Blog – Page 536 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Parasitic DNA proliferates in aging tissues

As mice age, cells in tissues such as the liver and skeletal muscle lose control over rogue sequences of DNA called “retrotransposable elements,” according to new research in the journal Aging. The elements, which may undermine health, could proliferate in old mice and were also abundant in cancerous tissue. A low-calorie diet, however, restrained their advance.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The genomes of organisms from humans to corn are replete with “parasitic” strands of DNA that, when not suppressed, copy themselves and spread throughout the genome, potentially affecting health. Earlier this year Brown University researchers found that these “retrotransposable elements” (RTE’s) were increasingly able to break free of the genome’s control in cultures of human cells. Now in a new paper in the journal Aging, they show that RTEs were increasingly able to break free and copy themselves in the tissues of mice as the animals aged. In further experiments the biologists showed that this activity was readily apparent in cancerous tumors, but that it also could be reduced by restricting calories. (more…)

White paper urges new approaches to assure access to scientific data

Science

ANN ARBOR — A newly released white paper calls for new approaches for preserving scientific data and sustainable funding of domain repositories—data archives with ties to specific scientific communities.

“Sustaining Domain Repositories for Digital Data: A White Paper” is the result of a meeting last summer that brought together representatives of 22 data repositories serving the social, natural and physical sciences. The meeting at the University of Michigan was organized by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, part of the U-M Institute for Social Research. (more…)

SOFS Take to Water

Science

Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry Create First Soluble 2D Supramolecular Organic Frameworks

Supramolecular chemistry, aka chemistry beyond the molecule, in which molecules and molecular complexes are held together by non-covalent bonds, is just beginning to come into its own with the emergence of nanotechnology. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are commanding much of the attention because of their appetite for greenhouse gases, but a new player has joined the field – supramolecular organic frameworks (SOFs). Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have unveiled the first two-dimensional SOFs that self-assemble in solution, an important breakthrough that holds implications for sensing and separation technologies, energy sciences, and, perhaps most importantly, biomimetics. (more…)

Wer am Arbeitsplatz und zu Hause ständig sitzt

Health

Langes Sitzen ist widernatürlich. Der Körper braucht Bewegung, damit wir uns wohl fühlen und gesund bleiben. Einige Tipps.(english)

If your work or home life involves a lot of sitting, you may watch this 3-minute clip. (more…)

Rückgang bei Grünfink und Kohlmeise

Uncategorized

Wintervögel-Zwischenstand nach 8.300 Meldungen und 340.000 Vögeln

Wer groß und laut ist, fällt auch in Garten und Park eher auf als die kleinen und versteckt lebenden Vögel. Das scheint bei der diesjährigen „Stunde der Wintervögel“ bisher in besonderem Maße zu gelten. Während viele Arten stagnieren oder etwas weniger häufig beobachtet werden als im Vorjahr, sind Schwergewichte wie Tauben und Rabenvögel aller Art scheinbar auf dem Vormarsch. (more…)

With Fewer Hard Frosts, Tropical Mangroves Push North

Environment

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Cold-sensitive mangrove forests have expanded dramatically along Florida’s Atlantic Coast as the frequency of killing frosts has declined, according to a new study based on 28 years of satellite data from the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.

Between 1984 and 2011, the Florida Atlantic coast from the Miami area northward gained more than 3,000 acres (1,240 hectares) of mangroves. All the increase occurred north of Palm Beach County. Between Cape Canaveral National Seashore and Saint Augustine, mangroves doubled in area. Meanwhile between the study’s first five years and its last five years, nearby Daytona Beach recorded 1.4 fewer days per year when temperatures fell below 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius). The number of killing frosts in southern Florida was unchanged. (more…)

Die fünf Finger der Vögel: Neue Forschungsergebnisse zur Evolution von Vögeln

Nature

In der Regel haben Landwirbeltiere fünf Finger oder Zehen pro Hand oder Fuß. Viele Tiergruppen haben im Laufe der Evolution diesen Bauplan allerdings abgewandelt. So haben etwa Paarhufer nur zwei oder vier Zehen. Ähnlich sind im Flügel der Vögel nur drei knochige Finger vorhanden. Die Anlage eines vierten Fingers auf der Handaußenseite (posterior) lässt sich bei Vögeln jedoch embryonal belegen. Dadurch stellt sich die Frage, um welche Finger es sich nun tatsächlich handelt: Daumen, Zeige- und Mittelfinger (I, II, III) oder Zeige-, Mittel- und Ringfinger (II, III, IV). Theoretische Biologen der Universität Wien haben dies geklärt und publizieren dazu aktuell im Journal of Experimental Zoology.

Bei den meisten Tetrapoden (Landwirbeltieren) ist der erste Finger, der embryonal angelegt wird, der vierte (Ringfinger). Auch bei Vögeln wird der Finger auf der Handaußenseite (posterior) als erster angelegt, was dafür spricht, dass es sich dabei um den Ringfinger handelt. Es konnte jedoch nachgewiesen werden, dass auch anterior – also auf der Handinnenseite – eine embryonale Fingeranlage vorhanden ist, die allerdings schnell wieder verschwindet. Diese Daten sprechen für eine Identifizierung der Finger als Zeige-, Mittel- und Ringfinger (II, III, IV). (more…)

Decade-Old Rover Adventure Continues on Mars and Earth

Science

Eighth graders didn’t have Facebook or Twitter to share news back then, in January 2004. Bekah Sosland, 14 at the time, learned about a NASA rover landing on Mars when the bouncing-ball video on the next morning’s Channel One news in her Fredericksburg, Texas, classroom caught her eye.

“I wasn’t particularly interested in space at the time,” she recalled last week inside the spacecraft operations facility where she now works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “I remember I was talking with friends, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed this thing bouncing and rolling on a red surface. I watched as it stopped and opened up, and it had this rover inside.” (more…)