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| News Capsules - March-April - Online Extra |
Blind Fish Produce
Offspring That Can See
By mating blind fish from distant
underwater caves in Mexico,
researchers have bred offspring
that can see as well as their
surface-dwelling cousins. The
results suggest fish from different
caves have mutations that don’t
overlap. Today there are some 29
different varieties of blind Mexican
fish living in isolated caves.—www.
nature.com (1/7/08)
Chimpanzee Not Human
Austria’s Supreme Court has
ruled that a chimpanzee cannot
be declared a person. An animal-
rights group wanted a chimp
named Matthew Hiasl Pan
declared a person in hopes that
would help it gain guardianship of
the animal. The chimp’s shelter is
going bankrupt, and he may be
left homeless, but donors are
unable to support him because
under Austrian law, only a person
can receive personal gifts.—
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(1/16/08)
No Till Agriculture May
Save Our Soil
Current farming practices are
eroding soil more quickly than
new soil can be produced by
nature. So says a new study by
the U. of Washington which found
that plowed land erodes at about
1 millimeter per year while new
soil builds up at about only 0.2
millimeter per year. Soil can
become exhausted within a few
hundred or thousand years—a
number roughly correlating with
the life spans of civilizations. The
solution: no till agriculture, which
does not plow up crop stubble but
leaves it in place and which uses
a special drill to insert seeds into
the soil.—Discover (January,
2008)
Offspring That Can See
By mating blind fish from distant
underwater caves in Mexico,
researchers have bred offspring
that can see as well as their
surface-dwelling cousins. The
results suggest fish from different
caves have mutations that don’t
overlap. Today there are some 29
different varieties of blind Mexican
fish living in isolated caves.—www.
nature.com (1/7/08)
Chimpanzee Not Human
Austria’s Supreme Court has
ruled that a chimpanzee cannot
be declared a person. An animal-
rights group wanted a chimp
named Matthew Hiasl Pan
declared a person in hopes that
would help it gain guardianship of
the animal. The chimp’s shelter is
going bankrupt, and he may be
left homeless, but donors are
unable to support him because
under Austrian law, only a person
can receive personal gifts.—
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(1/16/08)
No Till Agriculture May
Save Our Soil
Current farming practices are
eroding soil more quickly than
new soil can be produced by
nature. So says a new study by
the U. of Washington which found
that plowed land erodes at about
1 millimeter per year while new
soil builds up at about only 0.2
millimeter per year. Soil can
become exhausted within a few
hundred or thousand years—a
number roughly correlating with
the life spans of civilizations. The
solution: no till agriculture, which
does not plow up crop stubble but
leaves it in place and which uses
a special drill to insert seeds into
the soil.—Discover (January,
2008)
Electricity Without
Power Lines?
The dream of electricity without
power lines is coming closer to
reality. Researchers at MIT have
extended the Wi-Fi concept to
allow the beaming of power to
anything that uses electricity. The
researchers used two coils to
transmit electricity back and forth
between them a million times a
second. The electric pulses
created a magnetic field which
induced electrical surges that
could be tapped by electronic
devices for power. There
appeared to be no harm to the
researchers conducting the
experiment.—Discover (January,
2008)
LEDs May Replace
Current Efficient Bulbs
Experts have found a way to make
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
brighter and use less power than
energy efficient light bulbs
currently on the market. Used in
devices such as cell phones and
computers, the technology until
now had not been powerful
enough to be used for lighting. A
process known as nanoimprint
lithography involves making
microscopic holes in the LEDs to
increase the level of light they
give off.—news.bbc.co.uk
(12/28/07)
The Power in a Brain Cell
Just one brain cell may have
enough computing power to allow
humans and animals to feel, a
study suggests. The Dutch and
German study found that
stimulating just one rat neuron
could deliver the sensation of
touch. Researchers had thought
the brain’s 100 billion neurons
needed to join forces in networks
to achieve the sense of feeling.—
news.bbc.co.uk (12/22/07)
Power Lines?
The dream of electricity without
power lines is coming closer to
reality. Researchers at MIT have
extended the Wi-Fi concept to
allow the beaming of power to
anything that uses electricity. The
researchers used two coils to
transmit electricity back and forth
between them a million times a
second. The electric pulses
created a magnetic field which
induced electrical surges that
could be tapped by electronic
devices for power. There
appeared to be no harm to the
researchers conducting the
experiment.—Discover (January,
2008)
LEDs May Replace
Current Efficient Bulbs
Experts have found a way to make
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
brighter and use less power than
energy efficient light bulbs
currently on the market. Used in
devices such as cell phones and
computers, the technology until
now had not been powerful
enough to be used for lighting. A
process known as nanoimprint
lithography involves making
microscopic holes in the LEDs to
increase the level of light they
give off.—news.bbc.co.uk
(12/28/07)
The Power in a Brain Cell
Just one brain cell may have
enough computing power to allow
humans and animals to feel, a
study suggests. The Dutch and
German study found that
stimulating just one rat neuron
could deliver the sensation of
touch. Researchers had thought
the brain’s 100 billion neurons
needed to join forces in networks
to achieve the sense of feeling.—
news.bbc.co.uk (12/22/07)
A Dead Heart is
Made to Beat Again
U.S. researchers have learned
how to coax hearts from dead rats
to beat again in the laboratory.
They hope this discovery may
lead to customized organ
transplants. The procedure
involved washing away the
existing heart cells while leaving
intact the basic collagen structure
which the scientists then injected
with heart cells from newborn rats.
In four days the hearts started to
contract.—news. yahoo.com
(1/14/08)
Platypus Older Than
Scientists Had Thought
Evolutionists say that the platypus
is much older than they previously
thought. After a new fossil study
they now think the duck-billed
platypus from Australia can be
traced back to the age of
dinosaurs. When they did an x-ray
of a fossil they believed was the
forbear of both platypuses and
their close relatives, the
echindnas, they discovered it was
a 100% platypus. That pushes
back the origin of platypuses to at
least “112 million years ago.”—
news.nationalgeographic.com
(1/22/08)
Made to Beat Again
U.S. researchers have learned
how to coax hearts from dead rats
to beat again in the laboratory.
They hope this discovery may
lead to customized organ
transplants. The procedure
involved washing away the
existing heart cells while leaving
intact the basic collagen structure
which the scientists then injected
with heart cells from newborn rats.
In four days the hearts started to
contract.—news. yahoo.com
(1/14/08)
Platypus Older Than
Scientists Had Thought
Evolutionists say that the platypus
is much older than they previously
thought. After a new fossil study
they now think the duck-billed
platypus from Australia can be
traced back to the age of
dinosaurs. When they did an x-ray
of a fossil they believed was the
forbear of both platypuses and
their close relatives, the
echindnas, they discovered it was
a 100% platypus. That pushes
back the origin of platypuses to at
least “112 million years ago.”—
news.nationalgeographic.com
(1/22/08)
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