Tag Archives: origin

Dogs likely originated in Europe more than 18,000 years ago, UCLA biologists report

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2013Nature, Scienceancient dog fossil, ancient hunter, carnivore, co evolutionary process, coyotes, daniel greenfield, dog, dog like animals, dogs from europe, domestic dogs, druid peak, east asia, Europe, european hunter, european wolves, evolutionary biology, finland, fossil, genetic analysis, genetic data, illinois, klaus koepfli, koster archaeological site, late pleistocene, middle east, middle east origin, migration, mitochondrial dna, modern dogs, North America, olaf thalmann, old world, origin, proximity to humans, robert wayne, species, two wolves, ucla biologist, university of turku, western russia, wolf like animals, yellowstone national park

Wolves likely were domesticated by European hunter–gatherers more than 18,000 years ago and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets, UCLA life scientists report.

“We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs, ancient European wolves were directly related to them,” said Robert Wayne, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research. “This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.” (more…)

How Did Earth’s Primitive Chemistry Get Kick Started?

By Guest PostAugust 2, 2013Scienceacetate, alkaline hydrothermal fluids, alkaline hydrothermal vents, ancient enzymes, atlantic ocean, bottom of oceans, chemical signature, distribution, earliest oceans, earth, enceladus, evolution, floor, future of life, hypothesis, icy worlds, jupiter, lauren white, laws of thermodynamics, mike russell, moon europa, nano engines, NASA, organic carbon, origin, polymers, primitive chemistry, saturn

How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth’s first life began at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find life on other worlds — especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus — we need to know what chemical signatures to look for.

Two papers published recently in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B provide more detail on the chemical and precursor metabolic reactions that have to take place to pave the pathway for life. Russell and his co-authors describe how the interactions between the earliest oceans and alkaline hydrothermal fluids likely produced acetate (comparable to vinegar). The acetate is a product of methane and hydrogen from the alkaline hydrothermal vents and carbon dioxide dissolved in the surrounding ocean. Once this early chemical pathway was forged, acetate could become the basis of other biological molecules. They also describe how two kinds of “nano-engines” that create organic carbon and polymers — energy currency of the first cells — could have been assembled from inorganic minerals. (more…)

Oscar winner Randy Thom discusses sound design in first film of new series

By Guest PostJune 17, 2013Technologycastaway, cell phone, computer, forrest gump, human technology interactions, Microsoft, new film series, on the whiteboard, origin, oscar winner, pamela woon, randy thom, skywalker ranch, tablet, Technology, the incredibles

Microsoft’s new film series “On the Whiteboard” explores topics at the intersection of technology and culture, and introduces people, places and things behind the products.

REDMOND, WASH. – June 17, 2013 – In the first episode of Microsoft’s new film series “On the Whiteboard,” Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions.

Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet. (more…)

Searching for the Solar System’s Chemical Recipe

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2013Scienceasteroids, basic ingredients, beams of vuv, carbon monoxide, clouds, comets, dust, elements, gas molecules, gas phase photodynamics, genesis mission, hydrogen sulfide, interplanetary ice, isotope ratios, isotopic differences, john heidenreich, mark thiemens, mass spectrometry, mean ocean water, moons, musahid musa ahmed, nanometer wavelength range, NASA, nitrogen, one extra neutron, origin, oxygen 17, oxygen isotope puzzle, photochemistry, physical factors, planets, primitive solar nebula, raindrops, san diego, smow, solar system recipe, standard, subrata chakraborty, teresa jackson, ultraclean aluminum foil, university of california, vacuum ultraviolet light, vuv wavelengths, x axis, y axis

Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Dynamics Beamline points to why isotope ratios in interplanetary dust and meteorites differ from Earth’s

By studying the origins of different isotope ratios among the elements that make up today’s smorgasbord of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and interplanetary ice and dust, Mark Thiemens and his colleagues hope to learn how our solar system evolved. Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, has worked on this problem for over three decades.

In recent years his team has found the Chemical Dynamics Beamline of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to be an invaluable tool for examining how photochemistry determines the basic ingredients in the solar system recipe. (more…)

Cassini Suggests Icing on a Lake

By Guest PostJanuary 9, 2013Scienceair on titan, atmosphere, cassini mission, change, cornell university, cycle of precipitation, ethane, evaporation, floating ice, hydrocarbon ice, icing, ithaca, jason hofgartner, jonathan lunine, lake, linda spilker, liquid hydrocarbon, liquid methane, methane, model, moon, NASA, nitrogen gas, northern hemisphere, organic molecule, origin, pasadena, radio energy, saturn, sea, sea ice, southern hemisphere, surfaces of lakes, temperature, terrestrial life, titan, water

It’s not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper by scientists on NASA’s Cassini mission finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate the surface of existing lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbon on Saturn’s moon Titan. The presence of ice floes might explain some of the mixed readings Cassini has seen in the reflectivity of the surfaces of lakes on Titan.

“One of the most intriguing questions about these lakes and seas is whether they might host an exotic form of life,” said Jonathan Lunine, a paper co-author and Cassini interdisciplinary Titan scientist at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. “And the formation of floating hydrocarbon ice will provide an opportunity for interesting chemistry along the boundary between liquid and solid, a boundary that may have been important in the origin of terrestrial life.” (more…)

Astronomers Pin Down Origins of “Mile Markers” for Expansion of Universe

By Guest PostNovember 24, 2012Scienceastronomer, ben shappee, brightness, chemical element, dead stars, kris stanek, lbt, mile markers, mods system, mods1, ohio state university, optical telescope, origin, pattern, pinwheel galaxy, rick pogge, supernova 2011fe, supernovae, type ia, white dwarfs, zombies

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A study using a unique new instrument on the world’s largest optical telescope has revealed the likely origins of especially bright supernovae that astronomers use as easy-to-spot “mile markers” to measure the expansion and acceleration of the universe.

In a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers describe observations of recent supernova 2011fe that they captured with the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) using a tool created at Ohio State University: the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph (MODS). (more…)

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Scienceancient dinosaur, antibodies, backbone, bone cell, brachylophosaurus canadensis, cellular structure, collagen, dinosaurian, DNA, dna molecule, evolutionary change, fibrous material, fibrous matrix, histochemistry, marshall bern, mary schweitzer, mass spectrometry, microbe, microscopy, north Carolina, origin, osteocytes, ostrich osteocytes, palo alto, parc, phex, protein, reactivity, research center, sample contamination, state university, tyrannosaurus rex, vertebrate, wenxia zheng

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells – and possibly DNA – in ancient remains.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen. (more…)

Cambrian Fossil Pushes Back Evolution of Complex Brains

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Nature, Scienceancient animal, arachnids, arizona, arthropods, brain anatomy, branchiopod brain, branchiopods, brine shrimp, cambrian fossil, cambrian period, China, common ancestor, complex brain, course, crustaceans, dna sequence, evolution, evolutionary biologist, fuxianhuia protensa, gregory edgecombe, hypothesis, insects, malacostracans, microscope, missing link, modern brain, modern malacostracan, molecular data, morphology, mudstone, multicellular animals, Nature, neural anatomy, neurobiologist, neurocladistics, neuropils, nicholas strausfeld, optic lobes, origin, sensory organ, species, taxonomic group, transformative discovery, university, xianguang hou, xiaoya ma, yunnan province, yunnan university. kunming

Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, as evidenced by a 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod with remarkably well-preserved brain structures.

The remarkably well-preserved fossil of an extinct arthropod shows that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought and have changed little over the course of evolution. According to University of Arizona neurobiologist Nicholas Strausfeld, who co-authored the study describing the specimen, the fossil is the earliest known to show a brain.

The discovery will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Nature. (more…)