2012_11: Genomic Epidemiology uses full genome sequencing of pathogens collected from (suspected) patients to trace the transmission vector. [] 2012_11: Biochar is charred (heated without air) biomass, that has the potential to mitigate climate change and – important for its economic viability – benefit agriculture. For the former it removes carbon from the biomass-cycle into a stable...
Concept: Imperfect sensory information. Source: A Nature News & Views, referencing recent original research from Science (April 5, 2013). Background: Previous work proved that there is noise in decision making, leaving open the question as to the noise’s source (e.g. sensory organ, ability to accumulate information, biases, strategy for estimating information importance). Methods: New...
Concepts: PCSK9, and LDL cholesterol. Source: A News Feature in Nature (April 9, 2013). Background: PCSK9 circulates in the blood, binding to the LDL receptor on the surface of liver cells, taking them into the cell to be degraded. On the surface, LDL receptors capture LDL cholesterol to remove it from the bloodstream. Mutating/inhibiting PCSK9 leaves more LDL receptors on the surface, thus...
Concept: Dolphin cognition, communication. And: Fission-fusion society; joint attention, false belief task. A fission-fusion society is one in which the composition of groups changes according to time, environment, and activity, e.g. fusing to sleep, and fission to forage (via Wikipedia). Joint attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It has been argued to be fundamental for...
Editorial notes: For a broader elaboration on Shai’s ‘Bibliome project’ see the Editorial notes to ‘Philosophy Readings Through Time‘ (Open link in a new tab). Here I start to plan bibliomes – they being organic districts that are fertilized by interest and motivation, and whose seeds can be defined as specifically as words. This “page”, or Note...
Concept: Saturn’s magnetic ring rain. Source: Nature News and Views, based on an original research Letter (April 11, 2013). Background: Rings made up of water ice, most of which can be described by Newtonian forces, but those small enough require an explanation of the Lorentz force. If they gain a high enough charge:mass, then they move along the magnetic field. Saturn’s field is...
In 2011, Universe published the ghoulishly-titled book 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die[1]. The obvious question then follows, “Well, what’s number one?” The list’s ordered chronologically, but even so, it’s a game called The Oregon Trail. It’s from the mid 70’s. Today that makes it vintage, ten years ago it was old school, and ten years before...
A lot of what scientists do is curating nature. That is, describing the different bits of nature, at different scales, categorizing them, and listing their relationships, in which they look for patterns. Scientists did this when they undertook the Human Genome Project, a massive effort to describe the chemical composition and order of human DNA. Having a map of human DNA only spurred further...
Concepts: Keystone species, and population cycle dampening. Source: Science original research Report (April 5, 2013). Background: A keystone species is one that disproportionally affects its ecosystem*. Relationships between predator-prey are generally assumed to be cyclic insofar as their amounts reflect each other in a cyclic manner (e.g. many plants feed many herbivores that increase...
Concept: Transposon driven neuronal heterogeneity. Source: An original Report in Science (April 5, 2013). Background: This was already shown in yeast and mammals, now in Drosophila. Transposons account for 45% and 20% of the human and Dros genome. Results: Identified and characterised range of transposon activity in the olfactory memory system of mushroom bodies (MBs), especially in the neuron...
