Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

Ecologists have long found that when food becomes scarce, animal populations exploit a wider range of food sources. So researchers studying southern sea otters at different sites in California’s coastal waters were not surprised to find that the dietary diversity of the population is higher where food is limited. But this diversity was not reflected in the diets of individual sea otters, which instead showed dietary specialization in response to limited food……..

From last April, this is another unnamed errant tulip growing amongst the Tulipa ‘’Zurel'’. I much preferred visiting the fields where these occasional oddballs would show up; fields of tulips that were perfect felt too managed.

Mauve Majesty is one cool lily look-alike. This new pinkish-purple ornamental flower, just patented by Cornell, can last for two weeks in a vase, but when left in the garden, it blooms all summer long in the cooler, northern states until the first hard freeze in the fall. The new hybrid of the Inca lily (Alstroemeria), which was developed by a Cornell professor, is a non-fragrant perennial that is set apart by its lavender-lilac flower color (which is adorned with dark speckling and a creamy yellow throat), its strong, upright flower stems and its winter hardiness. In greenhouses, the new hybrid never goes dormant and grows year-round……..

The molecular machinery behind gene transcription — the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA — isn’t stationed in special “transcription factories” within a cell nucleus, as per Cornell researchers. Instead, the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and other key molecules can assemble at the site of an activated gene, regardless of the gene’s position……..

Scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston have developed a new “nanobiotechnology” that enables magnetic control of events at the cellular level. They describe the technology, which could lead to finely-tuned but noninvasive therapys for disease, in the recent issue of Nature Nanotechnology (published online January 3)……..

Claims that tropical forests are declining cannot be backed up by hard evidence, as per new research from the University of Leeds. This major challenge to conventional thinking is the surprising finding of a study published recently in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences by Dr Alan Grainger, Senior Lecturer in Geography and one of the world’s leading experts on tropical deforestation……..

Just as the risk of developing alcoholism is strongly influenced by genetic factors, mutations in gene coding such as the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2*2) allele also appear to protect against the risk. Researchers have only just begun to apply gene-therapy techniques to the alcohol-research field. A proof-of-principle study has observed that administering an anti-Aldh2 antisense gene in rodents can curtail their urge to drink……..

The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show scientists more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex. By studying the three-dimensional version of the fungus protein bound to an RNA molecule, researchers from Purdue University and the University of Texas at Austin have been able to visualize how life progressed from an early self-replicating molecule that also performed chemical reactions to one in which proteins assumed some of the work……..

Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new book argues that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force biting, disease-carrying insects. An important contributor to the demise of the dinosaurs, experts say, could have been the rise and evolution of insects, especially the slow-but-overwhelming threat posed by new disease carriers. And the evidence for this emerging threat has been captured in almost lifelike-detail many types of insects preserved in amber that date to the time when dinosaurs disappeared……..

Among humans, making yourself smell more alluring than you really are is a fairly harmless, socially accepted habit that maintains a complete perfume industry. However, it is a matter of life and death for caterpillars of large blue butterflies that dupe ant workers into believing them to be one of the ants own larvae. In a publication in the journal Science this week , scientists from the Centre for Social Evolution (CSE) at the University of Copenhagen show that caterpillar deception is also a matter of smell, and that there is an ongoing co-evolutionary arms race in smell similarity between cheaters and their victims……..