Category Archives: Science News

Burglars found to be as skilled as pilots:

Bur­glars are so good at rob­bing hous­es, they should be re­garded as ex­perts in their field on a pa­r with pi­lots, new re­search con­cludes.
Psy­chol­o­gists Claire Nee and Amy Meenaghan of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ports­mouth, U.K. found that bur­glars’ speed and ef­fi­cien­cy puts them on a lev­el with oth­ers who per­form com­pli­cat­ed tasks au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, such as mu­si­cians, chess play­ers and pi­lots.
The con­clu­sions were based on in-depth in­ter­views with 50 se­ri­al bur­g­lars on how they car­ry out break-ins, Nee and Mee­na­g­han said.

Genetic Surprise: Mobile Genes Found To Pressure Species Formation:

Biologists at the University of Rochester have discovered that an old and relatively unpopular theory about how a single species can split in two turns out to be accurate after all, and acting in nature. The finding, reported in today’s issue of Science, reveals that scientists must reassess the forces involved in the origin of species. The beginnings of speciation, suggests the paper, can be triggered by genes that change their locations in a genome.

General Mechanism Of Cellular Aging Found; Tumor Suppressor Gene May Be Key:

Three separate studies confirm a gene that suppresses tumor cell growth also plays a key role in aging. Teams from the medical schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Michigan and Harvard University observed similar results in pancreatic islet cells and brain and blood stem cells.

Ocean Seep Mollusks May Share Evolutionary History With Other Deep-sea Creatures:

The unusual mollusks of oceanic cold seeps — strange clams, mussels and sea snails that thrive in the sulfur and methane-rich environments — are on average older than the marine mollusk community as a whole, according to a new report in the journal Science.

Study Illuminates How The Plague Bacterium Causes Disease:

The bacteria responsible for the plague and some forms of food poisoning “paralyze” the immune system of their hosts in an unexpected way, according to a new study in the Sept. 8, 2006, issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press.

Why Are There So Many Weeds In Your Garden This Year?:

Some years, no matter how diligently you pull, your backyard garden is always covered with weeds. Other years, with the minimum of effort, your garden remains weed-free. What is the cause of these oscillations? A group of weed scientists based at the Spanish National Research Council spent 15 years studying flixweed — a member of the mustard family commonly found in areas where the ground has been cultivated or disturbed — in an attempt to identify the processes underlying these fluctuations.

Health Effects Of ‘Functional Foods’ Featured During Four-day Symposium:

Scientists worldwide are discovering new and unexpected health benefits — such as protection against heart disease and cancer — from so-called “functional foods,” defined as those foods which provide health benefits beyond their basic nutritional value. More than 50 research papers on this topic will be presented during a four-day symposium, Sept. 10-13, in San Francisco at the national meeting of the of the American Chemical Society.

In A Technical Tour De Force, Scientists Take A Global View Of The Epigenome:

A collaboration between researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California at Los Angeles captured the genome-wide DNA methylation pattern of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana – the “laboratory rat” of the plant world – in one big sweep.
“In a single experiment we recapitulated 20 years worth of anecdotal findings and then some,” says senior author Joseph Ecker, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Institute’s Plant Biology Laboratory. “Previously, only a hand full of plant genes were known to be regulated by methylation. In addition to those, we found hundreds of others.”

Feelings Matter Less To Teenagers, Neuroscientist Says:

Teenagers take less account than adults of people’s feelings and, often, even fail to think about their own, according to a UCL neuroscientist. The results, presented at the BA Festival of Science today, show that teenagers hardly use the area of the brain that is involved in thinking about other people’s emotions and thoughts, when considering a course of action.
Many areas of the brain alter dramatically during adolescence. One area in development well beyond the teenage years is the medial prefrontal cortex, a large region at the front of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, guilt and understanding other people’s motivations. Scientists have now found that, when making decisions about what action to take, the medial prefrontal cortex is under-used by teenagers. Instead, a posterior area of the brain, involved in perceiving and imagining actions, takes over.
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While children start to think about other people’s mental states at around age five, this new data shows that the neural basis of this ability continues to develop and mature well past early childhood.
A second piece of research presented at the festival shows that teenagers are also less adept at taking someone else’s perspective and deciding how they would feel in another person’s shoes.
———————snip———————
“Whatever the reasons, it is clear that teenagers are dealing with, not only massive hormonal shifts, but also substantial neural changes. These changes do not happen gradually and steadily between the ages of 0–18. They come on in great spurts and puberty is one of the most dramatic developmental stages.”

Fast-freeze Snapshot Yields New Picture Of Nerve-muscle Junction:

When nerve cells excite muscle fibers to flex, getting synaptic proteins and components into the right place can mean the difference between feats of strength or lapses of drowsy lethargy.
Several proteins that have been shown to be major players in synaptic transmission have now been studied using a flash-freeze physical-fixation technique that reveals new details of their location and function in neuromuscular synapses. The technique was used with tiny, one-millimeter-long nematode worms, a lab animal widely studied by neuroscientists.

Global Changes Alter The Timing Of Plant Growth, Scientists Say:

Different plant species mature at different times. Scientists studying plant communities in natural habitats call this phenomenon “complementarity.” It allows species to co-exist because it reduces overlap in the time period when species compete for limited resources. Now, in a study posted online the week of Sept. 4 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ecologists working at Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve report evidence that climate change may al ter this delicate balance.

Mother Deer Cannot Recognize The Calls Of Their Own Offspring But Sheep And Reindeer Can:

In a new study from the American Naturalist, researchers from the University of Zurich studied vocal communication between fallow deer mothers and their offspring. They found that only adult females have individually distinctive calls, meaning that fawns are able to distinguish their mother’s calls from those of other females, but mothers are not able to distinguish between the calls of their own offspring and other fawns. This is in contrast to pre vious studies and provides a novel insight into parent-offspring recognition mechanisms.

Good Times Ahead For Dinosaur Hunters, According To Dinosaur Census:

The golden age of dinosaur discovery is yet upon us, according to Peter Dodson at the University of Pennsylvania. Dodson revises his groundbreaking 1990 census on the diversity of discoverable dinosaurs upward by 50 percent, offering a brighter outlook about the number of dinosaurs waiting to be found. His findings also add evidence that dinosaur populations were stable, and not on the decline, in the time shortly before their extinction 65 million years ago.

Designer Babies: What Would You Do For A ‘Healthy’ Baby?:

The well-educated are significantly more open to the idea of “designing” babies than the poorly educated, according to a new study by psychologists at the University of East Anglia.

New Generation Of Super Microscopes Poised For Scientific Use:

Super-high resolution optical microscopes, with powers that seemed physically impossible a decade ago, are poised to open a new era in imaging in molecular biology, according to a report scheduled for the Sept. 4 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.

Proteins Necessary For Brain Development Found To Be Critical For Long-term Memory:

A type of protein crucial for the growth of brain cells during development appears to be equally important for the formation of long-term memories, according to researchers at UC Irvine. The findings could lead to a better understanding of, and treatments for, cognitive decline associated with normal aging and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Eating Protein Boosts Hormone That Staves Off Hunger:

The amount of a hunger-fighting hormone can be increased by eating a higher protein diet, researchers report in the September issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. The hormone, known as peptide YY (PYY), was earlier found by the researchers to reduce food intake by a third in both normal-weight and obese people when given by injection.

Edible Coatings: The Packaging Of The Future?:

One of the most popular alternatives in the last few years is the edible coating — a transparent film that covers the food item and acts as a barrier to humidity and oxygen. Moreover, these films can be used as a host for additives in the conservation of the properties of the product or simply in order to improve its appearance.

Anticipation Plays A Powerful Role In Human Memory, Brain Study Finds:

Psychologists have long known that memories of disturbing emotional events — such as an act of violence or the unexpected death of a loved one — are more vivid and deeply imprinted in the brain than mundane recollections of everyday matters.

Cracking The Real Da Vinci Code: What Happens In The Artist’s Brain?:

The brain of the artist is one of the most exciting workplaces, and now an art historian at the University of East Anglia has joined forces with a leading neuroscientist to unravel its complexities.

Mind-body Connection: How Central Nervous System Regulates Arthritis:

In a unique approach to inflammation research, a study by researchers at UCSD School of Medicine shows that, in a model of rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation in the joints can be sensed and modulated by the central nervous system (CNS). The research suggests that the CNS can profoundly influence immune responses, and may even contribute to understanding so-called placebo effects and the role of stress in inflammatory diseases.

After Insects Attack, Plants Bunker Sugars For Later Regrowth:

Using radioactive carbon and genetically modified native tobacco plants, Max Planck Society scientists and colleagues have discovered the first gene mediating tolerance to herbivore attack.

Scientists Link Immune Response To ‘Ghost’ Parasites And Severely Congested Sinuses:

Although it’s unclear why it’s so, scientists at Johns Hopkins have linked a gene that allows for the chemical breakdown of the tough, protective casing that houses insects and worms to the severe congestion and polyp formation typical of chronic sinusitis.

Scientists Explore How Complex Organs Develop From A Simple Bud:

The current issue of Differentiation, guest-edited by Brigid Hogan, highlights several scientific investigations into the complex biological mechanism known as branching morphogenesis. Through a series of seven laboratory reviews, important insights governing this process during animal development are revealed. The articles analyze how branching morphogenesis occurs in different organ systems in the same species. They also compare the process between simple and complex organisms.

How Did Our Ancestors’ Minds Really Work?:

How did our evolutionary ancestors make sense of their world? What strategies did they use, for example, to find food? Fossils do not preserve thoughts, so we have so far been unable to glean any insights into the cognitive structure of our ancestors.
However, in a study recently published in Current Biology (September 5, 2006), researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology were able to find answers to these questions using an alternative research method: comparative psychological research. In this way, they discovered that some of the strategies shaped by evolution are evidently masked very early on by the cognitive development process unique to humans.
Being able to remember and relocate particular places where there is food is an asset to any species. There are two basic strategies for remembering the location of something: either remembering the features of the item (it was a tree, a stone, etc.), or knowing the spatial placement (left, right, middle, etc.). All animal species tested so far – from goldfish, pigeons and rats though to humans – seem to employ both strategies. However, if the type of recall task is designed so that the two strategies are in opposition, then some species (e.g. fish, rats and dogs) have a preference for locational strategies, while others (e.g. toads, chickens and children) favor those which use distinctive features.
Until now, no studies had systematically investigated these preferences along the phylogenetic tree. Recently, however, Daniel Haun and his colleagues have carried out the first research of its kind into the cognitive preferences of a whole biological family, the hominids. They compared the five species of great apes – orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and humans – to establish which cognitive strategies they prefer in order to uncover hidden characteristics.

Landscape Corridors Promote Plant Diversity By Preventing Species Loss:

Landscape corridors – thin strips of habitat that connect isolated patches of habitat — are lifelines for native plants that live in the connected patches and therefore are a useful tool for conserving biodiversity. That’s the result of the first replicated, large-scale study of plants and how they survive in both connected patches of habitat — those utilizing landscape corridors — and unconnected patches.

I’ve heard a lot about this study (and several others at the same site) over the years because Nick and Ellen are my friends and colleagues – I am so excited they got this into Science
‘Stress And The City’: Urban Birds Keep Cool:

Ornithologists of the Max Planck Society demonstrate that urban birds are more resistant to acute stress than forest dwelling birds. This reduced reactivity probably has a genetic basis and could be the result of the urban-specific selection pressures to which urban blackbirds are exposed.

Mayo Clinic Discovers New Type Of Sleep Apnea:

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified a new type of sleep apnea they call “complex sleep apnea.” The newly discovered type, complex sleep apnea, is a combination of both obstructive and central sleep apneas.

Deer-free Areas May Be Haven For Ticks, Disease:

Excluding deer could be a counterproductive strategy for controlling tick-borne infections, because the absence of deer from small areas may lead to an increase in ticks, rapidly turning the area into a potential disease hotspot, according to a team of U.S. and Italian researchers.

‘Portion Distortion’ May Contribute To Expanding Waistlines, Study Reports:

New research shows that people’s perceptions of normal portion sizes have changed in the past 20 years. A study out of Rutgers published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that Portion Distortion may be the cause. This phenomenon occurs when consumers perceive large portion sizes as appropriate amounts to eat at a single eating occasion.

Scientists Identify Compounds That Stimulate Stem Cell Growth In The Brain:

Harvard scientists have identified key compounds that stimulate stem cell growth in the brain, which may one day lead to restored function for people affected by Parkinson’s disease, strokes, multiple sclerosis and a wide range of neurological disorders. These findings, which appear in the September 2006 issue of the FASEB Journal, provide important clues as to which compounds may be responsible for causing key brain cells, neurons, to regenerate and ultimately restore brain function.

New Parks To Protect Animals Seen As Feasible:

Many “gap” locations worldwide — identified in previous research as lacking conservation protection yet harboring imperiled animal species — are ripe for conservation efforts, because they have a sparse human population and large tracts of conservation-compatible habitat, and are unattractive for agriculture.

A Switch Between Life And Death:

Cells in an embryo divide at an amazing rate to build a whole body, but this growth needs to be controlled. Controlling growth requires that some cells divide while others die; their fates are determined by signals that are passed from molecule to molecule within the cell. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have now discovered how one of these signaling pathways controls the life and death of cells in the fruit fly.

Scientists Crack Genetic Secrets Of Human Egg:

Scientists at Michigan State University report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have identified genes unique to the human egg. The identification opens the way to understanding these genes’ functions, which may lead to solving problems from infertility to degenerative diseases.

High Levels Of Pollutants May Decrease Sexual Organ Size In Polar Bears:

Exposure to high levels of environmental pollutants called organohalogen compounds (OHCs) seems to reduce the size of sexual organs in male and female polar bears, researchers report in an article scheduled for the Sept. 15 issue of the ACS journal, Environmental Science & Technology. OHCs include dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls and some pesticides.

Researchers Map Out Networks That Determine Cell Fate:

A two-step process appears to regulate cell fate decisions for many types of developing cells. For some differentiating stem cells, the first step leads not to a final decision but to a new choice. In response to the initial chemical signal, these cells take on the genetic signatures of two different cell types. It often requires a second signal for them to commit to a single cellular identity.

Social Imitation In Neonatal Monkeys:

Humans do it. Chimps do it. Why shouldn’t monkeys do it, too? Mimicry exists throughout the animal kingdom, but imitation with a purpose — matching one’s behavior to others’ as a form of social learning — has been seen only in great apes. It’s generally believed that monkeys do not imitate in this way. However, the discovery that rhesus monkeys have “mirror neurons” — neurons that fire both when monkeys watch another animal perform an action and when they perform the same action — suggests they possess the common neural framework for perception and action that is associated with imitation.

Spread Of Plant Diseases By Insects Can Be Described By Equations That Model Interplanetary Gravity:

Researchers from Penn State University and the University of Virginia show that the spread of diseases by insects can be described by equations similar to those that describe the force of gravity between planetary objects. Their findings are detailed in the September issue of the American Naturalist.

Researcher Studies Gene Families To Explore Diversity And Evolution:

Iowa State University theoretical biologist Stephen Proulx uses tools and computer models to determine how environmental and evolutionary factors structure a genome. One path to diversity in a genome involves the proliferation of genes into multi-gene families. In a recent paper in the journal Evolution, Proulx and a colleague show that the process of gene family expansion can begin even before a gene is duplicated.

Iron Critical To Ocean Productivity, Carbon Uptake:

A new study has found that large segments of the Pacific Ocean lack sufficient iron to trigger healthy phytoplankton growth and the absence of the mineral stresses these microscopic ocean plants, triggering them to produce additional pigments that make ocean productivity appear more robust than it really is. The tropical Pacific Ocean may photosynthesize 1-2 billion tons less atmospheric carbon dioxide than was previously thought.

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died yesterday after a freak accident while filming a documentary. He was impaled by a stingray through the chest. RIP.

Study Finds How Organs Monitor Themselves During Early Development:

Scientists at NYU School of Medicine have unraveled the signals in a feedback loop governing ovarian development. This work has been several years in the making and is being published on August 27 in the advance online issue of the journal Nature.

This is a big, complicated and exciting study in Drosophila.
Scientists Discover Memory Molecule :

Scientists have succeeded in erasing memory in animal models. These findings may be useful for the treatment of disorders characterized by the pathological over-strengthening of synaptic connections, such as neuropathic pain, phantom limb syndrome, dystonia and post-traumatic stress.

Beware of the title! “Gene for X” and “Molecule for Y” are automatic red flags! The study is interesting, though.
NASA Study Solves Ocean Plant Mystery:

A NASA-sponsored study shows that by using a new technique, scientists can determine what limits the growth of ocean algae, or phytoplankton, and how this affects Earth’s climate.

Er, not plants…protists. Seeding the oceans with iron in order to get the dinoflaggelates to take-up CO2 is an old idea.
Evolution Of Old World Fruit Flies On Three Continents Mirrors Climate Change:

Fast-warming climate appears to be triggering genetic changes in a species of fruit fly that is native to Europe and was introduced into North and South America about 25 years ago.
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In the paper, the researchers note that “the genetic shift is remarkably rapid and is detectable even for samples separated by fewer than two decades.” They add that such rapid genetic changes are likely to occur much more quickly in organisms with short life spans, such as a fruit fly, which can produce several generations in a single year.
“In the long term, this suggests that climate warming is already having genetic effects, at least on these organisms,” Huey said. “The good news is that these flies may be able to adapt, at least to some extent, to a warming climate. However, organisms with longer intervals between new generations, humans or sequoia trees for example, probably can’t adapt nearly as readily.

This is a very intreresting study. The article (I do not have the paper itself) does not seem to state if the researchers think the heat allows/triggers chromosomal inversions, or if the inversions are adaptations to higher temperature in the way some nucleotide repeats aid in temperature compensation of the fruitfly circadian clock and are thus found along a latitudinal gradient.
Crows Targeted In War Against West Nile Virus:

They’ve seen the aerial assaults; they’ve studied the weapons of mass destruction; they know the method of operation. Now, equipped with “body bags,” they’re on a “hunt-and-gather” mission to pick up the victims of the serial killer. The feathered victims. They are soldiers in a war against the West Nile virus. The battleground is Davis, zip code 95616, county of Yolo, one of the nation’s hot spots.
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“Corvids serve as the primary reservoirs or incubators for the virus,” said Reisen. “Corvid surveillance is crucial to stopping the transmission of the virus.” Crows are good hosts for mosquitoes, Reisen said. “There’s an amazing amount of virus in the bloodstream of infected crows, sometimes as much as 10 billion virus particles in one millimeter of blood. They’re like a big sack of virus.”

Video Cameras Learn From Insect Eyes:

The bane of all wedding videos — that picture of the bride in front of the window where her face is so dark that you can’t see the features — may soon be a thing of the past. By mimicking how insects see, a University of Adelaide researcher can now produce digital videos in which you can see every detail. The technique solves a critical problem for surveillance cameras, where the clarity of images is everything.

Hydrogen Peroxide Sensor Could Aid Security:

A new family of molecules used to detect hydrogen peroxide and other reactive chemicals in living cells could be a useful addition to anti-terrorist arsenals, says the University of California, Berkeley, chemist who developed these substances last year.

Model Of Internal Clocks Reveals How Jet Lag Disrupts The System:

Symptoms of extreme jet lag may result from the body overshooting as it tries to adjust to particularly large leaps forward in time, suggests new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst that models circadian rhythms in rats. To transition smoothly to a different time zone, the researchers recommend advancing in chunks of not more than four hours, thus allowing the body’s clocks to remain coordinated.

New Growth In Old Eyes:

Nerve cells in the retinas of elderly mice show an unexpected and purposeful burst of growth late in life, according to researchers at UC Davis.

Genome Info From ‘Plant Destroyers’ Could Save Trees, Beans And Chocolate:

An international team of scientists has published the first two genome sequences from a destructive group of plant pathogens called Phytophthora — a name that literally means “plant destroyer.” The more than 80 species of fungus-like Phytophthora attack a broad range of plants and together cost the agriculture, forestry and nursery industries hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

Global Text Project Aims To Create Free, Wiki-based Textbooks For Developing Nations:

Education can play a fundamental role in reducing poverty, but high-quality and up-to-date textbooks are often too expensive for most people in developing countries.
To make education more accessible, a professor in the University of Georgia Terry College of Business is spearheading an effort to produce free online textbooks using a modified version of the Wiki software that powers the Web site Wikipedia.
“The textbook model doesn’t work for developing nations,” said Rick Watson, J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy and director of the UGA Center for Information Systems Leadership. “They can’t get the books down to a price that people in the developing world can afford. You essentially have to give the books away.”

Very interesting! Any thoughts (read the whole thing)?

Ancient Raptors Likely Feasted On Early Man, Study Suggests:

A new study suggests that prehistoric birds of prey made meals out of some of our earliest human ancestors. Researchers drew this conclusion after studying more than 600 bones from modern-day monkeys. They had collected the bones from beneath the nests of African crowned eagles in the Ivory Coast’s Tai rainforest. A full-grown African crowned eagle is roughly the size of an American bald eagle, which typically weighs about 10 to 12 pounds.

Red Fish, Blue Fish: Distinctive Color Keeps Gene Pools Healthy:

Long-running evolutionary biology research on fish populations by UC Riverside scientist David Reznick has yielded new findings into how fish keep their gene pools healthy. Female fish tend to choose males with distinctive or rare coloration, thus ensuring that no one genetic line smothers out less common ones.

Dogs And Smog Don’t Mix: Pets In Homes May Lead To Increased Rates Of Bronchitis In Children:

A new study from USC researchers suggests that having a dog in the home may worsen the response to air pollution of a child with asthma.

Sunscreens Can Damage Skin, Researchers Find:

Are sunscreens always beneficial, or can they be detrimental to users? A research team led by UC Riverside chemists reports that unless people out in the sun apply sunscreen often, the sunscreen itself can become harmful to the skin.

How The Body’s T Cells React To Parasitic Diseases:

While scientists understood how T cells worked in certain kinds of diseases, one area has remained murky: disorders caused by protozoan parasites. Now, because of a study just published and led by scientists at the University of Georgia, researchers are closer than ever to understanding how T cells respond to parasitic diseases that kill millions each year.

Researchers Identify Antibiotic Protein That Defends The Intestine Against Microbial Invaders:

Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that is made in the intestinal lining and targets microbial invaders, offering novel insights into how the intestine fends off pathogens and maintains friendly relations with symbiotic microbes.

Childhood Sleep Apnea Linked To Brain Damage, Lower IQ:

In what is believed to be the first study showing neural changes in the brains of children with serious, untreated sleep apnea, Johns Hopkins researchers conclude that children with the disorder appear to suffer damage in two brain structures tied to learning ability.

Constant Lighting May Disrupt Development Of Preemies’ Biological Clocks:

Keeping the lights on around the clock in neonatal intensive care units may interfere with the development of premature babies’ biological clocks.
———-snip—————
he finding that exposure to constant light disrupts the developing biological clock in baby mice provides an underlying mechanism that helps explain the results of several previous clinical studies. One found that infants from neonatal units with cyclic lighting tend to begin sleeping through the night more quickly than those from units with constant lighting. Other studies have found that infants placed in units that maintain a day/night cycle gain weight faster than those in units with constant light.

Pure Novelty Spurs The Brain:

Neurobiologists have known that a novel environment sparks exploration and learning, but very little is known about whether the brain really prefers novelty as such. Rather, the major “novelty center” of the brain–called the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA)–might be activated by the unexpectedness of a stimulus, the emotional arousal it causes, or the need to respond behaviorally. The SN/VTA exerts a major influence on learning because it is functionally linked to both the hippocampus, which is the brain’s learning center, and the amygdala, the center for processing emotional information.

A Wandering Eye: Single Cells Come Running To Form An Eye:

Eyes are among the earliest recognisable structures in an embryo; they start off as bulges on the sides of tube-shaped tissue that will eventually become the brain. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have now discovered that cells are programmed to make eyes early in development and individually migrate to the right place to do so.
The study, published in the journal Science, overturns the textbook model of the process and suggests that also other organs might be formed by the movement of single cells rather than sheets of entire tissues.

On The Track Of Tiny Larvae, A New Model Elucidates Connections In Marine Ecology:

A computer model newly developed by researchers combines ocean current simulations and genetic forecasting to help scientists predict animal dispersion patterns and details of the ecology of coral reefs across the Caribbean Sea.
———————–snip———————
This test showed that combining the oceanographic and genetic models allowed the researchers to successfully predict genetic patterns on a regional scale. This breakthrough approach to integrating genetic and oceanographic models helps predict genetic links among several locations and is an important new tool for the management and ecological study of marine protected areas.

Evolving Defenses Rapidly Suppress Male Killers:

In the game of survival, anything goes–even the selective extermination of males. Male killing is the preferred strategy for a diverse group of bacteria that infect insects and other arthropods. Aside from its tabloid appeal, male killing offers biologists a platform for investigating genetic conflict–evolutionary battles between competing elements within the same genome. Male-killing bacteria are passed from mother to offspring, but only males die from infection, suggesting that males harbor genetic elements that allow them to succumb to infection.

Biologists Discover How We Detect Sour Taste:

A team headed by biologists from the University of California, San Diego has discovered the cells and the protein that enable us to detect sour, one of the five basic tastes. The scientists, who included researchers from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, suggest that this protein is also the long-sought sensor of acidity in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Cortical Plasticity: It’s Time To Get Excited About Inhibition:

The researchers showed that the lasting cortical shut-down induced by visual deprivation at early stages of development is the result of a massive increase of cortical inhibition. Specifically, the strength of inhibitory synaptic connections between two types of neurons in the layer receiving the input — the inhibitory fast-spiking basket cells and the excitatory star pyramidal neurons — increased 3-fold.
While it has been historically believed that regulation of excitatory synapses is most critical to the development of neuronal circuitry, and that loss of function is the result of a depression of excitation, this research demonstrates that inhibitory synapses play a critical role in proper network wiring and ultimately in preserving — or disrupting – neuronal function.

Sturgeon’s General Warning: Stable For Now, But Beware:

They take a long time before they mate and, once old enough, don’t mate every year. Even so, sturgeons are heavily sought after for their eggs, which are made into caviar. For these and other reasons, many sturgeons — a variety of ancient, bottom-feeding fish — are in trouble.

One In 10 Teenage Girls Have Self-harmed, Study Shows:

One in ten teenage girls self-harm each year and the problem is far more widespread than was previously thought, shows the largest-ever study of self-harm amongst 15 and 16 year olds in England. In a survey of more than 6,000 15 and 16-year-old school pupils, researchers found that girls are four times more likely to have engaged in deliberate self-harm compared to boys, with 11 per cent of girls and 3 per cent of boys reporting that they had self-harmed within the last year.

Ever-happy Mice May Hold Key To New Treatment Of Depression:

A new breed of permanently ‘cheerful’ mouse is providing hope of a new treatment for clinical depression. TREK-1 is a gene that can affect transmission of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is known to play an important role in mood, sleep and sexuality. By breeding mice with an absence of TREK-1, researchers were able create a depression-resistant strain. The details of this research, which involved an international collaboration with scientists from the University of Nice, France, are published in Nature Neuroscience this week.

Rain Forest Insects Eat No More Tree Species Than Temperate Counterparts:

A study initiated by University of Minnesota plant biologist George Weiblen has confirmed what biologists since Darwin have suspected – that the vast number of tree species in rain forests accounts for the equally vast number of plant-eating species of insects.
The research showed that insect species in tropical and temperate forests dine on about the same number of tree species, despite the more diverse menu in the tropics.
“The tropical forest cafeteria offers many more options than the temperate forest,” Weiblen said. “Our study confirms that the choices tropical insects make are quite similar to those of insects in less diverse forests of places like Minnesota.”
The study rejected an alternative theory that tropical insects are actually picky eaters who prefer fewer host plants than their temperate counterparts.

Insect ‘Noses’ The Key To Cybernose Collaboration:

Researchers in the collaborative Cluster between The Australian National University, Monash University and CSIRO’s Food Futures National Research Flagship are trying to understand how simple animals make sense of smells.
The microscopic nematode worm will be central to the Cybernose research due to its highly sensitive molecular recognition system, allowing it to sense smell and flavour qualities in grapes.
The Cybernose will involve putting sensor proteins from insects and nematodes in to an electronic nose to replace the current generation of electronic sensors that are not discriminating enough.

Tight-knit Family: Even Microbes Favor Their Own Kin:

New research published by Rice University biologists in this week’s issue of Nature finds that even the simplest of social creatures – single-celled amoebae – have the ability not only to recognize their own family members but also to selectively discriminate in favor of them.

(Carl has a great article on this here)
Sleeping Sickness Culprit: African Parasite Makes Component Of Fat Differently From All Other Organisms:

Studying the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered a previously unknown way of making fatty acids, a component of fat and the outer layer of all cells. The find unveils more about the biology of this hard-to-kill parasite and could lead to a target for designing new drugs to fight the illness that infects a half-million people and kills 50,000 a year worldwide.

eLens: A Digital Take On The Streets Where We Live:

eLens is exploring the next wave of communications technology – building interactions that depend on where you are and what you want to know or say. In the eLens team’s vision, you could aim your mobile phone at your child’s school and start a voice thread to discuss cuts in after-school programs. Or you could let passersby know that the local folk music club serves great vegetarian meals.
The project began with a metaphor, that of an electronic lens that can be aimed at civic institutions and a “viewfinder” that makes these institutions more transparent. Pointing eLens at a train station, for example, might let you retrieve the day’s schedule for different tracks. Pointing it at a museum might list current exhibits and upcoming lectures.
Real-time access to location-based data can be very useful, but Casalegno notes that eLens has been designed to do more than deliver a one-way stream of official information. It’s designed to encourage innovation in how institutions deliver services and communicate with their constituents. Citizens are expected to actively join in the conversation.

If I get my hands on this, the first thing I’ll do is use it out on the road, cussing out the guy who just cut me off, telling the old guy that his turn-signal has been on for 20 miles of driving in a straight line, or yelling at the old lady to get out of my way. In time, this kind of communication would turn faceless cars into humans, making everyone more polite while driving.

Biologist Trying To Crack Communication Code Of Proteins:

“Proteins interact; they ‘talk’ to each other,” the associate professor says. “It’s how they know what to do, and it’s how most of the things that need to happen for living organisms get done.”
———snip————–
“To begin understanding how proteins talk, we first made random mutations–we broke things and then asked what happened,” Larsen says. “That strategy worked well and allowed us to identify the key ‘words.’ Now we want to know what the ‘words’ mean, and we are starting by asking what happens when we mix the ‘dialects.’
“It’s genetic tinker toys,” and an area, he adds, in which BGSU doctoral student Kerry Brinkman is “breaking new ground.”

Researchers Find Nicotine Withdrawal Begins Quickly:

Smokers who have tried to quit are well aware of the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal: cravings for cigarettes, mood disturbances, appetite increase and sleep problems. However, it had not previously been known when withdrawal symptoms first appear. Thomas H. Brandon, Ph.D., Director of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute’s Tobacco Research & Intervention Program and his research team from Moffitt and the University of South Florida study examined this and found that within 30 minutes, the abstaining smokers reported greater cravings for cigarettes.

Loss Of Just One Species Makes Big Difference In Freshwater Ecosystem, Study Finds

Researchers at Dartmouth, Cornell University, and the University of Wyoming have learned that the removal of just one important species in a freshwater ecosystem can seriously disrupt how that environment functions. This finding contradicts earlier notions that other species can jump in and compensate for the loss.

Study Provides New Insights Into Brain Organization:

A study by Newcastle University and the International University Bremen, Germany, debunked a prevailing theory that the nervous system should have mainly very short nerve fibre connections between nerve cells, or neurons, to function at its most effective.
Instead the study, which carried out a sophisticated computer analysis of public databases containing detailed information of worldwide anatomical studies on primate and worm brains, found that long nerve fibre connections were just as vital to overall brain function as short ones.

Alcohol Increases Sleep Intensity In Young Women

While numerous studies have linked alcohol abuse to sleep disruption, especially in males, there has been little research on alcohol and its effects on sleep in females. Now, a new study shows that a moderate amount of alcohol, taken before bed, can impact the quality of sleep for young women.
“We found that a moderate dose of alcohol consumed by a young woman an hour before bed is associated with increased sleep intensity in the first couple hours of the sleep episode,” says author Mary A. Carskadon, PhD, with the Bradley Hospital Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory and Brown Medical School.
————–snip————–
“Whether this sleep pattern is beneficial or harmful is unknown at this point. Although it may signal an initial consolidation of sleep, it might also be associated with difficulty waking in the event of an emergent problem, such as a fire or medical emergency,” says author Eliza Van Reen, a psychology graduate student at Brown University.

Human Version Of ‘Mad Cow’ Disease Might Be Spread Via The Reuse Of Surgical Instruments, Study Suggests:

A study published in the online edition of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface has been exploring the likelihood that variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease might be spread via the reuse of surgical instruments, and calls for more data in order to allay fears over the possible transmission of vCJD.

Completed Genome Set To Transform The Cow:

The ability of scientists to improve health and disease management of cattle and enhance the nutritional value of beef and dairy products has received a major boost with the release this week of the most complete sequence of the cow genome ever assembled.

If you go to the ScienceBlogs front page you will see that The Buzz word of the day is Pluto. And when there is a new Buzz Word, a lot of us tend to post about it – see how many already chimed in on the topic.
I am actually quite happy to see the revisions of the definition of a planet. The old 9-planet system was just too neat and clear-cut, too iconic, to fixed and unmovable.
Let’s jolt the masses out of the lull and show them the way science moves and changes and shatters our most valued beliefs!
Twelve planets today, twelve thousand planets tomorrow, twelve million planets in OUR OWN Solar system in a century? Why not? That would redefine what a “solar system” is and replace simplicity with complexity which, IMHO, is a good thing for everyone to learn to deal with.
For more information, John McKay provides the history and Phil Plait gives the scientific details.

Teens Who Do Use Condoms Often Don’t Use Them Properly:

A worrying number of young people who do use condoms don’t use them correctly, so risking unwanted pregnancy or infections, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. But a good relationship with their mothers seemed to be associated with correct condom use, the research showed.

Paleontologist Discovers South American Mammal Fossils:

Fossils of a new hoofed mammal that resembles a cross between a dog and a hare which once roamed the Andes Mountains in southern Bolivia around 13 million years ago was discovered by Darin A. Croft, assistant professor of anatomy at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a research associate at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Pressure To Be More Muscular May Lead Men To Unhealthy Behaviors:

New research suggests that men feel pressure to have muscular bodies, and that influence can lead some to symptoms of eating disorders, pressure to use steroids, and an unhealthy preoccupation with weightlifting.
—————–snip—————-
“Instead of seeing a decrease in objectification of women in society, there has just been an increase in the objectification of men. And you can see that in the media today,” she said.

Light Guides Flight Of Migratory Birds:

Songbirds use multiple sources of directional cues to guide their seasonal migrations, including the Sun, star patterns, the earth’s magnetic field, and sky polarized light patterns. To avoid navigational errors as cue availability changes with time of day and weather conditions, these “compass” systems must be calibrated to a common reference. Experiments over the last 30 years have failed to resolve the fundamental question of how migratory birds integrate multiple sources of directional information into a coherent navigational system.
Last autumn, Rachel Muheim, a postdoctoral associate in biology professor John Phillips’ lab at Virginia Tech, captured Savannah sparrows in the Yukon before they headed south. She was able to demonstrate that the birds calibrate their magnetic compass based on polarized light patterns at sunset and sunrise.
———————snip———————–
Polarized light is light that oscillates in one plane relative to the direction of propagation. At sunrise and sunset, there is a band of intense polarized light 90 degrees from the sun that passes directly overhead through the zenith and intersects the horizon 90 degrees to the right and left of the sun. Just as the sun location changes with latitude and the time of year, so does the alignment of the band of polarized light.
Muheim and Phillips argue that migratory songbirds average the sunrise and sunset intersections of the polarization band with the horizon to find the north-south meridian (geographic north-south axis), providing a reference that is independent of time of year and latitude. The birds then use this geographic reference to calibrate their other compass systems.
In other words, polarized light, the Sun and stars, and the geomagnetic field are all directional cues for migration, but polarized light appears to provide the primary reference system used to calibrate the other compass systems, said Phillips.
However, previous research had suggested a much more confusing picture.
Migratory birds are born with an innate magnetic compass preference that coincides with their species’ migratory direction. Previous research suggested that before the migration period, songbirds are able to recalibrate the magnetic compass when exposed to a “conflict” between magnetic and celestial (including polarized light) cues, but during migration it appeared that the reverse was true, — the magnetic field was used as the primary reference for calibrating the birds’ other compass systems. But in a few experiments with birds during migration, the birds did recalibrate the magnetic compass.
When Muheim and Phillips did a literature review, they noticed a difference between the experiments of the few scientists who saw migratory birds recalibrate their compass and of those whose birds failed to recalibrate.
“It is important how you do the experiments. It turns out that the part of the sky that matters is just above the horizon,” said Phillips. “In cue conflict experiments carried out before migration, birds were usually housed in outdoor aviaries in a rotated magnetic field, where they had a view of the whole sky, including the horizon. Once migration starts, however, scientists usually exposed birds in “funnel cages”. This is so, after exposure to the cue conflict, the birds’ directional preferences could be recorded; songbirds in migratory condition leave tracks or scratches on the sides of the funnel as they attempt to take flight in the migratory direction. A problem arises, however, because funnels block the lower 20 degrees of the sky. In the only two experiments (out of 30 or so) carried out during migration where birds were exposed to the cue conflict with a view of the horizon, they did recalibrate their magnetic compass — just as was previously observed only in experiments carried out prior to migration.”
Muheim’s experiments proved that seeing polarized light cues near the horizon was the critical factor. “Once the right hypothesis came along, it all fit,” said Phillips.

Dominant Meerkats Render Rivals Infertile:

When pregnant, dominant female meerkats subject their subordinates to escalating aggression and temporary eviction causing them to become overly stressed and as a result infertile, a new study finds.

Does Environment Influence Genes? Researcher Gives Hard Thoughts On Soft Inheritance:

Organisms, including humans, all inherit DNA from generation to generation, what biologists call hard inheritance, because the nucleotide sequence of DNA is constant and only changes by rare random mutation as it is passed down the generations.
But there also is evidence, especially in plants, that non-genetic factors modifying the DNA can also be inherited. The modifications of the genetic material take the form of small chemical additions to one of the DNA bases and the alternative packaging of the DNA. These so-called epigenetic modifications are known to be important for turning genes on and off during the course of an organism’s life, but their importance in controlling inheritance has been debated. Many biologists are skeptical of any form of soft inheritance, where the genetic material is not constant, believing that it is only genetic information – DNA — that can be passed onto generations.
———————-snip————————–
“To get to the issue of the more extreme variations of soft inheritance, it has to be determined whether the environment can induce an epigenetic change in an organism that can be inherited in subsequent generations. Certainly, nobody has shown that an epigenetically induced beneficial or adaptive change has been inherited. Mechanistically, there is no reason to discount epigenetic inheritance. The biochemical nuts and bolts are there to support it. The big questions to resolve are how many epigenetic changes are induced by the environment, what types of phenotypes result from these changes, and how many of these epigenetic changes are inherited.”

Kids Need More Time Than Adults Give Them, Study Finds:

Further proof that children require more time comes via a study to be published today in Developmental Science asserting that the fast pace expected by adults–both parents and educators–can be beyond chindren’s perceptual abilities.
——————–snip——————————
“We expect children to be adult-like, because of their proficiency on computers or because they display adult-like speech,” he says, “so we give them instructions and get impatient when they can’t understand what we tell them the first time. Children learn through repetition, at a pace suitable to the child, not to the curriculum. Once upon a time, kids controlled their own pace; now that pace is controlled by adults.”

Scientists Learn How The Brain ‘Boots Up’ To Process Information From The Senses:

The same chemical in the body that is targeted by the drug Viagra® also helps our brains “boot up” in the morning so we can process sights, sound, touch and other sensory information. The discovery could lead to a better understanding of major brain disorders, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
—————————snip—————————
“We expected to find that signals from the eye would be boosted by nitric oxide,” said Godwin. “Instead, we found that nitric oxide reduced signals from the eyes, and enhanced the feedback from the cortex. The tiny molecule appears to allow the cortex to exert more control on how much information it receives from the thalamus.”

Infants, As Early As Six Months, Do See Errors In Arithmetic:

Using advanced brain sensor technology developed at the University of Oregon, researchers have confirmed often-debated findings from 1992 that showed infants as young as six months know when an arithmetic solution is wrong.

Imaging Study May Help Point Toward More Effective Smoking Cessation Treatments:

Results of a new imaging study, supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, show that the nicotine received in just a few puffs of a cigarette can exert a force powerful enough to drive an individual to continue smoking. Researchers found that the amount of nicotine contained in just one puff of a cigarette can occupy about 30 percent of the brain’s most common type of nicotine receptors, while three puffs of a cigarette can occupy about 70 percent of these receptors. When nearly all of the receptors are occupied (as a result of smoking at least 2 and one-half cigarettes), the smoker becomes satiated, or satisfied, for a time. Soon, however, this level of satiation wears off, driving the smoker to continue smoking throughout the day to satisfy cigarette cravings.

Researcher Studies Sleep Deprivation’s Effect On Decisions:

Everyone needs sleep, but temporary periods with no sleep can be a reality of military operations. To get answers on sleep questions for the military as well as civilians, for nearly four years Dr. Sean Drummond, a Department of Defense-funded researcher, has studied the effects of sleep deprivation on the brain, namely in decision making, as well as how long it takes to recover from periods of no sleep.

Early Exposure To Synthetic Estrogen Puts ‘DES Daughters’ At Higher Risk For Breast Cancer:

So-called “DES daughters,” born to mothers who used the anti-miscarriage drug diethylstilbestrol during pregnancy, are at a substantially greater risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who were not exposed to the drug in utero.

Scientists Solve Sour Taste Proteins:

A team led by Duke University Medical Center researchers has discovered two proteins in the taste buds on the surface of the tongue that are responsible for detecting sour tastes.

Scientists Reverse Evolution: Ancient Gene Reconstructed From Descendants:

University of Utah scientists have shown how evolution works by reversing the process, reconstructing a 530-million-year-old gene by combining key portions of two modern mouse genes that descended from the archaic gene.

I am not sure if “reversing evolution” is the correct term to be applied here, except in making an eye-catching title for this article…
Update: PZ Myers explains the study in detail (and agrees that this is not “evolution in reverse”).
Researchers Find New Learning Strategy:

Central to being human is the ability to adapt: We learn from our mistakes. Previous theories of learning have assumed that the size of learning naturally scales with the size of the mistake. But now biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that people can use alternative strategies: Learning does not necessarily scale proportionally with error.

Nicotine Found To Protect Against Parkinson’s-like Brain Damage:

New research suggests that nicotine treatment protects against the same type of brain damage that occurs in Parkinson’s disease. The research was conducted in laboratory animals treated with MPTP, an agent that produces a gradual loss of brain function characteristic of Parkinson’s. Experimental animals receiving chronic administration of nicotine over a period of six months had 25 percent less damage from the MPTP treatment than those not receiving nicotine.

Dunno….did smoking help my Dad live a little longer?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060807154944.htm:

No matter how you slice it, the freshwater planarian possesses an amazing ability to regenerate lost body parts. Chop one into pieces, and each piece can grow into a complete planarian. The flatworm relies upon a population of stem cells to accomplish this remarkable feat; recent work sheds light on how planarians maintain these stem cells throughout their lives.

Brain Stimulation That May Boost Vision From The Corner Of Your Eye:

By using simultaneous brain stimulation and activity recording to track the influence of one brain region on another, researchers have developed a new method for boosting brain function that may have implications for treatments of brain disorders and for improving vision. The findings are reported by Christian Ruff, Jon Driver, and their colleagues at University College London and appear in the August 8th issue of Current Biology, published by Cell Press.

Ancient Bison Teeth Provide Window On Past Great Plains Climate, Vegetation:

A University of Washington researcher has devised a way to use the fossil teeth of ancient bison as a tool to reconstruct historic climate and vegetation changes in America’s breadbasket, the Great Plains.

The Shape Of Life: Research Sheds Light On How Cells Take Shape:

How life takes shape is a mystery. Butterfly or baby, cells organize themselves into tissues, tissues form organs, organs become organisms. Over and over, patterns emerge in all living creatures. Spiders get eight legs. Leopards get spots. Every nautilus is encased in an elegant spiral shell.
This phenomenon of pattern formation is critical in developmental biology. But the forces that govern it are far from clear. Alan Turing, father of modern computer science, suggested that the basis for pattern formation was chemical. New research conducted at Brown University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supplies another surprising answer: Physical, as well as chemical, forces can dictate pattern formation.

Surprising? Since when? D’Arcy Thomspon?

Global Warming Threatens Biodiversity In Australia’s Wet Tropics:

“There is a common, though incorrect, perception that the impacts of climate change will be worse in temperate regions than in the tropics,” said Williams, principal investigator of the Earthwatch-supported Climate Change in the Rainforest project. “Global warming can have a particularly strong impact on mountainous regions like Australia’s Wet Tropics, where the mountaintops and higher tablelands exist as cool islands in a sea of warmer climates. Almost all plants and animals unique to this region are adapted to these cooler uplands.”
Williams states that climate change in the Wet Tropics will likely result in species ranges shifting up mountains, to maintain their habitat needs. However, the mountains are not very high and many animals are already restricted to the mountaintops. There is no room for latitudinal movement as there is no rainforest for hundreds of kilometers to the north or south.

Researchers discover new type of cricket:

In addition to the possible new genus of cricket, four new species of crickets have been identified from the spring samples. A barklouse also was found in the caves. Though common in South America, this was the first one discovered in North America, Voyles said.
Previous cave trips yielded two new species of millipedes within three miles of each other.
What makes the yet-to-be-named new genus of cricket special is that it has pincers on its hind end. The pincers are functional, but it is not known why they have them nor what purpose they serve.

Type? Why not say “genus” in the title?
Homing instinct of bees surprises:

Bumblebees can navigate their way home over distances of up to 13km (eight miles), a UK research team has shown.
The study also found only worker bees seemed to have this homing ability.

Gene Breakthrough Heralds Better Prospect For Malaria Solution:

Scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding the genetics of the insect parasite that is being targeted by researchers as a way of preventing the spread of malaria.
Wolbachia bacteria are parasites that infect as many as 80 per cent of the world’s insects and manipulate reproduction in their hosts in order to improve their own transmission.

It is actually a work on fruit-flies. The whole Wollbachia story is amazing and this study is excelent, but malaria is many steps removed from it, almost as an afterthought – so why is it in the title?
‘Friend’ Protein Keeps Nerve Signals In Check:

Among the many thousands of proteins in the cell, some are essential players while some are “hangers-on.” The neuronal protein syntaxin is essential. Without it, you die. A more recently discovered protein called tomosyn hangs on, or binds, to syntaxin. Its Japanese discoverers named it tomosyn by combining tomo — “friend” in Japanese — with “syn” for syntaxin, to mean “friend of syntaxin.”
Now a U.S.-based research team reports this friendly protein appears to play a key role in regulating the synaptic release of neurotransmitter chemicals, which suggests that it may also play a role in learning and memory.

When Biology Gets ‘Quirky,’ Scientists Turn To Math:

Based on the number of connections and how they overlap, Feinberg and Craciun can tell with a glance whether a reaction is predictable, or whether it might be what they call “quirky” — prone to the switching behavior that occasionally produces strange results. They created a theorem that lays out mathematical rules that researchers can use to make the same judgment.
As it turns out, many of the graphs that describe biological reactions are quirky.
“Some of the graphs that come from classical biological reactions — even simple ones — indicate that these reactions might behave in very quirky ways,” Feinberg said.
“This behavior may be essential to biology itself.”

I’d like to know more about this – can a math-blogger give a step-by-step explanation of their paper?

Elephants Avoid Costly Mountaineering:

“Using global-positioning system data corresponding to the movements of elephants across the African savannah, researchers have found that elephants exhibit strong tendencies to avoid significantly sloped terrain, and that such land features likely represent a key influence on elephant movements and land use. On the basis of calculations of energy use associated with traversing sloped terrain by such large animals, the researchers found that this behavior is likely related to the fact that even minor hills represent a considerable energy barrier for elephants because of the added calorie consumption required for such movements.”

Velvet Worm Brains Reveal Secret Sisterhood With Spiders:

Velvet worms, living fossils that look like a child’s rendition of caterpillars, are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than to butterflies, according to new research.
Known to scientists as onychophorans, velvet worms have been thought to be similar to the ancestors of modern arthropods, the jointed-legged creatures that includes insects.
Fossils that look very much like today’s onychophorans can be found in rocks 540 million years old.
“When I looked at their brains, I was shocked because I didn’t expect to see what I saw,” said Nicholas J. Strausfeld of The University of Arizona in Tucson. “I just felt from their organization that these looked like spider brains, that they had more in common with spider brains than with other arthropod brains.”

Read the rest of the article as it is, like, totally kewl and fascinating!
Why Are Uniforms Uniform? Because Color Helps Us Track Objects:

“We report the rather surprising result that people can focus on more than three items at a time if those items share a common color,” he said. “Our research suggests that the common color allows people to overcome the usual limit, because the ‘color coding’ enables them to perceive the separate individuals as a single set.”

Ah, this brings back memories….my co-advisor insisted that we mark all the quail with aluminum wingbands and provide the technicians the list of numbers so, if a bird gets lose in the room, they’ll now in which cage to put it back. I insisted that we color-code the birds with wingbands in 10 or so different colors, each category of bird marked with a different color and each cage marked with the appropriate color, arguing that animal technicians do not have time or care much about checking the list for numbers (something I could prove by showing the log of misplaced birds over time), but a monkey can be trained to sort by color. In the end, I just bought 10 colors of bands, banded the birds myself, and never had a problem of misplaced birds again. The log proved me right, so I won that argument. The linked study explains why.
Effects Of Nutrition On Learning:

Poor nutrition early in life can impair neural development, leading to lower IQ in humans and flawed song learning in birds. Recent evidence indicates that many organisms can offset some of the changes associated with early poor nutrition by modifying their physical development. For example, poorly nourished children can undergo a period of accelerated growth once their diet improves, ultimately appearing normal as an adult. But such compensatory measures may come at a price, with cognitive or other developmental disabilities emerging later in life.

Surprisingly, this paper is not by Steve Nowicki. I’d like to know his take on it.
High Estrogen Levels Associated With Dementia In Older Men; No Association Observed With Testosterone:

A prospective population-based study has found that higher estrogen levels in older men are associated with an increased risk of dementia. By contrast, levels of testosterone were not associated with cognitive decline.
———-snip———–
The researchers hypothesize that the estradiol association could be explained by increased aromatase activity in the brain which may be associated with a neurodegenerative process. It is then possible that the high levels of estradiol are a consequence or early marker of Alzheimer’s disease rather than a cause.

Link Between Income And Happiness Is Mainly An Illusion:

While most people believe that having more income would make them happier, Princeton University researchers have found that the link is greatly exaggerated and mostly an illusion.
People surveyed about their own happiness and that of others with varying incomes tended to overstate the impact of income on well-being, according to a new study. Although income is widely assumed to be a good measure of well-being, the researchers found that its role is less significant than predicted and that people with higher incomes do not necessarily spend more time in more enjoyable ways.

Direct Link Established Between Tropical Tree And Insect Diversity:

It may be obvious that forests with greater numbers of tree species should support a wider variety of leaf-eating insects than do less diverse forests, but no one had ever done the experiment to rule out the major alternative explanation: that insect species in the tropics eat the leaves of a smaller number of host trees (are more host specific), which would also result in more insect species in a given area. This study presents the best experimental evidence to date to account for the latitudinal gradient in herbivorous insect biodiversity.

Pine Plantations May Be One Culprit In Increasing Carbon Dioxide Levels:

The researchers estimate that some 10 million acres – roughly the size of New Hampshire and Vermont – of mainly hardwood and natural pine forests will be chopped down to make way for pine plantations by 2030 in just three Southern states. That translates into roughly 700,000 tons more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere annually, or 21 million tons over the 30-year period.

It’s All In The Genes: Landmark Research Shows Genetic Link To Community Makeup And Ecosystem Evolution:

It’s common knowledge that genes control traits such as eye and hair color. But a large group of scientists from two continents has found that the genes of one organism not only control the characteristics of that individual but also dictate the behavior of thousands of other organisms in a community.
They say these genes, in fact, influence the evolution of an entire ecosystem.

No, no, no. Wrong concept! Organisms interact with each other, not genes. Genes are invisible to selection. Interactions between organisms (not genes), indirectly, by sorting among phenotypes (which are not bean-bag-genetics straighforwardly determined by particular genetic sequences), drives the evolution of genes within those organisms. The selection works from outside in, not the other way round.

Researchers Identify Very First Neurons In The ‘Thinking’ Brain:

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the University of Oxford have identified the very first neurons in what develops into the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that makes humans human. The findings published in Nature Neuroscience show that the first neurons, or “predecessors,” as the researchers called them, are in place 31 days after fertilization. This is much earlier than previously thought and well before development of arms, legs or eyes.

“Thinking brain” and “what makes human human” are journalistic phrases that always raise red flags. The actual study is likey not to be as revolutionary as implied by such phrases. Though, this one appears interesting enough. I am afraid the anti-choice crowd will try to run with it….
Nicotine Promotes Growth Of Tumors Already Established By Tobacco Carcinogens:

While it is established that nicotine by itself is not carcinogenic, researchers have now shown that nicotine promotes cell proliferation and the progression of tumors already initiated by tobacco carcinogens. In a study by Srikumar Chellappan and colleagues from the University of South Florida appearing online on July 20 in advance of print publication in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the authors show that the presence of receptors that bind nicotine, known as nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), on bronchial cells as well as lung cancer cells are key to nicotine-induced cell proliferation of lung cancer cells.

Take-home message – gotta quite the patch and Nicorette gum!
Feeling Sleepy? Don’t Have A High Sugar, Low Caffeine Drink — It Could Make Things Worse

An hour after consuming a high sugar, low caffeine drink you will tend to have slower reactions and experience more lapses in concentration than if you had simply drunk a decaffeinated, nil carbohydrate drink.

In other words: what goes up must come down. Who has not expereinced a caffeine low after the caffeine high? That is why I never drink a big coffee before exams and such, but continuously sip on Coke instead.
Wild Bees And The Flowers They Pollinate Are Disappearing Together

The diversity of bees and of the flowers they pollinate, has declined significantly in Britain and the Netherlands over the last 25 years according to research led by the University of Leeds and published in Science this Friday (21 July 2006). The paper is the first evidence of a widespread decline in bee diversity.

As expected, those who co-evolve together, die together.
Understanding The ‘Machinery’ Of Smell

The protein olfactory cell adhesion molecule (OCAM) was long thought to be involved in the growth and targeting of axons to the olfactory bulb. This study reports that the protein is more important for coordinating neural connections within the glomeruli.
——-ship———-
Although mice bred without OCAM have a better sense of smell and could detect a very low concentration of an odor, “we theorize that they may not be able to discriminate between odors,” Greer said.

This is cool (sorry, there are so many people in my school studying olfaction I cannot help but follow the field, want it or not).
I bet some of my SiBlings will follow up with more details looks of some of these studies after the weekend slump.

* Best way to build children’s brains: play with them
Love beats trendy toys, classes or music as brain food for preschoolers, a report says.
* Radioactive scorpion venom deemed safe cancer treatment:
Scientists are exploring an unusual new treatment for an aggressive brain cancer.
* Human-dolphin partnership inspires gov’t protection:
The government of Myanmar has moved to safeguard a dolphin-fisherman collaboration.
* The science of sniping on eBay:
A despised practice of placing last-second bids is actually the best strategy in online auctions, according to scientists.
* Startling variety in planetary birthplaces:
Astronomers once thought the dusty clouds that spawn planets all looked pretty much the same. But no more.