Biology

This Video Is the Best Explanation Yet of How Genomes Really Work

There are 20,000 genes in the human genome, but only a small fraction of them are active in any given cell. This video from Nature explains with beautiful clarity the system that activity, turning genes on and off. It’s called the epigenome, and it’s incredibly important. Now you can understand how it works, too. Back…

Kale, Cauliflower, And Collards All Belong To The Same Species 

The species? Brassica oleracea. Its other varieties include cabbage, broccoli, savoy, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts, to name just a few commercially relevant examples. How did one species of plant come to be so diverse? Selective human breeding and exceptional genetic diversity. Above: A garden plot with several varieties of the B. oleracea at the Jardin…

Why So Many Species Are Discovered In Museum Storage

The latest episode of the American Museum of Natural History’s outstanding series “Shelf Life” is about the discovery of the olinguito, a ridiculously adorable species of mammal first identified in 2013 – ninety years after its remains were first collected, in 1923. The story of the olinguito’s discovery is common among newly identified species. In…

A new study has shown that pregnant mice can pass traits to offspring through bacterial DNA. The discovery means scientists will have to increasingly consider the role of microbes when working to understand how genes influence illness and health. Image: Depiction of a DNA molecule unwinding from a chromosome inside the nucleus of a cell…

Massive Forest Fires Could Be Cooling the Earth

Wait, what? A forest fire may not sound like a great way to cool off, but Earth’s climate is a complicated beast. It turns out that some of the world’s fiercest blazes are actually lowering our planet’s temperatures. Top image: Wikimedia The remote boreal forests that blanket massive swaths of Canada and Alaska aren’t just…

One Of The Ways The Bubonic Plague Kills You Is By Stealing Your Iron

The bubonic plague kills you all kinds of ways. One of the more fascinating ways it kills you is engaging in a protracted war with your cells over the mineral rights to your body. When virulent bacteria enter a host alone, they have almost no resources, and they use whatever resources are on hand. One…

What Will the Future of Molecular Manufacturing Really Be Like?

Molecular machines are nano-scale assemblers that construct themselves and their surroundings into ever more complex structures. Sometimes dubbed “nanotech” in the media, these devices are promising — but also widely misunderstood. Here’s what separates the science fact from science fiction. The concepts that underpin this form of nanotechnology have certainly had long enough to percolate…

Psychedelic Drug Could Have Promising Future In Treatment Of Asthma

A potent psychedelic drug, DOI, was recently shown to be effective in treating asthma in a mouse model. Photo Credit: Flickr user KristyFaith. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 The psychedelic drug DOI (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine) was invented by chemist Alexander Shulgin in the 1980s. Shulgin’s story itself is worth looking into. Over the course of his lifetime, in addition…

The U.S. Just Approved Its First GMO Apple, Which Doesn’t Turn Brown 

For years, a small Canadian company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits, has been touting its Arctic apple, which doesn’t turn an unsightly brown after being sliced. The U.S. Department of Agriculture finally approved it for planting this week. But before you see any Arctic apples at the grocery store, get ready for a big round of GMO…

City’s Owl Problem Got So Bad, It Had To Make This Awesome Sign

A spate of owl attacks in Salem Oregon’s Bush’s State Park has spurred park officials to install twenty signs that depict an owl with outstretched talons descending upon a hapless, terror-stricken stick figure. Photo Credit: Danielle Peterson, via The Statesman Journal The Associated Press reports that the signs were inspired in large part by MSNBC…

Nearly 200 Whales Are Stranded At New Zealand’s Farewell Spit

Volunteers in New Zealand are frantically working to save the lives of 174 pilot whales who are stuck at Farewell Spit, a notorious death trap due to its shallow waters. At least 24 whales have already died since becoming stranded a few days ago. The exact cause of the stranding is not known, though New…

15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Blood

Does menstrual blood really attract bears? Why does blood look blue in your veins? And why were the first blood transfusions performed with animals? Here are 15 facts, historical and biological, you probably didn’t know about blood. Photo Credit: Steve Koukoulas | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 1. A lot of people think that deoxygenated human blood…

How Tourist Garbage Causes Yellowstone’s Morning Glory To Change Color

Decades ago, the Morning Glory pool at Yellowstone National Park was a gorgeous deep blue. But because tourists have thrown coins, rocks, and trash into it for years, the spring has now turned into a sickly yellowish green. Now, a new optics study is shedding light on the pool’s unfortunate change of color. Interestingly, the…

Amazing Photo Of An Intoxicated Gorilla About To Punch A Photographer – UPDATED

Wildlife photography is not without its perils. Case in point, this recent incident in which a 550-pound mountain gorilla “drunk” on bamboo shoots rushed a photographer with fists clenched. As Caters News Agency reports, Christophe Courteau was taking pictures of a group of silverback gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park when the alpha male of…

A Woman Became Obese After a Poop Transplant 

Scientists have known for a while that gut bacteria can play a profound role in the weight of mice. Now we have a case report in humans that is not entirely surprising: A woman gained 36 pounds and became obese in the 16 months after a fecal transplant. The 32-year-old woman had maintained an average…

All the Reasons Why You Need to Purify Drinking Water

You know you need to filter, treat or boil water you find in the wilderness. But why? Well, there’s a number of answers, starting with words like E. Coli, Hepatitis A, Giardia and Cryptosporidiosis. Let’s look at some common sources of waterborne diseases/infections/stuff that will give you the shits, examine what they are, what they…

Researchers Slam 30-Year-Old Guidelines On Fatty Foods

For nearly three decades we’ve been told to avoid fatty foods, like butter and cheese. But new research suggests the guidelines introduced in the U.S. and U.K. “should not have been introduced” for lack of solid scientific evidence. These guidelines were introduced to the United States and United Kingdom in 1977 and 1983 respectively. Other…

Meet The Pangolin, The World’s Most-Trafficked Mammal

Call it a “scaly anteater,” “nature’s backhoe,” a “walking pine cone,” or “an artichoke on legs.” Remark on its scale-covered body or its impressively long tongue. But you best get to know the pangolin, the world’s most-trafficked mammal, before it goes extinct. The BBC reports: While the media focuses on the plight of the elephant…

Why The Human Brain Isn’t As Special As We Think It Is

The human brain is special. Just not that special. To understand animal minds, and our own place in the living world, we should remove ourselves from centre stage. Tommy the chimpanzee got his day in court on October 8th, 2014. He was unable to attend the hearing in ‘person’ – spending the day, like any…

Watch How a Real Kidney Grows From Cells Into an Organ

We all grow from small bunch of cells into fully-fledged adults, but rarely do we get to see the process in action. In this video, researchers have peered into a mouse kidney, to watch how cells branch out to form the organ’s internal pipework. The images, a time-lapse created by Nils Lindstrom from the University…