Two giant pandas from China landed Sunday in Scotland/The Associated Press

BEIJING — Two giant pandas from China landed Sunday in Scotland, where they will become the first to live in Britain in nearly two decades.

The 8-year-old pair, named Tian Tian and Yang Guang — or Sweetie and Sunshine — were welcomed by bagpipe players and a host of dignitaries as they touched down at Edinburgh Airport on a specially chartered Boeing 777 flight called the "Panda Express."

The pandas, from the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, are to stay for 10 years at Edinburgh Zoo, where officials hope they will give birth to cubs. The female, Tian Tian, has had twin cubs in the past, but not with Yang Guang. The male panda has previously fathered cubs as well.

The loan marked the beginning of a U.K.-China research program on the animals, and both sides have described it as a signal of a growing friendship between Scotland and China. China sometimes gives or lends the cuddly looking animals — considered a Chinese national treasure — to other countries to boost relations.

"It shows that we can cooperate closely not only on commerce, but on a broad range of environmental and cultural issues as well," said British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Zoo officials have spent the past five years securing the loan of the animals, which are expected to boost Scottish tourism. The loan was announced in January, when Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang visited Britain to sign billions in trade deals.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland will pay more than 600,000 pounds ($935,000) a year to China for the loan of Sweetie and Sunshine, not including the expense of importing bamboo from the Netherlands.

The pair of pandas, which were given an in-flight meal of bamboo, apples and carrots, will have two weeks to settle at the zoo before going on display to the public. They will be kept in two separate enclosures for a few months until they are ready to be introduced to each other.

The zoo also plans to put four hidden "panda cams" in their enclosures and stream the footage online to attract viewers from around the world.

Britain's last giant panda, Ming Ming, lived in the London Zoo until 1994, when she was returned to China.

In 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath received two pandas from the Chinese government as a goodwill gift to mark his visit to China. Female Ching-Ching and male Chia-Chia became a much-loved attraction at the London Zoo, but never produced any cubs.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELATED NEWS 

• 2 Giant Pandas From China Land in Scotland - ABC News
• $9.3 million pandas arrive in Scotland from China -MSNBC
• 2 giant pandas from China land in Scotland, where officials hope they'll breed- WASHINGTON POST
• 2 giant pandas from China land in Britain- XINHUANET 

»»  read more

World's Oldest Tiger Species Discovered

The extinct Longdan tiger (Panthera zdanskyi) was a jaguar-sized tiger that lived in what is now northwestern China more than 2 million years ago. Shown here, an artist's reconstruction of the tiger.
CREDIT: Velizar Simeonovski et al, PLoS ONE

The oldest extinct species of tiger known yet has been discovered in China, scientists say.

Although the skull of the more than 2-million-year-old fossil is smaller than most modern tigers, it appears very similar in shape, researchers added.

The tiger (Panthera tigris) is one of the largest living cats, a giant predator native to Asia reaching up to 13 feet (4 meters) in length, including its tail, and weighing up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms). The beast's origins are under intense debate, with suggestions it arose in north-central China, southern China or northern Siberia.

Now scientists have discovered a new skull and jaw from an extinct jaguar-sized tiger in northwestern China dating back 2.16 million to 2.55 million years, predating other known tiger fossils by up to a half-million years. This represents the oldest complete skull hitherto found of a pantherine cat — the lineage that includes tigers and all other living big cats.

"The discovery of the identity of this fossil is vitally important for providing a greater understanding of the fossil history of big cats and the relationships between them," said researcher Andrew Kitchener, principal curator of vertebrate biology at National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.

The scientific name for this newfound species is Panthera zdanskyi, after the late Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky, who revealed much about ancient Chinese fossil carnivores. It was unearthed in 2004 on the eastern slope of Longdan, a village in Gansu, China, giving it the informal name of the Longdan tiger. The cat was only recently analyzed and described online Oct. 10 in the journal PLoS ONE.

The skull of this extinct cat had robust, well-developed upper canine fangs and a relatively long nose, details typical of tigers. Although the size of the skull is comparable with that of the smallest females of living tiger subspecies, its overall shape suggests it belonged to a male. Indeed, despite about 2 million years of separation, the skull of the Longdan tiger appears surprisingly similar to that of modern tigers.

"It seems likely that this tiger's diet would have been similar to that of today's and would have included ungulates such as deer and pigs,"Kitchener told LiveScience.

The skull of this extinct cat had robust, well-developed upper canine fangs and a relatively long nose, details typical of tigers. CREDIT: J.H. Mazak et al, PLoS ONE

The researchers suggest this extinct cat was a sister species to the modern tiger. Their analysis argues that the tiger lineage developed features of its skull and upper teeth early on, while its lower jaw and teeth evolved at a different rate. A similar pattern of "mosaic evolution" is seen in the cheetah lineage, they noted. The evolutionary trend of increasing size in the tiger lineage is likely coupled its prey evolving larger body sizes, the researchers added.

"It will be interesting to see whether further fossil big cats are discovered in China and elsewhere, which expand our knowledge of the distribution of this species and fill in more gaps in the tiger's fossil history," Kitchenersaid. "Confirming a more precise dating of Panthera zdanskyi would also be invaluable for understanding its position in the tiger's evolutionary timescale."

--------------------------------
Via LiveScience

»»  read more

First Dogs Came from East Asia/Genetic Study

Researchers at KTH say they have found further proof that the wolf ancestors of today’s domesticated dogs can be traced to southern East Asia — findings that run counter to theories placing the cradle of the canine line in the Middle East.

Dr Peter Savolainen, KTH researcher in evolutionary genetics, says a new study released Nov. 23 confirms that an Asian region south of the Yangtze River was the principal and probably sole region where wolves were domesticated by humans.

Data on genetics, morphology and behaviour show clearly that dogs are descended from wolves, but there’s never been scientific consensus on where in the world the domestication process began. “Our analysis of Y-chromosomal DNA now confirms that wolves were first domesticated in Asia south of Yangtze River — we call it the ASY region — in southern China or Southeast Asia”, Savolainen says.

The Y data supports previous evidence from mitochondrial DNA. “Taken together, the two studies provide very strong evidence that dogs originated in the ASY region”, Savolainen says.

Archaeological data and a genetic study recently published in Nature suggest that dogs originate from the Middle East. But Savolainen rejects that view. “Because none of these studies included samples from the ASY region, evidence from ASY has been overlooked,” he says.

Peter Savolainen and PhD student Mattias Oskarsson worked with Chinese colleagues to analyse DNA from male dogs around the world. Their study was published in the scientific journal Heredity.

Approximately half of the gene pool was universally shared everywhere in the world, while only the ASY region had the entire range of genetic diversity. “This shows that gene pools in all other regions of the world most probably originate from the ASY region”, Savolainen says.

“Our results confirm that Asia south of the Yangtze River was the most important — and probably the only — region for wolf domestication, and that a large number of wolves were domesticated”, says Savolainen.

In separate research published recently in Ecology and Evolution, Savolainen, PhD student Arman Ardalan and Iranian and Turkish scientists conducted a comprehensive study of mitochondrial DNA , with a particular focus on the Middle East. Because mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother in most species, it is especially useful in studying evolutionary relationships.

“Since other studies have indicated that wolves were domesticated in the Middle East, we wanted to be sure nothing had been missed. We find no signs whatsoever that dogs originated there”, says Savolainen.

In their studies, the researchers also found minor genetic contributions from crossbreeding between dogs and wolves in other geographic regions, including the Middle East.

“This subsequent dog/wolf hybridisation contributed only modestly to the dog gene pool”, Savolainen explains.
 (SciLifeLab)

»»  read more

Endangered species (Special Photography)

Tarzan's chameleon

Named after the town of Tarzanville in Madagascar where it was discovered in 2009, Tarzan's chameleon is one of the most colourful of the 61,900 species on this year's updated Red List. Calumma tarzan is critically endangered and one of 22 terrestrial reptiles listed as threatened in Madagascar, mainly because tropical forests are being cleared.

(Image: Jörn Köhler)

Coco de Mer (Coconut poachers)

Prized for its supposed aphrodisiac properties, the infamous Seychelles plant  (Lodoicea maldivica) is in even greater danger than before, moving up the list from vulnerable to endangered. IUCN says the plant is under threat from fires and illegal harvesting of its kernels. Despite strict regulations governing collection and sale of its seed, a significant black market exists for its kernals. Globally, a fifth of plants face extinction.

(Image: Jean-Christophe Vie)

Tuna

Five of eight species of tuna are now in the threatened or near-threatened categories, including the endangered Atlantic bluefin (Thunnus thynnus) pictured here. The others in trouble are the southern bluefin, the bigeye, the yellowfin and the albacore. The hope is that the listings will help governments introduce and enforce safeguards to preserve them.

(Image: © OCEANA /Keith Ellenbogen)

Hopping pharmacies

 Amphibians got this name because they are rich in natural, medically useful substances. Now many are endangered, and the 26 newly discovered amphibians added to the Red List this year include the blessed poison frog (Ranitomeya benedicta), discovered 2008 in Peru, imperilled by habitat loss and the international pet trade.

(Image: Jason Brown)

Rhino

From now on, the only place you'll see this subspecies of black rhino from western Africa is in photographs or stuffed in museums. That's because this year, the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipipes) is officially extinct, and others are clinging on by a thread. In all, the IUCN says that a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction. It's not all bad news though. One of conservation's success stories is (Ceratotherium simum simum), a subspecies of the African southern white rhino, which has soared in number from less than 100 individuals to 20,000 since the end of the 19th century.

(Image: Richard Emslie)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

»»  read more

Weird News/The World’s Most Expensive Tea: Made From Panda Poo!?

When one thinks of tea, they may think of sitting back and relaxing in a comfortable armchair, cozying up to a roaring fire and then indulging in a warm, chewy chocolate chip cookie.

They don’t think about pandas and certainly not panda poo.
But, turns out, it’s all about the panda dung. Wildlife expert and Sinchuan University lecturer An Yashi is debuting a special blend of green tea that is expected to go for as much as approximately $35,000 per pound, Australia’s SBC.com reported. And guess what? It’s fertilized using panda excrement.
Why is the poo so popular? Turns out panda excrement is loaded with various vitamins and minerals that come from bamboo – what pandas primarily eat.
“Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat,” Yashi told the Australian website. “That means their excrement is rich in fibers and nutrients.”
According to Yashi, those important nutrients end up in the tea through that fertilization process.
These nutrients are no joke, and Yashi claims that they are immensely powerful.
“Just like green tea, bamboo contains an element that can prevent cancer and enhance green tea’s anti-cancer effects if it is used as fertilizer for the tea,” he told SBC.com.
Yashi, who collects the dung at a panda breeding center in southern China, is hoping the discovery – along with it’s hefty price tag – will earn him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
He might not be far off track with that idea. Kopi Lupak, an Indonesian coffee, is brewed from beans that have been eaten and then digested by the Asian palm civet, a catlike wild animal. That java can sell for as much as $150 per pound.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

»»  read more

'Extinct' frog hops back into northern Israel

In this photo made available by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, a Hula Painted Frog, a species believed to be extinct is seen in a nature reserve in northern Israel. Omri Gal of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said Thursday that the Hula Painted Frog was seen for the first time in 50 years this week. In the 1940s, a specimen ate a second frog, leading to speculation the species is cannabilistic.(AP Photo/Dror Galili)

A frog species believed to be extinct has hopped back into sight in northern Israel.
Omri Gal of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said Thursday the Hula Painted Frog was seen for the first time in 50 years this week. He said it was declared extinct.
Gal said, "It's an amazing find, now we have a second chance to preserve the species."

A Hula painted frog is seen at a protective facility in the Hula Valley Nature Reserve in northern Israel November 17, 2011.  REUTERS/Nir Elias

The frog is native to the Hula Valley, a swamp drained in the 1950s to stop malaria.
Aquatic ecologist Dana Milstein says the frog was rare even before, and little is known about it. In the 1940s, a specimen ate a second frog, leading to speculation the species is cannibalistic.
She credited rehydration of the area for the frog sighting and said more are likely in the reserve.
© The Associated Press, 2011

_________________________________________________________________________

»»  read more

Weird/Hungry mosquitoes fly farther than you think

How far does a mosquito fly? Harry Boerema wants to know.

Boerema lives near a drainage project, where Dutch authorities are dredging a huge meter-deep (3-foot) basin in the northern rural landscape to head off flood waters and protect towns and villages from disaster.
The project threatens to inflict hordes of mosquitoes on people living around the water retention area, so scientists set out to calculate how to keep the boundaries of the ditch far enough from human habitation to protect residents from pest infestation.
The question they needed to find out: How far does a common European human-biting mosquito fly?
What they found surprised them: A hungry female looking for a "host" will fly at least 150 meters (yards), three times farther than previously thought, said Piet Verdonschot, who conducted the research.
The 1,700 hectare (4,200-acre) basin, begun in 2003, is designed to collect heavy rainwater that will slowly be channeled to the North Sea. But frequent wet-dry cycles will be perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Buzzing pests are nothing new for Boerema, a retired professor of architectural history who has lived for 36 years in his quiet cottage set amid dairy farms.
"I don't mind them to a certain extent. But not in surplus," he says. "I'm a nature lover, and mosquitoes are part of nature — although not the most likable ones."
Not everyone took the prospect of living on water's edge with such equanimity, and local complaints led authorities to commission the mosquito research, said project manager John Tukker.
At the outset, Verdonschot believed mosquitoes stay within about 50 meters (yards) of their breeding ground. The biggest nuisance for humans often originates in flower pots, buckets of collected rainwater or any kind of water left stagnant in the back garden or barnyard.
"The assumption in the literature is that people who suffer bites have bred their own specimens in their own gardens," he said.
Hundreds of mosquito species exist around the world — 36 in the Netherlands alone — but Verdonschot concentrated on the two species most common in the Dutch climate: the culex pipiens, which prefers birds to people but will still keep you awake at night during the summer, and the Culiseta annulata, larger, more aggressive insects active year-round. Neither normally carries dangerous diseases.
Verdonschot, an aquatic ecologist working for the private environmental research institute Alterra, hatched 40,000 mosquitoes in large tents in a grassy field. The tents were surrounded by concentric circles of traps set at 50 meters, 100 meters and 150 meters. Around the edges of the field were ditches with tall reeds and wild grasses on the banks.
The traps drew mosquitoes into smoke from dry ice then instantly froze them. At the end of each day researchers collected the corpses and counted them one-by-one, using tweezers under a microscope.
Verdonschot expected most mosquitoes to be caught in the closest traps. Instead, about 80 percent were found in the farthest, meaning most flew at least 150 meters from the tent where they were hatched.
Verdonschot then refined his experiment, placing evergreen shrubs within the inner circle of traps. The numbers caught in the closest ring of traps shot up by one-third. The bushes offered both shelter from predators and moisture evaporating from the leaves.
That discovery led Tukker, working in the north, to create small raised islands of vegetation in the middle of the retention area, which becomes a swamp after a heavy rain. Those islands deflect mosquitoes from nearby farms.
The experiments produced a few other surprises, too.
Mosquitoes are mostly quiet during the day, preferring to concentrate on the edge of a body of water. When females hunt for blood — necessary for reproduction — they move for about an hour at dusk or at dawn, staying close to the ground.
"They move differently than we thought, they move farther than we thought," Verdonschot said.
Verdonschot believes his team's research adds to scientific knowledge about mosquitoes. Tomes have been written about mosquito bites and the effects on human health, but little research has been done on their habits, he said.
Verdonschot's simple experiments this summer have value for others building catchment areas around Europe and for housing developers.
"The whole northwestern European climate is becoming more dynamic because of climate change, because of wetter summers. And all this urban infrastructure has to be protected from water excess," he said.
Boerema also has a mosquito trap in the hedge around his cottage, helping to keep track of the mosquito population during wet and dry periods. He is anxious to see the water storage project completed, recalling that he was ordered to evacuate his home during a 1998 flood.
"I think it will ease the danger," he said, even though he's likely to have more mosquitoes.
"We've always been bitten. I don't react very much, but my wife hates them — but not to the extent that we find it unbearable to live here."

Associated Press

__________________________________________________________________________

»»  read more

Meet the $2.18 Million Dolan Sheep

For the man who has everything, this year’s prize bauble is a 14 million yuan ($2.18 million) Dolan sheep from the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar in the China’s far west. Only 1,000 Dolan sheep exist in the world, according to breeders, and their extraordinary features have made them the latest collectors’ item for ultra-rich Chinese.

Dolan Sheep - The World's Most Expensive Sheep Worth $2.18 Million

The Dolan breed has a distinctive curved nose and twin tails, as well as a long floppy ears. Originally bred from sheep in Kashgar to grow quickly and to yield more meat, the breed has since become ornamental. The price depends on the pedigree, said Liu Fenghua, a 48-year-old sheep breeder in the city of Aksu, in the far western region of Xinjiang. The darker the fleece, the better. The bigger the ears the better. The more curved the face, the better, like an eagle’s beak. The best ones have a dark body and white tail. I started breeding Dolans in 2009, buying a couple for 25,000 yuan ($3,900). The next year, I had an offer of 250,000 ($39,000) yuan for them, and the price keeps rising.
The most valuable sheep is a six-year-old owned by Majid Abdul Reyim, a breeder in Kashgar. Mr Reyim said he had received offers of 14 million yuan ($2.18 million) for it, but had not yet succumbed to a sale. That sheep is the grandfather of all the best pedigree Dolans in the region, said Mr Liu. I have one of its grandsons and that one is worth some six million yuan. I have 19 in total and I feed them dates and walnuts as well as grass.
Dolan breeders said that several families often clubbed together to buy a single sheep as an investment and then charge for its breeding rights. The top sheep can command fees of up to 300,000 ($47,000) yuan per dose of semen.
China’s sudden wealth has produced bubbles in all sorts of commodities, from tea to fine wine to jade. Last year, a Tibetan Mastiff puppy called Big Splash became the world’s most expensive dog when it was sold for close to $1.5 million in the city of Qingdao. 

[Telegraph]

____________________________________________________________________

»»  read more

Special Photography/Waterbirds

 Black Skimmer

Photograph by Mario Goren, My Shot

Common Tern

Photograph by James Galletto, My Shot

Seagulls Feeding

Photograph by Dale Williamson, My Shot

Swimming Pelicans

Photograph by Arnou Kunz, My Shot

Fishing Pelican

Photograph by Roger Lee, My Shot

Snapping Pelican

Photograph by Ryan Kennedy, My Shot

Seabird With Fish

Photograph by Carly Saxon, My Shot

Blue-Footed Booby

Photograph by Daniel Gautreau, My Shot

Flying Puffin

Photograph by Richard Seeley, My Shot

Swimming Loon

Photograph by April Stampe, My Shot

Black-Browed Albatross

Photograph by Allan Hansen, My Shot

___________________________________________

Courtsey: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

»»  read more

Pythons' big hearts hold clues for human health

You don't think of pythons as big-hearted toward their fellow creatures. They're better known for the bulge in their bodies after swallowing one of those critters whole. But the snakes' hearts balloon in size, too, as they're digesting _ and now scientists are studying them for clues about

WASHINGTON (AP) — You don't think of pythons as big-hearted toward their fellow creatures. They're better known for the bulge in their bodies after swallowing one of those critters whole.
But the snakes' hearts balloon in size, too, as they're digesting — and now scientists are studying them for clues about human heart health.
The expanded python heart appears remarkably similar to the larger-than-normal hearts of Olympic-caliber athletes. Colorado researchers report they've figured out how the snakes make it happen.
"It's this amazing biology," said Leslie Leinwand, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, whose team reports the findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science. "They're not swelling up. They're building (heart) muscle."
Reptile biologists have long studied the weird digestion of these snakes, especially the huge Burmese pythons that can go nearly a year between meals with no apparent ill effects. When they swallow that next rat or bird — or in some cases deer — something extraordinary happens. Their metabolism ratchets up more than 40-fold, and their organs immediately start growing in size to get the digesting done. The heart alone grows a startling 40 percent or more within three days.
Leinwand, who studies human heart disease, stumbled across that description and saw implications for people. An enlarged human heart usually is caused by chronic high blood pressure or other ailments that leave it flabby and unable to pump well. But months and years of vigorous exercise give some well-conditioned athletes larger, muscular hearts, similar to how python hearts are during digestion.
So Leinwand's team — led by a graduate student who initially was frightened of snakes — ordered a box of pythons and began testing what happens to their hearts.
The first surprise: A digesting python's blood gets so full of fat it looks milky. A type of fat called triglycerides increased 50-fold within a day. In people, high triglyceride levels are very dangerous. But the python heart was burning those fats so rapidly for fuel that they didn't have time to clog anything up, Leinwand said.
The second surprise: A key enzyme that protects the heart from damage increased in python blood right after it ate, while a heart-damaging compound was repressed.
Then the team found that a specific combination of three fatty acids in the blood helped promote the healthy heart growth. If they injected fasting pythons with that mixture, those snakes' hearts grew the same way that a fed python's does.
But did it only work for snakes? Lead researcher Cecilia Riquelme dropped some plasma from a fed python into a lab dish containing the heart cells of rats — and they grew bigger, too. Sure enough, injecting living mice made their hearts grow in an apparently healthy way as well.
Now the question is whether that kind of growth could be spurred in a mammal with heart disease, something Leinwand's team is starting to test in mice with human-like heart trouble. They also want to know how the python heart quickly shrinks back to its original size when digestion's done.
The experiments are "very, very cool indeed," said James Hicks, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who has long studied pythons' extreme metabolism and wants to see more such comparisons.
If the same underlying heart signals work in animals as divergent as snakes and mice, "this may reveal a common universal mechanism that can be used for improving cardiac function in all vertebrates, including humans," Hicks wrote in an email. "Only further studies and time will tell, but this paper is very exciting."
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and a Boulder biotechnology company that Leinwand co-founded, Hiberna Corp., that aims to develop drugs based on extreme animal biology.

AP

»»  read more

Woodpeckers could hold key to head injury prevention

Woodpeckers could hold the key to making helmets that better protect people from head injuries, a new study has found.

Researchers believe that woodpeckers may have an answer for minimizing devastating head injuries.
They say their analysis of woodpecker anatomy and behaviour revealed some features that could potentially be put to use in designing more effective helmets.
Woodpeckers are able to peck at a tree trunk at high speed, resulting in intense deceleration forces on impact, without sustaining any brain injury.
To investigate the source of the protection, the researchers - led by Yubo Fan of Beihang University in Beijing and Ming Zhang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University - recorded the birds using two synchronous high-speed video cameras.
They also took scans of the birds' heads to reveal details about the micro-structural parameters such as the bone volume, thickness and density.
Woodpeckers could hold key to head injury prevention
Woodpeckers could hold the key to making helmets that better protect people from head injuries, a new study has found.
Researchers believe that woodpeckers may have an answer for minimizing devastating head injuries.
They say their analysis of woodpecker anatomy and behaviour revealed some features that could potentially be put to use in designing more effective helmets.
Woodpeckers are able to peck at a tree trunk at high speed, resulting in intense deceleration forces on impact, without sustaining any brain injury.
To investigate the source of the protection, the researchers - led by Yubo Fan of Beihang University in Beijing and Ming Zhang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University - recorded the birds using two synchronous high-speed video cameras.
They also took scans of the birds' heads to reveal details about the micro-structural parameters such as the bone volume, thickness and density.
They then constructed 3D models that allowed for further testing and measurement of the forces involved.
The results showed that specific details of the cranial bones and beak - such as the relative "spongy"-ness of the bone at different places in the skull and the unequal lengths of the upper and lower parts of the beak - were crucial for preventing impact injury.
The researchers conclude that the shock absorption system is not based on a single factor, but is a result of the combined effect of a number of different morphological features.
Dr Fan said: "This combination may be useful in guiding design for new protective gear."
The findings were published in the latest issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.

Source: The Telegraph

»»  read more

How the Zebra Gets Its Stripes

Many living things have stripes, but the developmental processes that create these and other patterns are complex and difficult to untangle.

Now a team of scientists has designed a simple genetic circuit that creates a striped pattern that they can control by tweaking a single gene.
"The essential components can be buried in a complex physiological context," said Terence Hwa, a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the leaders of the study published October 14 in Science. "Natural systems make all kinds of wonderful patterns, but the problem is you never know what's really controlling it."
With genes taken from one species of bacterium and inserted into another, Hwa and colleagues from the University of Hong Kong assembled a genetic loop from two linked modules that senses how crowded a group of cells has become and responds by controlling their movements.
One of the modules secretes a chemical signal called acyl-homoserine lactone (AHL). As the bacterial colony grows, AHL floods the accumulating cells, causing them to tumble in place rather than swim. Stuck in the agar of their dish, they pile up.
Because AHL doesn't diffuse very far, a few cells escape and swim away to begin the process again.
Left to grow overnight, the cells create a target-like pattern of concentric rings of crowded and dispersed bacterial cells. By tweaking just one gene that limits how fast and far cells can swim, the researchers were able to control the number of rings the bacteria made. They can also manipulate the pattern by modifying how long AHL lasts before it degrades.
Although individual bacteria are single cells, as colonies they can act like a multicellular organism, sending and receiving signals to coordinate the growth and other functions of the colony. That means fundamental rules that govern the development of these patterns could well apply to critical steps in the development of other organisms.
To uncover these fundamental rules, Hwa and colleagues characterized the performance of their synthetic genetic circuit in two ways.
First, they precisely measured both the activity of individual genes in the circuit throughout the tumble-and-swim cycle. Then they derived a mathematical equation that describes the probability of cells flipping between swim and tumble motions.
Additional equations describe other aspects of the system, such as the dynamics of the synthesis, diffusion and deactivation of one of the cell-to-cell chemical signal AHL.
This three-pronged approach of "wet-lab" experiments, precise measurements of the results, and mathematical modeling of the system, characterize the emerging discipline of quantitative biology, Hwa said. "This is a prototype, a model of the kind of biology we want to do."
Co-authors include Jian-Dong Huang, associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong additional researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Marburg, and the University of Hong Kong including members of the 2008 iGEM team, which Hwa co-advised as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at UHK. Hwa is a senior scientist with UC San Diego's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics.

»»  read more

Weird Science/Goats Could Increase the Risk of a Rare Lung Cancer

Exposure to goats could increase the risk of a certain type of lung cancer, according to French researchers.

The study, presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, has linked a professional exposure to goats with a distinct subset of lung cancer, known as pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma (P-ADC).
This form of lung cancer has a weak association with tobacco smoking when compared with other types of the disease. In attempting to identify other triggers that may cause the disease, scientists have previously noticed similarities between P-ADC and a viral infection which causes growths in the lungs of sheep. Given these similarities, the researchers have investigated whether a viral agent found in sheep and goats could be easily transferred to people who work with the animals, leading to a partiality for P-ADC.
The current epidemiologic study involved 44 patients with P-ADC and 132 controls without the disease. All participants were given a questionnaire assessing a number of risk factors including their smoking status, their personal history of cancer and their exposure to goats.
The results showed that people who had experienced a professional exposure to goats during their lifetime were five times more likely to get P-ADC compared with other types of lung cancer.
The findings also showed that P-ADC was significantly associated with females, and people who had never smoked or had any personal history of cancer.
Dr Nicolas Girard, from the Louis Pradel Hospital, Hospices Civils de Lyon, said: "Scientists have noticed similarities between P-ADC and a contagious viral infection in sheep before. This led us to explore the possibility that professional exposure to cattle could make humans more susceptible to P-ADC. These findings demonstrate that exposure to goats could be a risk factor for this type of lung cancer, however further studies are needed to assess other potential risk factors for the disease."

»»  read more

One-eyed albino shark-clops 'is not a fake', say experts

 A fetal shark cut from the belly of a pregnant shark caught in the Gulf of California. The shark, which would likely not have survived outside the womb, had only one eye. CREDIT: Pisces Fleet Sportfishing.

Fisherman has discovered what appears to be a shark with a single eye in the centre of its face.
The albino ‘cyclops’ fetus was cut from the belly of a pregnant bull shark caught in the Gulf of California this summer.
The one-eyed shark has achieved cult status since Pisces Fleet Sportfishing published pictures of it in July, giving rise to rumours of Photoshopping or other hoaxes.

close view of Cy. (Photo credit: Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez / National Geographic)

But shark researchers who have examined the creature say it is genuine, although it is unlikely it would have survived after birth, MSNBC reported.

Shark expert Felipe Galvan Magana, of Mexico’s Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias del Mar, said: ‘This is extremely rare. As far as I know, less than 50 examples of an abnormality like this have been recorded.’

 (Photo credit: Marcela Bejarano-Álvarez / National Geographic)

The shark’s condition is known as cyclopia, and is a rare congenital disorder characterised by the failure of the front portion of the brain to properly divide the orbits of the eye into two cavities.
Cyclopia occurs within the spectrum of brain and face defects known as holoprosencephaly, which in severe cases can result in miscarriage or stillbirth.
In 2005 a kitten born with only one eye and no nose caused a similar online stir.
The feline, one of two in a litter, became known as Cy (short for Cyclops) and died within a day.

(MSNBC)

»»  read more

Special Photography/ Underwater Life(19 pics)

 Crab sitting on a net - Copyright Tanaka Juuyoh

Deep Blue Dolphin Love - Copyright LaPrimaDonna

I see you - Copyright Hamed Saber

Sea Anemone - Copyright Matt Clark

Star Attraction - Copyright LASZLO ILYES

Regal Queen - Copyright LASZLO ILYES

Caribbean Condylactis gigantae - Copyright LASZLO ILYES

Micro Cosmos - Copyright TANAKA Juuyoh

Cream Jellyfish - Copyright Chris Willis

Star - Copyright wrda

Curious Seal - Copyright Hugo

 Copyright LASZLO IYLES

Protecting and Hiding - Copyright Jenny

Juvenile Boxfish - Copyright NOAA Ocean Explorer

Bubble tip anemone - Copyright Ken Traub

Jellyfish - Copyright Schristia

Stingray drive-by - Copyright Jenny

 Sponge Brittle Stars - Copyright LASZLO ILYES

Flamingo Tongue Snail in Profile - Copyright LASZLO ILYES

»»  read more