Enjoy the Blue Moon
#ScienceEveryday
Originally shared by LiveScience
On Friday, much of the world will have the opportunity to observe a Blue Moon: A somewhat rare occurrence that doesn’t have anything to do with the moon’s color.
Cancer Immunotherapy HOA in a few minutes
Cancer Immunotherapy HOA in a few minutes
It’s a hot topic in the news and you’ll learn what’s really going on. I plan on a follow up with a colleague from the Mayo Clinic so stay tuned.
Originally shared by Science on Google+
What does the immune system have to do with cancer? What exactly is immunotherapy? Join us for a Cancer Research UK and Science on Google+ Hangout on Air as we speak to Professor Frances Balkwill and Professor Ben Willcox about cancer immunotherapy.
Fran is a Professor of Cancer Biology at Queen Mary University in London and is a fantastic science communicator. Her research focuses on the links between cancer and inflammation. Ben is a Professor of Molecular Immunology at the University of Birmingham and his work focuses on understanding immune receptor recognition.
This HOA will be hosted by Dr Buddhini Samarasinghe and Dr Kat Arney . You can tune in on Friday July 24th at 4 PM UK time. The hangout will be available for viewing on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/ScienceHangouts) after the event.
Smart conservation
Smart conservation
Another #ScienceEveryday meets #Caturday . Conservationists were able to determine if endangered Iberian lynxes were pregnant or not by getting blood samples from triatominae, aka assassin bugs. Read the short lynx to find out more.
Kick Insomnia
Kick Insomnia
I’ll have to remember this trick when I travel. I get insomnia when I travel. I found this via Shankar Vedantam on Twitter. I always enjoy his tidbits on NPR. Check out the video to learn how your arteriovenous anastomoses could help you sleep.
#ScienceEveryday
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/06/science-of-us-animation-sleep-foot.html
Do you even science bro?
Do you even science bro?
I can’t tell you how much I f#!&ing love this article from The Allium. I even read the title.
Thanks to Rajini Rao for pointing me to The Allium.
ETA
I should mention the Do you even science bro? joke is from Nic Hammond from this post.
Yes cephalopods can be cute.
Yes cephalopods can be cute.
I would vote for Opisthoteuthis Adorablisis. I need to make a trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium next time I visit my dad. Make sure you watch the video unless you already know what an oviducal gland is.
#ScienceEveryday
Originally shared by Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)
What do you call a tiny octopus with big eyes, gelatinous skin and is cute as a button? Nobody knows quite yet! Stephanie Bush of MBARI aims to classify and name this presently undescribed deep-sea cephalopod using preserved specimens and a clutch of eggs housed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
#CephalopodWeek starts Friday! Stay tuned for 8 whole days of cephalopods!!! Watch this video from Science Friday about Stephanie Bush’s research:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/06/15/2015/isn-t-this-octopus-adorabilis.html
Moringa oleifera Seeds can clean water
Moringa oleifera Seeds can clean water
Dr. Stephanie Velegol and colleagues recently published their work on explaining how a protein from the seeds of the Moringa oleifera tree can kill bacteria. It was known for some time that women in Egypt would use the seeds to clean dirty water. Since modern filtration systems are expensive and difficult to get to rural areas, understanding how the Moringa oleifera seeds work is important. Using cryo-TEM and simulations (among other techniques), they were able to demonstrate how the Moringa oleifera cationic protein (MOCP) kills bacteria. It fuses the inner and outer bacteria membranes.
☼ cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM)
Cryo-EM (transmission EM in this case) is a technique where the sample is cryogenically frozen and then sliced for the EM scope. There are two main types of EM: transmission and scanning. In transmission EM, the electrons go through the sample. In scanning EM the electrons go over the sample. Unlike optical (common) microscopes, EM, as you probably guessed, use electrons instead of light. You can read more here:
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/electronmicroscopes.html
☼ Simulations
Using data from multiple techniques, the researchers simulated what was going on with the MOCP and a test bacteria, E. coli. The data suggest that the MOCP cause flocculation and fusion of the inner and outer membranes. Within 50 seconds the MOCP cause flocculation (like aggregation) of the bacteria. The simulations also suggest how the structure of the MOCP functions during the fusion process.
You can read the news blurb from Penn State here:
The full article is here (behind a paywall).
The Flocculating Cationic Polypetide from Moringa oleifera Seeds Damages Bacterial Cell Membranes by Causing Membrane Fusion.
Shebek K, Schantz AB, Sines I, Lauser K, Velegol S, Kumar M.
Langmuir. 2015 Apr 21;31(15):4496-502. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b00015. Epub 2015 Apr 10.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25845029
#ScienceSunday
h/t Gnotic Pasta and rasha kamel
I’m glad my friends like Buddhini Samarasinghe, Rajini Rao, and Allison Sekuler are Tweeting away about how…
I’m glad my friends like Buddhini Samarasinghe, Rajini Rao, and Allison Sekuler are Tweeting away about how wrong Dr. Hunt is. I hope to catch Buddhini on BBC Radio.
ETA Nice fake apology.
ETA 2 Here’s more from Buddhini
https://plus.google.com/+BuddhiniSamarasinghe/posts/arRaTcZSd8s
Taimyr wolf and the origins of dog
Taimyr wolf and the origins of dog
There’s an ongoing debate about where and when dogs originated. The when part might be closer to an answer now. Genetic drift is used by evolutionary biologist to try to recreate the lineage of species. The discovery of a 35,000-year-old wolf rib bone in the Taimyr peninsula in northern Siberia was the key to this story. The DNA from that bone suggests that it diverged from a common ancestor of present-day wolves and dogs near the beginning of the domestic dog lineage. Their technique uses genetic drift of ‘regular’ DNA and mitochondrial DNA.
► Genetic Drift
There are non-lethal random mutations in DNA that survive to the next generation due to natural selection and sometimes due to ‘luck’. Surviving by natural selection makes sense, a mutation affords an advantage so that offspring should excel and survive. Genetic drift is when a mutation doesn’t necessarily result in an advantage but is nevertheless passed on ‘by chance’. Tracing these mutations help create a lineage for evolutionary biologists.
► Mitochondrial DNA vs. Nuclear DNA
Mitochondria are the energy power plants inside cells. They have a few genes necessary for oxidative phosphorylation, which is a fancy term for making energy. The nucleus of the cell is where the chromosomes are. Nuclear DNA is the DNA that you hear about in the news, for example in forensic science. In the figure below, you can see that mitochondrial DNA is passed on only by the mother while nuclear DNA is passed along by both parents. Genetic drift in mitochondrial DNA is much slower and helps refine the lineage of a species. It is slower because it is only inherited by half of the genetic source, i.e., the mother.
You can read a summary of the article in layman’s terms here:
Arctic find confirms ancient origin of dogs
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/05/arctic-find-confirms-ancient-origin-dogs
Full article and source of the very cool graphical abstract:
Ancient Wolf Genome Reveals an Early Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds
Skoglund et al
Current Biology May 2015
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00432-7
Source for the mitochondria DNA figures:
University of California Museum of Paleontology’s Understanding Evolution (http://evolution.berkeley.edu) http://goo.gl/WZgKRV
A bit more reading:
How the wolf became the dog (full article behind paywall)
http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2015/04/how-wolf-became-dog
Late for #FidoFriday but always on time for #ScienceEveryday
Skepticism doesn’t equal question all teh things
Skepticism doesn’t equal question all teh things
This is a great PSA from the folks who moderate the Science on Google+ community. There is also confusion about love for science and skepticism. As a moderator and someone who writes science posts, I get people who argue that everyone should be a skeptic. However, the list below has no room for skepticism in general. Scientists certainly debate new findings in those areas but the foundations (evolution for example) are not up for debate and skepticism.
Originally shared by Science on Google+
PSA: Evidence-Based Science on Google+
Some scientific facts aren’t up for debate in our science community. As scientists, we follow where the evidence leads, and the overwhelming evidence supports anthropogenic climate change, the efficacy of vaccines, the soundness of evolutionary theory, and the safety of GMO. There is vigorous debate within various scientific disciplines on how these settled areas of science work and what future outcomes of (for example) climate change or evolution will be. However, debate over mechanisms and outcomes should never be considered debate over the basic facts of a subject. A person claiming, for example, that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax is making an extraordinary claim against a huge body of peer-reviewed evidence, and barring extraordinary, credible, peer-reviewed evidence to support that claim, a post making such a claim will be removed from this community. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
The focus of our community is on research trying to address these issues, and not to rehash or debate the evidence. Unlike politicians, we don’t take positions to win votes or gain popularity. Rather, we ground our positions in the best evidence available to us, recognizing that scientific evidence may be incomplete but is constantly self-correcting.
What is scientific consensus? : https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Scienceongoogleplus/posts/5LRg4oTFAFU
Cartoon credit: http://joyreactor.com/post/805720
#ScienceSunday