Clipmarks | Biology Clips

Bumblebees outwit robotic spiders

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:41:13 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The article goes on about artificial meadows being used and ......

Scientists have found that bumblebees learn from their "near-death" encounters with crab spiders and adapt their future foraging strategies.

Bumblebee vs Robotic Crab Spider

They watched real bees in an artificial meadow - containing yellow "flowers" and robotic crab spiders.

Bees that had been "captured" spent longer inspecting flowers during subsequent foraging trips.

They may outwit the spiders - but at the expense of valuable foraging time, Current Biology reports.

Crab spiders lie in wait on flowers, ready to ambush their "most prized prey" - the bumblebee.

This cryptic predator has an amazing ability to change its colour to closely match the flower it is lurking on.

Scientists wanted to know if bumblebees adapt their foraging behaviour after encountering a crab spider.

Mammoths moved 'out of America'

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:53:32 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists have discovered that the last Siberian woolly mammoths may have originated in North America.

Their research in the journal Current Biology represents the largest study of ancient woolly mammoth DNA.

The iconic Ice Age woolly mammoth - Mammuthus primigenius - roamed through mainland Eurasia and North America until about 10,000 years ago.

Previous studies had hinted that the last mammoths left in Siberia were not natives - but immigrants from North America.

However, more evidence was required to strengthen the case for this "out of America" theory.

A team of researchers led by Professor Hendrik Poinar from McMaster University in Canada collected 160 mammoth samples from across Holarctica - a region encompassing present day North America, Europe and Asia.

Well-preserved DNA material - between 4,000 and 40,000 years old - was obtained from "almost every part of the animal - even from preserved hide, skin and hair", Professor Poinar told BBC News.

Tags: illegal, immigrants, booted, out, 10000, yrs, ago

Tracking news and progress the future

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:46:15 GMT

clipped by: milmufmas

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

DARPA today has a long-term, $3 billion program to help make such a “Metabolically Dominant Soldier.” In other words, the military is studying how to use technology and biology to meld man and machine and transcend the limits of the human body. Described the project director, “My measure of success is that the International Olympic Committee bans everything we do" The $3 billion program is definitely trying to achieve transhuman performance goals.

The wearable gear would enable running at 100 meter olympic sprinter speed for hours and the 7 foot vertical leap, the wall crawling, personal flight, invisibility, greatly enhanced strength, better body armor and carrying bigger and more powerful weapons.

UPDATE: Advanced gene therapy could provide cheetah or gorilla quality muscles in people for 45 mile per hour speed or five to ten times strength

Monogamous offspring stick closer together

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:27:15 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Fish have a lateral line, that can pick up electronic impulses. Perhaps they like being with a frequency they're familiar with?

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Darren Osborne

Birds of a feather stick together, and the same is true for guppies with the same father, say Australian researchers.

Offspring from a single sperm donor spent more time shoaling and were closer together

Research into the behaviour of the small tropical fish known as the guppy (Poecilia reticulate) has found pairs of full-siblings spend significantly more time shoaling compared to pairs of half-sibling.

Dr Jonathan Evans and Dr Jennifer Kelley, from the University of Western Australia, believe their finding indentifies an unknown cost of polyandry (fertilisation of eggs by more than one male).

"Very few people have looked at the costs of polyandry, particularly the cost to social cohesiveness," says Evans.

Their research appears in the latest edition of the Royal Society's Biology Letters.

Shoaling, or crowding close together, is a common survival trait among fish.

"We don't know

What we think is going on is that they are using some kind of phenotype matching."

68 Molecules that hold the key to all Cellular Life

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:01:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Currently, the vast majority of medical research looks to the human genome and proteome for answers, but those answers remain elusive, and perhaps for good reason.

“We have now found instances where the pathogenesis of widespread and chronic diseases can be attributed to a change in the glycome, for example, in the absence of definable changes in the genome or proteome,” Marth said, adding that, as biomedical researchers, “we need to begin to cultivate the integration of disciplines in a holistic and rigorous way in order to perceive and most effectively manipulate the biological mechanisms of health and disease.”

Marth believes that biology should become more integrative both in academic and research settings. “I’m one who believes that we don’t need to sacrifice breadth of knowledge in order to acquire depth of understanding.”

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Why is it that the origins of many serious diseases remain a mystery? In considering that question, a scientist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has come up with a unified molecular view of the indivisible unit of life, the cell, which may provide an answer.

Reviewing findings from multiple disciplines, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., UC San Diego Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, realized that only 68 molecular building blocks are used to construct these four fundamental components of cells: the nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), proteins, glycans and lipids.

Like the periodic table of elements, first published in 1869 by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, is to chemistry, Marth’s visual metaphor offers a new framework for biologists.

These 68 building blocks provide the structural basis for the molecular choreography that constitutes the entire life of a cell

Tags: biology, cell biology

Cell Division Study Resolves 50-year-old Debate

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:49:46 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This is a basic biology must know breakthrough.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

A new study at Oregon State University has finally resolved a controversy that cellular biologists have been arguing over for nearly 50 years, with findings that may aid research on everything from birth defects and genetic diseases to the most classic "cell division" issue of them all – cancer.

The exact mechanism that controls how chromosomes in a cell replicate and then divide into two cells, a process fundamental to life, has never been completely pinned down, researchers say.

Two distinct theories were formed, called polar relaxation and equatorial stimulation, to explain this aspect of cell division – and some scientists have spent much of their careers arguing for one side or the other.

Turns out, Zhang said, that both sides were correct. Nature and evolution have actually created a basic way for a cell to divide with a backup system that can work if the other approach fails.

The findings, Zhang said, add significantly to the basic understanding of cell biology

Tags: biology, cell biology

Bacteria-human communication

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:25:48 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: I think this double face of the pim gene, points to cellular levels where bacteria and human cell communicate and regulate co- benefitial existence.
some say that the importance of this connection goes even beyond mere protection and peaceful co existence. interesting...

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

How Friendly Bacteria Avoids Immune Attack To Live Happily In The Gut

Multicellular animals live peacefully in close contact with a multitude of microorganisms that inhabit their bodies. Humans, for example, have more microorganisms within the body than cells

with just the intestine containing up to 100 trillion microbes, a number about 10 times greater that all our cells.

Still, although we remain fully immune competent - so capable of responding to infection by pathogenic microorganisms - we do not react against these “friendly” bacteria.

But how do these two opposite immune responses against bacteria so similar exist simultaneously?

The activation of this immune pathway is triggered by peptidoglycans – sugars found on the bacterial wall – and results in the activation of a molecule called Relish

“Friendly” bacteria, on the other hand, despite containing peptidoglycans in their wall exist peacefully

The new found gene– pims

a negative regulator of the immune response

granting tolerance

Tags: biology, bacteria

Scientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:33:15 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: "Retroelements are an ancient and highly diverse class of proteins; therefore, they provide a rigorous benchmark for us to test our approach. We are happy with the results we derived, even though our method is in an early stage," said Patterson. The team plans to make the algorithms that they used in their method available to others as open-source software that is freely available on the Web.
Scientists map out the evolutionary histories of organisms by comparing their genetic and/or protein sequences. Those organisms that are closely related and share a recent common ancestor have greater degrees of similarity among their sequences.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Scientists at Penn State have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth. The team's method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins all the way back to either cells or viruses, thus settling the debate once and for all over which of these life forms came first.

"We have just begun to tap the potential power of this method," said Randen Patterson, a Penn State assistant professor of biology and one of the project's leaders. "We believe, if it is possible at all, that it is within our grasp to determine whether viruses evolved from cells or vice-versa."

The team is focusing on an ancient group of proteins, called retroelements, which comprise approximately 50 percent of the human genome by weight and are a crucial component in a number of diseases, including AIDS.

Tags: life, computers, science

The Future Of Code, Digital And Genetic Continued

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:15:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: spectrum.ieee.org

Simonyi talked about his “intentional software” concept. If the human genome can be encoded in a program that takes up less than 1 gigabyte, he asked, why does Windows require 15 or 16? So, instead of building software according to elaborate blueprints that detail every programming step, Simonyi is following what he called a recipe approach. His team at Intentional Software creates a set of programming tools, writes a very specific description of the problem they are attempting to solve, and then uses the tools to generate a software solution. It sounds like a software version of the directed self-assembly techniques used in chemistry and nanotechnology.

Over on the in vivo side of the house, Harvard’s George Church, biotechnologist and founder of the Personal Genome Project; Drew Endy, of Stanford University and a founder of the BioBricks Foundation; and Rodney Brooks, of MIT and iRobot, discussed what’s being called synthetic biology or synthetic life research.

Tags: future, code, digital, genetic

Davros

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:28:49 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Clip Source: www.davrosrises.com

Davros is a megalomaniac who believes that through his creations, the Daleks, he can become the supreme being and ruler of the universe. He is a brilliant scientist who has demonstrated mastery of robotics, metallurgy, chemistry, artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic engineering, biology, military tactics, and apparently, cybernetics.

Clip Source: www.davrosrises.com

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

New York Tutor

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:31:54 GMT

clipped by: newyorktutor

Clip Source: www.tutornewyorkcity.com

New York Academics has been helping kids catch up, keep up, and get ahead in their studies for more than 10 years. We work with 3rd to 12th graders to help them achieve their goals and reach their academic potential in math, biology, reading, writing, test prep, and physical science.

Tags: new york tutur, math a regent prep, brooklyn english tutoring, new york state english regent, nyc math tutoring, shsat test prep

The Handbook of Emotions

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:10:48 GMT

clipped by: Magdalini
clipper's remarks: important to buy

Clip Source: mail.google.com

The Handbook of Emotions comprehensively examines all aspects of emotion and its role in human behavior. This thoroughly revised and expanded third edition now brings readers fully up to date on major theories, findings, methods, and applications. The field's foremost researchers explore how emotion intersects with biology, developmental processes, social behavior, personality, cognition, and physical and mental health. Also presented are state-of-the-science perspectives on specific emotions, such as fear, anger, shame, disgust, positive emotions, and sadness. New topics include emotion regulation, neuroimaging approaches, emotions in psychotherapy, the social functions of emotion, emotional complexity, emotion across the lifespan, transdiagnostic emotional disturbances in psychopathology, and much more.

Hovey Lake update

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:36:19 GMT

clipped by: lablondee

Clip Source: findarticles.com

Residential mortuary practices and skeletal biology at the late Mississippian Hovey Lake site, Posey County, Indiana

Minke whales shedding blubber

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:56:02 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: The study is Japanese which puts the problem in a nut shell. They say the whales are 'suffering' because of a low krill number. What is significant about that?
Tuna eat krill.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Japanese scientists have released a study that suggests whales are losing blubber because ocean resources are growing scarce, a claim discounted by others as flawed.

The study, which was published in Polar Biology, after several other journals rejected it, was based on the research of 6779 whales, of which more than 4500 were killed - including some which were pregnant.

It found that the oceans are facing a shortfall of krill, a vital component of the food chain, due to climate change and the recovery of species such as humpback whales.

According to the study, Antarctic minke whales have shed on average 9% of their blubber during the past 18 years, corresponding to an annual weight loss of 17 kilograms.

Minke whales swim to the Antarctic every summer to feed, and to warm waters during the winter to breed.

Blubber is vital for whales because it helps to retain heat in cold waters and store energy and nutrition.

When does human life begin?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:34:59 GMT

clipped by: Efrain Alvarado

Clip Source: www.prolifephysicians.org

T here is a tremendous consensus in the scientific community about when life begins. This is hardly controversial. If the claim were made that life was discovered on another planet, for example, there are well-defined criteria to which we could refer to conclusively determine whether the claim was accurate. How do scientists distinguish between life and non-life?

A scientific textbook called “Basics of Biology” gives five characteristics of living things; these five criteria are found in all modern elementary scientific textbooks:

1. Living things are highly organized.

2. All living things have an ability to acquire materials and energy.

3. All living things have an ability to respond to their environment.

4. All living things have an ability to reproduce.

5. All living things have an ability to adapt.

Saving lives t Saving medicine

www.ProLifePhysicians.org

Tags: prolife, abortion, human rights, life, biology