Bacteria: Alternative Energy Source in Future

Hydrogen is the environmentally cleanest and most abundant fuel. But extracting it from other organic materials or  water,  needs significant amount of energy, and it is currently not an efficient process. Fortunately, scientists are have discovered certain bacteria that exhale hydrogen during the normal metabolism.

These particular microbes grow in hot temperatures nearly boiling point of water. These thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria is known as Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus found in a hot spring in New Zealand. Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicles are available in California and the New York area. These vehicles run off of hydrogen gas and emit only water vapor. Therefore in future, Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus microbes can be used as an alternative energy source to power our vehicles.

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Leak Found in Earth’s Atmosphere

ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered that Earth’s atmosphere is constantly leaking Oxygen into Space. Charged oxygen ions, flowing outwards from the polar regions into space. The data collected by Cluster from 2001 to 2003 is used to find the phenomenon. Compared to the Earth’s stock of the life-supporting gas, the amount escaping is negligible.

Image Credit : http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQ8LKRQJF_index_0.html

Human Remains In Sahara

Remains of a tiny woman and 2 children were found in Sahara desert. These skeletons are 5,000 years old and provided clues to two civilizations who lived there, a thousand years apart, when Sahara region was moist and green. Paul Sereno and colleagues from University of Chicago were searching for the remains of dinosaurs in the African country when they came across these skeletons. This hot desert was moist and green at the time people lived there. The first group of people known as the Kiffian, hunted wild animals and colonized the region between10,000 and 8,000 years ago. The second group, Tenerians, lived here between 7,000 and 4,500 years ago. They were smaller and did hunting, fishing and cattle herding. But now Sahara is a desert occupied with hot blowing wind.

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Allow Producers to Irradiate Your Vegetables?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved food producers to irradiate vegetables such as spinach and iceberg lettuce to increase the shelf life and also to limit the growth of pathogens especially Salmonella and E. coli.

Although there are many other effective ways available,  Irradiation is considered to be safe and effective by FDA. But this may contaminate the mass distribution of food. The irradiation is a Band-Aid solution to keep a broken system in place, but not an ultimate solution. Some consumer groups are worried that irradiated vegetables are inferior, contaminated and unhealthy. But studies done by the FDA showed no relationship between radiation and long-term health risks such as cancer.

Cattle Have Sense Of Direction

Google Earth satellite images helped researchers, and revealed that cattle tend to face north-south direction while grazing or resting. Other field observations of red and roe deer also revealed this. Both cattle and deer faced a more magnetic north-south direction rather than geographic north-south.

Other animals such as birds, turtles and salmon migrate using a sense of magnetic direction. Small mammals such as rodents and bats also have inner magnetic compass.

Monkey Helps Relatives and Friends, So Do You

Capuchin monkeys try to choose options that get food for others. When they are paired with relative or friend, the monkeys choose double reward “prosocial” choice than ” Self-fish” choice. But when it comes to strangers, they choose “self-fish” option. In the study monkeys were given tokens to exchange for food. One token got them a slice of apple. The other also got an apple slice, plus a similar slice to another monkey. When it comes to partner or familiar monkey from the same social group, the one choosing the token moved closer to the other monkey and choose the token that got them both food. But when the other monkey was a stranger, they choose selfish token to get food just for them.

Cell Phones For Hearing Impaired

Researchers from University of Washington has created a  software that for the first time helps deaf and hard-of-hearing people to use sign language over a mobile phone.

Reason For Peacock’s Colorful Tail

Even Charles Darwin struggled to explain why the bird should have this burdensome trait. When there are many potential danger related to the colourful tail, why this bird got this trait. Darwin finally got the idea of sexual selection, which provides an advantage in the competition for mates and that outweighed other disadvantages. While humans  are attracted to symmetrical faces and other outward signs of fitness, these birds are attracted to colourful tails. The male specific traits are evolved with the changing preferences of females. When the female tastes change, these traits go away.

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Face Recognition Can Vary From One Culture To Another

The way we recognize faces can say a lot about what culture we come from. This finding change the concept of the capability of face recognition is universal across the globe. According to this study, Westerners often concentrate on individual details of face, while East Asians focus on how details relate to each other.

When reading the expression Americans focus expression of a central figure and Japanese focus behind that central figure to gauge that person’s emotional state. Scientists used eye-tracking systems  to monitor eye movements of participants. They have observed the difference in eye movements in Westerners and East Asian participants. They found that Westerners look at specific features on face such as the eyes and mouth and East Asian focus on the nose or the centre of the face. This allows them to get a general view of all the features.

Crying Helps You Remember

If you think suppressing emotions are cool, think again. According to researchers of University of Washington and Stanford University suggest that suppressing emotions may actually hinder your ability to recall past events. During the study participants were shown a film depicting a married couple arguing. Subjects who hid their emotions during the viewing, remembered far less. Subjects also viewed slides of injured accident victims and were told personal information about each victims. The results showed that participants who suppressed their feelings recalled fewer details than the other participants.

Red Dress Gets You Noticed

Various animals can see only parts of that rainbow because their photoreceptors respond to colours in different ways. Butterflies, for instance, see into the ultraviolet end of the rainbow. It allows them to see their own complex markings better than humans can. Foxes and owls are color blind and since they are awake at night, it doesn’t matter to them.

Primitive primates that resemble lemurs and lorises saw only green and blue, but when moneys evolved 34 million years ago,they became sensitive to shorter wavelengths of color such as red. Color vision was essential to find fruits to hungry primate and helped monkeys to avoid toxic and indigestible leaves. And so humans are lucky enough to ended up with color vision even though we no longer live in trees. But color is more than wavelengths, more than an indicator for food to us. That is why Chinese athletes, Chinese and Indian brides, wear red because red is considered lucky and gets you noticed.

Men Are Willing to Adopt Children: Against Darwinian Fitness

According to the report from National Survey of Family Growth, men are more willing to adopt children compared to women.  American men ages between 18- 44 are more than two times as likely as women in the same age group to have adopted a child. It showed that more than 1.2 million men and 613,000 women had adopted children. The reason for this difference could be partly due to men getting married and adopting their spouse’s children from a previous relationships. We all are designed to pass our gene to next generation, but this is a threat to our survival and fitness.

Down Syndrome In A Dish

Harvard scientists have created stems cells for 10 genetic disorders. These stems cells will allow these researchers to watch the diseases develop in a lab. This new technique could help to find treatments for some of the genetic diseases. Dr. George Daley and his colleagues at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute produced these stem cells by using skin cells and bone marrow from people with diseases such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Down syndrome. The new technique of re-programing cells gives these cells the qualities like embryonic stem cells, which can morph into all kinds of tissue, such as heart, nerve and brain. So researchers can see progression of each diseases in a dish. This technique can help to find a cure by knowing what goes right or wrong in a dish.

Photo Source: www.wellcome.ac.uk

Athletes Have Better Brain

Athletes not only get better and healthy body, they also have better brains. It has been found that a balanced diet and regular exercise can protect the brain and help prevent mental disorders. A person who does exercise regularly learn faster, remember more, think clearer and when brain injuries such as a stroke occurs they can bounce back more easily. They are also less affected by depression or any other age-related cognitive decline problems. When we exercise more, electric messages will be sent more often to the brain and eventually triggers a release of chemicals called growth factors. These growth factors make neurons stronger, healthier and improve one’s ability to learn.

Robot Baby With Emotions

Scientists created a Robot, a flexible, plastic puppet with robotic features. The robot has been programmed to react to sound, touch and nearby movements. It’s called Heart Robot, because its red “heart” is visible on the left side of its body and it beats at different rates.
This robot is programmed to react to human emotions and displayed at the Antenna Gallery at London’s Science Museum.

Photo Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Solar Eclipse,August 1 2008

The eclipse will start around 8:30 a.m.(GMT) tomorrow in the eastern part of the arc, leading to totality in just under an hour. The eclipse will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern Canada, middle of Russia, western Mongolia and China.  A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially obscured. Total solar eclipses are rare events. Although they occur somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average. The last full solar eclipse took place almost a year ago on March 29, 2007. Next Total Solar Eclipse will occur on 22nd July, 2009.

Human Blood Vessels In Mice

Human blood vessels are grown in a mouse for the first time.This could help patients with heart disease. Scientists said that the research was promising, but it could help them to make lab-grown organs, and it can be implanted successfully. The ability to develop capillaries ( network of tiny blood vessels) would be a prize for scientists.

Birth Weight Can Predict Future Health

Boys born small develop poor health later in life, say scientists. But no such problem was seen in low birth weight girls. When they tested child’s response to stress, problem in vascular resistance was observed. Vascular resistance is a property of blood vessels which makes it harder for the blood to be pumped through. This can lead to blood pressure problems in adulthood. After going through public speaking and mental arithmetic test designed to make them nervous, and increase heart-rate, boys who born smaller were more likely to have higher vascular resistance than those born bigger.

Green Or Blue Scrubs Over White

Why do health care professionals wear blue or green scrubs rather than any other colours? Although white is the color of cleanliness, in the early 20th century doctors switched their scrub’s colour from white to green. It’s been known that green or blue colours are easier on a surgeon’s eyes and help doctors to see better in the operating room due the opposite of red on the color wheel.

Looking at blue or green can refresh a one’s vision of red things, especially during surgery. If a surgeon looks at something red, he becomes desensitized to it. The red colour signal in the brain actually fades, and this could make the surgery difficult. Looking at something green will make the eyes more sensitive to red. By wearing a green scrub, doctors can also eliminate a green illusion of the blood (“after effect” illusion due to red).

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New Habitat Inside Earth

Researchers have discovered a unique star shaped bacterium living 1.7 km below the Earth’s surface. This bacteria was discovered in South African platinum mine. There are many types of unknown species live in the deep subsurface of Earth, but large scale drilling projects needed to discover them. With the help of ultra-deep mines of South Africa, researchers are getting a glimpse into this unique habitat. Scientists from the University of Western Ontario and Princeton University have gained access to many previously undiscovered microbial communities in South African Northam Platinum mine.

Photo Source: www.livescience.com