Four teeth found in a cave in the Tongzi county of southern China have scientists scratching their heads.

In 1972 and 1983, researchers extracted the roughly 200,000-year-old teeth from the silty sediments of the Yanhui cave floor, initially labeling them as Homo erectus, the upright-walking hominins thought to be the first to leave Africa. Later analysis suggested they didn't quite fit with Homo erectus, but that's where the story paused for nearly two decades.

Now, a study published in the Journal of Human Evolution takes a fresh look at these ancient teeth, using modern methods to examine the curious remains. The new analysis excludes the possibility that the teeth could come from Homo erectus or the more advanced Neanderthals, but the elusive owner remains unknown.


HUMAN ORIGINS 101: The story of human evolution began about 7 million years ago, when the lineages that lead to Homo sapiens and chimpanzees separated. Learn about the over 20 early human species that belong in our family tree and how the natural selection of certain physical and behavioral traits defined what it means to be human.

Researchers from China and the United States have created transgenic monkeys carrying a human gene that is important for brain development, and the monkeys showed human-like brain development.

Scientists have identified several genes that are linked to primate brain size. MCPH1 is a gene that is expressed during fetal brain development. Mutations in MCPH1 can lead to microcephaly, a developmental disorder characterized by a small brain.

In the study published in the Beijing-based National Science Review, researchers from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of North Carolina in the United States and other research institutions reported that they successfully created 11 transgenic rhesus monkeys (eight first-generation and three second-generation) carrying human copies of MCPH1.

It's constructed differently from an animal one.

Summary and Abstract:

Rapid, long-distance signaling in plants: A plant injured on one leaf by a nibbling insect can alert its other leaves to begin anticipatory defense responses. Working in the model plant Arabidopsis, Toyota et al. show that this systemic signal begins with the release of glutamate, which is perceived by glutamate receptor-like ion channels (see the Perspective by Muday and Brown-Harding). The ion channels then set off a cascade of changes in calcium ion concentration that propagate through the phloem vasculature and through intercellular channels called plasmodesmata. This glutamate-based long-distance signaling is rapid: Within minutes, an undamaged leaf can respond to the fate of a distant leaf.

Abstract

Animals require rapid, long-range molecular signaling networks to integrate sensing and response throughout their bodies. The amino acid glutamate acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate central nervous system, facilitating long-range information exchange via activation of glutamate receptor channels. Similarly, plants sense local signals, such as herbivore attack, and transmit this information throughout the plant body to rapidly activate defense responses in undamaged parts. Here we show that glutamate is a wound signal in plants. Ion channels of the GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE family act as sensors that convert this signal into an increase in intracellular calcium ion concentration that propagates to distant organs, where defense responses are then induced. --Masatsugu Toyota, Dirk Spencer, Satoe Sawai-Toyota, Wang Jiaqi, Tong Zhang, Abraham J. Koo, Gregg A. Howe ... , "Glutamate triggers long-distance, calcium-based plant defense signaling" at Science (paywall)

Every generation tends to believe that its views on the nature of reality are either true or quite close to the truth. We are no exception to this: although we know that the ideas of earlier generations were each time supplanted by those of a later one, we still believe that this time we got it right. Our ancestors were naïve and superstitious, but we are objective-or so we tell ourselves. We know that matter/energy, outside and independent of mind, is the fundamental stuff of nature, everything else being derived from it-or do we?

In fact, studies have shown that there is an intimate relationship between the world we perceive and the conceptual categories encoded in the language we speak. We don't perceive a purely objective world out there, but one subliminally pre-partitioned and pre-interpreted according to culture-bound categories. For instance, "color words in a given language shape human perception of color." A brain imaging study suggests that language processing areas are directly involved even in the simplest discriminations of basic colors. Moreover, this kind of "categorical perception is a phenomenon that has been reported not only for color, but for other perceptual continua, such as phonemes, musical tones and facial expressions." In an important sense, we see what our unexamined cultural categories teach us to see, which may help explain why every generation is so confident in their own worldview. Allow me to elaborate.

Biologist Arthur Hunt is a professor in Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Kentucky. Since 2007 he has been claiming to have refuted Michael Behe's thesis that irreducible complexity cannot arise by mindless evolutionary processes. Specifically, he points to an example that he maintains is an instance of an irreducibly complex system arising from scratch. The example is a mitochondrial gene called T-urf13, which encodes an ion-gated channel called URF13 that is specific to the mitochondria of maize (the corn plant Zea mays L). In January of this year, Hunt published a revised article online, which can be accessed and downloaded here. And now in a review of Behe's new book, Darwin Devolves, published in Skeptic Magazine, biologist Nathan Lents at John Jay College, drawing on Hunt's article, confidently proclaims that T-urf13 is a "clear example of random tinkering accomplishing exactly what [Behe] claims it cannot." Is that so?

Hunt's article begins:

There has been a spate of interest in the blogosphere recently in the matter of protein evolution, and in particular the proposition that new protein function can evolve. The original version of this essay followed a review of this subject by Long et al. Briefly, the various mechanisms discussed in the review include exon shuffling, gene duplication, retroposition, recruitment of mobile element sequences, lateral gene transfer, gene fusion, and de novo origination. Of all of these, the mechanism that received the least attention was the last - the de novo appearance of new protein-coding genes basically "from scratch". A few examples are mentioned (such as antifreeze proteins, or AFGPs), and long-time followers of ev/cre discussions will recognize the players. However, what I would argue is the most impressive of such examples is not mentioned by Long et al.

The Nature Reviews Genetics article Hunt cites, authored by Manyuan Long and his colleagues back in 2003 (Long et al., 2003), has already been discussed here and refuted at length, as well as in Stephen Meyer's 2013 book Darwin's Doubt (Meyer, 2013).

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium that causes infection in various parts of the body, is often called a "superbug" thanks to its ability to dodge many common antibiotics. Although most MRSA infections aren't serious, some can be life-threatening, sometimes resulting in amputation of the infected appendage.

Rather than rolling the dice with a multi-drug combination or wasting precious time trying to determine which medicine to prescribe, doctors could soon use a new method for disarming the superbugs: light therapy.

Researchers at Purdue University and Boston University have discovered that exposing the bug to blue light can render it defenseless against antiseptics as mild as hydrogen peroxide. The findings were published in the journal Advanced Science.

"This new tool can treat any superficial wound infected with MRSA, which are typically very difficult to treat," said Mohamed Seleem, a professor of microbiology at Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine. "The device itself is very small and easy to use. We're hoping that in the next few years, anyone could carry it around in their purse."

Researchers from Keen Labs in China, one of the most widely respected cybersecurity research groups in the world, have successfully hacked a Tesla Model S autopilot system and forced the car to drive into an oncoming lane.

The wiley white hat hackers developed different forms of attack to confuse and disrupt the Tesla autopilot lane recognition system.

In the first method, Keen researchers added a large number of patches to the dividing line on the road itself to blur it. While it did fool the autopilot, the researchers deemed it too conspicuous to be of any practical, if malicious, use in the real world.

However, a more subtle approach proved far more effective: using just three strategically placed stickers, the researchers were able to create a "fake lane."

For instance, when the stickers were placed at an intersection, hackers could fool the Tesla into thinking the lane continued into what was actually the oncoming lane.

The EMISAT radar imaging reconnaissance satellite will allow India to "easily" unveil the electronic warfare capabilities of potential adversaries, thus giving it an edge over Pakistan and China, a military analyst told RT.

"A leading space power - and India is aspiring to be one - simply has to have all types of space reconnaissance in its possession," Mikhail Khodarenok, military analyst and retired colonel in the Russian missile defense forces, told RT.

The EMISAT satellite, which was delivered to orbit by the Indian-made PSLV C-45 on Monday, is a counterpart of the American Lacrosse/Onyx spy satellite. Radar imaging reconnaissance satellites like these "intercept radio signals and identify which radio-electronic systems are used in the designated area," establishing their location, schedule of operations, and the frequencies they use, Khodarenok explained. "They're designed to unveil potential enemies' radars, anti-aircraft missile shield capabilities and air traffic controls."

It not only provides protection in close quarters combat, but it can also make the enemy hallucinate. Russian special forces using an armored shield with a state-of-the-art light suppression system have been caught on video.

In mid-March, the arrival of a Russian warship with a Filin light gun onboard near British shores caused a meltdown in the UK tabloids. The papers shocked their readers with details of the device's hallucination and vomit-inducing effects, forgetting to mention that the system was designed for defense purposes, and didn't cause irreversible damage to eyesight.

Now, it turns out that similar suppression means, but of a smaller scale, can be also be successfully employed by the troops during combat.

The IPCC's AR5 estimated the global warming caused by a tonne of livestock methane would be 28 times that of a tonne of carbon dioxide. New research destroys that estimate.

The war on meat has been gathering pace amongst our Western elites. The Economist makes a detailed case for "plant-based food" in the interests of quelling climate change -

The FAO calculates that cattle generate up to two-thirds of the greenhouse gases from livestock, and are the world's fifth largest source of methane. If cows were a country, the United Herds of Earth would be the planet's third largest greenhouse-gas emitter.

These calculations are based on figures supplied by the IPCC's AR5, which contends that the global warming potential (GWP) of methane over 100 years is no less than 28 times the global warming it expects to be caused by an equivalent weight of carbon dioxide. This estimate is up from the GWP of 21 put forward in the IPCC's previous report.