000 documents related to its programs of secret detentions, renditions, and torture, and is asking a federal judge to dismiss a Freedom of Information lawsuit demanding disclosure.

The refusal came last week in the CIA’s response to a lawsuit brought by three human rights groups, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the International Human Rights Clinic at New York University School of Law (NYU IHRC).

The CIA filed a motion with the court for a summary judgment to end the lawsuit and avoid turning over more than 7,000 documents related to its secret “ghost” detention and extraordinary rendition programs.

The CIA claimed that it did not have to release the documents because many consist of correspondence with the White House or top George W. Bush administration officials, or because they are between parties seeking legal advice on the programs