Two North Norwegian Wonders Eider ducks are well taken care of by the people in Vega. They build nests and small house for them as protection against predators. In return, people get both eggs and the finest natural down available – eider down. (Photo: Bente Sundsvold) Some places are so important that losing them would represent an irreplaceable loss for humanity as a whole. We all have a shared responsibility to take care of these places for future generations. Researchers at the University of Tromsø are studying two of Norway’s wonders that made the list: the Vega islands and the rock carvings in Alta. Ea as the island residents’ “animals” “Most of the people who live on the Vega Islands were surprised when they found out that the islands had been included on the World Heritage list in 2004. The Vega islands, about 6,000 islands in all, are found on the exclusive list because it is home to a place where there is a very special relationship between human and birds. Etched and drawn in 5000 years
Biology History The objects of our research will be the different forms and manifestations of life, the conditions and laws under which these phenomena occur, and the causes through which they have been effected. The science that concerns itself with these objects we will indicate by the name biology [Biologie] or the doctrine of life [Lebenslehre]. Although modern biology is a relatively recent development, sciences related to and included within it have been studied since ancient times. Scholars of the medieval Islamic world who wrote on biology included al-Jahiz (781–869), Al-Dinawari (828–896), who wrote on botany,[8] and Rhazes (865–925) who wrote on anatomy and physiology. Biology began to quickly develop and grow with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's dramatic improvement of the microscope. The discovery of the physical representation of heredity came along with evolutionary principles and population genetics. Foundations of modern biology Cell theory Main article: Cell theory Evolution Genetics
Egyptian Mummy's Elaborate Hairstyle Revealed in 3D | CT Scans of Mummies Nearly 2,000 years ago, at a time when Egypt was under the control of the Roman Empire, a young woman with an elaborate hairstyle was laid to rest only yards away from a king's pyramid, researchers report. She was 5 feet 2 inches in height, around age 20 when she died, and was buried in a decorated coffin whose face is gilded with gold. A nearby pyramid, at a site called Hawara, was built about 2 millennia before her lifetime. The location of her burial is known from archival notes. High-resolution CT scans reveal that, before she was buried, her hair was dressed in an elaborate hairstyle. "The mummy's hair is readily appreciable, with longer strands at the middle of the scalp drawn back into twists or plaits that were then wound into a tutulus, or chignon at the vertex (crown) of the head," writes a research team in a paper published recently in the journal RSNA RadioGraphics. The mummy of the young woman is in its coffin at the Redpath Museum in Montreal. The 'matron' Theban male
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin, FRS (/ˈdɑrwɪn/;[1] 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist and geologist,[2] best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory.[I] He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors,[3] and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.[4] Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species.[5][6] By the 1870s the scientific community and much of the general public had accepted evolution as a fact. Biography Early life and education Painting of seven-year-old Charles Darwin in 1816. Voyage of the Beagle Death and funeral Works
University of Tennessee professor finds prehistoric rock art connected; maps cosmological belief Public release date: 19-Jun-2013 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Whitney Heinswheins@utk.edu 865-974-5460University of Tennessee at Knoxville It is likely some of the most widespread and oldest art in the United States. Recently, the discoveries of prehistoric rock art have become more common. The research led by Simek, president emeritus of the UT system and a distinguished professor of science, is published in this month's edition of the journal Antiquity. The researchers proposed that rock art changed the natural landscape to reflect a three-dimensional universe central to the religion of the prehistoric Mississippian period. "Our findings provide a window into what Native American societies were like beginning more than 6,000 years ago," said Simek. Simek and his team analyzed 44 open- air art sites where the art is exposed to light and 50 cave art sites in the Cumberland Plateau using nondestructive, high-tech tools, such as a high-resolution laser scanner.
Heredity & Evolution My reflection when I first made myself master of the central idea of the Origin was, "How extremely stupid not to have thought of that." — Thomas Huxley, on reading Charles Darwin's seminal book on Evolution, On the Origin of Species Genes: the units of heredity One of the key things we see in the living world all around us is the principle of heredity: the rule that like begets like. A seed from an apple gives rise to another apple tree, not an orange tree or a beanstalk. Children invariably resemble their parents, both in looks and in personality. How does this come about? In his most famous experiments, done between 1856–63, Mendel took two different varieties of the plant, a tall one and a short one, and produced offspring by hybridising them (i.e., using pollen from one to fertilise the other). We use the terms genotype and phenotype to distinguish between what genes an individual has and what its physical characteristics are. Inferrring allele dominance The creation of variation
Rich People Are Full of Different Chemicals Than Poor People Introduction to DNA Structure A Molecular Graphics companion to an Introductory Course in Biology or Biochemistry. Copyright 1995, Richard B. Hallick. Contents Components of DNA DNA is a polymer. A is for adenine G is for guanine C is for cytosine T is for thymine Purine Bases Adenine and guanine are purines. Structure of A and G The 9 atoms that make up the fused rings (5 carbon, 4 nitrogen) are numbered 1-9. Pyrimidine Bases Cytosine and thymine are pyrimidines. Structure of C and T Deoxyribose Sugar The deoxyribose sugar of the DNA backbone has 5 carbons and 3 oxygens. Structure of deoxyribose Nucleosides A nucleoside is one of the four DNA bases covalently attached to the C1' position of a sugar. Structure of dA In dA and dG, there is an "N-glycoside" bond between the sugar C1' and N9 of the purine. Nucleotides A nucleotide is a nucleoside with one or more phosphate groups covalently attached to the 3'- and/or 5'-hydroxyl group(s). DNA Backbone The DNA backbone is a polymer with an alternating sugar-phosphate sequence.
Inca kids drugged before being sacrificed The oldest mummified girl, known as La Donchella – the Maiden. She and two other child mummies have been under intense examination since 1999. (Photo: José Fontanelli) Three child mummies, a girl aged 13 and a boy and girl aged four or five, were discovered in 1999, entombed in separate ritual graves, a few metres from the peak of the Llullaillaco Volcano on the border of Argentina and Chile. They had been undisturbed for 500 years, frozen in the dry Andean climate at an elevation of 7,000 metres. Scientists understood immediately that the children had been sacrificed. The corpses from Llullaillaco have been thoroughly examined. But they were given more than just an abundance of nutritious food, scientists have found. Length of hair Researchers at the UK’s University of Bradford sought to reconstruct what they could of the last year for the trio prior to their sacrifice. La Donchella’s face in a photo, an x-ray and CT scans. The ritual begins Supernatural intoxication Who were they?