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Iridescent, Feathered Dinosaur Offers Fresh Evidence That Feathers Evolved to Attract Mates

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2012Scienceaerodynamic functions, anchiornis, archaeopteryx, austin, catapults, color, dinosaurs, evolution of feathers, feather pattern, feathers, fossil, four winged dinosaur, julia clarke, living birds, mark norell, mate attracting, matt shawkey, mick ellison, microraptor, modern birds, peking university, pigment, quanguo li, rui pei, thermoregulation, university of akron, university of texas, velociraptor

AUSTIN, Texas — A team of American and Chinese researchers has revealed the detailed feather pattern and color of Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 120 million years ago. A new specimen shows the dinosaur had a glossy iridescent sheen and that its tail was narrow and adorned with a pair of streamer feathers, suggesting the importance of display in the early evolution of feathers, as presented in the March 9 edition of the journal Science.

The research was conducted by scientists at the Beijing Museum of Natural History, Peking University, The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Akron, and the American Museum of Natural History. (more…)

Gravitational Lens Reveals Details of Distant, Ancient Galaxy

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2012Sciencedistant galaxy, gravitational field, gravitational lens, gravitational lensing, gravitational telescope

Thanks to the presence of a natural “zoom lens” in space, University of Chicago scientists working with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a uniquely close-up look at the brightest gravitationally magnified galaxy yet discovered. (more…)

Researchers Capture First-Ever Images of Atoms Moving in a Molecule

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2012Scienceatomic scale, diffraction pattern, electron signal, molecular motion, vibrating atom

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Using a new ultrafast camera, researchers have recorded the first real-time image of two atoms vibrating in a molecule. (more…)

Responding to the Radiation Threat

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2012Environment, Scienceactinides, actinium, berkeley lab, biomimetic approach, cancerous, cold war, curium, dahlia an, decontamination, dirty bomb, dtpa, eleanor blakely, event, fukushima daiichi, glenn seaborg, health threats, hopo, hydroxypyridonate ligands, iron, japanese official, kathleen bjornstad, ken raymond, lawrencium, mass contamination, models, multidentate hydroxypyridonate ligands, natural chelators, new york times, nobel laureate, nuclear power plant, nuclear reactor accident, patricia durbin, periodic table, plutonium, radiation exposure, radioactive chemical elements, radioactivity, rebecca abergel, terrorist attack, tokyo metropolitan area, triple meltdown, university of california, uranium

*Berkeley Lab Researchers Developing Promising Treatment for Safely Decontaminating Humans Exposed to Radioactive Actinides*

The New York Times recently reported that in the darkest moments of the triple meltdown last year of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japanese officials considered the evacuation of the nearly 36 million residents of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The consideration of so drastic an action reflects the harsh fact that in the aftermath of a major radiation exposure event, such as a nuclear reactor accident or a “dirty bomb” terrorist attack, treatments for mass contamination are antiquated and very limited. The only chemical agent now available for decontamination – a compound known as DTPA – is a Cold War relic that must be administered intravenously and only partially removes some of the deadly actinides – the radioactive chemical elements spanning from actinium to lawrencium on the periodic table – that pose the greatest health threats. (more…)

A Bird’s Song May Teach Us About Human Speech Disorders

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2012Nature, Sciencearea x, austin hilliard, autism, basal ganglia, bat species, biostatistics, brain, cortex, disorder, dolphins, elephants, elizabeth fraley, England, flying and perching, foxp2, genes, genetic equivalent, human genetics, human stuttering, julie miller, language, male zebra finches, master gene, neuroscience, sexually mature, small bird, social network, song, songbird, speech, stephanie white, steve horvath, stroke, stuart wolpert, tissue, vocalization, zebra finch

*UCLA scientists identify 2,000 important genes*

Can the song of a small bird provide valuable insights into human stuttering and speech-related disorders and conditions, including autism and stroke? New research by UCLA life scientists and colleagues provides reason for optimism.

The scientists discovered that some 2,000 genes in a region of the male zebra finch’s brain known as “Area X” are significantly linked to singing. More than 1,500 genes in this region, a critical part of the bird’s song circuitry, are being reported for the first time. Previously, a group of scientists including the UCLA team had identified some 400 genes in Area X. All the genes’ levels of expression change when the bird sings. (more…)

Human’s Oldest Ancestor Found in Burgess Shale

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2012Sciencebackbone in vertebrates, burgess shale fossils, fossilized tracks, pikaia fossils, primitive vertebrate

Pikaia is most primitive vertebrate known

Researchers from the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the University of Cambridge have confirmed that a 505 million-year-old creature, found only in the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Canada’s Yoho National Park, is the most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, including humans. (more…)

In Conversation: Sir Peter Crane

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2012Environment, Sciencebuckingham palace, Chicago, energy, England, environmental changes, environmental issues, epa, evolutionary biologist, field museum, ginkgo, glaciation, interdisciplinary component, j gustave speth, liquid natural gas, manhattan, nature conservancy, nuclear plant, peace corps, Prince Charles, royal botanic gardens, school of management, sir peter crane, som, state department, street trees, ted snyder, urban system, Wall Street, world wildlife fund

Evolutionary biologist Sir Peter Crane has been dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) since 2009. A former director of Chicago’s Field Museum and chief executive of England’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he recently spoke with Yale News about F&ES’ internationalism, the role of business in environmental management, and what it was like to be knighted at Buckingham Palace, among other topics. The following is an edited version of that conversation. (more…)

Will a Genetic Mutation Cause Trouble? Ask Spliceman

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2012Scienceaaa, ata, brown university, chimpanzees, david orenstein, dna sequences, gene, genetic mutation, human genome mutation database, humans, kian huat lim, messenger rna, Rhesus monkeys, shamil sunyaev, spliceman, web based program, william fairbrother

New, free Web-based software described in the journal Bioinformatics analyzes DNA sequences to determine if mutations are likely to cause errors in splicing of messenger RNA. When gene splicing goes awry, a wide variety of diseases can result.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a brief paper in the journal Bioinformatics, Brown University researchers describe a new, freely available Web-based program called Spliceman for predicting whether genetic mutations are likely to disrupt the splicing of messenger RNA, potentially leading to disease.

“Spliceman takes a set of DNA sequences with point mutations and computes how likely these single nucleotide variants alter splicing phenotypes,” write co-authors Kian Huat Lim, a graduate student, and William Fairbrother, assistant professor of biology, in an “application note” published in advance online Feb. 10. It will appear in print in April. (more…)

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