The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Human Size vs Planet's Other Species Baffles Scientists

The world's scientific community has been crunching the numbers on the animal kingdom’s sizes and shapes, and have found that humans differ from each other far less than most species. The reason why is a mystery. “We don’t have an answer. We have this interesting observation, but the explanation is an open hypothesis,” said evolutionary biologist Andrew Hendry of McGill University. Hendry and Queens University biologist Ann McKellar combed through the scientific literature on body size and length in more than 200 species, from insects to fish to birds and, of course, humans.

Your Inner Reptile - DNA Research & Fossils Links Human Ear Evolution to Reptiles

About that hissing sound in your ear? In the early 19th century a startling discovery was made that proved Darwin's theory of evolution before he ever dreamed of joining the voyage of the Beagle. This discovery was made by a German biologist, Karl Reichert, who to his great astonishment found that two of the ear bones in mammals are the same thing as parts of the jaw bones in reptiles. In short, two of the ear bones in mammals -including homo sapiens- came from the gill arch that formed the jaw of a reptile.

3 New Species Found Living in Total Darkness in Canary Islands' Underwater Cave

Two tiny worms much smaller than a rice grain and a strange crustacean that has no eyes and poisonous fangs are among several new species of marine life discovered living in total darkness in in a mile-long underwater cave in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic off the coast of North Africa. The cave is believed to have been formed by a volcanic eruption about 20,000 years ago.

Harvard Team Zeroing in on How Life Arose from Nonliving Molecules

How did life on Earth begin? An giant step toward solving this puzzle was taken in the 1980's with the  Nobel Prize–winning discovery by Tom Cech and Sidney Altman that RNA, the sister molecule of DNA, can catalyze certain chemical reactions inside cells, a job previously thought to be the exclusive domain of proteins. Until their discovery, RNA was thought to have just one function: storing the genetic information cells need to build proteins. 

2.5 Billion-Year-Old Event Triggered Greatest Environmental Change Earth Has Ever Seen: Paved Path for Human Evolution

Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes — tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. Endosymbiosis refers to a cell living within another cell. If the cells live together long enough, they will exchange genes; they merge but often keep their own cell membranes and sometimes their own genomes.

"We have been overlooking how important cooperation is," UCLA molecular biologist James A. Lake said. "If two prokaryotes get together, they can change the world. They restructured the atmosphere of the Earth. It's a message that evolution is giving us: Cooperation is a way to get ahead."

Do Plants Live and Die According A Precise Scale? Scientists Say "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.

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.

How Fast Can a Human Ulitimately Run? Is a 5.0 Second 100 Meters Possible?

Amazing as Usain Bolt's new world record 100-meter victory was, his time of 9.58 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians such as Peter Weyand of SMU thinks is the natural limit for the human body. Experts studying the steady progression of records over the past 50 years, see the limit of the world record, with a probable error of 0.17 seconds, namely, to lie between 9.26 to 9.60 seconds. Some see 5.0 seconds a possibility.

Because 6' 5" Usian Bolt broke the mathematical model that had fit 100-meter record data for almost a century, his incredible performance has reset the bar for how fast researchers believe humans ultimately can run. Will it be done by a 6' 9"  or 7' future version of Bolt?

Amazing as Usain Bolt's new world record 100-meter victory was, his time of 9.58 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians such as Peter Weyand of SMU thinks is the natural limit for the human body. Experts studying the steady progression of records over the past 50 years, see the limit of the world record, with a probable error of 0.17 seconds, namely, to lie between 9.26 to 9.60 seconds. Some see 5.0 seconds a possibility.

Because 6' 5" Usian Bolt broke the mathematical model that had fit 100-meter record data for almost a century, his incredible performance has reset the bar for how fast researchers believe humans ultimately can run. Will it be done by a 6' 9"  or 7' future version of Bolt?

Whale Speak -Biologists Zero in on Their Culture

Marine biologists are starting to consider the notion that whales might have a pretty cool culture. Maybe Moby Dick in some ways was smarter than Ahab (and that's totally cool!).

"Whales are pretty hard to study, but evidence is coming up from quite a number of species that in a whole range of ways, they're learning things from each other and they're passing it on to other whales, and that's culture," says Hal Whitehead, biology professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. 

"The DNA Code" -Is Life Written Into the Laws of Physics?

A recent mathematical analysis says that life as we know it is written into the laws of reality.  DNA is built from a set of twenty amino acids - the first ten of those can create simple prebiotic life, and now it seems that those ten are thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can.

"LUCA" -Search for the Common Ancestor of All Life

Trying identify the "beginning" of life seems an impossible task. 

Just as linguists have been able to establish that all human languages have a common origin, so it turns out that all cellular life has a common origin. The ancestor of all life on Earth today has been dubbed LUCA, short for Last Universal Common Ancestor. The fact that there must have been a LUCA was first made clear in the 1960s when the genetic code was deciphered and found to be universal. In the forty years since the code was cracked, the emphasis is now on trying to reconstruct LUCA, but the emerging picture is substantially blurred by new insights into the evolutionary history of life.

Human Size vs Planet's Other Species Baffles Scientists

The world's scientific community has been crunching the numbers on the animal kingdom’s sizes and shapes, and have found that humans differ from each other far less than most species. The reason why is a mystery. “We don’t have an answer. We have this interesting observation, but the explanation is an open hypothesis,” said evolutionary biologist Andrew Hendry of McGill University. Hendry and Queens University biologist Ann McKellar combed through the scientific literature on body size and length in more than 200 species, from insects to fish to birds and, of course, humans.

Your Inner Reptile - DNA Research & Fossils Links Human Ear Evolution to Reptiles

About that hissing sound in your ear? In the early 19th century a startling discovery was made that proved Darwin's theory of evolution before he ever dreamed of joining the voyage of the Beagle. This discovery was made by a German biologist, Karl Reichert, who to his great astonishment found that two of the ear bones in mammals are the same thing as parts of the jaw bones in reptiles. In short, two of the ear bones in mammals -including homo sapiens- came from the gill arch that formed the jaw of a reptile.

3 New Species Found Living in Total Darkness in Canary Islands' Underwater Cave

Two tiny worms much smaller than a rice grain and a strange crustacean that has no eyes and poisonous fangs are among several new species of marine life discovered living in total darkness in in a mile-long underwater cave in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic off the coast of North Africa. The cave is believed to have been formed by a volcanic eruption about 20,000 years ago.

Harvard Team Zeroing in on How Life Arose from Nonliving Molecules

How did life on Earth begin? An giant step toward solving this puzzle was taken in the 1980's with the  Nobel Prize–winning discovery by Tom Cech and Sidney Altman that RNA, the sister molecule of DNA, can catalyze certain chemical reactions inside cells, a job previously thought to be the exclusive domain of proteins. Until their discovery, RNA was thought to have just one function: storing the genetic information cells need to build proteins. 

2.5 Billion-Year-Old Event Triggered Greatest Environmental Change Earth Has Ever Seen: Paved Path for Human Evolution

Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes — tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. Endosymbiosis refers to a cell living within another cell. If the cells live together long enough, they will exchange genes; they merge but often keep their own cell membranes and sometimes their own genomes.

"We have been overlooking how important cooperation is," UCLA molecular biologist James A. Lake said. "If two prokaryotes get together, they can change the world. They restructured the atmosphere of the Earth. It's a message that evolution is giving us: Cooperation is a way to get ahead."

Do Plants Live and Die According A Precise Scale? Scientists Say "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.

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.

How Fast Can a Human Ulitimately Run? Is a 5.0 Second 100 Meters Possible?

Amazing as Usain Bolt's new world record 100-meter victory was, his time of 9.58 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians such as Peter Weyand of SMU thinks is the natural limit for the human body. Experts studying the steady progression of records over the past 50 years, see the limit of the world record, with a probable error of 0.17 seconds, namely, to lie between 9.26 to 9.60 seconds. Some see 5.0 seconds a possibility.

Because 6' 5" Usian Bolt broke the mathematical model that had fit 100-meter record data for almost a century, his incredible performance has reset the bar for how fast researchers believe humans ultimately can run. Will it be done by a 6' 9"  or 7' future version of Bolt?

Amazing as Usain Bolt's new world record 100-meter victory was, his time of 9.58 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians such as Peter Weyand of SMU thinks is the natural limit for the human body. Experts studying the steady progression of records over the past 50 years, see the limit of the world record, with a probable error of 0.17 seconds, namely, to lie between 9.26 to 9.60 seconds. Some see 5.0 seconds a possibility.

Because 6' 5" Usian Bolt broke the mathematical model that had fit 100-meter record data for almost a century, his incredible performance has reset the bar for how fast researchers believe humans ultimately can run. Will it be done by a 6' 9"  or 7' future version of Bolt?

Whale Speak -Biologists Zero in on Their Culture

Marine biologists are starting to consider the notion that whales might have a pretty cool culture. Maybe Moby Dick in some ways was smarter than Ahab (and that's totally cool!).

"Whales are pretty hard to study, but evidence is coming up from quite a number of species that in a whole range of ways, they're learning things from each other and they're passing it on to other whales, and that's culture," says Hal Whitehead, biology professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. 

"The DNA Code" -Is Life Written Into the Laws of Physics?

A recent mathematical analysis says that life as we know it is written into the laws of reality.  DNA is built from a set of twenty amino acids - the first ten of those can create simple prebiotic life, and now it seems that those ten are thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can.

"LUCA" -Search for the Common Ancestor of All Life

Trying identify the "beginning" of life seems an impossible task. 

Just as linguists have been able to establish that all human languages have a common origin, so it turns out that all cellular life has a common origin. The ancestor of all life on Earth today has been dubbed LUCA, short for Last Universal Common Ancestor. The fact that there must have been a LUCA was first made clear in the 1960s when the genetic code was deciphered and found to be universal. In the forty years since the code was cracked, the emphasis is now on trying to reconstruct LUCA, but the emerging picture is substantially blurred by new insights into the evolutionary history of life.