Yearly Archives: 2007

Ancient DNA Traces Woolly Mammoth’s Disappearance:

Some ancient-DNA evidence has offered new clues to a very cold case: the disappearance of the last woolly mammoths, one of the most iconic of all Ice Age giants, according to a recent article. DNA lifted from the bones, teeth, and tusks of the extinct mammoths revealed a “genetic signature” of a range expansion after the last interglacial period. After the mammoths’ migration, the population apparently leveled off, and one of two lineages died out.

For more, see this and this.
Scientists Propose The Kind Of Chemistry That Led To Life:

Before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage – so experts believe. But what preceded these pre-life steps? A pair of UCSF scientists has developed a model explaining how simple chemical and physical processes may have laid the foundation for life. Like all useful models, theirs can be tested, and they describe how this can be done. Their model is based on simple, well-known chemical and physical laws.

The Fisherman Is A Predator Like Any Other:

For Peru fishing is a prime source of foreign exchange, second only to mining. The country’s anchovy fishing fleet, which seeks the Peruvian anchovy Engraulis ringens, is the world’s largest single-species fishery, with an average of 8% of global landings. For safety and monitoring purposes, vessels have the statutory obligation to be equipped with satellite geopositioning indicators, seeing that industrial-scale fishing is prohibited within a band of 5 nautical miles (about 9 kilometres) from the coast. This satellite device, the vessel monitoring system (VMS), gives the real-time position of the vessels to an accuracy of 100 m, communicated to bodies responsible for vessel movement recording and scientific monitoring of fishing.

The Insect Vector Always Bites Twice:

The reality of the threat from vector-borne diseases has been recognized and the problem is prompting research scientists to take a strong interest. Most of these infections, classified as emerging or re-emerging diseases, are linked to ecosystem changes, climatic variations or pressure from human activities. Malaria, sleeping sickness and so on lead to the death of millions of people in the world. African countries are particularly strongly hit. The expansion of Dengue fever and the recent epidemics of Chikungunya and West Nile disease illustrate the trend.

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge:

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals.

[PZ Myers explains it better]
Hives Ferment A Yeasty Brew, Attract Beetle Pest:

The honeybee’s alarm signal may not only bring help, but also attract the small hive beetle. Now, an international team of researchers has found that small hive beetles can detect some alarm pheromones at levels below that detected by honeybees.

‘Cultured’ Chimpanzees Pass On Novel Traditions:

The local customs that define human cultures in important ways also exist in the ape world, suggests a study reported online June 7th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Indeed, captive chimpanzees, like people, can readily acquire new traditions, and those newly instituted “cultural practices” can spread to other troops.

Super Fruit Fly May Lead To Healthier Humans; Aging Slowed With Single Protein:

In a triumph for pests, scientists have figured out how to make the fruit fly live longer. But humans still may get something out of the deal. As reported online in Nature Chemical Biology, the discovery that a single protein can inhibit aging holds implications for human longevity and for treatment of some of the world’s most feared diseases.

Bigger Horns Equal Better Genes:

Size matters. At least, it does to an alpine ibex. According to a team of international researchers, mature, male alpine ibex demonstrate a correlation between horn growth and genetic diversity. Past research studies have shown that greater genetic diversity correlates with a greater chance of survival.

Caribbean Frogs Started With A Single, Ancient Voyage On A Raft From South America:

Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that rafted on a sea voyage from South America about 30-to-50-million years ago, according to DNA-sequence analyses led by a research group at Penn State, which will be published in the 12 June 2007 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and posted in the journal’s online early edition this week. Similarly, the scientists found that the Central American relatives of these Caribbean frogs also arose from a single species that arrived by raft from South America.

The Bee That Would Be Queen:

A team of researchers from Arizona State University, Purdue University and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has discovered evidence that honeybees have adopted a phylogenetically old molecular cascade — TOR (target of rapamycin), linked to nutrient and energy sensing — and put it to use in caste development. The findings, published in the June 6 edition of PLoS ONE, the online, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science, show that TOR is directly linked in the nutrient-induced development of female honeybees into either queens, the caste of large dominant egg-layers, or into workers, the caste of small helpers.

Organic Food Miles Take Toll On Environment:

Organic fruit and vegetables may be healthier for the dinner table, but not necessarily for the environment, a University of Alberta study shows. The study, conducted by a team of student researchers in the Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, showed that the greenhouse gas emitted when the produce is transported from great distances mitigates the environmental benefits of growing the food organically.

What Did Dinosaurs Hear?:

What did dinosaurs hear? Probably a lot of low frequency sounds, like the heavy footsteps of another dinosaur, if University of Maryland professor Robert Dooling and his colleagues are right. What they likely couldn’t hear were the high pitched sounds that birds make.

Scientists Join Fight To Save Tasmanian Devil From Deadly Cancer:

CSIRO scientists have joined the battle to save Australia’s iconic Tasmanian devils from the deadly cancer currently devastating devil populations.

Stray Penguins Probably Reached Northern Waters By Fishing Boat:

Guy Demmert got quite a surprise when he hauled a fishing net into his boat off the coast of southeast Alaska in July 2002. There among the salmon, in living black and white, was a Humboldt penguin, thousands of miles from where any of its kind should have been.

Hormone Helps Mice ‘Hibernate,’ Survive Starvation:

A key hormone enables starving mice to alter their metabolism and “hibernate” to conserve energy, revealing a novel molecular target for drugs to treat human obesity and metabolic disorders, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. The starvation-fighting effects of the hormone, called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), are described for the first time in a study appearing online today in Cell Metabolism.

Climate Change And Deforestation Will Lead To Declines In Global Bird Diversity, Study Warns:

Global warming and the destruction of natural habitats will lead to significant declines and extinctions in the world’s 8,750 terrestrial bird species over the next century, according to a study conducted by biologists at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University.

24 Species Believed New To Science Discovered In Suriname Rainforest:

Conservationists are in the northern Amazon nation of Suriname today calling for better environmental protections from illegal mining and other threats. To make the case for improved conservation practices, scientists from Conservation International (CI) and partner institutions are presenting a report to government officials that details eastern Suriname’s invaluable biodiversity. The report documents the results of a 2005 expedition and 2006 follow-up survey, led by CI’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), during which researchers found 24 species previously unknown to science.

Duetting Birds With Rhythm Present A Greater Threat:

Birds that sing duets with incredible rhythmic precision present a greater threat to other members of their species than those that whistle a sloppier tune, according to a study of Australian magpie-larks reported in the June 5th issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Going Fishing? Only Some Catch And Release Methods Let The Fish Live:

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) fisheries scientists are investigating ways to boost the survival rates of several more species of fish caught and then released by anglers. Some guidelines designed to improve fish survival were recently developed for released line-caught snapper, silver trevally, mulloway, sand whiting, yellowfin bream and dusky flathead.

New Animal Model Boosts Biodefense Research On Lassa Fever:

Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research have developed a new tool in the battle against a potential biological weapon, Lassa fever, which kills several thousand people each year and leaves thousands more with disabilities such as deafness and liver damage. In an article in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology (Vol. 81, Issue 12), SFBR scientists Jean Patterson and Ricardo Carrion Jr. and colleagues detail the development of a new animal model, the marmoset monkey, for use in Lassa fever research.

Male Mice Get A Longevity Boost From Compound Found In Creosote Bush:

Aspirin didn’t pan out. Neither did two other potential anti-aging agents. But a synthetic derivative of a pungent desert shrub is now a front-runner in ongoing animal experiments to find out if certain chemicals, known to inhibit inflammation, cancer and other destructive processes, can boost the odds of living longer.

Climate Change Linked To Origins Of Agriculture In Mexico:

New charcoal and plant microfossil evidence from Mexico’s Central Balsas valley links a pivotal cultural shift, crop domestication in the New World, to local and regional environmental history. Agriculture in the Balsas valley originated and diversified during the warm, wet, postglacial period following the much cooler and drier climate in the final phases of the last ice age. A significant dry period appears to have occurred at the same time as the major dry episode associated with the collapse of Mayan civilization, Smithsonian researchers and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.

Furry-clawed Asian Crabs Found In Delaware And Chesapeake Bays:

Chinese mitten crabs, first reported in the Chesapeake Bay, are more widespread than initially thought. Four crabs have now been caught in Delaware Bay during the last week of May 2007, and may occur in other waters of the U.S. east coast.

The Scientist And The Contortionist:

Watching a ballet dancer or circus acrobat perform, who hasn’t winced at the thought of trying to replicate the impossible flexibility on display? Emilie Mackie ’07, a neuroscience major, wondered what exactly is happening to the brain during this type of visceral response to someone else’s physical state, so she cast about for a contortionist.