The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond

Antarctica's Buried Lakes -Will They Prove to be Living Prehistoric Labs?

Buried beneath several miles of ice in Antarctica are lakes ranging in size from Lake Ontario to lakes the size of Manhattan. Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake on Earth, is believed to harbor ancient life that has been isolated from open exchange with the atmosphere for several million years.

Elephant's Legendary Memory Key to Herd's Survival

The saying that elephants never forget has been backed by science. And it seems that the old adage may be particularly true in the case of matriarchs, who lead the herd. A recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London suggests that old female elephants and perhaps their memories of distant, life-sustaining sources of food and water may be the key to survival during the worst of times. In particular, experienced elephant matriarchs seem to give their family groups an edge in the struggle for survival in periods of famine and drought.

Do Plants Live and Die According A Precise Scale? New Research Says "Yes"

In a striking revelation, scientists have discovered that all plants live and die by a precise and simple rule. Scientists have found for the first time that plants can self-regulate their populations to maintain stability and optimize their lives, and that the lengths of their lives are precisely related to their mass. Even more incredible, a single scaling power for lifespan holds true across the entire spectrum of plants, from minute single-celled phototrophs to the massively majestic redwoods.

'Extreme Water' Found at Atlantic Ocean Abyss

Located some 3 kilometers underneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean,, scientists have discovered the hottest water ever found on Earth emanating from two black smokers called Two Boats and Sisters Peak. So hot, in fact, that the fluid has moved from being a fluid, to being a supercritical fluid.

Human Cells Found to have Electric Fields as Powerful as Lighting Bolts

Using newly developed voltage-sensitive nanoparticles, researchers have found that the previously unknown electric fields inside of cells are as strong, or stronger, as those produced in lightning bolts. Previously, it has only been possible to measure electric fields across cell membranes, not within the main bulk of cells, so scientists didn't even know cells had an internal electric field.

The End of Aging -Are There Unknown Dangers?

In his non-fiction Amazon bestseller, Ending Aging, Aubrey de Grey, champions recent progress in genetics and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals that hold forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total control over our own biological aging and substantially slow down the aging process.

Aubrey de Grey is convinced that he has formulated the theoretical means by which human beings might live thousands of years -- indefinitely, in fact.

"Super Cells"! Single Celled Organisms that can Make Oil, Cure Cancer, and Build a City

We believe multi-cellular organization is where it's at, with our mesoderms and our Mercedes, but there are some super-powered single cells which are far more than meets the unaided eye.  We might think their mightiest power is confining us to the bathroom after an ill-advised late night snack, but having only one cell to deal with means bacteria can adapt incredibly well - and a single mutation can give rise to powers that make Professor Xavier's wheelchair-accessible mansion look like a home for people who are good at minigolf.  Here we look at five organisms that would be called the Super-Cells, if that name wasn't probably already taken by Michael Crichton.

Life in the Milky Way: Do Galactic Cycles Influence Earth's Biological History?

Horoscope enthusiasts will be happy to hear that a grand cosmic force does indeed seem to be responsible for controlling the direction of all life on Earth. However, this grand cosmic cycle has more to do with extinction than finding a tall, handsome stranger.

Early last year, research revealed that the rise and fall of species on Earth seems to be driven by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the Milky Way. Some scientists believe that this cosmic force may offer the answer to some of the biggest questions in our Earth’s biological history.

Harvard Team Creates the World's 1st Synthesized Cells

A single cell is the most awesomely sophisticated molecular machine yet produced.  A self-directing, self-replicating micro-factory capable of complex constructions, automated repair and even (like all good sci-fi-sounding devices) self-destruct.  The first cells, however, were much less "complex mechanisms" and significantly more "Shake and Bake" - a model that we're now ready to build ourselves.

"Intraterrestrials": The Aliens Beneath Us -Solid Rock Dwelling Single Cells

Terry Pratchett once described life as a simple, tiny "Yes" being said wherever it could.  Even when the question is "Seriously, no, that's impossible, are you SURE somebody isn't just making you up?"  Extremobiologists among you may have heard of (and been suitably impressed by) organisms clinging to existence under kilometers of ocean and enough pressure to turn you into "Internet reader soup" at the bottom of the sea.  But it seems life always has another trick up its sleeve, and now scientists have found bacteria buried in tiny rock fissures hundreds of meters after even the sea itself gives up and stops.

New Species of Ancient Bacteria Discovered 2 Miles Deep in Greenland Glacier

"Microbes comprise up to one-third or more of the Earth's biomass, yet fewer than 8,000 microbes have been described out of the approximately 3,000,000 that are presumed to exist."

Jennifer Loveland-Curtze, Penn State astrobiologist

Yet another Earthly extremeophile, a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles has been discovered by a team of Penn State scientists.

The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat makes it particularly useful for studying how life can survive in a variety of extreme environments on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system.

Adios, Banana: Why Future Generations Will Likely Never Taste One of Our Favorite Fruits

It’s less sensational news than skyrocketing food and oil prices, but the beloved yellow banana may soon disappear forever. Bananas are even more heavily consumed in many parts of the world than rice or potatoes, but now a fungus called Panama Disease is turning them brick-red and inedible. Here’s the worst part: There is no cure for Panama Disease and it is spreading very quickly. Experts surmise that within the next three decades, the sweet and creamy food staple will be nonexistent.

Chameleons Fine-tune Camouflage to Predator's Vision

Chameleons' mastery of camouflage goes further than anyone expected – it seems they can fine-tune their color changes to the visual systems of specific predators, according to research by Devi Stuart-Fox at the University of Melbourne, Australia based on studies of Smith's dwarf chameleon, which lives in South Africa.

Scientists Discover Plants Can Control Weather

Gone are the days of believing plants are just passive organisms. Earlier this year, researchers found that plants can communicate through little understood chemical mechanisms. Now scientists are even saying that plants can do something perhaps even more incredible: Control the weather. According to researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science and the University of Manchester, brown seaweed, kelp, has the ability to create cloudy days at the seaside. But why would plants want to alter weather patterns? Apparently, because cloudy days make the plants more comfortable.

Atomic Extremeophiles Thrive Where the Life-Giving Energy of the Sun Never Reaches

"Life finds a way."  Thanks to a research time involving Princeton, Indiana University, and others, that isn't just a sappy Disney quote - it's an incredible fact.  They found extremophile bacteria buried over two miles into solid rock, where the life-giving energy of the sun never reaches - the energy every other species on Earth depends on.  Instead they found their own power source - radiation!

Quantum Vision Lets Birds See the Magnetic Field

Birds' ability to navigate huge distances while migrating has always been a source of natural wonder, and totally sweet long panning shots for nature documentaries.  But now it seems that the avian autopilot is of interest to science, and possibly the X-Men - because the birds might have QUANTUM MAGNO-VISION.

Plant "IM"—Scientists Unravel Communication Secrets of the Green World

For most of history scientists and mankind in general considered plants to be passive organisms just with no reason or means of communicating with one another. But new research has revealed that many plants actually ‘chat’ quite a bit over their own networks, which may also indicate that your aunt isn’t quite as crazy as you thought. You know, the one that talks to her petunias and expects an answer.

Vulcans Nixed: You Can’t Have Logic Without Emotion -A Galaxy Classic

Fifty years ago some young MIT scholars delivered a radical notion to the world. They proposed that it is possible to scientifically study precise mechanisms and processes of human thought. The movement was the catalyst for many fields of study.

Now after a generation of productive research, a newer paradigm shift is taking place. Science is discovering that it is our emotions that make thought possible, not the other way around. We simply cannot understand thought without understanding emotion. This is a radical departure from the traditional perspective, which used to regard emotion as the antagonist of reason.

"The Ilulissat Manifesto" -Creating Artifical Life

In a recent post, “Playing God” -Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life, we covered some of the benefits and concerns associated with synthesizing life forms from raw genetic material.

The thought that man now has the capacity to create life is staggering. Its many implications are barely understood.

70-Million-Year-Old "Frog from Hell" Unearthed

A 70-million-year-old fossil of a giant frog -nicknamed Beelzebufo or "frog from hell"- has been unearthed in Madagascar by a team of UK and US scientists.

The creature would have been the size of a "squashed beach ball" and weighed about 4kg (9lb), the researchers said. The fossil was reported to be "strikingly different" from present-day frogs found on the island nation.

Evolutionary 1st: “Missionary Style” Mating Observed in Wild Apes

Scientists (aka Peeping Toms) from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology recently released photos of a world first—two apes mating face-to-face, or participating in “ventro-ventral copulation”, which is the technical term for it. Most animals and almost all primates copulate in what’s known as the dorso-ventral position where both animals are facing in the same direction. However, the photographs recently released to the public show gorillas performing face-to-face copulation in the wild, which has never before been observed and photographed in western gorillas. The researchers believe it happened at a “innovative” female’s instigation.

Were Humans Originally a Brown-Eyes-Only Species?

Apparently, all of us with those blue eyes that made Frank Sinatra so popular owe our darling blues to a genetic mutation. New research conducted by Professor Hans Eiberg from the University of Copenhagen, who began this field of research 12 years ago, says we can trace the blue eyes back to a genetic mutation back somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.  

According to Eiberg: “Originally, we all had brown eyes,” but during the specified period a gene called OCA2 (probably wasn’t called that back then) which “literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes.”

 

100-Million-Year-Old Turtle Discovered

Rare, 100-million-year-old organic turtle remains were recently discovered in a river in Jiaxian, Pingdingshan City, in central China’s Henan Province. Rare turtle organic remains were recently discovered in central China’s Henan province.

Squirrels Disguised as Snakes—Are Animals Smarter Than We Think?

"It's a nice example of the opportunism of animals. They're turning the tables on the snake."

Donald Owings, professor of psychology at University of California, Davis.

Yellowstone’s Microbial Gold Rush

Imagine finding a unique microbe, donating it to a public repository, who sells a sample for $35, which is then converted into a $200 million a year industry. This actually happened, and Yellowstone National park was the heart of the discovery.

Currently, less than one percent of Yellowstone's microscopic life forms have been discovered and studied, but there is growing “gold rush” to capitalize on their unique properties. Yellowstone Park's bizarre steam vents and odiferous boiling “pots” are more than just tourist attractions. The geological oddities are home to exotic thermophilic, or heat-loving microbes, and other oddities that are seen as potentially highly valuable treasure for a variety of industries. Indeed, Yellowstone's unique evolutions of thermophilic organisms are yielding remarkable new microbial specimens with implications for medicine, energy and agriculture, among other industries.

Life from the Center of the Earth - Our Hidden

Jules Verne's classic science-fiction tale, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, where the zealous Professor Von Hardwigg finds a riddle in Icelandic parchment that leads to worlds miles beneath our planet's surface, is fast becoming science fact. Leading scientists are searching deep within the planet to find new life forms in a shadow world of a hidden --and to find clues to what possible life might exist on others within and beyond our Solar System.

The Immortalist: Aubrey De Grey on Aging -Can He Keep Us Young?

"It's a repair and maintenance approach to extending the functional life span of a human body. It's just like maintaining the functional life span of a classic car, or a house. We know -- because people do it -- that there is no limit to how long you can do that. Once you have a sufficiently comprehensive panel of interventions to get rid of damage and maintain these things, then, they can last indefinitely. The only reason we don't see that in the human body now is that the panel of interventions we have available to us today is not sufficiently comprehensive."

~ Aubrey de Grey, molecular biologist and author of End of Aging

Daylight Savings & the Circadian Rhythm

One of those topics that I just love writing on is that of the human body clock, or as I like to refer to it, “my wacked up circadian rhythm”. The term circadian rhythm essentially refers to the 24 hour period that the human body has evolutionarily adjusted too. And scientists are saying that, due to daylight savings, there are some nasty surprises awaiting us.

Scientist Brings 50-Million-Year-Old Spider 'Back to Life' in 3-D

A 53-million-year-old fossilized spider found preserved in amber in an area of France known as the Paris Basin has been digitally dissected in stunning 3D using VHR-CT technique by a scientist at The University of Manchester.

Ancient “Eyes” of Early Earth Are Key to Biggest Sex Event on the Planet

For years scientists have been baffled as to how hundreds of thousands of miles of coral know to spawn just after a full moon. After all, they can’t see the moonlight, so what’s going on?

The "Third Domain" & Mapping Our Hidden BioCosmos

The Third Domain, by Tim Friend, is the untold story of how the discovery of a new form of life, archaea - biochemically and genetically unique organisms that live and thrive in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth - was first ridiculed, then ignored for thirty years by mainstream scientists - is revolutionizing science, industry, and even our search for extraterrestrial life.

 

Baboon Metaphysics: A Complex Hierarchy Pleases a Princess

Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, a husband-and-wife team of biologists at the University of Pennsylvania and authors of the books “How Monkeys See the World”, and the newly released “Baboon Metaphysics” have spent 14 over years observing the Moremi baboons. Through clever experiments the researchers have worked out many aspects of how baboons think.

Minerals 250 Kilometers own Key to Life on Earth & Other Planets

If the Earth did not have the ability to store oxygen in the deep reaches of its mantle there would probably be no life on its surface. This is the conclusion reached by scientists at the University of Bonn who have subjected the mineral majorite, which normally occurs only at a depth of several hundred kilometers under very high pressures and temperatures, to close laboratory examination.

Migrating Birds "See" the Earth's magnetic Field, Scientists Report

  Scientists have known for many years that birds use an internal magnetic compass to navigate on their epic annual journeys. But exactly how the system works has been a mystery.

Smithsonian Scientists Spearhead Effort to 'Barcode' World's Species

In a project reminiscent of E.O. Wilson's Encyclopedia of Life, Smithsonian researchers are among the leaders in a worldwide effort to revolutionize the way scientists identify species in the laboratory and in the field with a technique called DNA barcoding, fast emerging as a global standard for identifying species. There are currently more than 280,000 DNA barcode records representing about 31,000 species.

Giant Spider Web Mystery Solved

Earlier this month, entomologists were debating the odd phenomenon of an enormous spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground for over 200-yards over a trail in a North Texas park.

Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park said the massive web is a big tourist attraction for some, but others refuse to go anywhere near it.

World's Oldest Living Microbes May Cast Light on Aging & Life on Mars

A research team has for the first time ever discovered active DNA from living bacteria that are more than half a million years old, which may lead to a better understanding of the aging of cells and might even cast light on the question of life on Mars.

The bacteria, frozen in permafrost slowly respirate and repair their DNA, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The process may explain how life persists over geologic time scales, the authors say.

Other scientists have discovered viable microbes that have been trapped in amber, salt or buried deep within the earth for tens to hundreds of millions of years, but how these ancient bacteria remained alive for so long under extreme conditions has remained a mystery.

Ancient Organisms Found in Canada's Deep

Scientists have long suspected that the three known domains of life -- eukaryotes, bacteria, and archaea -- branched off and went their separate ways around three billion years ago.

The Story of a Biologist & the Extension of the Human Life Span