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Recipes for life: How genes evolve

Michael Le Page
New Scientist
Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:20 UTC
Once, we could only marvel at the wonder of life. Like movie audiences not so long ago, we had little idea of what went on behind the scenes.

How times have changed. As the genomes of more and more species are sequenced, geneticists are piecing together an extraordinarily detailed "Making of..." documentary. Nowadays, we can not only trace how the bodies of animals have evolved, we can even identify the genetic mutations behind these changes.
DNA molecule forming chromosomes
© Cosmocyte / Phanie / Rex Features
Illustration of a DNA molecule forming chromosomes. But how do the genes encoded in the DNA evolve?

Most intriguing of all, we can now see how genes - which are the recipes for making proteins, the building blocks of life - arise in the first place. And the story is not unfolding quite as expected.

We can now see how genes arise in the first place. And the story is not unfolding quite as expected.
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Eye 1

Grenade camera to aid UK troops


BBC News
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:41 UTC
I-Ball camera
© Unknown
The I-Ball camera allows troops to see into hostile areas
A "grenade" camera, that would enable soldiers to look into hazardous areas, is being developed for UK troops.

Dubbed the I-Ball the wireless device is robust enough to survive being thrown onto a battlefield.

The I-Ball's internal camera gives a 360 degree view, with images being sent from the instant it is launched.

It is thought the new technology would enable soldiers to see into potential danger spots without putting themselves at risk of ambush.
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Telescope

Mystery Of Missing Hydrogen: Apparent Absence From Distant Galaxies Puzzles Astronomers


Science Daily
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:09 UTC
Something vital is missing in the far distant reaches of the universe: hydrogen -- the raw material for stars, planets and possible life.

The discovery of its apparent absence from distant galaxies by a team of Australian astronomers is puzzling because hydrogen gas is the most common constituent of normal matter in the universe.

If anything, hydrogen was expected to be more abundant so early in the life of the universe because it had not yet been consumed by the formation of all the stars and galaxies we know today.
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India
© National Centre for Radio Astrophysics / Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, which comprises thirty 45-metre-diameter dishes, is one of the world's most sensitive radio telescopes.

Dr Steve Curran and colleagues at the University of New South Wales made their observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, which comprises thirty 45-metre-diameter dishes and is one of the world's most sensitive radio telescopes. The results are to be published in a forthcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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Info

Prehistoric Climate Can Help Forecast Future Changes


Science Daily
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:59 UTC
The first comprehensive reconstruction of an extreme warm period shows the sensitivity of the climate system to changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels as well as the strong influence of ocean temperatures, heat transport from equatorial regions, and greenhouse gases on Earth's temperature.

New data allow for more accurate predictions of future climate and improved understanding of today's warming. Past warm periods provide real data on climate change and are natural laboratories for understanding the global climate system.
Pliocene vs. modern sea surface temperature anomaly
© United States Geological Survey
Pliocene vs. modern sea surface temperature anomaly.

Scientists examined fossils from 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago, known as the mid-Pliocene warm period. Research was conducted by the Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) group, led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

"PRISM's research provides objective, unbiased data for climate modelers to better understand the environment in which we live and for decision makers to make informed adaptation and mitigation strategies that yield the greatest benefits to society and the environment," said Senior Advisor to USGS Global Change Programs Thomas Armstrong. "This is the most comprehensive global reconstruction for any warm period and emphasizes the importance of examining the past state of Earth's climate system to understand the future."
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Telescope

Cosmic Ray 'Hot Spots' Bombarding Earth With Cosmic Rays


Science Daily
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:55 UTC
A Los Alamos National Laboratory cosmic-ray observatory has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The research calls into question nearly a century of understanding about galactic magnetic fields near our solar system.

Joining an international team of collaborators, Los Alamos researchers Brenda Dingus, Gus Sinnis, Gary Walker, Petra Hüntemeyer and John Pretz published the findings November 25 in Physical Review Letters.
hot spots in orion
© John Pretz, P-23
An international team of researchers, using Los Alamos National Laboratory's Milagro observatory, has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The hot spots were identified in the two red-colored regions near the constellation Orion.

"The source of cosmic rays has been a 100-year-old problem for astrophysicists," Pretz said. "With the Milagro observatory, we identified two distinct regions with an excess of cosmic rays. These regions are relatively tiny bumps on the background of cosmic rays, which is why they were missed for so long. This discovery calls into question our understanding of cosmic rays and raises the possibility that an unknown source or magnetic effect near our solar system is responsible for these observations."
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Info

Amoeba tracks prompt rethink over early life

Devin Powell
New Scientist
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:08 UTC
Fossil tracks on the seabed could be the handiwork of oversized amoebas that roamed the ocean 1.8 billion years ago, if their modern counterpart is anything to go by.

While exploring the Bahamas, Mikhail Matzof the University of Texas at Austin discovered a new species of giant amoeba called Gromia sphaerica.
giant amoeba
© Mikhail Matz/University of Texas at Austin
The ancestors of a giant amoeba that roams the seabed today (inset) may have left fossil tracks 1.8 billion years ago.

As the grape-sized protozoan rolls along the ocean floor, it sucks up and spits out sediment, leaving behind long grooves and ridges.
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Better Earth

The eco machine that makes water out of thin air

Ed Pilkington
Guardian.co.uk
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:08 UTC
Water, Water, everywhere; nor any drop to drink. The plight of the Ancient Mariner is about to be alleviated thanks to a firm of eco-inventors from Canada who claim to have found the solution to the world's worsening water shortages by drawing the liquid of life from an unlimited and untapped source - the air.

The company, Element Four, has developed a machine that it hopes will become the first mainstream household appliance to have been invented since the microwave. Their creation, the WaterMill, uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water.

The machine went on display this weekend in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, hosted by Wired magazine at its annual showcase of the latest gizmos its editors believe could change the world. From the outside, the mill looks like a giant golf ball that has been chopped in half: it is about 3ft in diameter, made of white plastic, and is attached to the wall.
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Camera

The Science Of Memory: An Infinite Loop in the Brain


Spiegel International
Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:25 UTC
Wouldn't it be great to be able to remember everything? To see all our most important moments, all the priceless encounters, adventures and triumphs? What if memory never faded, but instead could be retrieved at any time, as reliably as films in a video store?

"No one can imagine what it's really like," says Jill Price, 42, "not even the scientists who are studying me."

The Californian, who has an almost perfect memory, is trying to describe how it feels. She starts with a small demonstration of her ability. "When were you born?" she asks.

She hears the date and says: "Oh, that was a Wednesday. There was a cold snap in Los Angeles two days later, and my mother and I made soup."
      Read More...
Telescope

Planet imaged closer to star than ever before?

Maggie McKee
New Scientist
Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:05 UTC
A planet may have been imaged closer to its star than any photographed previously, astronomers say. The candidate planet, which might still turn out to be a foreground or background object, appears to lie at about the orbital distance of Saturn around the well-studied star Beta Pictoris.

Astronomers have long suspected that the young, 12-million-year-old star hosts a massive planet, since it is surrounded by a dusty disc of debris thought to be created by the collision of rocky bodies and infalling comets.
star Beta Pictoris
© ESO/A-M Lagrange et al.
The light from the star Beta Pictoris (which has been blocked out in this near-infrared image) is 1000 times brighter than the bluish-white dot left of centre, which may be a planet. The possible planet is thought to be less than 12 million years old, and still retains the heat of its birth, boasting a temperature of around 1200° Celsius.

Evidence for such a planet grew stronger in 2006, when astronomers reported finding what appeared to be a second, smaller dusty disc around the star that was tilted slightly with respect to the main disc. It may have formed after a planet between 1 and 20 times the mass of Jupiter was thrown out of the main disc by gravitational interactions with other bodies there.
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Telescope

Remains of devoured planet discovered


New Scientist
Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:54 UTC
A dust cloud around a dead star may be all that's left of a planet that was eaten like a peach.

Observations of the cloud around the white dwarf G29-38 by a team led by William Reach of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena suggest it is most likely to be the shredded core of a gas-giant planet like Jupiter (The Astrophysical Journal, in press).
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