Gloeocapsa viewed with phase contrast optics. Image credit: Connecticut College (PhysOrg.com) — Bacteria collected from rocks taken from the cliffs at the tiny English fishing village of Beer in Devon, have survived on the outside surface of the International Space Station for 553 days. The bacteria, known as OU-20, resemble cyanobacteria called Gloeocapsa. The rocks [...]
Spotted hyena family on African savannah. High-ranking mothers provide their sons with a privileged upbringing and this increases their son's success after leaving home. (Credit: iStockphoto/Britta Kasholm-Tengve) ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 2010) — High-ranking mothers provide their sons with a privileged upbringing and this increases their son's success after leaving home. This was now demonstrated for [...]
Oxygen is supposed to have driven the evolution of complex life – but the discovery of animals that thrive without it tells a different story No need for oxygen (Image: Brian Larossa) GO WEST, young man! More specifically, go about 200 kilometres west of Crete, then straight down to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea [...]
Forest fire. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jeremy Sterk) ScienceDaily (Aug. 2, 2010) — Variations in the Earth's atmospheric oxygen levels are thought to be closely linked to the evolution of life, with strong feedbacks between uni- and multicellular life and oxygen. Over the past 400 million years, the level of oxygen has varied considerably from the 21% value [...]
Eyes formed in fruit flies after the insertion of Pax genes from jellyfish. Eyes are one of evolution’s marvels, described by Darwin as “an organ of extreme perfection.” But whether the animal kingdom’s kaleidoscope of eyes evolved from a common structure, or separately in dozens of forms, is a nagging evolutionary question. Now a study [...]
Two sea lampreys, subjects of research by MSU fisheries and wildlife professor Weiming Li. (Credit: Photo by Daymon J Hartley) ScienceDaily (July 25, 2010) — Michigan State University researchers are the first to identify a stress hormone in the sea lamprey, using the 500 million-year-old species as a model to understand the evolution of the [...]
Species: Proteus anguinus Habitat: Caves in southern Europe, especially Slovenia and Croatia, and in fairy tales, sitting on piles of treasure. A blind little amphibian with translucent skin – once thought to be an infant dragon – is providing valuable clues in the quest for the elixir of life. Good news: you live for [...]
Artistic depiction of pathways with a photosynthetic complex in the background. (Credit: Image courtesy of American Institute of Physics) ScienceDaily (July 21, 2010) — Recently, academic debate has been swirling around the existence of unusual quantum mechanical effects in the most ubiquitous of phenomena, including photosynthesis, the process by which organisms convert light into chemical [...]
A newly identified species, a loriciferan identified as a species of the genus Spinoloricus has been discovered by Roberto Danovaro at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Ancona, Italy. Electron microscopy revealed the three new species of loriciferans, resembling jellyfish sprouting from a conical shell, that lack mitochondria, the energy-making organelles or components in our cells that [...]
IF YOU found a self-replicating organism living inside your computer, your first instinct might be to reach for the antivirus software. If, however, you are Andrew Wade, an avid player in the two-dimensional, mathematical universe known as the Game of Life, such a discovery is nothing short of an epiphany. The elusive self-replicator may provide [...]
Quality Science & Technology news and images, which may possibly support or even inspire one's interests.
