Science & TechnologyS


Microscope 2

Does the disappearance of the Y-Chromosome's mean male extinction?


Sputnik
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 15:50 UTC
dna chromosome
Recently, media has reported about Czech scientists surveying the degradation of the Y-chromosome. Some experts believe it may completely disappear.

Vladimir Trifonov, PhD, Biology, Head of the comparative genomics laboratory at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Sputnik about the chromosome's extinction, and whether men should be worried.

Sputnik: What is the Y-chromosome's function?

Vladimir Trifonov: Here we are talking about the Y-chromosome of mammals as it occurs in a large number of animals. Its main function is sex determination, because the presence of this chromosome influences the development of male gender characteristics. In addition, the Y-chromosome most often carries genes important for spermatogenesis, as well as carrying color genes for some other animal species, such as guppies.

Sputnik: What could be the reason for the Y-chromosome's degradation?

Vladimir Trifonov: The Y-chromosome is inevitably degrading because it exchanges little information with the X-chromosome. Usually, other chromosomes in our genome exchange parts with their homologues, thus stopping their degradation. The Y-chromosome doesn't replace its parts with the X-chromosome - that's its evolutionary feature. Once that exchange, which takes place in the process of meiosis, stops, these chromosomes will inevitably degenerate. Therefore, this absolutely regular model of evolution of elements is not recombined. Once they stop recombining, they start degenerating. However, the comparison of the human Y-chromosome with that of a chimpanzee has shown that the rate of this degeneration slows down over time. The initial degeneration process was rather fast, but it has now slowed down and the Y-chromosome is not expected to vanish for hundreds of millions of years.

Comment: It's becoming abundantly clear that DNA is much more complex than previously thought:

Read More...
Evil Rays

Small bits of RNA can trigger pain and itchiness

Tina Hesman Saey
ScienceNews
Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:06 UTC
itchy scratch
© Andrey_Popov/ShutterstockBRINGING THE PAIN (AND ITCH) Small RNAs can be a major inconvenience, inducing nerve pain and itchiness, two studies show.
Some snippets of RNA can be a real pain.

A microRNA called miR-30c-5p contributes to nerve pain in rats and people, a new study finds. A different microRNA, miR-711, interacts with a well-known itch-inducing protein to cause itching, a second study concludes. Together, the research highlights the important role that the small pieces of genetic material can play in nerve cell function, and may help researchers understand the causes of chronic nerve pain and itch.

MicroRNAs help regulate gene activity and protein production. The small molecules play a big role in controlling cancer (SN: 8/28/10, p. 18) and other aspects of health and disease (SN: 2/20/16, p. 18). Usually, microRNAs work by pairing up with bigger pieces of RNA called messenger RNAs, or mRNA. Messenger RNAs contain copies of genetic instructions that are read by cellular machinery to build proteins. When microRNAs glom onto the messengers, the mRNA can be degraded or the microRNAs can prevent the protein-building machinery from reading the instructions. Either way, the result is typically to dial down production of certain proteins.

In the case of nerve pain, miR-30c-5p limits production of an important protein called TGF-beta that's involved in controlling pain, María Hurlé, a pharmacologist at the University of Cantabria in Santander, Spain, and colleagues report August 8 in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers discovered the link in experiments with mice, rats and people.

Comment: More on RNA:

Read More...
Rocket

Russia looks toward innovation, may develop reusable rockets


RT
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 03:12 UTC
Russian rocket
© Vladimir Fedorenko / SputnikFull-scale model of Baikal reusable first stage booster.
Russia may develop reusable first stages for its rockets, which would likely land horizontally rather than in the style of SpaceX's Falcons, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has said. He also had words for SpaceX boss Elon Musk.

The new heavy Soyuz-5 rocket, currently developed by Russia, must become more powerful yet remain cheaper than the products supplied by the competitors, the recently-elected head of the Russian space corporation told TASS in an extensive interview on Thursday.

While Moscow is looking into adding reusable elements to the Soyuz-5 to further lower launch costs, reusability is not a universal solution to achieve this goal, Rogozin believes. Musk's SpaceX, which is currently the only company to have launched reusable rockets commercially, manages to cut the costs by other means, the Russian space boss pointed out.
Read More...
Robot

Study shows that robots have the power to brainwash children and alter their behavior for the worse


RT
Sat, 18 Aug 2018 12:46 UTC
Robots and Children
© Aly Song/Reuters
Robot pressure could soon replace peer pressure as a chief concern amongst parents with new research finding that children can be significantly influenced by machines, even when the droids are obviously wrong.

The study asked children aged between seven and nine to look at a screen showing four lines and identify which two match in length. When they carried out the simple task alone the kids got the answers right almost every time. However, when they did it alongside a robot their accuracy dropped by 12 percent and almost all of their wrong answers were found to match those of the robot.

Writing in Science Robotics, the University of Plymouth researchers behind the study said the findings raise concerns around the potential for robots to have a negative influence on vulnerable children.

Comment: More on the dangerous slippery slope of rapidly growing robotic technology:

Read More...
Chalkboard

Mathematics everywhere: Researchers solve age-old spaghetti mystery

Jennifer Chu
PhysOrg
Fri, 17 Aug 2018 00:59 UTC
spaghetti pasta
© Creative Commons
If you happen to have a box of spaghetti in your pantry, try this experiment: Pull out a single spaghetti stick and hold it at both ends. Now bend it until it breaks. How many fragments did you make? If the answer is three or more, pull out another stick and try again. Can you break the noodle in two? If not, you're in very good company.

The spaghetti challenge has flummoxed even the likes of famed physicist Richard Feynman '39, who once spent a good portion of an evening breaking pasta and looking for a theoretical explanation for why the sticks refused to snap in two.

Feynman's kitchen experiment remained unresolved until 2005, when physicists from France pieced together a theory to describe the forces at work when spaghetti - and any long, thin rod - is bent. They found that when a stick is bent evenly from both ends, it will break near the center, where it is most curved. This initial break triggers a "snap-back" effect and a bending wave, or vibration, that further fractures the stick. Their theory, which won the 2006 Ig Nobel Prize, seemed to solve Feynman's puzzle. But a question remained: Could spaghetti ever be coerced to break in two?
Read More...
Fireball

Earth's oldest rocks likely to have been created by meteorite bombardment


PhysOrg
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 18:08 UTC
oldest rock canada
© Pedroalexandrade/WikimediaAn example of rock from the Acasta River region of the NWT.
Scientists have found that 4.02 billion year old silica-rich felsic rocks from the Acasta River, Canada-the oldest rock formation known on Earth-probably formed at high temperatures and at a surprisingly shallow depth of the planet's nascent crust. The high temperatures needed to melt the shallow crust were likely caused by a meteorite bombardment around half a billion years after the planet formed. This melted the iron-rich crust and formed the granites we see today. These results are presented for the first time at the Goldschmidt conference in Boston tomorrow (14 August), following publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience.

The felsic rocks (rocks rich in silica/quartz) found at the Acasta River in Canada, are the Earth's oldest rocks, although there are older mineral crystals. Scientists have long known that the Acasta rocks are different to the majority of felsic rocks we see today, such as the granites widely used as a building or decorative material. Now a group of scientists from Australia and China have modelled the formation of the oldest Acasta felsic rocks and found that they could only have been formed at low pressures and very high temperatures.
Read More...
Jet4

'Completely new systems, completely new capabilities': Russia rolls out upgraded supersonic strike bomber


RT
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 20:10 UTC
Tu-22M3M rolled out in Kazan
© Maksim Bogodvid / SputnikTu-22M3M rolled out in Kazan, Russia; August 16, 2018
The Tu-22M3M, a modification of the Russian supersonic strike bomber, is a new modern plane inside a classic shell, the manufacturer says. Having greater speed and range, it will reportedly be armed with hypersonic missiles.

"It's a principally new plane inside - with completely new systems, completely new capabilities, might and threat to potential adversaries," Yuri Slyusar, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation, told reporters on Thursday, as the new version of the bomber was rolled out from the plant in the southwestern city of Kazan.

The Tu-22M3M jet is designed to strike sea and ground targets at a distance of up to 2,200km (1,367 miles) using bombs and guided missiles. The modified plane has a more comfortable cockpit, can travel longer distances, and fly faster due to its more powerful engine. About 80 percent of its electronics was updated, the plane's manufacturers say.
Read More...
Gear

Biomimetics comes to STEM education


Evolution News
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 16:57 UTC
science student
© Wyss Institute at Harvard University.A student gains “hands-on” experience with DNA with an inexpensive BioBits kit
The Wyss Institute at Harvard is "Inspired by Nature," as they say in their mission statement:
At the Wyss Institute, we leverage recent insights into how Nature builds, controls and manufactures to develop new engineering innovations - a new field of research we call Biologically Inspired Engineering. By emulating biological principles of self-assembly, organization and regulation, we are developing disruptive technology solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing, which are translated into commercial products and therapies through formation of new startups and corporate alliances.
More focus on biological engineering, as distinct from Darwinian happenstance, can only be good. Whatever "Nature" is, it "builds, controls and manufactures" things in ways that inspire human imitation.

We've mentioned the Wyss Center several times, most recently here, where we saw some of its bio-inspired engineers trying to imitate the "robust mechanical properties" of grass. The center has propelled research to the point now where they need to grow a crop of students ready to enter the field. As you often hear lamented in the news, the U.S. is lagging behind in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) which are vital to the work of biomimetics institutes such as the Wyss Center. For its latest project, therefore, Wyss joined with Northwestern University to enter the education field, designing lessons to help students grasp the concepts they will need as future scientists.

Comment: Nature builds better machines than humans do. That begs the question: is nature intelligent? It must be. And what is the nature of that intelligence? What is the nature of nature? That's the question of questions, and materialist neo-Darwinists don't have the answer.

Read More...
Magnify

Forensic scientists develop technique of identifying pedophiles through their hands


RT
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 14:19 UTC
Hands on jail cell bars.
© Reuters
A British forensic specialist has developed a way to identify pedophiles using only images of the perpetrator's hands and the novel new system has already helped put a child sex abuser behind bars.

In 2014, Greater Manchester Police enlisted the help of forensic anthropologist Dame Professor Sue Black in an effort to solve a child rape case. The crime in question involved sick footage found on a computer belonging to Manchester man, Jeremy Oketch.

The video showed a man with his face obscured sexually abusing a two-year-old girl. While police investigators were sure that when they first questioned Oketch in July 2014 he was the perpetrator, officers feared that without an admission of guilt he could walk free.
Read More...
Camcorder

Tech expert proves police bodycams can be hacked and footage altered


RT
Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:30 UTC
police bodycam
© Al Seib / Reuters
Footage recorded by police body cameras are vulnerable to hacking and can be easily edited, manipulated or deleted, while the officer wearing it may be tracked and surveilled, a cybersecurity expert has revealed.

Bodycams came into being to aid transparency in policing operations and protect both officers, from defamation and false claims, and civilians, from excessive use of force, but the devices are not free of problems.

"These videos can be as powerful as something like DNA evidence, but if they're not properly protected there's the potential that the footage could be modified or replaced," Josh Mitchell, a tech expert with Nuix, told the DefCon conference at the weekend, according toMotherboard.
Read More...