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'Power cascade': Universal rule of how animals grow their pointy body parts revealed


Monash University
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
ram horn
© Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
An interdisciplinary team at Monash University discovered a new universal rule of biological growth that explains surprising similarities in the shapes of sharp structures across the tree of life, including teeth, horns, claws, beaks, animal shells, and even the thorns and prickles of plants.

Animals and plants often grow in specific patterns, like logarithmic spirals following the golden ratio. There are very simple processes that generate these patterns — a logarithmic spiral is produced when one side of a structure grows faster than another at a constant ratio. We can call these 'rules of growth', and they help us understand why organisms are certain shapes.

In the new study published today in BMC Biology, the research team demonstrates a new rule called the 'power cascade' based on how the shape 'cascades' down a tooth following a power law.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Mars

Mysterious 'Marsquakes' detected by Nasa's Insight lander in area of Red Planet where volcanic activity and landslides have been spotted

Bevan Hurley
Daily Mail
Sun, 04 Apr 2021 02:48 UTC
Mars surface
© NASA / JPL-CALTECH
Mysterious rumblings known as 'Marsquakes' have been detected by Nasa's InSight lander, offering further clues about volcanic activity beneath the surface of the Red Planet.

The tremors originated in a region called Cerberus Fossae - an area where Nasa scientists have picked up significant seismical activity and even landslides in the past.

They believe the tremors were likely caused by a sudden release of energy beneath the surface of the planet, but as Mars doesn't have tectonic plates like Earth, the precise cause and origins of the rumblings remain unknown.

The quakes were picked up by InSight's seismometer, an onboard device specially built to capture Marsquakes.

Using its robotic arm, InSight has partially buried the seismometer to protect it from strong seasonal winds and allow for more accurate readings.

Comment: Cosmic climate change: Earthquake detected on Mars! 'Marsquake' observed on Red Planet for very first time

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Galaxy

3 major scientific discoveries in the past century that point to God

Stephen C. Meyer
The Federalist
Fri, 02 Apr 2021 21:56 UTC
man and universe
This week, traditional Jews and Christians celebrate special acts of God in human history. Yet, polling data now show that an increasing number of young people, including those from religious homes, doubt even the existence of God.

Moreover, polls probing such young "religiously unaffiliated agnostics and atheists" have found that science — or at least the claims of putative spokesmen for science — have played an outsized sole in cementing disaffection with religious belief. In one, more than two-thirds of self-described atheists, and one-third of agnostics, affirm "the findings of science make the existence of God less probable."

It's not hard to see how many people might have acquired this impression. Since 2006 popular "new atheist" writers — Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Stephen Hawking, Bill Nye, and Lawrence Krauss — have published a series of best-selling books arguing that science renders religious belief implausible. According to Dawkins and others, Darwinian evolution, in particular, establishes that "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose ... nothing but blind, pitiless indifference."

Comment: The tide seems to be turning:

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Galaxy

Newly forming stars don't blast away material as previously believed, scientists don't know why they stop growing

Scott Alan Johnston
Universe Today
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
Orion Nebula
© NASA, ESA, STScI, N. Habel and S. T. Megeath (University of Toledo)
Orion Nebula
We thought we understood how stars are formed. It turns out, we don't. Not completely, anyway. A new study, recently conducted using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, is sending astronomers back to the drawing board to rewrite the accepted model of stellar formation.

What we do know about star formation is that they are born from enormous clouds of hydrogen gas. The gas gets clumped together and compressed by gravity, increasing in pressure and temperature until the mass grows large enough to set off nuclear fusion. But stars don't seem to absorb all of the gas in their surroundings. Something stops them from reaching enormous sizes.

Comment: See also:

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Fire

New hazard map for Mount Fuji doubles estimate of lava flow

Eiraku Maiko
NHK
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
Mount Fuji

Computer Generated Image of an erupting Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji is one of the iconic symbols of Japan, a source of inspiration for artists for centuries and a can't-miss destination for modern-day tourists. It is also an active volcano.

Last week, the Japanese government revised its volcanic hazard map for Mount Fuji for the first time in 17 years. This comes as new data shows that lava flows from a major eruption could spread as far as 40 kilometers from the summit.

The map was presented at an online meeting of the Mount Fuji disaster management council last Friday. The council is made up of officials from the central government and the prefectural governments of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, whose border the mountain straddles, and neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture.

Comment: Considering the worldwide uptick in volcanic activity, with much more predicted to come, this is is a rather timely warning for residents: 34,000 quakes in two weeks near Fagradalsfjall volcano, Iceland - 900% increase in activity compared with whole of 2020

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Robot

Scientists create the next generation of biological 'Xenobots'


Tufts University
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:04 UTC
Xenobots
© Doug Blackiston
Using a fluorescent protein, Xenobots record exposure to blue light, by turning green.
Last year, a team of biologists and computer scientists from Tufts University and the University of Vermont (UVM) created novel, tiny self-healing biological machines from frog cells called "Xenobots" that could move around, push a payload, and even exhibit collective behavior in the presence of a swarm of other Xenobots.

Get ready for Xenobots 2.0.

The same team has now created life forms that self-assemble a body from single cells, do not require muscle cells to move, and even demonstrate the capability of recordable memory. The new generation Xenobots also move faster, navigate different environments, and have longer lifespans than the first edition, and they still have the ability to work together in groups and heal themselves if damaged. The results of the new research were published today in Science Robotics.

Compared to Xenobots 1.0, in which the millimeter-sized automatons were constructed in a "top down" approach by manual placement of tissue and surgical shaping of frog skin and cardiac cells to produce motion, the next version of Xenobots takes a "bottom up" approach. The biologists at Tufts took stem cells from embryos of the African frog Xenopus laevis (hence the name "Xenobots") and allowed them to self-assemble and grow into spheroids, where some of the cells after a few days differentiated to produce cilia - tiny hair-like projections that move back and forth or rotate in a specific way. Instead of using manually sculpted cardiac cells whose natural rhythmic contractions allowed the original Xenobots to scuttle around, cilia give the new spheroidal bots "legs" to move them rapidly across a surface. In a frog, or human for that matter, cilia would normally be found on mucous surfaces, like in the lungs, to help push out pathogens and other foreign material. On the Xenobots, they are repurposed to provide rapid locomotion.
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Info

First X-rays from Uranus discovered


Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:46 UTC
Uranus X-Rays
© NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al
Astronomers have detected X-rays from Uranus for the first time, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This result may help scientists learn more about this enigmatic ice giant planet in our solar system.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and has two sets of rings around its equator. The planet, which has four times the diameter of Earth, rotates on its side, making it different from all other planets in the solar system. Since Voyager 2 was the only spacecraft to ever fly by Uranus, astronomers currently rely on telescopes much closer to Earth, like Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope, to learn about this distant and cold planet that is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.

In the new study, researchers used Chandra observations taken in Uranus in 2002 and then again in 2017. They saw a clear detection of X-rays from the first observation, just analyzed recently, and a possible flare of X-rays in those obtained fifteen years later. The main graphic shows a Chandra X-ray image of Uranus from 2002 (in pink) superimposed on an optical image from the Keck-I Telescope obtained in a separate study in 2004. The latter shows the planet at approximately the same orientation as it was during the 2002 Chandra observations.

What could cause Uranus to emit X-rays? The answer: mainly the Sun. Astronomers have observed that both Jupiter and Saturn scatter X-ray light given off by the Sun, similar to how Earth's atmosphere scatters the Sun's light. While the authors of the new Uranus study initially expected that most of the X-rays detected would also be from scattering, there are tantalizing hints that at least one other source of X-rays is present. If further observations confirm this, it could have intriguing implications for understanding Uranus.
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Microscope 1

Living robots made from frog skin cells can sense their environment

Krista Charles
New Scientist
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 00:01 UTC
xenobot
© Douglas Blackiston
A xenobot, made from from frog skin cells.
A microscopic, living robot that can heal and power itself has been created out of frog skin cells.

Xenobots, named after the frog species Xenopus laevis that the cells come from, were first described last year. Now the team behind the robots has improved their design and demonstrated new capabilities.

To create the spherical xenobots, Michael Levin at Tufts University in Massachusetts and his colleagues extracted tissue from 24-hour-old frog embryos which formed into spheroid structures after minimal physical manipulation.

Comment: See also:

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Galaxy

New auroral feature on Jupiter tracked to edge of magnetosphere


South West Research Institute
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 12:00 UTC
Jupiter
© NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)
FILE PHOTO: Jupiter has spectacular aurora, such as this view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Auroras are formed when charged particles in the space surrounding the planet are accelerated to high energies along the planet's magnetic field.
The SwRI-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) orbiting Jupiter aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft has detected new faint aurora features, characterized by ring-like emissions, which expand rapidly over time. SwRI scientists determined that charged particles coming from the edge of Jupiter's massive magnetosphere triggered these auroral emissions.

"We think these newly discovered faint ultraviolet features originate millions of miles away from Jupiter, near the Jovian magnetosphere's boundary with the solar wind," said Dr. Vincent Hue, lead author of a paper accepted by the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics. "The solar wind is a supersonic stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun. When they reach Jupiter, they interact with its magnetosphere in a way that is still not well understood."

Comment: It's notable that an uptick in unusual phenomena is occurring not just on our planet, but throughout our solar system: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Galaxy

Long spaceflights and endurance swimming 'shrink the heart'

Paul Rincon
BBC
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:07 UTC
heart
© SPL
Spending very long periods of time in space has something in common with extreme endurance swimming: both can cause the heart to shrink.

That's the conclusion of a study that compared the effects of astronaut Scott Kelly's year in space with a marathon swim by athlete Benoît Lecomte.

Both remove the loads on the heart that are usually applied by gravity, causing the organ to atrophy.

Exercise wasn't enough in either case to counteract the changes to the heart.

Comment: See also:

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