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:
Anyway, you may remember the controversy about the so-called "warrior gene", which one scientist claimed was carried by Maori. Well, now the gene has been linked to gang membership.
"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.
And evolution gets even stranger - changes in species also create changes in the environment that made them evolve.
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.„]]>
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.
]]>Space junk, according to Wikipedia:
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.
]]>1. The Top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2009 (Number !? Cellular reprogramming, of course)
2. Top 10 science innovations of 2008
3. Top 10 science toys for kids
4. Time's Top 10 scientific discoveries of 2008
5. Time's Top 10 green ideas of 2008
Bonus list: Top 10 actors picked to be the new Dr Who.
]]>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.
Hopefully it will mean the end of this sort of business as well.
]]>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:
For a virtual tour of CERN, go here
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.
]]>New species are always interesting. They've found a new micro snake in Barbados and possibly the world's ugliest dolphin off Western Australia.
Houseproud bees have stymied the fight agains the varroa mite. But Hortresearch scientists have an answer.
Rumours of life on Mars lack subtlety. apparently.
Booming Jellyfish populations could be a sign of coastal decline.
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.
The moon isn't waterless, either.
Neanderthals may have been quite chatty.
One of the biggest arguments against evolution continues to fall apart: how the eye evolves.
]]>And, speaking of genomes, this article about how ours change during our lifetimes reminded me of a podcast I listened to recently.
The BBC's In Our Time show recently did a segment of the Soviet science charlatan Trofim Lysenko, who led the country down a weird path that denied emerging genetic science and Darwinian evolution. He basically argued that plants could inherited from their environments and therefore could be, in a manner, trained to grow in difficult conditions - that their capabilities are not determined by their DNA. What's interesting about this podcast is that it, in part, argues that he was not totally wrong.
More recent research has shown that the environment can affect your genome and that these effects can be passed on through generations. So, Lysenko was only 99% wrong.
In other news:
The centre for adventure is in your brain
Sit near the front of the plane
Now there's a hormone for it:
Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You'd like to
- The Smiths
First up, Salon draws a vital distinction between a giant squid and a collosal squid. Then there was the famous calamari tasting (that's a Stuff link so it will probably break in about five minutes).
but my favourite squid story, and intro, wasn't from NZ at all, but from those competitive Canadians trying to cash in on our fame.
Nightmarish packs of rapacious giant devil squid are hunting off the B.C. coast -- and as their numbers increase, scientists are worrying about an attack on fish stocks.Humboldt squid, called diablos rojos or red devils in Mexico, have been known to attack scuba divers, and were once a rarity in B.C. waters. But a changing ocean environment has brought them northward, and they may now be permanently establishing themselves off the B.C. coast.
Meanwhile, proving that science reporting is full of traps for the unwary or credulous, the "Pixie dust" story is debunked. Who carried it? The Times, The UK Telegraph, Australian ABC, BBC, News.com.au and, more fogiveably, The Sun - among others.
In other news:
Secrets of the Platypus revealed
And our own PGG Wrightson is growing burpless gas - presumably it's fartless too, they're just too polite to say.
]]>Mars is even weirder than we thought, with scientists suggesting climate has changed on the planet in relatively recent times.
The US military plans to grow spare body parts, while alligators could be our friends, as 'gator blood has antibiotic properties. That just goes to reinfoce this argument for protecting biodiversity.
So losing pollinators is bad news on several fronts:
]]>Whatever your view of the bloody spectacle, the fact that it is even taking place this year is interesting in one incidental way - thick ice has caused it to get off to a slow start.
That’s a change from last year, when the annual cull was affected by a lack of ice.
As the link to National Geographic above says, the absence of ice a year ago was ascribed by some to man-made global warming. The fact the ice had been thin for most of this decade bolstered that view.
What to make of the situation this year? It doesn’t mean global warming isn’t happening, but the return of the ice in the waters off Canada’s eastern coast is an interesting phenomenon.
There's a pH shift going on in our oceans due to rising levels of atmospheric CO2. New data suggests the rate of glacier shrinkage appears to be increasing quickly. The sun's radiation may play only a minor, and decreasing, role in climate change. And, last in our global warming special, Rocky Mountain flowers are having trouble reproducing.
Okay, on to news reptilian:
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