Zoologists have identified signs of laughter in apes from tickling them.
According to the researchers, from Portsmouth University, efforts to trace the origin of laughter - which they say evolved over the past 10 milllion to 16 million years - look like the evolutionary family tree. Humans are more closely related to chimps and bonobos and least to orangutans. According to UK paper The Independent:
The analysis also revealed that gorillas and bonobos had some control over their breathing - a skill that was thought to be unique to humans and to have played an important role in the evolution of speech.
Laughter may have evolved, but humour clearly hasn't:
"Previous research has linked low-activity MAOA variants to a wide range of antisocial, even violent, behavior, but our study confirms that these variants can predict gang membership," Kevin M Beaver, at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said. "Moreover, we found that variants of this gene could distinguish gang members who were markedly more likely to behave violently and use weapons from members who were less likely to do either."
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) modified two genes in a virus called M13, which caused it to build a shell made out of a compound called iron phosphate. These shells attached to a carbon nanotube to create a powerful and tiny electrode
.
The battery could provide more power digital devices and and are said to be more environmentally friendly than current battery technologies.
Meanwhile, just to add to your transfat/saturated fat/ polyunstaurated fat confusion - here's a new one: brown fat.
White fat, or white adipose tissue, is the jiggly stuff that stores spare energy from food. By contrast, brown adipose tissue consumes energy to generate body heat. The tissue teems with mitochondria that metabolize food, hence its color. "It's like the burner for the heater," says medical geneticist Sven Enerbäck of the University of Göteborg in Sweden, who led one of the studies.
Epigenetics, or evolution without genetic change, may now be explained, courtesy of flies that inherit red eyes because of temperature changes experienced by their parents.
Such phenomena could only be examined in a descriptive manner in the past. Today, it has been scientifically proven, which molecular structures are involved: important factors are the histones, a kind of packaging material for the DNA, in order to store DNA in an ordered and space-saving way. It is now clear that these proteins have additional roles to play. Depending on the chemical group they carry, if they are acetylated or methylated, they permanently activate or deactivate genes.
Further analysis showed the tanks with the two newest species had larger molecules of dissolved organic carbon, or bits of decaying plants and animals. This prevented sunlight from penetrating the water and inhibited plant growth. ”Our study shows that through evolution, sticklebacks can engineer the light environment of their own ecosystems,„ says co-author Blake Matthews, a UBC post-doctoral fellow who is now a researcher at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. ”It also demonstrates how speciation of a predator might alter the evolutionary course of other organisms in the food web.„
Not wanting to be the bearer of bad tidings, the NZ Herald is reporting that 180 NZ plant species face extinction, up from 122 five years ago. only one specimen of a Kaka Beak variety was found in the wild in a recent survey.
Scientists are still finding new species, but when they do they are often on their way to extinction. They found one species with just five specimens - all female.
Meanwhile, efforts are under way to save venomous land mammals - rather hideous shrews called the Hispaniolan Solenodon and Hutia - in the Dominican Republic (film here).
And Russian scientists have a new theory for mass the extictions around the Permian Triassic boundary. Maybe it wasn't asteroids and volcanoes, but ... poisonous salt lakes.
I can't help thinking that this could become an increasingly common occurrence. And as the amount of debris build up, near-earth becomes increasingly hostile.
Consists of everything from entire spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to explosion fragments, paint flakes, dust, and slag from solid rocket motors, coolant released by RORSAT nuclear powered satellites, deliberate insertion of small needles, and other small particles.[1] Clouds of very small particles may cause erosive damage, like sandblasting.
And measures to mitigate the problem have been proposed:
Taking satellites out of orbit operational life would also be an effective mitigation measure. This could be facilitated with a "terminator tether," an electrodynamic tether that is rolled out, and slows down the spacecraft.[7] In cases when a direct (and controlled) de-orbit would require too much fuel, a satellite can also be brought to an orbit where atmospheric drag would cause it to de-orbit after some years.
And then there's the cleanup:
Proposals have been made for ways to "sweep" space debris back into Earth's atmosphere, including automated tugs, laser brooms to vaporize or nudge particles into rapidly-decaying orbits, or huge aerogel blobs to absorb impacting junk and eventually fall out of orbit with them trapped inside. However, most current efforts are being devoted to prevention of collisions by keeping track of the larger debris, and prevention of more debris.
And what a great birthday present for Chuck Darwin: a rough draft of the Neanderthal genome. Cool.
In the absence of news at this time of year, media around the world resort to delivering lists: the top 5 this or the top 10 that. Here at Half-life, we're delivering our top 5 science lists - plus a bonus.
I've just listened to some good coverage from the Guardian's Science Weekly podcast about the impact Barack Obama's victory might have on US science and, frankly, it couldn't help but be an improvement over the last eight years.
He seems determined to ensure the US retains the capability of manned space missions even as the shuttles near retirement with no replacement in sight. He also seems likely to loosen restrictions on Federal funding for stem cell research, restrictions that have seen labs operating two sets of equipment side by side: one set for federally funded projects and the other for privately funded ones.
It did raise some concerns for the Guardian's UK commentators, though. Bush's policies have been a boon for UK science, particularly stem cell research. A reversal of policy could see that, and some of the best and brightest, heading back across the Atlantic.
Another area likely to gain emphasis with be the development of sustainable technologies, fuel efficient vehicles and energy efficient homes, perhaps backed by a "Green New Deal" to get it all in place.
It was launched with a hiss and a roar on September 10, but there have been some set-backs with the Large Hadron Collider.
A few days ago, a malfunctioning transformer caused the main cryogenic compressors for two sections of the machine to go down.
Now, a melted electrical connection between two magnets has brought the LHC down for two months.
A project of this magnitude can hardly expected to go ahead without a few glitches; some expressed concern that the experiment could create a black hole that will swallow up the earth; that hasn’t happened, so chalk up one point for the LHC on that count.
With the project temporarily on hold, one can always watch the much-acclaimed rap about the LHC another time - or make it the ringtone on your mobile phone.
CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, is counting down the days until September 10, when the first attempt to circulate a beam in its LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will be made.
The LHC is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, producing beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine.
Controversy has dogged the lead-up to September 10, with some claiming that carrying out such an experiment could lead to a black hole being created here on earth.
As this is such a complex area, Computerworld will stop here and point to a few websites about the CERN project:
And for a rap version of what is happening at CERN, go here
Update: Well, the CERN Large Hadron Collider has been activated, and the earth hasn't begun to be sucked into a black hole yet. But according to some, that was a real possiblity; the panic extended to death threats being levelled against scientists working on the project.
A few days before the go-live on September 10, CERN issued a press release saying there was no reason to worry. For further updates on the project, there are numerous sources on the net; CERN's website is a good place to start.
The OneGeology project aims to develop an internet-based map of our naked world - Earth stripped of flora and man-made additions to reveal its underlying geology. It looks as if New Zealand's GNS Science is involved so we may get to explore naked NZ. The launch, in Oslo, is imminent.
Life on Mars (which screens at 8.30pm on Mondays on TV One) is a great TV series. It's about a about a gentleman who falls asleep and wakes up in 1973 (the year David Bowie’s Life on Mars was released).
While the concept of taking a trip back to the early seventies is pure science fiction, the idea of life on the red planet is getting closer to reality, according to NASA. That doesn't mean Martians are about to be discovered, though: NASA is talking here about humans colonising the planet. The notion of finding indigenous life on the freezing, thin-atmosphered fourth stop from the sun is still in the realm of sci-fi.
Get the latest news from Computerworld delivered via email.
