http://www.redorbit.com Science http://www.redorbit.com/modules/news/images/tools/rss_logo.gif http://www.redorbit.com A resilient rodent from the horn of Africa has begun charming scientists around the world.  Resistant to cancer and aging better than Sean Connery, the remarkable, if somewhat unattractive, naked mole rat is proving to be a biological wonder and a new source of scientific inquiry.“They really are from Mars, I think,” Thomas Park, biological sciences professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Associated Press.Able to live up to 30 years, these 3 to 4 inch East African critters are being used to study everything from strokes to cancer to aging in hopes that scientists might find new insights into human health complications.At the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, researcher Rochelle Buffenstein is responsible for tending a 1,500-member-strong mole rat colony that makes its abode in series of large clear tanks connected by long transparent tubes.  Though the San Antonio colony is by far the largest in the U.S., a number of other universities around the country have begun founding their own mole rat communities for research purposes.  Buffenstein is particularly concerned with keeping track of the longevity of these tiny, blind, buck-toothed rodents who exhibit a form of intense social organization, known as eusociality, that is extremely rare in mammals.Despite significant levels of inbreeding within their colonies — a phenomenon that usually tends to weaken genetic integrity and thus decrease longevity — naked mole rats can live to be 30 years old, or more than 15 times longer than the average lab mouse.Yet another bizarre and intriguing biological feature of these creatures is their inability to experience pain.  Researchers can place a drop of corrosive acid on their transparent pinkish skin and they don’t even react.  This, according to scientists, is because they lack a specific neurotransmitter known as substance P that is necessary for feeling the sensation of pain.Park and his colleague John Larson will release a report in next month’s issue of the science journal NeuroReport in which they discuss the remarkable ability of the naked mole rat to survive oxygen deprivation for over a half an hour without suffering brain damage and the potential implications this phenomenon for studies on human strokes. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791830/african_rodent_captures_the_eye_of_science/index.html?source=r_science Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500 Science Prized for their impressive antlers, red deer have been caught in the hunters' sights for generations. But a deer's antlers are much more than decorative. They are lethal weapons that stags crash together when dueling. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791758/deer_antlers_are_a_materials_scientists_dream/index.html?source=r_science Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:20:00 -0500 Science Scientists say that unusually warm and cold periods in the history of Earth's pre-industrial climate are connected to how temperature changes affect the oceans. The research primarily centered around time periods known as the "little ice age" and "medieval warm period". http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791755/researchers_explain_past_climate_confusion/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:55:00 -0500 Science On Friday, French and British premiers Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown gave their thumbs up to a global program that would provide the world’s poorest nations with billions of dollars in aid to help them reduce their carbon emissions.  Both European leaders say that donations from the wealthiest nations to less developed countries should be an integral part of the new climate treaty which U.N. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791822/french_british_premiers_push_climate_change_fund/index.html?source=r_science Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:17:19 -0500 Science Sierra Leone's wildlife managers said on Thursday police arrested 10 poachers for killing off the park's entire elephant herd. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791785/poachers_wipe_out_parks_elephants/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:56:37 -0500 Science No matter the cost, French chefs have decided to keep bluefin tuna and any other threatened fish species off their menus.Environmentalists say bluefin tuna faces the threat of extinction because of overfishing and want its trade banned by CITES, the UN body that rules on wildlife trade.Olivier Roellinger, one of the country's greatest chefs, told AFP that with half of the fish eaten in Europe dished up in restaurants, it was high time for the food-loving nation's leading chefs to take a stand.Roellinger, celebrated for his fish and seaweed fare in western Brittany, took bluefin tuna -- aka red tuna -- off the menu five years ago. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791784/chefs_say_no_way_to_bluefin_tuna/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:51:46 -0500 Science Ecologists have at last worked out a way of using recordings of birdsong to accurately measure the size of bird populations. This is the first time sound recordings from a microphone array have been translated into accurate estimates of bird species' populations. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791756/new_solution_for_monitoring_cryptic_species/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:10:00 -0500 Science Hammerhead sharks are some of the Ocean's most distinctive residents. 'Everyone wants to understand why they have this strange head shape,' says Michelle McComb from Florida Atlantic University. One possible reason is the shark's vision. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791751/researchers_solve_hammerhead_mystery/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:15:00 -0500 Science With the burden of his own promises weighing heavily on his shoulders, President Barack Obama will soon be on his way the U.N. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791708/obama_likely_to_struggle_with_climate_change_promises/index.html?source=r_science Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:15:00 -0500 Science Deforestation and overgrazing are among the factors being blamed for turning almost a quarter of India into desert, according to a study published this week.The study's authors report that northern and western India are the hardest hit, as shown by satellite mapping.The study, published by the Space Applications Center and the Current Science journal states, "There has been a long-pending need for desertification/land degradation status mapping of the entire country based on scientific methods."Researchers added that over 200 million acres (80 million hectares) were under desertification - areas already considered desert or under threat.India accounts for 2.4 percent of the world's land mass, yet it supports roughly 16.7 percent of global population, as well as 18 percent of its cattle."There is tremendous pressure on our land-based natural resources," it said.Other causes taken into account were "changes in the frequency and amount of rainfall, water and wind erosion, as well as harmful agricultural practices."A total of 32 percent of India was described by the study as undergoing "land degradation." The states where this is most pronounced are Rajasthan, Kashmir, Gujarat and Maharashtra.Other research, conducted by consulting firm McKinsey and Co., shows that water needs throughout India would double by the year 2030.India's large agricultural sector, driven by demand for rice and other crops, is expected to consume some 53 trillion cubic feet (1.5 trillion cubic meters) of water by 2030. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791671/parts_of_india_experiencing_desertification/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:10:00 -0500 Science Veterinarians have been tracking three orangutans they implanted with tiny transmitters as part of efforts to protect the endangered primates once they reintroduce them to the wild, a Malaysian official said Monday.French and Austrian veterinarians worked with the Wildlife Department in eastern Sabah state on Borneo island to implant specially designed coin-sized transmitters in the necks of the orangutans for the first time ever in September, said Senthilvel Nathan, the department's chief field veterinarian.Laurentuis Ambu, wildlife department head in Sabah state on Borneo, says, "These are rescued orangutans. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791641/implants_track_endangered_orangutans/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:20:00 -0500 Science Image Caption: A research team led by Brown University studied seismic velocities — the speed of seismic waves — in the Gulf of California to determine that a geological phenomenon known as dynamic upwelling occurs in the Earth’s mantle as oceanic crust is formed. Credit: Yun Wang/Brown University http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791530/oceanic_crust_formation_is_dynamic/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:24:05 -0500 Science Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of Earth's surface, yet they remain the least explored territories of our planet. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791681/european_launch_of_oceans_supported_by_esa/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:20:00 -0500 Science Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced plans to conduct a series of deep energy retrofit research projects with the potential to improve the energy efficiency in selected homes by as much as 30 to 50 percent.The projects will be supported by up to $1.4 million from the Department of Energy's Building America Program, which has received additional funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.Deep energy retrofits are renovations to existing structures that use the latest in energy-efficient materials and technologies and result in significant energy reductions. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791665/deep_retrofits_can_cut_home_energy_bills_in_half/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:01:24 -0500 Science A rare woodland plant uses 'cryptic coloration' to hide from its predatorsIt is well known that some animal species use camouflage to hide from predators. Individuals that are able to blend in to their surroundings and avoid being eaten are able to survive longer, reproduce, and thus increase their fitness (pass along their genes to the next generation) compared to those who stand out more. This may seem like a good strategy, and fairly common in the animal kingdom, but who ever heard of a plant doing the same thing?In plants, the use of coloration or pigmentation as a vital component of acquiring food (e.g., photosynthesis) or as a means of attracting pollinators (e.g., flowers) has been well studied. However, variation in pigmentation as a means of escaping predation has received little attention. In the December issue of the American Journal of Botany, Matthew Klooster from Harvard University and colleagues empirically investigated whether the dried bracts on a rare woodland plant, Monotropsis odorata, might serve a similar purpose as the stripes on a tiger or the grey coloration of the wings of the peppered moth, namely to hide (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/ajb.0900124v1)."Monotropsis odorata is a fascinating plant species, as it relies exclusively upon mycorrhizal fungus, that associates with its roots, for all of the resources it needs to live," notes Klooster. "Because this plant no longer requires photosynthetic pigmentation (i.e., green coloration) to produce its own energy, it is free to adopt a broader range of possibilities in coloration, much like fungi or animals."Using a large population of Monotropsis odorata, Klooster and colleagues experimentally removed the dried bracts that cover the 3- to 5-cm tall stems and flower buds of these woodland plants. The bracts are a brown color that resembles the leaf litter from which the reproductive stems emerge and cover the pinkish-purple colored buds and deep purple stems. When Klooster and colleagues measured the reflectance pattern of the different plant parts, they indeed found that the bracts functioned as camouflage, making the plant blend in with its surroundings; the bract reflectance pattern closely resembled that of the leaf litter, and both differed from that of the reproductive stem and flowers hidden underneath the bracts. Furthermore, they experimentally demonstrated that this camouflage actually worked to hide the plant from its predators and increased its fitness. Individuals with intact bracts suffered only a quarter of the herbivore damage and produced a higher percentage of mature fruits compared to those whose bracts were removed."It has long been shown that animals use cryptic coloration (camouflage) as a defense mechanism to visually match a component of their natural environment, which facilitates predator avoidance," Klooster said. "We have now experimentally demonstrated that plants have evolved a similar strategy to avoid their herbivores."Drying its bracts early to hide its reproductive parts is a good strategy when the stems are exposed to predators for long periods of time: all the other species in the subfamily Monotropoideae have colorful fleshy bracts and are reproductively active for only a quarter of the length of time. Somewhat paradoxically however Monotropsis odorata actually relies on animals for pollination and seed dispersal. How does it accomplish this when it is disguised as dead leaf material and is able to hide so well? The authors hypothesize that the flowers emit highly fragrant odors that serve to attract pollinators and seed dispersal agents; indeed they observed bumble bees finding and pollinating many reproductive stems that were entirely hidden by the leaf litter itself.---Image Caption: As a myco-heterotroph, M. odorata obtains carbon resources from associated mycorrhizal fungi and has a highly reduced vegetative morphology consisting of an underground root mass that produces one to many diminutive reproductive stems (3.5–6 cm in height). Upon emerging from the soil in the late fall, reproductive stems and immature buds are light lavender in color and covered by fleshy bracts and sepals. However, over the course of the subsequent winter months, bracts and sepals become scarious, drying to a light brown. Reproductive stems, encased in dried bracts and sepals, mature early the following spring and upon anthesis, flowers become fragrant (like baking cloves) and are pollinated by Bombus spp. Fruit set ensues over the subsequent 8–10 weeks, with pungently fragrant fruits attracting animals for seed dispersal. Monotropsis odorata is notoriously difficult to locate in the wild, likely owing to the dried bracts and sepals that cover reproductive stems and flowers, rendering them inconspicuous against the ambient pine and oak leaf litter among which they grow. Manipulations of reproductive stems have shown that these cryptic vegetative bracts conceal more conspicuously colored floral and stem tissues and significantly reduce floral herbivory, leading to higher fruit set, a component of plant reproductive fitness. This finding offers strong support to a growing body of literature documenting the ecological dynamics of plant defensive coloration. Credit: Photo credit: Matthew R. Klooster. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791663/when_camouflage_is_a_plants_best_protection/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:38:32 -0500 Science Carbon credits bring millions for new jobs in indigenous communities; Australian project a model of opportunity, especially for AfricaA landmark Australian project that mitigates the extent and severity of natural savannah blazes by deploying traditional Indigenous fire management techniques is being hailed as a model with vast global potential in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss, and for protecting Indigenous lands and culture.The enterprise is expected initially to generate at least 1 million tons worth of carbon credit sales annually, creating over 200 new jobs in traditional Northern Australia Indigenous communities.Proponents heading to the December climate change talks in Copenhagen say similar projects can be adopted in the savannas of Africa, where the potential for reductions is very high.Supported today by modern technologies like satellites, Indigenous fire management involves controlled early dry season fires to create fire breaks and patchy mosaics of burnt and un-burnt country. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791833/traditional_indigenous_fire_management_deployed_against_climate_change/index.html?source=r_science Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:16:10 -0500 Science EMBL and CRG scientists reveal what a self-sufficient cell can't do withoutWhat are the bare essentials of life, the indispensable ingredients required to produce a cell that can survive on its own? Can we describe the molecular anatomy of a cell, and understand how an entire organism functions as a system? These are just some of the questions that scientists in a partnership between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centre de Regulacio Genòmica (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, set out to address. In three papers published back-to-back today in Science, they provide the first comprehensive picture of a minimal cell, based on an extensive quantitative study of the biology of the bacterium that causes atypical pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The study uncovers fascinating novelties relevant to bacterial biology and shows that even the simplest of cells is more complex than expected.Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a small, single-cell bacterium that causes atypical pneumonia in humans. It is also one of the smallest prokaryotes – organisms whose cells have no nucleus – that don't depend on a host's cellular machinery to reproduce. This is why the six research groups which set out to characterize a minimal cell in a project headed by scientists Peer Bork, Anne-Claude Gavin and Luis Serrano chose M. pneumoniae as a model: it is complex enough to survive on its own, but small and, theoretically, simple enough to represent a minimal cell – and to enable a global analysis.A network of research groups at EMBL's Structural and Computational Biology Unit and CRG's EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Partnership Unit approached the bacterium at three different levels. One team of scientists described M. pneumoniae's transcriptome, identifying all the RNA molecules, or transcripts, produced from its DNA, under various environmental conditions. Another defined all the metabolic reactions that occurred in it, collectively known as its metabolome, under the same conditions. A third team identified every multi-protein complex the bacterium produced, thus characterizing its proteome organization."At all three levels, we found M. pneumoniae was more complex than we expected", says Luis Serrano, co-initiator of the project at EMBL and now head of the Systems Biology Department at CRG.When studying both its proteome and its metabolome, the scientists found many molecules were multifunctional, with metabolic enzymes catalyzing multiple reactions, and other proteins each taking part in more than one protein complex. They also found that M. pneumoniae couples biological processes in space and time, with the pieces of cellular machinery involved in two consecutive steps in a biological process often being assembled together.Remarkably, the regulation of this bacterium's transcriptome is much more similar to that of eukaryotes – organisms whose cells have a nucleus – than previously thought. As in eukaryotes, a large proportion of the transcripts produced from M. pneumoniae's DNA are not translated into proteins. And although its genes are arranged in groups as is typical of bacteria, M. pneumoniae doesn't always transcribe all the genes in a group together, but can selectively express or repress individual genes within each group.Unlike that of other, larger, bacteria, M. pneumoniae's metabolism doesn't appear to be geared towards multiplying as quickly as possible, perhaps because of its pathogenic lifestyle. Another surprise was the fact that, although it has a very small genome, this bacterium is incredibly flexible and readily adjusts its metabolism to drastic changes in environmental conditions. This adaptability and its underlying regulatory mechanisms mean M. pneumoniae has the potential to evolve quickly, and all the above are features it also shares with other, more evolved organisms."The key lies in these shared features", explains Anne-Claude Gavin, an EMBL group leader who headed the study of the bacterium's proteome: "Those are the things that not even the simplest organism can do without and that have remained untouched by millions of years of evolution – the bare essentials of life".This study required a wide range of expertise, to understand M. pneumoniae's molecular organization at such different scales and integrate all the resulting information into a comprehensive picture of how the whole organism functions as a system – an approach called systems biology."Within EMBL's Structural and Computational Biology Unit we have a unique combination of methods, and we pooled them all together for this project", says Peer Bork, joint head of the unit, co-initiator of the project, and responsible for the computational analysis. "In partnership with the CRG group we thus could build a complete overall picture based on detailed studies at very different levels." Bork was recently awarded the Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft Award for the advancement of science using computational methods. Serrano was recently awarded a European Research Council Senior grant. ---Image Caption: This image represents the integration of genomic, metabolic, proteomic, structural and cellular information about Mycoplasma pnemoniae in this project: one layer of an Electron Tomography scan of a bottle-shaped M. pneumoniae cell (grey) is overlaid with a schematic representation of this bacterium's metabolism, comprising 189 enzymatic reactions, where blue indicates interactions between proteins encoded in genes from the same functional unit. Apart from these expected interactions, the scientists found that, surprisingly, many proteins are multifunctional. For instance, there were various unexpected physical interactions (yellow lines) between proteins and the subunits that form the ribosome, which is depicted as an Electron microscopy image (yellow). Credit: Takuji Yamada /EMBL http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791690/firstever_minimal_cell_blueprint_more_complex_than_expected/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:32:33 -0500 Science Is speciation adaptive?Darwin suggested that the action of natural selection can produce new species, but 150 years after the publication of his famous book, 'On the Origin of Species', debate still continues on the mechanisms of speciation. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791688/ecological_speciation_by_sexual_selection_on_good_genes/index.html?source=r_science Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:26:59 -0500 Science New approach reprograms the mammalian immune system to attack tumors body-wideA cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists report this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine.The new approach, pioneered by bioengineers and immunologists at Harvard University, uses plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin to reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791529/implantbased_cancer_vaccine_is_first_to_eliminate_tumors_in_mice/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:23:04 -0500 Science Photosynthetic organisms need to cope with a wide range of light intensities, which can change over timescales of seconds to minutes. Too much light can damage the photosynthetic machinery and cause cell death. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791527/safety_valve_protects_photosynthesis_from_too_much_light/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:18:57 -0500 Science When cells are confronted with an invading virus or bacteria or exposed to an irritating chemical, they protect themselves by going off their DNA recipe and inserting the wrong amino acid into new proteins to defend them against damage, scientists have discovered.These "regulated errors" comprise a novel non-genetic mechanism by which cells can rapidly make important proteins more resistant to attack when stressed, said Tao Pan, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791526/cells_defend_themselves_from_viruses_bacteria_with_armor_of_protein/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:17:34 -0500 Science The serious behavior problems that can occur in children with autism and related conditions can be reduced with a treatment plan that includes medication combined with a structured training program for parents, according to Yale University researchers and their colleagues.Published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the study was conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791524/parent_training_key_to_improved_treatment_of_behavior_problems_in/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:13:19 -0500 Science Finding may provide new insights into the neurological basis of ADHD, learning deficits, and moreScientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.Their findings, which may be relevant to the relationship between the neurotransmitter dopamine and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are described in the December issue of the journal Neuron.The Drosophila brain contains only about 20,000 neurons and has long been considered a powerful system with which to study the genetic basis of behaviors such as learning and courtship, as well as memory and circadian rhythms. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791522/caltech_scientists_find_emotionlike_behaviors_regulated_by_dopamine_in_fruit/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:09:26 -0500 Science The portion of our brains that is responsible for registering fear and even panic has a built-in chemical sensor that is triggered by a primordial terror – suffocation. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791521/brains_fear_center_is_equipped_with_a_builtin_suffocation_sensor/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:07:08 -0500 Science It is relatively common for listeners to "hear" sounds that are not really there. In fact, it is the brain's ability to reconstruct fragmented sounds that allows us to successfully carry on a conversation in a noisy room. http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791519/auditory_illusion_how_our_brains_can_fill_in_the_gaps/index.html?source=r_science Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:03:40 -0500 Science