The Biology Corner The Biology Project Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology Before DNA, before RNA: Life in the hodge-podge world - life - 08 January 2012 Take note, DNA and RNA: it's not all about you. Life on Earth may have begun with a splash of TNA – a different kind of genetic material altogether. Because RNA can do many things at once, those studying the origins of life have long thought that it was the first genetic material. But the discovery that a chemical relative called TNA can perform one of RNA's defining functions calls this into question. Instead, the very first forms of life may have used a mix of genetic materials. Today, most life bar some viruses uses DNA to store information, and RNA to execute the instructions encoded by that DNA. A key piece of evidence for this "RNA world" hypothesis is that RNA is a jack of all trades. Now it seems TNA might have been just as capable, although it is not found in nature today. It differs from RNA and DNA in its sugar backbone: TNA uses threose where RNA uses ribose and DNA deoxyribose. The team took a library of TNAs and evolved them in the presence of a protein. No TNA world
Scientists Work To Unravel Mystery Behind Woman Who Doesn’t Grow Twenty year old Brooke Greenberg hasn’t grown since age five. For the last 15 years mystified doctors have been unable to explain the cause for Brooke’s disorder that has kept her aging in check. At age twenty, she maintains the physical and mental appearance of a toddler. Eric Shadt wants to solve this most bizarre of medical mysteries. Because hormones control many of the maturation processes, one of the first things the research team looked at was to see if Brooke’s own hormone levels might be abnormal. The researchers are now are painstakingly analyzing Brooke’s entire genome in search of unique mutations. To find the mutation Shadt and his team are using the latest genome sequencing and analysis tools. Unraveling the genetics that prevent Brooke Greenberg from aging could lead to treatments for Alzeheimer’s disease, cancer, or to slow the process of aging itself. Already the research team has found some unique mutations.
Interactives archive: Biology Anatomy of ChildbirthReview the three stages of having a baby as well as some of the risks women face. Anatomy of the CoelacanthThis survivor from the age of dinosaurs has body parts found in no other living creature. Anatomy of a CrocExamine a Nile crocodile and see what makes this amazing reptile tick. Anatomy of a HiveInvestigate the physical, behavioral, and social infrastructure inside a bees' nest. Anatomy of Photo 51When you know how to look at it, this shadowy X-ray photograph speaks volumes about the shape of DNA. Bacteria TalkIn this interview, Bassler describes the 600 species of bacteria on your teeth each morning, and much more. Brain GeographyLearn how to model a brain and find out more about the cerebellum, spinal cord, brain stem, and cerebral cortex. Build a SteroidFollow the steps a chemist takes to synthesize a disease-fighting drug. Classifying LifeWhat do a polar bear and a sea cucumber have in common? Coelacanth QuizDoes this fish lay eggs? Guess What's Coming to Dinner?
A Curious Mind Here are five science stories that I found intriguing during 2013. I don’t mean to imply that these necessarily represent the most important discoveries, rather, these are simply stories that, for one reason or another, caught my attention more than others. 1. Great Ball of Fire On the morning of February 15, an asteroid that penetrated the Earth’s atmosphere unnoticed (Figure 1), exploded above the Siberian town of Chelyabinsk. Figure 1. Figure 2. 2. While excavating in a parking lot in Leicester, England, archaeologists hit the jackpot. 3. The “Goldbach conjecture” is one of those famous problems in mathematics that has already awaited its solution for more than a quarter of a millennium (since 1742). Figure 3. Figure 4. 4. In his pioneering attempts to calculate the age of the Earth (in 1862) Lord Kelvin had to estimate the temperature in the Earth’s deep interior. Figure 5. 5.
British scientists recreate the molecules that gave birth to life itself By Nick Enoch Updated: 08:03 GMT, 27 January 2012 Organic chemists at the University of York have recreated a pair of simple sugars - threose and erythrose - in a process which could have occurred before the advent of life Scientists are one step closer to understanding the origin of life after making a breakthrough into how sugar molecules found in DNA are created. Organic chemists at the University of York have recreated a pair of simple sugars - threose and erythrose - in a process which could have occurred before the advent of life. The team, led by Dr Paul Clarke, along with colleagues at the University of Nottingham, have made the first step towards showing how the basic building blocks of life developed. Every biological molecule has an ability to exist in a left-handed form or right-handed form. All sugars in biology are made up of the right-handed form of molecules and yet all the amino acids that make up the peptides and proteins are made up of the left-handed form.
Comprehension strategies iBrain, a Device That Can Read Thoughts Called the iBrain, this simple-looking contraption is part of an experiment that aims to allow Dr. Hawking — long paralyzed by , or Lou Gehrig’s disease — to communicate by merely thinking. The iBrain is part of a new generation of portable neural devices and algorithms intended to monitor and diagnose conditions like , depression and . “The iBrain can collect data in real time in a person’s own bed, or when they’re watching TV, or doing just about anything,” Dr. The device uses a single channel to pick up waves of electrical brain signals, which change with different activities and thoughts, or with the pathologies that accompany brain disorders. But the raw waves are hard to read because they must pass through the many folds of the brain and then the skull, so they are interpreted with an algorithm that Dr. The researchers traveled to Dr. The algorithm, called Spears, was able to discern Dr. “We wanted to see if there was any change in the signal,” Dr. “Dr. Dr. “Dr. Dr.
Dragonflies keeping their eyes on the prize | The Scicurious Brain One of the things I love most about science blogging is the opportunity to learn about entirely new things. Of course, we all have that opportunity on most days, but having to find something to blog about three times a week definitely keeps me on my toes. And what I learn can be so fascinating! And today, my fascination is with dragonflies. And my fascination with them grew even more as I read this paper. Gonzalez-Bellido et al. (Source) The authors recorded from the visual neurons of a large number of dragonflies as they were presented with prey moving across the visual field. These dragonflies have a set of neurons called small target movement detectors, which specifically detect the small and speedy movements of potential prey. They recorded from the motor neurons, and saw that prep movement very quickly activated the descending motor neurons, and that the activation was associated with the fast interception of the prey. *Kidding!