Tag Archives: humans

Walking the Walk: What Sharks, Honeybees and Humans Have in Common

By Guest PostDecember 25, 2013Nature, Scienceadam gordon, brian wood, common, david raichlen, east africa, evolutionary history, fundamental pattern, gps data, hadza people, hadza tribe, herman pontzer, honeybees, human movement patterns, humans, hunter college, hunters in africa, levy walk, levy walk pattern, mathematical pattern, new york, sharks, state university, Tanzania, ua anthropologist, university at albany, urban areas, walking the walk

A research team led by UA anthropologist David Raichlen has found that the Hadza tribe’s movements while foraging can be described by a mathematical pattern called a Lévy walk – a pattern that also is found in the movements of many other animals.

A mathematical pattern of movement called a Lévy walk describes the foraging behavior of animals from sharks to honey bees, and now for the first time has been shown to describe human hunter-gatherer movement as well. The study, led by University of Arizona anthropologist David Raichlen, was published on December 23, 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Lévy walk pattern appears to be ubiquitous in animals, similar to the golden ratio, phi, a mathematical ratio that has been found to describe proportions in plants and animals throughout nature. (more…)

The Mystery of Lizard Breath

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2013Nature3d image, aerodynamic valves, african savannah, alligators, archosaurs, c g farmer, ct scans, dinosaurs, emma schachner, evolution, fast metabolisms, flying pterosaurs, gular pumping, harvard university, humans, james butler, lepidosauromorpha, lizard breath, lizard like creature, lungs, mass extinction, monitor lizards, mystery, one way patterns, oxygen consumption, permian triassic, rate, robert cieri, tidal breathing pattern, tuataras, unidirectional airflow, university of utah, varanus exanthematicus

One-Way Air Flow May Be 270 Million Years Old

Air flows mostly in a one-way loop through the lungs of monitor lizards – a breathing method shared by birds, alligators and presumably dinosaurs, according to a new University of Utah study.

The findings – published online Wednesday, Dec. 11 in the journal Nature – raise the possibility this breathing pattern originated 270 million years ago, about 20 million years earlier than previously believed and 100 million years before the first birds. Why remains a mystery. (more…)

Edited RNA + invasive DNA add individuality

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2013Scienceadar, adar hamstrug flies, aicardi goutieres syndrome, brown university, chromatin, edited rna, enzyme, genetic oddity, genome, hoppel transposons, humans, invasive dna, james jepson, rachel whitaker, red color gene, rna in humans, transposons, yiannis savva, yoah jen chang

A study in Nature Communications finds that an enzyme that edits RNA may loosen the genome’s control over invasive snippets of DNA that affect how genes are expressed. In fruit flies, that newly understood mechanism appears to contribute to differences among individuals such as eye color and life span.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The story of why we are all so different goes well beyond the endless mixing and matching of DNA through breeding. A new study in the journal Nature Communications, for instance, reports a new molecular mechanism of individual variation found in fruit flies that uses components operating in a wide variety of species, including humans. (more…)

Spider Venom Reveals New Secret

By Guest PostAugust 31, 2013Natureaffect, brown recluse spider, cell membranes, chemical product, clark college, cyclic molecule, cyclical chemical product, daniel lajoie, genus loxosceles, greta binford, humans, loxosceles laeta, matthew cordes, north, phospholipid molecules, plastic surgeon, portland, protein, south america, species of loxosceles, spider bite, spider venom, syndrome, tissue damage, tissue suicide, toxin, united states, university of arizona, vahe bandarian

Venom of the brown recluse spider causes a reaction in the body that is different from what researchers previously thought, a discovery that could lead to development of new treatments for spider bites.

University of Arizona researchers led a team that has discovered that venom of spiders in the genus Loxosceles, which contains about 100 spider species including the brown recluse, produces a different chemical product in the human body than scientists believed.

The finding has implications for understanding how these spider bites affect humans and for the development of possible treatments for the bites. (more…)

Dolphins keep lifelong social memories, longest in a non-human species

By Guest PostAugust 10, 2013Nature, Scienceage, bailey, bermuda, brookfield zoo, Chicago, chimpanzees, cognitive sophistication, dolphin connection, dolphin named allie, dolphin named kai, dolphin quest, dolphins, elephants, florida keys, human social memory, humans, jason bruck, non human species, scotland, sex, signature whistle, social memories, spectrograms, st andrews, stephanie l king, texas state aquarium, university, vincent m janik

Dolphins can recognize their old tank mates’ whistles after being separated for more than 20 years—the longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human species.

The remarkable memory feat is another indication that dolphins have a level of cognitive sophistication comparable to only a few other species, including humans, chimpanzees and elephants. Dolphins’ talent for social recognition may be even more long-lasting than facial recognition among humans, since human faces change over time, but the signature whistle that identifies a dolphin remains stable over many decades. (more…)

Great ape genetic diversity catalog frames primate evolution and future conservation

By Guest PostJuly 5, 2013Natureafrica, aids, ashmael, barcelona, behavioral disorders, belinga, bornean orangutan, chimpanzees, cognitive, dna segment, eastern gorilla, evan eichler, future conservation, genetic code, genetic diversity catalog, genetic variation, genome sciences, geographic isolation, gorillas, great ape, great ape species, humans, indonesia, javier prado martinez, map, migration, model, orangutans, origin of hiv, peter sudmant, primate evolution, seattle, simian immunodeficiency virus, siv, spain, suzie a, tomas marques bonet, universitat pompeu fabra, university of washington, virus, western lowland gorilla

A model of great ape history during the past 15 million years has been fashioned through the study of genetic variation in a large panel of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The catalog of great ape genetic diversity, the most comprehensive ever, elucidates the evolution and population histories of great apes from Africa and Indonesia. The resource will likely also aid in current and future conservation efforts which strive to preserve natural genetic diversity in populations.

More than 75 scientists and wildlife conservationists from around the world assisted the genetic analysis of 79 wild and captive-born great apes. They represent all six great ape species: chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla, and western lowland gorilla, and seven subspecies. Nine human genomes were included in the sampling. (more…)

Brainwaves reflect ability to beat built-in bias

By Guest PostJune 13, 2013Scienceactivity, behavior, brain science, brainwaves, brown institute, brown university, cognitive control, eeg scalp monitors, genetic, humans, ian eisenberg, james cavanagh, marc guitart masip, michael frank, neurological roots, obsessive compulsive disorder, pavlovian bias, prefrontal cortex, psychological factors, quentin huys, situational factors, specific brain activity, symbols, university college london, university of zurich, vertebrates

Many animals, including humans, harbor ingrained biases to act when they can obtain rewards and to remain inactive to avoid punishment. Sometimes, however those biases can steer us wrong. A new study finds that theta brainwave activity in the prefrontal cortex predicts how well people can overcome these biases when a better choice are available.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Vertebrates are predisposed to act to gain rewards and to lie low to avoid punishment. Try to teach chickens to back away from food in order to obtain it, and you’ll fail, as researchers did in 1986. But humans are better thinkers than chickens. In the May 8 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers show that the level of theta brainwave activity in the prefrontal cortex predicts whether people will be able to overcome these ingrained biases when doing so is required to achieve a goal. (more…)

Scientists sequence genome of ‘sacred lotus,’ which likely holds anti-aging secrets

By Guest PostJune 7, 2013Health, Scienceanti aging secrets, australia, China, chinese academy, corn, crops, crysten blaby haas, disease, evolution, genetic defects, genetic endowment, genetic repair mechanisms, genome, germination defects, human health, humans, jane shen miller, Japan, liaoning province, longevity, molecular biologists, nelumbo nucifera, northeastern china, origin of life, powerful genetic system, rice, robert vanburen, sabeeha merchant, sacred lotus, sciences, scientists, sequence, shaohua li, spiritual purity, symbol, university of Illinois, unusual genetics, urbana-champaign, US, wheat, william schopf, wuhan botanical garden

A team of 70 scientists from the U.S., China, Australia and Japan today reports having sequenced and annotated the genome of the “sacred lotus,” which is believed to have a powerful genetic system that repairs genetic defects, and may hold secrets about aging successfully. The scientists sequenced more than 86 percent of the nearly 27,000 genes of the plant, Nelumbo nucifera, which is revered in China and elsewhere as a symbol of spiritual purity and longevity.

“The lotus genome is an ancient one, and we now know its ABCs,” said Jane Shen-Miller, one of three corresponding authors of the research and a senior scientist with UCLA’s Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life. “Molecular biologists can now more easily study how its genes are turned on and off during times of stress and why this plant’s seeds can live for 1,300 years. This is a step toward learning what anti-aging secrets the sacred lotus plant may offer.” (more…)