TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Ancient city by the sea rises amid Egypt's resorts By PAUL SCHEMM 2010-09-07T12:10:49ZMARINA, Egypt (AP) -- Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.... hosted.ap.org |
Of men and chocolate biscuits It is a droll discovery that on a numerical basis, a human seems genetically less complex than a chocolate biscuitUS researchers have just completed the DNA sequence of Theobroma cacao, the fruit of which provides the world's chocolate and cocoa. The project – funded by Mars, the chocolate giant – is likely to benefit more than six million chocolate farmers in the tropics, by delivering disease-resistant trees, or tastier fruit, or higher yields per hectare, or all three. That the research was completed on a plant of interest to small farmers in the poorer nations is itself a measure of the progress of genomic science.Cacao joins more than 180 life forms for which scientists now have the complete genetic sequence. These include rice, wheat and poplar trees; yeast, grapes and the honeybee; chimpanzees, dogs, puffer fish and Norwegian rats; modern humans, the chicken and the laboratory mouse; and a host of microbes, including leprosy, bubonic plague and the malaria parasite. This is a gathering of knowledge that, even 20 years ago, could not have been imagined. Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, was first isolated in a laboratory dish of pneumonia bacteria in 1944. Its story has been unfolded in one human lifetime, first by Francis Crick and James Watson, who described its structure in 1953; then by Frederick Sanger, who in 1975 first discovered a way to read the sequence of the genetic code; and lastly by Alec Jeffreys, who in 1985 identified a way of using repetitive patterns in inherited DNA to pinpoint a murder suspect. But even then, hardly anyone believed that it would be possible to "read" the entire sequence coiled up in the chromosomes of a living cell.The first living organism to be sequenced, in 1995, was a humble bacterium. The genetic recipes for yeast, a nematode worm and a fruit fly followed, and the human genome was completed in 2000. The heady mix of high-speed computing, sophisticated automation and research enthusiasm soon built up a momentum that proved unstoppable. Scientists are now matching genetic sequences to answer questions about plant and animal evolution, about the life cycles of disease, about human origins, about individual human responses to drug dosage, and about crop resistance to pests and mildews.The science has already delivered unexpected and humbling answers. Humans, who consider themselves the pinnacle of creation, have only about 30,000 genes. Cacao seems to have 35,000. Wheat DNA is believed to contain 40,000 genes. It is a droll discovery that on a numerical basis, a human seems genetically less complex than a chocolate biscuit. But it was the humans who sequenced wheat and cacao, and not the other way round. So clearly, size isn't everything.United StatesGeneticsPlantsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Today's Mystery Bird for you to identify | GrrlScientist In addition to identifying this mystery bird, can you tell me more about what aspect of this species' lifestyle has had such a profound effect upon the evolution of its feet, and (more challenging) can you tell me what is so special about its feet?Mystery Bird photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 September 2010 [Would you like a look through a 'scope?] Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. This daily mystery bird has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. Its feet are especially distinct, being specialised for its particular lifestyle. In addition to identifying this mystery bird, can you tell me more about what aspect of this species' lifestyle has had such a profound effect upon the evolution of its feet, and (more challenging) can you tell me what is so special about its feet?Daily Mystery Bird Rules: 1. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification, keeping in mind that more than one field mark is often necessary to distinguish between species. IDs without any supporting information are not valid and may be deleted by the moderators. 2. Expert and intermediate level birders: do NOT try to be the first to blurt out the mystery bird's ID. Instead, please provide helpful hints, such as descriptions, literary references, puns, personal anecdotes, and other forms of discussion and assistance for beginning birders and for those following on their iPhones without naming the species. Expert and intermediate birders are free to name the bird species 24 or more hours after it was first published.3. Each mystery bird is usually accompanied by a question or two. These questions can be useful for identifying the pictured species, but may instead be used to illustrate an interesting aspect of avian biology, behaviour or evolution, or may be intended to generate conversation on other topics, such as conservation. 4. Each bird species will be demystified 48 hours after publication. If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciate audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
UN meeting aims to set species-saving goals By MALCOLM FOSTER 2010-10-17T12:36:46ZTOKYO (AP) -- An international conference aimed at preserving the planet's diversity of plants and animals in the face of pollution and habitat loss begins Monday in Japan, facing some of the same divisions between rich and poor nations that have stalled U.N. climate talks.... hosted.ap.org |
Asian carp create nagging fear in Lake Erie towns WHEATLEY, Ontario (AP) -- Well before dawn, Todd Loop takes his fishing tug onto Lake Erie in pursuit of yellow perch, walleye and other delicacies - a livelihood that has sustained his family for three generations but faces a future as murky as the freshwater sea on a moonless night.... hosted.ap.org |