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Alpine Algenart neu positioniert

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2014Sciencebau kunst erfinden, crawler, drop of blood, dyscrete, fassaden roboter, forschungsplattform, heike klussmann, mining energy, newomics inc, plotbot, screening for disease, solarstrom beton, uni innsbruck, university of connecticut, uv strahlung

Algen sind das Spezialgebiet des Innsbrucker Botanikers Andreas Holzinger. Im Rotmoostal in Obergurgl stieß er auf eine besondere Art, die er nun gemeinsam mit KollegInnen aus Innsbruck und den USA detailliert untersuchte. Die Fachzeitschrift Journal of Phycology widmete dieser Beschreibung im Oktober ihre Coverseite.

Zygogonium ericetorum – diese alpine Algenart gab Andreas Holzinger einige Rätsel auf. „Ich habe diese Art im Obergurgler Rotmoostal gefunden. Sie gehört in die Großgruppe der streptophytischen Grünalgen, ist teilweise austrocknungstolerant und aufgrund ihrer starken lila-Färbung sehr resistent gegenüber UV-Strahlung“, beschreibt assoz. Prof. Dr. Andreas Holzinger vom Institut für Botanik der Uni Innsbruck. Die Lila-Färbung dieser Art ist dadurch bedingt, dass die Algen einen eisenhaltigen Farbstoff in die Vakuole einlagern. „Diese Färbung ermöglicht eine höhere UV-Absorption, wodurch besonders die Photosynthese betreibenden Chloroplasten sehr gut geschützt sind und ein Überleben der Art in exponierten Höhenlagen sichern“, so Holzinger. (more…)

Elusive viral ‘machine’ architecture finally rendered

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2014Sciencegenetic manipulations, genetic recombination, lambda virus

Biologists have worked with the lambda virus as a model system for more than 50 years but they’ve never had an overarching picture of the molecular machines that allow it to insert or remove DNA from the cells that it infects. Now they can, thanks to an advance that highlights the intriguingly intricate way the virus accomplishes its genetic manipulations. (more…)

The water in your bottle might be older than the sun

By Guest PostOctober 23, 2014Scienceabsolute zero, alexander peltzer, astronomers, billion years, dresdner frauenkirche, erbgut, Galaxy, genom, george baehr, heavy water, kay nieselt, planet forming disk, ratio, solar system, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR — Up to half of the water on Earth is likely older than the solar system itself, University of Michigan astronomers theorize.

The researchers’ work, published in the current issue of Science, helps to settle a debate about just how far back in galactic history our planet and our solar system’s water formed. Were the molecules in comet ices and terrestrial oceans born with the system itself—in the planet-forming disk of dust and gas that circled the young sun 4.6 billion years ago? Or did the water originate even earlier—in the cold, ancient molecular cloud that spawned the sun and that planet-forming disk? (more…)

A composer, a president, and a dean share in conversation about creativity and expression

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2014Education, Scienceagenda setters, alex fouirnaies, amy shober, anti semitism, artificial drainage, auf sex verzichten, elvira hoerandl, geographische parthenogenese, industry related donations, kathryn turner, peter salovey, pflanzenreich, phosphorus index, reproduktionsform, russia, sexuelle fortpflanzung, stefan dullinger, subsurface phosphorus, tibetan uplift, water tables

While working on a new piece, composer John Adams sometimes has to experience a deep sense of failure before his ideas really start to flow.

“You can win every prize in the book … but when you are alone with yourself in that room and what you are doing is not even worthy of a five-year-old — you can’t imagine how humiliating that is,” he told an audience in Sprague Memorial Hall on Oct. 16. “You have to get to that level of abject humility to finally get to point of being receptive, then ideas come. Usually when they come they’re dressed in extremely shabby clothes. You just have to go with it.” (more…)

Cosmic detectives discover missing star in ultimate of dead ends

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2014Sciencecompanion star, cosmic mystery, missing star, stellar material, supernova formation

Astronomers have solved a 21-year-old cosmic mystery with the discovery of a star whose companion exploded, confirming that the surviving star was partly responsible for the resulting supernova. A team of 12 scientists, including the University of Chicago’s Vikram Dwarkadas, recently published the discovery in the Astrophysical Journal. (more…)

3-D Microscope Method to Look inside Brains

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2014Science3d images, acid reflux drug, alia benali, bingshuo li, cellular level, cornelius schwarz, led light, microns, proton pump inhibitors, stomach cancer, university of utah

Utah Team Invents Way to Image Brains of Mice Using a Small Needle

A University of Utah team discovered a method for turning a small, $40 needle into a 3-D microscope capable of taking images up to 70 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This new method not only produces high-quality images comparable to expensive microscopes, but may be implanted into the brains of living mice for imaging at the cellular level. (more…)

Heritage of Earth’s water gives rise to hopes of life on other planets

By Guest PostOctober 21, 2014Scienceheavy water, interstellar water, life on exoplanets, origin of water

A pioneering new study has shown that water found on Earth predates the formation of the sun – raising hopes that life could exist on exoplanets, the planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy

The ground-breaking research set out to discover the origin of the water that was deposited on the Earth as it formed. (more…)

Companion planets can increase old worlds’ chance at life

By Guest PostOctober 20, 2014Sciencecompanion planets, gravitational pull, habitable planet, planet cooling, tidal heating

Having a companion in old age is good for people — and, it turns out, might extend the chance for life on certain Earth-sized planets in the cosmos as well. (more…)

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