A comb jelly. (Credit: Kondratuk Aleksei/Shutterstock)
In the debate over what the first animal was, it comes down to sponge vs. jelly.
And in recent years, researchers worked to settle the score in scientific journals, publishing competing genetic analyses that purport to show either one or the other was the first to diverge from our last common ancestor. This would make it a sister lineage to all other animals, and enshrine it as our most distant relative in the Animal Kingdom.
The most ...read more
Canadian Bacon Donut Complimentary of Portobello Cafe in Whistler, Canada. This donut provides many examples of the Maillard reaction. When frying the donut batter, high temperatures promote browning of the dough and also impart crispiness. Secondly, the bacon! the flavors in bacon are the result of Maillard reaction products. The browning of the bacon creates and releases flavnoids. Photo Credit: Steven Du
Guest post by Steven Du
The flavor reaction. What makes bread crust brown an ...read more
(Credit: Shuttershock)
Coal, it’s the sooty fossil fuel that’s heated our homes and generated electricity for centuries, but millions of years ago its formation could’ve frozen the planet.
Coal deposits formed from dead trees and plants roughly 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods. During that timeframe, Earth was largely a hot, sticky planet covered in swampy jungles. Levels of CO2 reached 1,000 ppm, which is more than twice the l ...read more
The nose knows more than you think.
Imagine walking into a meeting room. You shake hands with colleagues, then everyone sits down. Within seconds they all start sniffing their palms, picking up clues about you from the chemical traces left over from the handshakes. Sniffing palms after a handshake, usually within 30 seconds of the interaction, would likely help people learn about someone’s health and genetic compatibility, according to a 2015 study by researchers in Israel. Sniffing c ...read more
A global, decade-long poaching epidemic has conservationists wondering how long the animals will survive.
Amid a decade-long global rhino poaching epidemic, many conservationists wonder how long the animal will survive in the wild. Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are sold illegally in Vietnam and China — at street prices higher than gold — for their purported medicinal qualities. For example, just in South Africa, rhino poaching incidents skyrocketed over 9,000 percent, ...read more
A comparison of Horned Larks collected inside and outside of industrial areas during the early twentieth century. The specimens on the left were collected in Illinois, inside the U.S. Manufacturing Belt. The specimens on the right were collected along the western coast of North America, away from industry. (Credit: Carl Fuldner and Shane DuBay)
Enterprising researchers working at the Field Museum in Chicago dusted off a collection of Horned Larks to get a better look at the dirt trapped in the ...read more
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Acupuncture is a form of traditional medical therapy that originated in China several thousand years ago. It was developed at a time bereft of tools such as genetic testing or even a modern understanding of anatomy, so medical philosophers did the best they could with what was available – herbs, animal products and rudimentary needles. In the process, perhaps, they stumbled on an effective medical approach.
In the past century, some modernization has taken place. F ...read more
An artist’s conception of the ancient moon with lava venting gases into a thin atmosphere. (Credit: NASA MSFC)
Barren and desolate today, our moon was once swathed by a thin atmosphere.
Born from geothermal eruptions when the moon was still young, gaseous traces of carbon monoxide, sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen once swirled across the moon’s surface, say researchers from NASA. The atmosphere would have persisted for about 70 million years, they estimate, and existed three t ...read more
