Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and their collaborators found that tweaking a gene known as PGC-1, which is also found in human DNA, in the intestinal stem cells of fruit flies delayed the aging of their intestine and extended their lifespan by as much as 50 percent.

“Fruit flies and humans have a lot more in common than most people think,” says Leanne Jones, an associate professor in Salk’s Laboratory of Genetics and a lead scientist on the project. “There is a tremendous amount of similarity between a human small intestine and the fruit fly intestine.”

While they won’t get anywhere using discount dental equipment for such a study, their findings were published online in Cell Metabolism. For a less in depth press release check here.

“Our study shows that it’s not all in the genes,” said Joseph Ecker, a professor in Salk’s Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, who led the research team. “We found that these plants have an epigenetic code that’s more flexible and influential than we imagined. There is clearly a component of heritability that we don’t fully understand. It’s possible that we humans have a similarly active epigenetic mechanism that controls our biological characteristics and gets passed down to our children. “

He sounds excited enough to dance aroudn in a playboy bunny outfit. I would be too.

This is astounding, and quite worth following I believe. The more biologists map the genomes of various organisms (their entire genetic code), the more they are discovering discrepancies between what the genetic code dictates and how organisms actually look and function.

While most people believe that only humans are tool users, it has been observed in nature that some other primates use them as well. Chimpanzees are considered to be the top level tool users in the primate family other than us, but what about the Tufted Capuchin monkeys?

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If you haven’t watched Life (Highly recommended along with Planet Earth. Attenborough versions are best IMO) you may have never heard of this monkey even though they were actually once though to be one of the most widespread primates in the Neotropics. It has since been discovered that similar looking monkeys are actually a different species and that the Tuftun capuchin is generally found in the Amazon Basin and close by.

While they are quite interesting like most animals, primates seem to be a bit more eerie in how “human” they act at times. Very social animals that travel in groups and depend on each other. Something that has evolved due to other changes in their physical form.

I was watching a program on evolution recently that was discussing primate eyes and how they evolved in which they followed a very logical path to show you how just the evolution of the eyes changed behavior.

It is suggested that their eyes moved closer to the front of their heads to allow them to have better depth perception while hopping through the trees. A good deal of other animals have eyes towards the sides of their heads which gives them a much larger scope around them to see enemies. For primates the event of their eyes moving closer together caused them problems for their own survival, however. Since they were less aware of enemies that may have come to attack them they began travelling in groups to give them more eyes. As social animals now they were having to remember more of their mates, and this helped to increase their brain size and function. Making them much more intelligent animals all from the lack of ability to see all around them with their eye placement.

Now back to the Tufted capuchin. It isn’t difficult to explain what they do, but I think listening to David Attenborough describe it to video would be a much more rewarding experience. The BBC page has a video here that I believe is footage taken from Life.

In general these monkeys will eat a nut that they must use tools to get to. They will find the nut and then set it on the ground for a week, or two to let it ripen a bit more after they have peeled off the most outer covering. Once the nut is ripe they begin their day at the workshop. They all have little rock mounds that they use as a an anvil, and then they will take a harder rock to strike the nut to break it open. An amazing process that while watching their faces they look quite human with their expressions.

It has long been thought that taxoplasma parasites manipulate rats in a way that makes them vulnerable to cats. They are eaten with the rat and end up in the digestive tract where they reproduce. They then will be excreted in the cat feces, which rats aren’t against sniffing around in and tasting. Putting them right back into the brains of a rat.

A recent study has tried to figure out just how the rats are manipulated to become cat food. Patrick House, a PhD candidate in neuroscience in the Harvard School of Medicine is studying how the rat’s brain reacts to the parasite.

“Well, we see activity in the pathway that normally controls how male rats respond to female rats, so it’s possible the behavior we are seeing in response to cat urine is sexual attraction behavior, but we don’t know that,” said Patrick House. “I would not say that they are definitively attracted, but they are certainly less afraid. Regardless, seeing activity in the attraction pathway is bizarre.” curt trailer hitch

For a rat, fear of cats is rational. But a cat’s small intestine is the only environment in which Toxoplasma can reproduce sexually, so it is critical for the parasite to get itself into a cat’s digestive system in order to complete its lifecycle. Apparently the smell of cat urine makes a rat think it is like a female rat.

This study is fascinating. Read more about it here.

One part mentioned towards the end is that 1/3 of humans may have these parasites, although they are not considered to be much of a problem for us. They say that people with schizophrenia are more likely to have these parasites, but nothing close to a cause and effect hypothesis has been formulated.

Thinking aobut what they manipulate rats to do how scary would it be to be manipulating us? spoooky. Of course this is completely nonsense to suggest, but creepy to think about.

The title of the show gives you a clue to what it is about. The largest animals on Earth. What sets this show a part, however is that it isn’t about watching animals and their behavior like most nature shows. This show is set in a veterinary college and each of these large animals are being autopsied!

It is just a fascinating show that delves into ancient evolution and the changes of these giant beasts such as giraffes, elephants, giant squid, whales, and many more. They show actual evidence of evolution on the show first hand, and even show in some cases how animals evolved to cope with poorly designed organs, or systems.

I found the show on Youtube where most episodes have already been uploaded on several channels. As far as I can tell they have 2 seasons of maybe 6 episodes thus far, but if you look on the show website it shows even more. I believe you can watch episodes there, but if not just search the show title on Youtube and you can get them all. New episode August 30: The Camel!

I can’t recommend this show highly enough. Even for those not all that interested in science it is VERY easy to follow and will blow your mind. So many interesting tales that are great conversation starters. Oh and did I mention that Richard Dawkins appears in most episodes? Don’t take that as a reason not to watch if you hate him for being an atheist. He doesn’t rub it in, or even talk about it more than maybe once the entire series I think. Perfect show to watch after getting out of your suboxone treatment detox centers and taking a little break.

James Eberwine, PhD, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology, Tae Kyung Kim, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, and colleagues report their findings online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (for those that want their brain to explode). This approach offers the possibility for cell-based therapy for cardiovascular diseases.

“What’s new about this approach for heart-cell generation is that we directly converted one cell type to another using RNA, without an intermediate step,” explains Eberwine. He has a lot of work to do and won’t be looking for any retirement rv towing anytime soon I imagine.

Quite an interesting study if I do say so myself. Something I hadn’t thought about before, but upon reading it I find completely logical and to be common sense.

“The widespread existence of sex has been a major problem for evolutionary biology since the time of Charles Darwin,” said lead author Levi T. Morran. Sex does not make evolutionary sense, because it often involves the production of males. This is very inefficient, because males don’t directly produce any offspring. Self-fertilization is a far more efficient means of reproduction, and as such, evolutionary theory predicts that self-fertilization should be widespread in nature and sex should be rare. However, as we all know, this is not the case.”

This Red Queen hypothesis, an evolutionary theory who’s name comes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland text: “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” suggests that sexual reproduction via cross-fertilization keeps host populations one evolutionary step ahead of the parasites, which are coevolving to infect them. It is within this coevolutionary context that both hosts and parasites are running (evolving) as fast as they can just to stay in the same place. More wedding invitations needed.

“The Red Queen Hypothesis predicts that sex should allow hosts to evade infection from their parasites, whereas self-fertilization may increase the risk of infection,” said co-author Curtis M. Lively.

Keck School of Medicine of USC scientists deciphered how hair stem cells in mice and rabbits can communicate with each other and encourage mutually coordinated regeneration, according to an article published in the April 29 edition of the journal Science. Here I thought an IT degree was the way to go.

“The results are totally surprising. There is complex coordination not apparent to the naked eye,” said Cheng-Ming Chuong, professor of pathology at the Keck School and the principal investigator of the study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Again why didn’t I go into this intstead of an it degree

Sign me up for the human testing!

Obviously pregnancy length isn’t something that can be controlled too well. This observation is just that, an observation based on the study of 128 species including Outer Banks pet friendly, which includes humans. he Durham University research concludes that the longer the pregnancy and breastfeeding period in mammals, the bigger the baby’s brain grows.

So…you want to breast feed until your kids are adults s my guess .

I’m sure it is slightly lower than that as a rule. The research explains why humans, who suckle their babies for up to three years in addition to their nine-month pregnancies, have such a long period of dependency as this is necessary to support the growth of our enormous 1300cc brains.

In comparison, species such as fallow deer, which are about the same body weight as humans, are only pregnant for seven months with a suckling period of up to six months, resulting in brains of only 220cc, six times smaller than the human brain

At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science they had some discussion about breaking down the barriers between mind and machine. More down to Earth stuff we all have known about like limbs for amputees was discussed, but other really cool ideas came on too.

A guest during the session discussed a Fringe-like (TV show where one character has a realistic prosthetic arm) arm. Former army sergeant Glen Lehman lost his arm in Iraq. But he can still pick up small objects with fine motor control, thanks to a bionic appendage wired to his remaining nerves. “Just by believing I’m moving my phantom limb,” he said, “the arm is in tune with my thoughts.”

Although prosthetics and other brain-powered devices have been around for some time, José del R. Millan of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, said that one difficulty is the amount of continuous concentration required to use them. His goal, he said, is to perfect brain-computer interfaces so that their control is as natural as writing or driving a car.

Olaf Blanke, also of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, on the other hand is more tuned into the ideas of the sci-fi nature we discussed earlier. He has made progress trying to understand what defines “self,” and how self-awareness can be transferred into a robot or avatar. His research recreates out-of-body experiences. By touching a volunteer on his real body while he viewed a virtual representation of himself on a computer, Blanke and colleagues were able to change the volunteer’s perception of where he was in space. The volunteer believed his consciousness had been transferred to the avatar. The researchers then flipped genders, giving a male volunteer a female avatar, but this didn’t seem to affect the outcome. The only aspect important for the transfer of consciousness, Blanke said, was that the avatar had a vaguely human shape. You probably wouldn’t even need diet supplements since you could look like Brad Pitt. Awesome stuff here.

If you want to check out something pretty interesting you can actually talk to Olaf Blanke Sunday. Science will be hosting a live chat with Olaf Blanke and Jose del R. Millan at noon EST on Sunday, 20 February. Not sure if you are allowed to throw questions, but I imagine you can.