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October 11, 2015
NASA Release Six Incredible Images From Their Chandra Archives
Photo credit:
Chandra X-ray Observatory awaiting deployment from the Space Shuttle Columbia. NASA
In celebration of American Archive Month, NASA has released six mind-blowing images from the Chandra archive.
October 10, 2015
Researchers Make Artificial Cells That Can Replicate Themselves
Janet Iwasa, Szostak Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital via National Science Foundation
By Alexandra Ossola
Scientists have a pretty good theory for how life on Earth began: Meteorites that bombarded our planet brought simple carbon-based compounds called amino acids. Eventually, slowly, these chemicals combined to make cells, which were then able to replicate and become the increasingly complex forms of life that we have today. But researchers didn’t quite understand the mechanisms through which the earliest life forms evolved; though these cells were able to replicate, they were not yet alive. Now a team of Japanese biologists has created artificial cells similar to those that might have first existed on Earth to better understand how they might have started to divide and evolve, according to a study published today in Nature Communications.
The researchers made a synthetic “protocell” made of DNA and proteins packaged inside lipids, which are fatty compounds meant to mimic the cell membrane. These spheres aren’t alive, but the DNA in them contains instructions to replicate under the right conditions. By changing the pH of the spheres’ environment, the researchers were able to trigger the cells to divide. But the hard part was replenishing the spheres’ supplies so that they could start the division process over again, as real cells do. To work around this, the researchers designed the newly split synthetic cells to combine with other cell-like structures nearby. It worked—the spheres had three successful generations in the lab.
Read the full article by clicking the name of the source below.
SolarCity Unveils World’s Most Efficient Rooftop Solar Panel, To Be Made in America
Shutterstock
By Kady Cooper
SolarCity has built the world’s most efficient rooftop solar panel, with a module efficiency exceeding 22 percent. The new SolarCity panel generates more power per square foot and harvests more energy over a year than any other rooftop panel in production, and will be the highest volume solar panel manufactured in the Western Hemisphere.
SolarCity will begin producing the first modules in small quantities this month at its 100 MW pilot facility, but the majority of the new solar panels will ultimately be produced at SolarCity’s 1 GW facility in Buffalo, New York. SolarCity expects to be producing between 9,000 – 10,000 solar panels each day with similar efficiency when the Buffalo facility reaches full capacity.
Read the full article by clicking the name of the source below.
Blue Skies Over Pluto And A Lakeside Home On Mars
Photo credit:
A beautiful day on Pluto with clear blue skies. NASA
The solar system beyond Earth is often depicted as a dark, hostile and barren place where you absolutely wouldn’t want to get stranded. But the latest results from a pair of intrepid explorers have once again confounded the expectations of planetary scientists. They reveal blue skies over Pluto and an ancient, tranquil lake on Mars that could have supported life.
Chemistry Nobel DNA Research Lays Foundation For New Ways To Fight Cancer
Photo credit:
You’d be in bad shape if your cells couldn’t fix DNA issues that arise. redondoself, CC BY
Our cells are up against a daily onslaught of damage to the DNA that encodes our genes. It takes constant effort to keep up with the DNA disrepair – and if our cells didn’t bother to try to fix it, we might not survive. The DNA damage repair pathways are an essential safeguard for the human genome.
How We Discovered That The Earth’s Inner Core Is Older Than Previously thought
Photo credit:
Dating the Earth’s enigmatic inner core: a Pluto-sized ball of iron that is super hot and frozen at the same time. Kelvinsong/wikimedia, CC BY-SA
According to recent estimates, the Earth’s solid inner core started forming between half a billion and one billion years ago. However, our new measurements of ancient rocks as they cool from magma have indicated that it may actually have started forming more than half a billion years earlier.
The Public Must Speak Up About Gene Editing – Beyond Embryo Modification
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Gene editing has many potential applications that are not discussed enough. Pixabay
Researchers led by the Francis Crick institute recently applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a licence to genetically modify human embryos. The research would use the genome editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 to shed light on the genetic causes of defect of miscarriages in pregnancy.
October 9, 2015
What We’re Reading
Amazing what NCSE staff can do with just a cup of coffee and a smartphone
Here are some of the stories that caught NCSE’s eye this week. Feel free to share articles that crossed your screen in the comment section, or e-mail us directly during the week with things that caught your eye. We’ll add the best to our weekly posts.
NASA Confirms Evidence that Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars, NASA, September 28, 2015 — NASA announces evidence that Mars has liquid water. Life on Earth is, of course, all related (because evolution), and all dependent on water. NCSE’s Josh Rosenau ponders whether other kinds of life might arise and evolve on Mars, and, indeed, may be hiding in plain sight on Earth.
Talking Science and God with the Pope’s New Astronomer, Science, September 29, 2015 — Vatican astronomer Fr. Guy Consolmagno, in an interview with Science magazine, explains why there’s a Vatican astronomer, what a Vatican astronomer does, and how he sees science and religion working together.
Book Review: Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution, The Dispersal of Darwin, October 1, 2015 — History-of-science blogger Michael D. Barton pans a new collection of quotations from Darwin, noting that some are spurious, some are unsourced, and some aren't even from Darwin.
Fossils Help to Reveal the True Colours of Extinct Mammals for the First Time, The Conversation, October 1, 2015 — Who would have thought that we could figure out from their fossils what colors long-extinct animals had? Yet Jakob Vinther and Caitlin Colleary explain how they ascertained the color of 49-million-year-old bats.
Stirring and Amusing, ‘The Martian’ Defines What’s Best about Big Movies, Washington Post, October 1, 2015 — In her review of blockbuster hit The Martian, the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday praises the movie for its positive portrayal of science, saying, “at a time when a kid can get busted for bringing a DIY clock to school, presidential candidates seriously debate the value of vaccinations and even the Pope can’t win over global warming skeptics, the problem-solving valorized in ‘The Martian’ provides a simultaneously stirring and spirited example of how cool science can be.”
3 Share Nobel Medicine Prize for Tropical Disease Drugs, The New York Times, October 5, 2015, and Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald Share Nobel in Physics for Work on Neutrinos, The New York Times, October 6, 2015 — Chemists win Nobel prize: thank microbes. Physicists win Nobel prize for following up on an unexpected result. NCSE’s Josh Rosenau blogs about the role of serendipity in science here.
Illegal Trade Threatens One-Third of World’s Cacti with Extinction, Newsweek, October 6, 2015 — A study published on October 5 in Nature Plants found that the cacti are among the most threatened taxonomic groups, with 31% of evaluated species found to be at risk. NCSE’s Emily Schoerning points out that while popular press coverage, like that in the Newsweek article cited here, focus on the pressure that illegal trade places on many species, the original research article stresses that agriculture and land use change plays an even more important role.
NH Presidential Forum on Energy, Environment for GOP Candidates Canceled, National Wildlife Federation, October 7, 2015 — What if they gave a debate, and nobody came? The National Wildlife Federation announces that a proposed forum to discuss energy and environment issues has been canceled due to “insufficient candidate participation” from GOP presidential hopefuls.
How Giraffes Became Winners by a Neck, Laelaps, October 7, 2015 — Brian Switek reports on a recent research paper on giraffe evolution. We can replace Lamarckian just-so stories now that we know more about how giraffe necks evolved.
Scientists Recover First Genome of Ancient Human from Africa, The New York Times, October 8, 2015 — Carl Zimmer reports that a complete genome has been recovered and sequenced from a 4,500-year-old skeleton from Ethiopia and reveals some pretty cool things about human evolution.
The Rise of the Jaw Slingers, October 8, 2015, Not Exactly Rocket Science — If you’ve ever seen a fish skeleton, you know that fish can have terrifying jaws full of teeth. But you might not know that many fish can sling these terrifying jaws out to snatch prey. Ed Yong has the scoop on some new research that provides insights into the evolution of this ability.
World’s Oceans Facing Biggest Coral Die-Off in History, Scientists Warn, The Guardian, October 8, 2015 — NOAA releases report on coral bleaching suggesting that 5% of world's corals may die in 2015. Interestingly, this appears to be from temperature changes attributable to the current ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) cycle, rather than ocean acidification—a reminder that ecosystems are subject to a multitude of potential stressors.
Do Conspiracy Theorists See More Patterns in Randomness? Apparently Not, Ars Technica, October 9, 2015 — People more prone to conspiracy theories (a common correlate of science denial) are not actually more likely to see patterns in randomness. UNLESS THE RESEARCHERS ARE JUST HIDING THE EVIDENCE.
Fossil Friday
This week on Fossil Friday, another exciting specimen from one of our top fossil commenters, Dan Phelps! Check it out:
Two clues again: this fossil is from the late Cretaceous, and its kind of smashed appearance is worth noting. Be the first to identify it in the comments, and win bragging rights for the week!
Wildlife Tourism Could Be “Domesticating” Wild Animals
Wilderness protected areas get eight billion visitors a year. And that's just on land. Underwater reserves add millions more to the tally. Which, considering these are "protected" areas, seems like an insane number of people.
"It is insane." Dan Blumstein, a behavioral and conservation biologist at U.C.L.A. "Now remember some of these might be local parks. But a lot of people are going and seeking out natural areas annually around the world. And therefore the potential impact of this can be quite large."
And the potential impact, to put it bluntly: "you know, does ecotourism make animals dumb?" Or, in other words: could our presence disrupt and change the instincts of wild animals, and ultimately, affect their survival? Blumstein and his colleagues surveyed literature on human-wildlife interactions all over the world, from chimpanzee ecotourism in Uganda, to elk and antelope gawking in the Grand Tetons. And they concluded that human tourism—no matter how well intentioned—might desensitize animals. Making them easier prey for poachers and predators.
A couple of mechanisms could be in play. There's what's called the "human shield" effect—predators are less likely to pounce when humans are around, making prey less vigilant, even after we leave. Or we might simply habituate prey to large noisy animals—like us—and thus render them more susceptible to predators later.
"It does seem that we may be, inadvertently or advertently, domesticating animals through tourism and wildlife tourism and ecotourism." The review is in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution. [Geffroy et al, How Nature-Based Tourism Might Increase Prey Vulnerability to Predators]
Now this paper isn't direct proof that tourism is actually desensitizing animals—it’s just a theory at this point. "What we have is we have all the pieces of the puzzle sort of lining up, and we articulate a pathway by which this could be an issue. Is it, and under what conditions? We don't know, and our paper really is a rallying cry for more research on the topic." Research that will hopefully give land managers the tools they need to convince us humans not to love the world's wildlife to death.
-- Christopher Intagliata
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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