photo: Graham Racher via flickr
Go chimps, go! An interesting new paper in the journal Primates documents how a group of chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea have been successfully deactivating snares set by human bushmeat hunters. Though not always successful, the scienti...Read the full story on TreeHugger
photo: minnemom via flickr
I admit there's no direct connection between this next one and sustainability, but from a science perspective it's just too interesting to pass by: New research shows that tobacco plants have evolved a "chemical SOS" signal that attracts insect predators when caterpillars are eating their leaves. Like TreeHugger said back in 2007, Plants, they're smarter than you think......Read the full story on TreeHugger
In nature, continuous growth is key to the survival of any cellular species. But there is a price to pay for a constant rate of growth: aging. As a cell replicates (whether a single celled animal, or as part of a multi-celled one), it accumulates defects in its genome. Eventually, as these mutations build up, growth rates dwindle and the odds of cell death increase.
This has been the basic model of aging for several decades. Now, however, new studies of the venerable E. coli bacterium have revealed that– unlike all other aging models (single cells or animals) so far studied –E. coli “has a robust mechanism of growth that is decoupled from cell death.”
To achieve steady state growth, an emerging, bacterial colony undergoes exponential growth, which is maintained by the rate of elongation of each cell as it divides. This is true for cells that divide symmetrical or asymmetrically. However, this rate of elongation of bacterial cells decreases cumulatively with replicative age. Thus, it seems that a steady state population is sustained by individual cells that are not in a steady state.
To resolve this seeming paradox, researchers Wang et al of Harvard’s FAS Center for Systems Biology, analyzed 1 million E. coli bacterial cells utilizing a micro-fluidic device “designed to follow steady-state growth and division of a large number of cells at a defined reproductive age.”
They revealed the bacteria’s remarkably stable growth rate wherein each ‘mother cell’ inherited the same ‘pole’ (i.e., mitotic spindle orientation) for hundreds of generations. Researchers also found that E coli death is none-the-less predictable (non-stochastic), based on an accumulation of (genetic) damages.
The difference is that in this humble gut ‘bug’ the growth rate of each progenitor cell is stable right up to the moment of cell death.
For more information, visit the PubMed page here..
photo: USDA
Photo via =Manu=
They're rigid. They're quiet. They don't travel much. But that hasn't stopped some of the world's most famous trees from achieving celebrity status. These trees have led some long and fascinating lives -- intermingling with notable figures throughout history and inspiring people for ages.
Whether it be for visiting the moon or getting a sho...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo via The Telegraph
If being adorable was a crime, these liger cubs would clearly be in a great deal of trouble -- but that's not why they were seized recently by authorities in Taiwan. In Taiwan's "World Snake King Education Farm" a lion and a tiger were apparently allowed to produce offspring without first getting governmental approval to permit the breeding -- grounds for having the animals relocated and the zoo fined. Officials f...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: Muffet/Flickr
From deserts to the deep ocean, in the midst of intense radiation and extreme saltiness, across the earth and even in outer space, fungi survive. They have the power to poison and heal, provide food and can clean pollution, and, most significantly, are essential to the continuation of life on earth.
Fungi...Read the full story on TreeHugger