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New Technologies Challenge Old Ideas About Early Hominid Diets

By Guest PostOctober 15, 2011Sciencec3 photosynthetic pathway, chimpanzees, early hominids, gorillas, hominid teeth, long-held assumptions, national science foundation, nutcracker man, paranthropus boisei, sponheimer, unger, university of arkansas, university of colorado at boulder

New assessments by researchers using the latest high-tech tools to study the diets of early hominids are challenging long-held assumptions about what our ancestors ate, says a study by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Arkansas.

By analyzing microscopic pits and scratches on hominid teeth, as well as stable isotopes of carbon found in teeth, researchers are getting a very different picture of the diet habitats of early hominids than that painted by the physical structure of the skull, jawbones and teeth. While some early hominids sported powerful jaws and large molars — including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” — they may have cracked nuts rarely if at all, said CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Matt Sponheimer, study co-author. (more…)

Warming North Atlantic Water Tied to Heating Arctic, According to New Study

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 20111 commentEnvironmentalaska, archipelago, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, arctic warming, foraminifera shells, fram strait, global warming in the arctic, greenland, ice free, kirstin werner, loss of arctic sea ice, medieval warm period, north atlantic ocean water, norway, robert spielhagen, svalbard, temperature, thomas marchitto, university of colorado at boulder

The temperatures of North Atlantic Ocean water flowing north into the Arctic Ocean adjacent to Greenland — the warmest water in at least 2,000 years — are likely related to the amplification of global warming in the Arctic, says a new international study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Led by Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, the study showed that water from the Fram Strait that runs between Greenland and Svalbard — an archipelago constituting the northernmost part of Norway — has warmed roughly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century. The Fram Strait water temperatures today are about 2.5 degrees F warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period, which heated the North Atlantic from roughly 900 to 1300 and affected the climate in Northern Europe and northern North America. (more…)

Men With Macho Faces Attractive to Fertile Women, Researchers Find

By Guest PostJanuary 8, 2011Cultureestrus, fertile women, george Clooney, heterosexual couples, human sexual selection, macho visage, masculine-looking, mid-cycle, randy thornhill, steven gangestad, testosterone, university of colorado at boulder, university of new mexico

When their romantic partners are not quintessentially masculine, women in their fertile phase are more likely to fantasize about masculine-looking men than are women paired with George Clooney types.

But women with masculine-looking partners do not necessarily become more attracted to their partners, a recent study co-authored by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher concludes. (more…)

Stem Cell Transplants in Mice Produce Lifelong Enhancement of Muscle Mass

By Guest PostNovember 13, 20102 commentsScienceaging, bradley olwin, cell transplant, chronic, degenerative muscle diseases, green fluorescent protein, leg muscles, mice, muscle function, muscle stem cells, myofibers, satellite cells, stem cells, transplant, ultraviolet light, university of colorado at boulder

A University of Colorado at Boulder-led study shows that specific types of stem cells transplanted into the leg muscles of mice prevented the loss of muscle function and mass that normally occurs with aging, a finding with potential uses in treating humans with chronic, degenerative muscle diseases.

The experiments showed that when young host mice with limb muscle injuries were injected with muscle stem cells from young donor mice, the cells not only repaired the injury within days, they caused the treated muscle to double in mass and sustain itself through the lifetime of the transplanted mice. “This was a very exciting and unexpected result,” said Professor Bradley Olwin of CU-Boulder’s molecular, cellular and developmental biology department, the study’s corresponding author. (more…)

For Those Who Don’t Exercise or Watch Their Diets, CU ‘Nutraceutical’ Research Could Help

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2010Health, Scienceaging process, anti-inflammatory, ashley walker, bad cholesterol, behavioral changes, brad fleenor, cardiovascular disease, curcumin, douglas r seals, exercise, good nutrition, integrative physiology of aging laboratory, kevin strickfaden, ldl, molly russell, noah larsen, nutraceuticals, salt restriction, united states' no 1 killer, university of colorado at boulder, vitamin D, vitamin supplements, weight loss

University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Douglas R. Seals has amassed scientific evidence indicating that exercise, weight loss, good nutrition and salt restriction can cut your chances of getting cardiovascular disease, the United States’ No. 1 killer.

But Seals knows that exhorting people to exercise and lose weight, no matter how well the case is buttressed with data, will only go so far. So Seals’ laboratory has begun researching “nutraceuticals,” food extracts or vitamin supplements that could mimic the effects of a healthful lifestyle. (more…)

CU-Boulder-Led Hubble Astronomy Team Uncovers Evidence of Early Heated Universe

By Guest PostOctober 8, 2010Scienceastrophysical and planetary sciences, big bang, black hole, black holes, charles danforth, cos, cosmic origins spectrograph, dwarf galaxies, galaxies, global warming, hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, kevin france, michael shull, NASA, quasar beacon, radiation, remote universe, small galaxies, universal warming, universe, university of colorado at boulder

If you think global warming is bad, 11 billion years ago the entire universe underwent what might be called universal warming. The consequence of that early heating was that fierce blasts of radiation from voracious black holes stunted the growth of some small galaxies for a stretch of 500 million years. (more…)

Parting The Waters: Computer Modeling Applies Physics to Red Sea Escape Route

By Guest PostSeptember 22, 2010Sciencealexei androsov, animation, Bible, biblical account, biblical account of the red sea parting, carl drews, coastal lagoon, computer modeling, cu, divine miracle, exodus, fluid dynamics, mediterranean sea, miracles, moses, mud flats, nathan paldor, national center for atmospheric research, naum voltzinger, ncar, nile delta, parting of the red sea, pharaoh, suez canal, tsunami, university of colorado at boulder, waters, wind setdown

The biblical account of the parting of the Red Sea has inspired and mystified people for millennia. A new computer modeling study by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) shows how the movement of wind as described in the book of Exodus could have parted the waters.

(more…)

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest 2010 Extent, Third Lowest in Satellite Record

By Guest PostSeptember 17, 2010Environmentarctic sea, atmosphere, earth, greenhouse gases, ice, NASA, natural climate, satellites, serreze, shrinking arctic sea ice, snow and ice data center, university of colorado at boulder

The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year, the third-lowest recorded since satellites began measuring sea ice extent in 1979, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center.

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