World’s first warm-blooded fish is discovered

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have discovered the world’s first warm-blooded fish – the opah.

Researchers discovered that the fish circulates heated blood through its body much like mammals and birds by constantly flapping its fins to move around. The fish is able to flap its winglike pectoral fins to move forward, unlike most fish. Its pectoral muscle is insulated from the cold water by a layer of fat.

Live Science reports that during the NOAA’s study of the fish, researchers attached temperature sensors and satellite tags to the opah that allowed them to track its movements for eight months. The scientists monitored its body temperature as the fish dove down into cooler parts of the water.
Scientists found that no matter what temperature the fish was at, it stayed five degrees cooler than the surrounding water.

How Much Elephant Is In That Mouse?

‘New mouse species has elephant DNA,’ declared the headlines. It must have been hard to resist, considering the contrast in size between these animals. The wording conjures up images of runt elephants evolving into dwarf and then pocket pachyderms before shrinking so small that they could run up their bigger cousins’ trunks.

To further support the idea, the new species is part of a group called sengis, also known as elephant shrews.

Sadly, it’s all complete rubbish. Macroscelides micus is as closely related to elephants as aardvarks are. Yes, they share genes, but so do all creatures. Go back far enough and every living thing is related.

Part of the confusion arises because of the common name, which was probably given to them because of their long thin snouts.

Scientists create ‘designer’ chromosome

PARIS : Scientists have created the first man-made chromosome for a complex-celled organism - a feat hailed Friday as a big step towards acquiring the controversial ability to redesign plants or animals.

A synthetic chromosome was inserted into a brewer’s yeast cell, which functioned as normal - the key test of success, the international team reported in the journal Science. “Our research moves the needle in synthetic biology from theory to reality,” said Jef Boeke, director of the New York University’s Institute for Systems Genetics, who was a member of the research team. Yeast is a closely-studied representative of the group of eukaryotes, organisms with complex cells that contain a nucleus and other structures enclosed within membranes. All plants and animals, including humans, have eukaryotic cells.

Chromosomes have previously been synthesised for bacteria, which are simpler, prokaryotic organisms. Yeast is used to make beer, biofuel and medicines, and researchers believe it can be made to work more efficiently with genetic modifications.

Boeke and his team unravelled the coding of one of yeast’s 16 chromosomes, then used software to make changes to it - removing repetitive and less-used regions.

They then built a synthetic version of this altered chromosome from scratch, stringing together individual nucleotides - the chemical building blocks of the genes that make up chromosomes, which in turn comprise the genome.

Chimpanzees can communicate using Gestures

Georgia State University researchers have concluded that Chimpanzees can communicate using meaningful gestures. Two language-trained chimpanzees named Panzee and Sherman helped human researcher to find hidden food, about which he was not aware.

The experiment conducted by Dr. Charles Menzel and his team at Language Research Center of Georgia State University found that chimpanzees helped human researchers find hidden food by offering meaningful clues. Chimpanzees were interested in offering help for goal-completion task, which gives clue about communication between chimpanzees.

Dr. Menzel and his team members further noticed that chimpanzees use directional gestures. The research team is also confident of memory power of chimpanzees and their communication skills between each other. The study may provide clue to development of language at basic level.

University of Chester’s Department of Psychology researcher Dr. Anna Roberts commented that the research findings are important as they inform us about capability of chimpanzees to share information. They live in community and help each other. They may choose to help each other in finding food. Many other animals communicate between each other whenever they perceive any risk to their life.

How Plants Evolved Over Time To Withstand Cold Climates

In a study that looked into how plants evolved to withstand the low temperatures, researchers found that they developed unique characteristics that helped them bear the cold.

For the study, George Washington University reserachers constructed an evolutionary tree of more than 32,000 species of flowering plants to understand how plants evolved to withstand cold. They found that many plants acquired unique characteristics even before they encountered freezing.

Previous studies supported by plant fossil finds established that ancient plants thrived in warmer temperatures. However, due to climatic changes and shift in habitat to higher latitudes and elevations, plants evolved in such a way that they could cope with the cold. Currently, there are some plant species like the Arctic cinquefoil and three-toothed saxifrage that can survive in temperatures below -14°Celsius.

While animals fight the cold by shifting to different locations or generating heat to keep themselves warm, plants are incapable of doing any of these. The snow on the ground poses some major problems for them. Freezing temperatures result in the formation of air bubbles that block the internal water transport system in plants.

There is a class of animals that never grow old

We're born, we grow, we age, and then we die. Well, maybe not all of us, according to a new study on the animals amongst us who, while they continue to grow older, don't deteriorate with age.

A new study out of Nature takes a comparative look at the life cycles of 46 different species (us included) and finds that not all species live by this pattern of decline that we do. In fact some, the hermit crab, for instance, seem to have turned the whole process upside down. Virginia Hughes at National Geographic explains:

Some organisms are the opposite of humans, becoming more likely to reproduce and less likely to die with each passing year. Others show a spike in both fertility and mortality in old age. Still others show no change in fertility or mortality over their entire lifespan . . .
What the new study didn't find, notably, is an association between lifespan and aging. It turns out that some species with pronounced aging (meaning those with mortality rates that increase sharply over time) live a long time, whereas others don't. Same goes for the species that don't age at all. Oarweed, for example, has a near-constant level of mortality over its life and lives about eight years. In contrast, Hydra, a microscopic freshwater animal, has constant mortality and lives a whopping 1,400 years.

There's some interesting implications for both how we think about aging and evolution. You can read the whole thing here.

Source: http://io9.com/

Can a Creature Ever be 'Perfect'? Bacteria Mutating Since 1988 Still Improving in Simple Environment (VIDEO)

Evolution may never reach an ultimate phase of perfection, but continue to make small improvements throughout time.

Richard Lenski of Michigan State University started growing cultures of the Escherichia colibacteria back in 1988. Since then, over 58,000 generations of bacteria were born on the simple nutrient medium, a Michigan State University news release reported.

"When hiking, it's easy to start climbing toward what seems to be a peak, only to discover that the real peak is far off in the distance," Michael Wiser, lead author and MSU graduate student in Lenski's lab, said. "Now imagine you've been climbing for 25 years, and you're still nowhere near the peak."

The metaphorical "peak" the researcher was talking about refers to what is known as a "fitness peak." The peak occurs when a population finds such a great set of mutations that any new mutations would cause a decline in the strength and quality of the species as opposed to an improvement.

Linky's bacteria have not reached that point, even after living in a simple environment for about a quarter of a century.

Most species are exposed to changing environments which forces them to keep finding new mutations in order to adapt, but researchers had believed organisms would eventually reach a state of "perfection" if kept in the same environment.

Is Bigfoot Real? Science Group Claims Sasquatch Exists, 'Welcome to Night Vale' America

Maybe it's all the October excitement...or everyone just woke up in Night Vale...because scientists are now confirming that Bigfoot is real...well some scientists. A recent study called the Sasquatch Genome Project claims to have found DNA and video evidence that the human-ape hybrid actually exists.

Bigfoot conspiracy theorists have been given enough fuel to support their claims for the next 50 years. A recent study was released by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum, titled, ''Novel North American Hominins, Next Generation Sequencing of Three Whole Genomes and Associated Studies,'' and reports to have collected key evidence to confirm the existence of bigfoot. The official press release reads:

''One hundred eleven samples of blood, tissue, hair, and other types of specimens were studied, characterized and hypothesized to be obtained from elusive hominins in North America commonly referred to as Sasquatch. DNA was extracted and purified from a subset of these samples that survived rigorous screening for wildlife species identification.

Time Perception in Animals Based on Pace of Life: How Fast Eyes Move

Time perception varies in animals. For example, flies observe motion on timescales that are far finer than our own eyes can perceive. Now, scientists have discovered that an animal's ability to perceive time is linked to its pace of life. 

Time perception varies in animals. For example, flies observe motion on timescales that are far finer than our own eyes can perceive. Now, scientists have discovered that an animal's ability to perceive time is linked to its pace of life.

Different animals perceive time differently. In fact, one species of tiger beetle runs faster than its eyes can see, causing it to essentially becoming blind. The beetle has to stop periodically to re-evaluate its prey's position because of this. Even in humans, athletes have been shown to quicken their eyes' ability to track moving balls during games.

In order to examine this type of time perception, the researchers employed a phenomenon called the critical flicker fusion frequency. This phenomenon is based on the maximum speed of flashes of light an individual can see before the light source is perceived as constant. This particular occurrence is the principle behind the illusion of non-flashing television, computer and cinema screens. The scientists showed that animals that would be expected to be agile possess the most refined ability to see time at high resolutions.

Scientists unravel mystery why wolves cry

Why animals make noise? What they suggest? Austria-based scientists have discovered that the lonesome howl of the wolf doesn’t mean the animal is sad or distressed but it actually expresses the quality of relationships between the wolves.

The researchers based at Austria’s Wolf Science Centre said wolves howl more when a close companion or high-ranking group member leaves.

The findings, published in Current Biology, suggest the wolf’s howl is explained by social factors rather than physiological ones such as stress.

The study further explains relationships of wolf within its pack. Wolves are considered to be social creatures.

“Our results suggest the connection of social factor more in the howling behaviour than the emotional one in the wolf,” says Prof Friederike Range of the Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

The researchers also suggested that the wolves make such sound to provide a sound-based beacon to help the wandering wolf find its way back to the safety of the pack.

Source: http://www.pentagonpost.com

Fossil of most evolutionarily successful mammal found in China

A nearly complete skeleton that belongs to the oldest ancestor of "the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammal lineage" on Earth has been unearthed in China, researchers from China and the US said.

Dubbed as " Rugosodon eurasiaticus", the newly discovered species looked a bit like a small rat or a chipmunk. It lived 160 million years ago and was an early member of the group of mammals known as multituberculates, which flourished across the planet from about 170 million to 35 million years ago, reports Xinhua.

Multituberculates arose in the Jurassic period and went extinct in the Oligocene Epoch, occupying a diverse range of habitats for more than 100 million years before they were out-competed by more modern rodents.

"The new mammal is called Rugosodon after the rugose teeth ornamented by numerous tiny ridges, grooves and pits, indicating that it was an omnivore that fed on leaves and seeds of ferns and gymnosperm plants, plus worms and insects," an international team of scientists from Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago said in a statement on Thursday.

Glow-in-the-dark bunnies born in Turkey

The fluorescent rabbits will help scientists test gene therapy research, and join a long list of other animals that glow.

Scientists at the University of Istanbul and the University of Hawaii Manoa have just overseen the birth of rabbits that glow under black light, according to Discovery News.

The Turkish researchers used techniques developed by the Hawaiian scientists to develop the transgenic bunnies. Two of the eight rabbits in the litter successfully glowed. Under normal light, the rabbits appear white and look like untreated bunnies.

The furry creatures had been injected with a fluorescent jellyfish gene, adding them to the long line of test animals (mice, pigs, cats and dogs) who now sport the glow-in-the-dark trait.

But what's the point of fluorescent animals? As scientists test breakthrough gene therapy for other illness on the animals, they couple the insertion of the test gene with the unique jellyfish gene.

If the animal glows, the researchers know the genes have transferred successfully.

Source: http://news.msn.com

Dolphins 'call each other by name'

Scientists have found further evidence that dolphins call each other by "name".

The research sheds new light on the intelligence of dolphins

Research has revealed that the marine mammals use a unique whistle to identify each other.

A team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland found that when the animals hear their own call played back to them, they respond.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Vincent Janik, from the university's Sea Mammal Research Unit, said: "(Dolphins) live in this three-dimensional environment, offshore without any kind of landmarks and they need to stay together as a group.

"These animals live in an environment where they need a very efficient system to stay in touch."

Signature whistles

It had been-long suspected that dolphins use distinctive whistles in much the same way that humans use names.

Previous research found that these calls were used frequently, and dolphins in the same groups were able to learn and copy the unusual sounds.

Bacteria in space grows in strange ways, experiments show

Bacteria grown in a dish of fake urine in space behaves in ways never-before-seen in Earth microorganisms, scientists say.

A team of scientists sent samples of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosainto orbit aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis to see how they grew in comparison to their Earth-dwelling counterparts.

The 3-D communities of microorganisms (called biofilms) grown aboard the space shuttle had more live cells, were thicker and had more biomass than the bacterial colonies grown in normal gravity on Earth as controls. The space bacteria also grew in a "column-and-canopy" structure that has never been observed in bacterial colonies on Earth, according to NASA scientists.

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Image: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium grown onboard the space shuttle Atlantis, forms in a "column-and-canopy" structure unlike the arrangements observed in bacteria grown on Earth.

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"Biofilms were rampant on the Mir space station and continue to be a challenge on the [International Space Station], but we still don't really know what role gravity plays in their growth and development," NASA's study leader Cynthia Collins, an assistant professor in the department of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., said in a statement. "Our study offers the first evidence that spaceflight affects community-level behaviors of bacteria, and highlights the importance of understanding how both harmful and beneficial human-microbe interactions may be altered during spaceflight."

Most biofilms found in the human body and in nature are harmless, but some are associated with disease, NASA officials said.

Confirmed: Spiders Are Even More Terrifying Than Previously Thought

New research suggests that spider webs can lure their prey using, literally, electric attraction.

Spider webs are architectural marvels. Their silks are similar in tensile strength to alloy steel. Their adhesive properties adjust to movements of prey ensnared in them. Yet they are, for many of the spiders that weave them, edible.

And spider webs, it turns out, may be one more thing, too: actually attractive to the very prey they're meant to lure. New research suggests that the webs may be effective at their primary jobs -- catching prey for the creatures that wove them -- not only because of their stickiness, and not only because of their strength, and not only because of their unique shape ... but also because of their responsiveness to electricity itself.

Yes. According to the research, the webs and positively charged objects -- like, say, insects flying by -- seem to be attracted to each other. Electrically attracted to each other. Unavoidably attracted to each other. Insects' wings, after all, don't simply keep their owners in the air as they're flapping; they also, in the process, generate electrical charge. Honeybees can generate enough charge -- up to 200 volts -- to detach pollen from flowers. And spider webs may take advantage of that in a way that is both evolutionarily ingenious and totally insidious at the same time, capturing prey by essentially sucking their victims in. Talk about animal magnetism.

Web deformations produced by a charged honeybee (a), a fruitfly (b), and a water drop (c). Images are three sequential video frames (filming speed: 1,500 frames s−1). The bee, fruitfly, and drop sizes are 12 mm, 3 mm, and 1.5 mm, respectively, with the image gamma increased to 1.5

The study, conducted by U.C. Berkeley's Victor Manuel Ortega-Jimenez and Robert Dudley and published in the journal Scientific Reports, tested webs' responsiveness to, in particular, the electrostatic charges of insects and water droplets. Their research, the authors note, builds on previous work that has documented webs' deformations in response to prey. We know, or think we know, that spider webs shift their shapes in order to capture that prey; the question is how they do it.

Scientists use stem cells, mouse body to make a real human liver

These liver buds were grown from iPS cells, a type of stem cell that can provide a perfect genetic match to anyone. The buds grew into functional livers after being transplanted into mice. 

Scientists trying to use stem cells to grow organs in the lab have been going about it the wrong way, Japanese researchers say. Instead of trying to make a fully functional organ to transplant into a patient, they should create an immature version and let it grow inside the patient’s body.

The researchers, from Yokohama City University, showed that their approach can make a human liver that performs essential liver tasks when placed inside a mouse. They described their experiments in a study published Wednesday by the journal Nature.

The Japanese team started with induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, which are capable of growing into any type of cell in the body. These stem cells are made by rewinding adult cells to an immature state; that means they can be used to make organs that are a perfect genetic match to anyone -- including a person who needs a liver transplant.

The researchers set as their goal the creation of a “three-dimensional liver bud.” Under normal circumstances, liver buds are made inside 3- or 4-week-old embryos and grow into mature livers as the embryo develops.

By placing the iPS cells into a lab dish with a carefully chosen combination of cells -- including some from a human umbilical vein -- the researchers were able to prompt them to grow into liver buds in about 48 hours. Tests revealed the experimental buds were expressing the same types of genes as a real liver bud.

Extreme Life on Earth: 8 Bizarre Creatures

Extreme Life

From bacteria that can survive inside rocks to microbes that can withstand tremendous heat, cold and radiation, life can take some extreme forms. These enterprising creatures reveal not just the resilience of life on Earth, but the possibilities for life elsewhere in the universe. Here are some especially amazing examples of so-called extremophiles.

Not a drop to drink

Some organisms, such as Dunaliella algae discovered in 2010 in a cave in Chile's Atacama desert, can thrive on very little water. Despite living in the driest place on Earth, these mooching microbes grow on top of spiderwebs to capitalize on dew – the meager amounts of air moisture that condense on the webs in the mornings.

Hot stuff

So-called hyperthermophiles are species that thrive in extremely hot environments. The Aquifex genus of bacteria, for example, has been found living in hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, where temperatures can reach 205 degrees Fahrenheit (96 degrees Celsius).






Frugal living

One extreme species, the Thermococcus microbe, can survive on so little energy that until now the chemical reaction it uses wasn't thought able to sustain life. These organisms were found living near deep-sea hydrothermal vents where super-hot water seeps out of the Earth's crust near Papua New Guinea. In addition to their thrifty use of energy, the microbes can survive in extreme temperatures too scorching for most creatures.

Researchers Create Remote-Controlled Cockroaches

A group of scientists at the North Carolina State University has created a legion of inexorable cyborg cockroaches. The method of Kinect was used by researchers to direct cockroaches to the good side.

As per the findings, Kinect is an extremely simple method, in which roaches were wired tested with a small circuit. The same helped in sending electrical impulses to the cerci and antenna of the roaches. Cerci are the sensory organs, which the creatures have on their abdomen.

The cockroaches were this way made to step forward. Remote control also helped in changing their direction. The entire thing was then lashed into a Kinect setup.

The report found Kinect was later used to track the progress of cockroaches all along a predetermined path. Signals were sent with an aim to guide the creatures and data was gathered on the roaches' response to the impulses. Since, the same could help fine-tune the system for more accuracy.

The team is of the hope that the remote-controlled cockroaches could be used in future for hunting survivors in unsafe situations such as collapsed buildings.

"We want to build on this program, incorporating mapping and radio frequency techniques that will allow us to use a small group of cockroaches to explore and map disaster sites", affirmed Bozkurt.

Bumpy-Faced Cow-Sized Reptile Roamed the Ancient Desert

An artist's rendering of the Bunostegos and its bump-ridden face.

The face of the Bunostegos looks like it was made by a kindergartner who went wild with a tub of Play-Doh. Flaps of skin are stretched below its chin, hanging like stalactites. Hard knobs decorate its nose and forehead. As weird-looking as the animal is, it was able to live in the harsh deserts of the ancient supercontinent, Pangea.

Archaeologists at the University of Washington discovered three Bunostegos skulls in the rocks of the Moradi Formation in Niger. The details behind these fossilized remains will be published in next month's issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The skulls are believed to date back to the late Permian period, more than 250 million years ago, and older than many dinosaur fossils seen today in museums.

Bunostegos, Latin for "knobby skull roof," belongs to a completely different animal group than dinosaurs, said Linda Tsuji, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington who was the lead author of the journal article on Bunostegos.

Researchers Develop Sugar Solution That Turns Tissues Transparent

A group of Japanese researchers have developed a new sugar solution that turns tissues transparent in three days without altering its chemical composition or shape.

The world of science and medicine is constantly evolving as scientists and researchers develop new and innovative techniques and medications. In one such spectacular new development, a team of Japanese researchers from RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology has created a new sugar solution that makes tissues transparent in a matter of three days without altering either its chemical composition or its shape.

Researchers of the new development also confirmed that when this solution was used with fluorescence microscopy, it provided detailed images of the brain at resolutions that have never been obtained before.

Researchers from Japan and USA have in the past tried developing solutions and techniques that could make biological samples transparent to enable researchers to get a better understanding of what lies deep down inside biological structures like the brain.