obsessionBiology

New Material Can Scrub Carbon Dioxide Right Out of the Air at Unprecedented Rate s

I love this article!!! Museum collections are a personal favorite,  and by utilizing them researchers have been able to determine that at least one male of a thought extinct species of giant tortoise is ALIVE! That's awesome. They compared genomes of wild giant tortoises with museum specimens and determined that a"lonesome George" C. elephantopis is still alive!  http://news.discovery.com/animals/tortoise-found-genetics-120109.html 'Extinct' Giant Tortoise Found on Remote Island January 9, 2012 9:00:00 AM Jennifer Viegas) A species of giant tortoise believed extinct for 150 years was actually just moved from its original home and now lives on the volcanic slopes of the northern shore of Isabela Island in the Galapagos archipelago. A genetic analysis, published in the latest Current Biology , found that DNA footprints of the long lost tortoise species, Chelonoidis elephantopus , exist in the genomes of its hybrid offspring. These tortoises turn out to be...

Ahhhhh my true love deep sea biology!! http://news.discovery.com/earth/antarctic-deep-sea-vent-creatures-010312.html Antarctic Hot Springs Yields Ghostly New Species January 3, 2012 2:00:00 PM Eric Niiler The discovery of new deep-sea hot springs off Antarctica may rewrite theories of how marine creatures populate the world's oceans. Scientists say the underwater plumes -- located between the southern tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula -- are chock-full of new species, including a pale, ghostly-looking octopus, a predatory seven-legged sea star and a hairy-chested "yeti" crab. Experts say the strangest thing is what they didn't find -- tube worms, shrimp and mussels that have been found at the world's other deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities. "It wasn't just one creature, virtually everything we saw was new to science," said Alex Rogers, professor zoology at the University of Oxford and lead author of the new report. ...

We all remember the H1N1 virus from a few years ago right?  Well there's a new virus in town, H5N1, that top virologists have been studying.  H5N1 is a strain of influenza that's deadly in birds. H5N1 has been coaxed by researcher Ron Fouchier from Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and his team to leap between species, from birds to ferrets.  This research was completed in state of the art facilitates with rigorous bio safety controls --people in anti-contaminate space suits etc.  That's good to know.. but while the risk of being infected in this controlled setting is less than 1%, it is not zero..  This research having been completed is controversial, scientists mutated strains of a deadly influenza that are transmissible between mammals-- we're mammals.  The research specifically demonstrated that with the induced mutations H5N1 was not only transmissible between mammals in close contact, but was also an airborne infectious agent.  That's...

http://news.discovery.com/animals/pigeons-math-animals-111222.html Pigeons Are Brilliant in Math December 22, 2011 12:00:00 PM Jennifer Viegas Pigeons may be ubiquitous, but they're also brainy, according to a new study that found these birds are on par with primates when it comes to numerical competence. The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Science , discovered that pigeons can discriminate against different amounts of number-like objects, order pairs, and learn abstract mathematical rules. Aside from humans, only rhesus monkeys have exhibited equivalent skills. NEWS: Chimps Have Better Sex Than Humans Could pigeons then be the Einsteins of the bird world? "It would be fair to say that, even among birds, pigeons are not thought to be the sharpest crayon in the box," lead author Damian Scarf told Discovery News. "I think that this ability may be widespread among birds. There is already clear evidence that it is widespread among prima...

http://news.discovery.com/animals/camera-trap-images-111221.html Camera Trap Images Tell Anti-Poaching Success Story December 21, 2011 12:56:28 PM Jennifer Viegas Photo: A tigress drinks with her cubs from a watering hole inside Thailand's Western Forest Complex; Credit for all images: DNP-Government of Thailand/WCS Thailand Program Camera trap photo stills and video footage suggest that anti-poaching efforts in the forests of Thailand are paying off, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society . NEWS: Elephants Outwit Humans During Intelligence Test The cameras, set up at several locations across Thailand's  Western Forest Complex over the last year, have captured tigers, Asian elephants , gaurs , sun bears, and many other species in off guard moments. Video footage shows a tigress and her cubs feeding on an animal carcass, leopards marking their territory with scent, wild pigs nursing their young, and even Asian elephants mating. "The video re...

S ex is a very intriguing subject. Sex has become an advantageous means of procreation; combining two genomes so that the offspring has the best possible combination of alleles that will be beneficial for their survival and reproduction. Darwin introduced descent with modification, and modern science has revealed DNA to be the physical means of heredity. Armed with this knowledge, one might suspect sex to be the shiznit of strategies, and I believe it is one of the best certainly. But species have existed and remain in existence today who do not participate in this activity.. how is that possible?    A-sexual species produce genetically identical copies of themselves, clones, and if they have all the alleles in their DNA that they need to perform physical processes they're set. Archaea bacteria are a great example, the little guys survive in 150 degree + hot springs and chug along doing what there doing like they have for millions of years.   ...