Clipmarks | wildcat's 'biology' clips

How one day we may all be eternally young

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:44:09 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "We found a normal developmental programme that works in young animals, but becomes unbalanced as the worm gets older. It accounts for the lion's share of molecular differences between young and old worms." If ageing is not a cost of unavoidable chemistry, but is instead driven by changes in regulatory genes, the ageing process may not be inevitable, he added.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

Growing old may not be mandatory after all. Failing eyesight, loosened teeth and greying hair could be driven by regulatory genes that determine when it is time to shuffle off our mortal coil, rather than being indicators of the ravages of age.

American scientists have challenged the conventional view that ageing is caused by wear and tear – like rust on an old car. Instead, they suggest specific genetic instructions drive the process. If they are right, science might one day find ways of switching the signals off and halting or even reversing ageing.

Researchers at Stanford University Medical Centre raised questions about the conventional theory of ageing on the basis of observations in the animal world. Stuart Kim, a professor of developmental biology, said: "Everyone has assumed we age by rust. But how do you explain animals that don't age?" Some tortoises lay eggs at the age of 100, there are whales that live to be 200 and clams that make it past 400 years, he said.

Tags: aging, genetics, biology

Biologically Inspired Ocean Power Systems

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:49:15 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.biopowersystems.com

BioPower Systems is commercialising ocean power conversion technologies. Through application of biomimicry, we have adopted nature's mechanisms for survival and energy conversion in the marine environment and have applied these in the development of our proprietary wave and tidal power systems.

Our technologies inherit benefits developed during 3.8 Billion years of evolutionary optimization in nature’s ocean laboratory.The resulting systems move and sway in tune with the forces of the ocean, and naturally streamline when extreme conditions prevail. This leads to lightweight designs and associated low costs.

The inherently simple bioWAVE™ and bioSTREAM™ devices are designed to supply utility-scale grid-connected renewable energy using efficient modular systems. These systems will reside beneath the ocean surface, out of view, and in harmony with the living creatures that inspired their design.

Tags: biology, ocean, energy, biomimicry, wave, tidal, power

Lab wants to capture minds... Literally!

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:15:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: memebox.com

The mega-billion dollar Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) recently developed a new state-of-the-art facility – Janelia Farm Research Campus – to learn how brain cells store and process information.

Today, biologists can only observe a cell’s activity by indirectly analyzing chemicals it produces in response to stimulus. But what if you could take a picture of a brain cell at the very moment it recorded a thought? HHMI researchers believe this worthy goal can be achieved and they are rounding up some of the top researchers in the world to make it happen.

Janelia Farm will provide its world-class science team with near unlimited funds in a mostly unsupervised environment. “The Institute’s core belief is that scientists who demonstrate creativity and imagination make lasting contributions to benefit humanity when they are given flexible, long-term support and the freedom to explore,” said former HHMI President Thomas Cech.

Tags: mind, biology, brain

"The Ilulissat Manifesto" -Creating Artifical Life

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:41:14 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "So is the new technology dangerous? Yes. Could this technology end up saving countless lives and clean up many of the environmental messes we’ve created? Yes. Is it worth the risk? Probably."

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In a recent post, “Playing God” -Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life, we covered some of the benefits and concerns associated with synthesizing life forms from raw genetic material.

The thought that man now has the capacity to create life is staggering. Its many implications are barely understood.

Yet seventeen leading scientists from a variety of fields met in Ilulissat, Greenland to announce their support of the new technology as revolutionary as the discovery of DNA and creation of the transistor.

The field, 'synthetic biology,' is the science of constructing or redesigning components of biological systems that do not naturally exist. By combining engineering applications, nanoscience and molecular biology, man is able to create a new life form.

They believe it carries enormous healing potential in terms of human life and the environment, and they’re not taking it lightly.

"As with any powerful technology, the promise comes with risk,"

Tags: artifical, life, synthetic, biology

Lab Freaks Gone Wild?

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:40:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “What was once only science fiction is now becoming a reality, and we need to ensure that experimentation and subsequent ramifications do not outpace ethical discussion and societal decisions.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Scientists plan to make “cybrids” by putting human DNA into cow eggs.

The British government gave the go-ahead this week for two separate groups to experiment with the process. Scientists will “inject human DNA into empty eggs from cows, to create embryos known as cytoplasmic hybrids that are 99.9 per cent human in genetic terms,” according to The Times of London.

The government had planned to ban such cybrid research, but scientists protested, leading to the reversal.

The argument is an emotional and speculative one, scientists would say, conjuring images of lab freaks gone wild that no reputable researcher envisions. Nobody has suggested the cybrids be raised and let loose in London (or Manhattan, for that matter, where the movie will likely be set. I mean, whoever heard of London being taken over by cybrids?).

“Creating human-animal hybrids could irrevocably harm the basic human genetic makeup and intentionally or unintentional change what it means to be human,”

Tags: cybrids, dna, biology

The Incredible Art of Bacteria

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:27:32 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Professor Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel-Aviv University and Professor Herbert Levine of UCSD's National Science Foundation Frontier Center for Theoretical Biological Physics watched bacteria solve problems in the petri dish for years. In doing so, they caught bacteria in the act of creating beautiful art.

"While the colors and shading are artistic additions, the image templates are actual colonies of tens of billions of these microorganisms," according to the researchers. "The colony structures form as adaptive responses to laboratory-imposed stresses that mimic hostile environments faced in nature. They illustrate the coping strategies that bacteria have learned to employ, strategies that involve cooperation through communication. These selfsame strategies are used by the bacteria in their struggle to defeat our best antibiotics...

"In a sense, the strikingly beautiful organization of the pattern reflects the underlying social intelligence of the bacteria

Tags: art, bacteria, science, biology

How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:57:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Author Robert Wright explains "non-zero-sumness," a game-theory term describing how players with linked fortunes tend to cooperate for mutual benefit. This dynamic has guided our biological and cultural evolution, he says -- but our unwillingness to understand one another, as in the clash between the Muslim world and the West, will lead to all of us losing the "game." Once we recognize that life is a non-zero-sum game, in which we all must cooperate to succeed, it will force us to see that moral progress -- a move toward empathy -- is our only hope.

Clip Source: www.ted.com

Talks Robert Wright: How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict

Tags: ted, robert wright, non zero sum, biology, culture, game

Body clock 'control switch' found

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:46:12 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Researchers say they have identified the chemical switch that controls the genetic mechanism regulating people's internal body clocks.

Although the process involves complex genes, the whole mechanism is controlled by a single amino acid - a building block of protein - they say.

It is hoped the discovery may lead to more effective drugs to treat sleep disorders and related ailments.

The University of California study appears in the journal Nature.

Lead researcher Professor Paolo Sassone-Corsi said: "Because the triggering action is so specific, it appears to be a perfect target for compounds that could regulate this activity.

"It is always amazing to see how molecular control is so precise in biology."

People's sleep problems tend to be very individual, but we currently have a one-size-fits-all approach

Sensitive mechanism

Tags: biology, clock, body, sleep, science, amino acid

In fruit flies, homosexuality is biological but not hard-wired

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:53:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: It's still unknown why a male brain chooses to do male things and a female brain does female things

Clip Source: physorg.com

While the biological basis for homosexuality remains a mystery, a team of neurobiologists reports they may have closed in on an answer -- by a nose.

The team led by University of Illinois at Chicago researcher David Featherstone has discovered that sexual orientation in fruit flies is controlled by a previously unknown regulator of synapse strength. Armed with this knowledge, the researchers found they were able to use either genetic manipulation or drugs to turn the flies' homosexual behavior on and off within hours.

Featherstone found the gene interesting initially because it has the unusual ability to transport the neurotransmitter glutamate out of glial cells -- cells that support and nourish nerve cells but do not fire like neurons do. Previous work from his laboratory showed that changing the amount of glutamate outside cells can change the strength of nerve cell junctions, or synapses, which play a key role in human and animal behavior.

Tags: homosexuality, biology, genetics

Fish have personalities

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:52:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "The recognition that behavioral syndromes exist in a wide range of animal species is a key development in the understanding of animal behavior,"

Clip Source: www.canada.com

OTTAWA -- Fish have personalities. Ordinary Canadian brook trout exhibit different traits: some social, others not. Some risk-takers, others scaredy-fish. And so on.

University of Guelph scientists noticed the different personalities as they sat by the Credit River, west of Toronto, watching trout feed. Then they scooped out the fish and ran them through six days of personality tests in the lab, and even some swimming tests.

And the revelation suggests an answer to an old question: How can different species, with different types of behaviour, evolve from a single starting point?

The idea of personalities is starting to spread across our views of the whole animal kingdom, says Rob McLaughlin, the Guelph biologist who ran the study. This seems obvious in the case of dogs or chimpanzees, but less obvious among fish.

"We've known that out in the field, these young brook trout examine differences in their foraging behaviour - what they're feeding on," he said.

Tags: fish, personality, animal behavior, traits, evolution, biology

Climate change makes bats drop dead

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:23:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

PARIS: Scorching heatwaves linked to climate change have caused thousands of Australian bats to drop dead after flapping their wings in a desperate bid to cool off, scientists say.

On one day alone in 2002, up to six per cent of the flying foxes in nine colonies in New South Wales, southeast Australia, died when temperatures hit 42°C, according to the study. Most alarming, said the biologists, was the mortality rate among young bats, which was as high as 50 per cent.

"The effects of temperature extremes on flying foxes highlight complex implications of climate change for behaviour, demography and species survival," says the study, which is published today by the Royal Society, Britain's de-facto academy of sciences.

The fruit-eating, winged mammals play a critical role in local ecosystems, helping to pollinate wild and cultivated crops and disperse seeds, the researchers point out.

Tags: global warming, bats, ecology, biology, climate change

Reproductive Edge for Men With Deep Voices

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:37:55 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A man with a deep voice may have a survival advantage, a better chance of passing on his genes.

Researchers have found that men with deeper voices have more children — at least among the Hadza, a group of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.

According to background information in an article published online for the Dec. 22 edition of Biology Letters, most women in Western societies find lower-pitched male voices more attractive, judging them healthier and more masculine. Meanwhile, men find higher-pitched voices more appealing.

The evolutionary reasons for reproductive success are difficult to discover in a society that uses modern birth control methods. The Hadza use no birth control and choose their own spouses; this makes them what the researchers call a “natural fertility population” where hypotheses about human reproductive success can be tested.

After controlling for age, voice pitch was a highly accurate predictor of the number of children a man fathered

Tags: evolution, biology, voices, deep, reproduction

Evolutionary 'Big Bang' Created Florist's Paradise

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:21:40 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

From the ubiquitous daisy to the fantastical orchid, flowering plant species are as diverse as they are numerous. Turns out, these bloomers went through an evolutionary "Big Bang" of sorts some 130 million years ago, a brief era of explosive floral diversification at a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth.

The origin of flowering plants called angiosperms has long baffled scientists, with Charles Darwin famously referring to the plant puzzler as an "abominable mystery."

"One of the reasons why it's been hard to understand evolutionary relationships among the major groups of flowering plants is because they diversified over such a short time frame," said researcher Robert Jansen, professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

The results show a stunning diversification occurred within a period of 5 million years just after the plants first appeared on the scene and gave rise to today's five major lineages of flowering plants.

Tags: flowers, evolution, angiosperm, plants, biology

WHO'S YOUR MOMMA?

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:07:03 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Without such a promiscuous capacity for trust, an infant whose mother abandoned it or died shortly after its birth would face certain doom if it were unable to swap preferences for an adoptive parent.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Newborns Can Bond to a "Mother" from a Different Species

Often all you need to do is stick around to convince a baby animal that you are its mother

If you saw Winged Migration or Fly Away Home, which delivered the first true bird's-eye views of the world, you may have wondered how they got those wild geese to wear tiny camcorders on their heads. In fact, the cameras were in ultralight aircraft, which the birds accompanied—by choice. The crafty filmmakers took advantage of one of Mother Nature's tricks called imprinting: If you had grown up thinking your mom was inside that noisy plane—or was that noisy plane—you'd have gladly tolerated it, too.

In the absence of an appropriate stimulus, however, practically any object can become a source of comfort to the newborn. After one to two hours of exposure to the target, a gosling will have formed a strong preference, avoiding novel objects and showing signs of distress when the "imprinted" object is removed.

Tags: science, research, biology, imprinting, newborn, species

Chemists Concoct Part of Life's Recipe

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:29:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

For decades, scientists have argued about and pondered over whether biology began on our planet or arrived from above. If it started here, it presumably took millions of years for Earth to cook up life's essential molecules from scratch.

Now a team of chemists has computed a possible real-world recipe for one of these biomolecules, in research that suggests life started in a local pond rather than raining down from space.

Living cells are like tiny chemical factories, assembling long molecular chains such as DNA and proteins. But prior to life's emergence on Earth, these complex molecules must have come together by themselves, without the help of living cells.

"Just where these biomolecules originated isn’t known," said Paul von Rague Schleyer from the University of Georgia. "They could have formed from smaller molecules present on primitive Earth, either very slowly over millions of years or rapidly before the Earth cooled down."

Tags: life, biology, chemistry, biomolecules, genetics