Yeast cells up close. (Courtesy Jef Boeke, NYU Langone)
Scientists are five steps closer to synthesizing the entire genome of baker’s yeast, a feat that, once accomplished, will push the field of synthetic biology into a new frontier.
An international team of researchers led by NYU Langone geneticist Jef Boeke on Thursday announced it constructed and integrated five “designer” chromosomes into Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This collaboration, known as the Synthetic Yeast 2.0 proj ...read more
They say an elephant never forgets. But a more accurate adage would be that an elephant never sleeps—or, hardly ever. Tracking two wild elephant matriarchs for a month revealed that they averaged only a couple of hours a night. On some nights they surprised researchers by never going to sleep at all. This might make them the most wakeful mammals in the world.
The sleeping habits of large mammals are a “contentious” subject, says Paul Manger, a professor at the U ...read more
In a curious case report, Indian psychiatrists Lekhansh Shukla and colleagues describe a young man who said he regularly got high by being bitten by a snake.
The 21-year old patient sought treatment for his heavy drug abuse, which included heroin and marijuna. He also reported a less conventional habit: he visited a local snake charmer, where he was bitten on the lips by a “cobra” in order to get high:
He reported that his peers and the snake charmer informed him that he would have ...read more
A project attempting to grow potatoes in Mars-like conditions has reported positive preliminary results.
Based in Lima, Peru, the International Potato Center (CIP) is dedicated to collecting and altering potato varieties found around the world. The CIP began as an effort to alleviate global hunger by introducing special strains of the hardy vegetable to places with arid soils and harsh environments. As researchers have begun experimenting with earthly technologies in a bid to extend our re ...read more
The upper jaw from an individual from El Sidron. You can see the dental calculus deposit on the rear, right molar. (Credit: Paleoanthropology Group MNCN-CSIC)
The stuff that clings to teeth can tell an interesting story.
On Wednesday, scientists revealed new insights gleaned from dental plaque stuck on the teeth of five Neanderthals from Europe. From a few teeth, scientists learned how Neanderthals used natural medicines and how their diets varied by region. They also learned that mo ...read more
The wildfires show up clearly in these animations of satellite imagery
An animation of images from NASA’s Terra satellite shows fires burning across Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The first image in the sequence is in natural color; the second is in a false color scheme that highlights burned areas; and the third shows where the satellite detected active burning. (Images: NASA Worldview. Animation: Tom Yulsman)
Fierce winds, temperatures in the 80s, and low humidity, have whipped u ...read more
Blue Origin today unveiled a video demonstrating takeoff and landing procedures for its New Glenn rocket. Feel like you’ve seen this act before?
You’re not alone; the process looks very similar to the maneuvers performed by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on its trips to space. The short presentation shows the rocket lifting off, delivering a payload to orbit and touching back down on an oceanic barge. From the neat flip the rocket performs on the way down to the barge landi ...read more
The work of the Norwegian Young Sea Ice Cruise is providing insights into rapid Arctic changes caused by human-induced global warming
The research vessel Lance was frozen into the Arctic ice pack in the midst of the polar night in January 2015, under the auspices of Norwegian Polar Institute. The expedition, known as N-ICE2015, was launched to study the effects and feedbacks of the thinning of Arctic sea ice. (Source: Norwegian Polar Institute)
Note: This story was written by guest b ...read more
“I could take the oldest person here, make a little hole right here on the side of the head, and put some depth electrodes into their hippocampus and stimulate. And they would be able to recite back to you, verbatim, a book they read 60 years ago.”
So said Ben Carson, the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, yesterday. Carson is known for his unorthodox claims, such as his attempt to rewrite the Egyptology textbooks, but this time, as he’s a former neurosurgeon ...read more
