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Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Biology: Biochemistry
Published Ancient 'chewing gum' reveals stone age diet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What did people eat on the west coast of Scandinavia 10,000 years ago? A new study of the DNA in a chewing gum shows that deer, trout and hazelnuts were on the diet. It also shows that one of the individuals had severe problems with her teeth.
Published Nearly dead plants brought back to life: Keys to aging hidden in the leaves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have known about a particular organelle in plant cells for over a century. However, scientists have only now discovered that organelle's key role in aging.
Published Study throws our understanding of gene regulation for a loop
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To function properly, the genetic material is highly organized into loop structures that often bring together widely separated sections of the genome critical to the regulation of gene activity. Scientists now address how these loops can help repress or silence gene activity, with potentially far-reaching effects on human health.
Published Spider venom heart drug a step closer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A molecule sourced from funnel web spider venom shows promise as a safe and effective future drug for heart attacks.
Published Machine learning reveals sources of heterogeneity among cells in our bodies
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of scientists discovered the secrets of cell variability in our bodies. The findings of this research are expected to have far-reaching effects, such as improvement in the efficacy of chemotherapy treatments, or set a new paradigm in the study of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Published Tiny AI-based bio-loggers revealing the interesting bits of a bird's day
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have developed a bio-logger for seabirds that enables long-term observation of rare behaviors. The bio-logger employs low-power depth sensors and accelerometers to identify rare behavior using a light-weight outlier detection model and records the behavior in a 5-min video. Observations using the bio-loggers on Streaked Shearwaters revealed novel aspects of head-shaking and foraging strategies. This approach will enable a wider range of animal behaviors in various environments to be observed.
Published Surprisingly simple model explains how brain cells organize and connect
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study by physicists and neuroscientists describes how connectivity among neurons comes about through general principles of networking and self-organization, rather than the biological features of an individual organism.
Published Surprise discovery: For most animals, sperm quality does not reduce with age
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In humans, male fertility and sperm fitness decline with age, but scientists have made the surprising discovery that this pattern is not consistent in other animals. The team assessed the results of 379 studies which covered a wide range of animals, including mammals, insects, birds, and fish.
Published Glowing COVID-19 diagnostic test prototype produces results in one minute
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Cold, flu and COVID-19 season brings that now-familiar ritual: swab, wait, look at the result. But what if, instead of taking 15 minutes or more, a test could quickly determine whether you have COVID-19 with a glowing chemical? In a new study, researchers describe a potential COVID-19 test inspired by bioluminescence. Using a molecule found in crustaceans, they have developed a rapid approach that detects SARS-CoV-2 protein comparably to one used in vaccine research.
Published Predicting others' preference-based choices is cross-cultural and uniquely human
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Children across cultures can anticipate other individuals' choices based on their preferences, according to a new study. However, non-human great apes appear to lack this ability.
Published New technology for conducting deep-sea research on fragile organisms
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have successfully demonstrated new technologies that can obtain preserved tissue and high-resolution 3D images within minutes of encountering some of the most fragile animals in the deep ocean.
Published Woolly mammoth movements tied to earliest Alaska hunting camps
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have linked the travels of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth with the oldest known human settlements in Alaska, providing clues about the relationship between the iconic species and some of the earliest people to travel across the Bering Land Bridge. Isotopic data, along with DNA from other mammoths at the site and archaeological evidence, indicates that early Alaskans likely structured their settlements to overlap with areas where mammoths congregated. Those findings, highlighted in the new issue of the journal Science Advances, provide evidence that mammoths and early hunter-gatherers shared habitat in the region. The long-term predictable presence of woolly mammoths would have attracted humans to the area.
Published A new, rigorous assessment of OpenET accuracy for supporting satellite-based water management
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to remote sensing tools like OpenET to help track and manage water resources. OpenET uses publicly available data produced by NASA and USGS Landsat and other satellite systems to calculate evapotranspiration (ET), or the amount of water lost to the atmosphere through soil evaporation and plant transpiration, at the level of individual fields. This tool has the potential to revolutionize water management, allowing for field-scale operational monitoring of water use, and a new study provides a thorough analysis of the accuracy of OpenET data for various crops and natural land cover types.
Published Pacific kelp forests are far older that we thought
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fossils of kelp along the Pacific Coast are rare. Until now, the oldest fossil dated from 14 million years ago, leading to the view that today's denizens of the kelp forest -- marine mammals, urchins, sea birds -- coevolved with kelp. A recent amateur discovery pushes back the origin of kelp to 32 million years ago, long before these creatures appeared. A new analysis suggests the first kelp grazers were extinct, hippo-like animals called desmostylians.
Published Unraveling the role of supersulfides in regulating mitochondrial function and longevity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Supersulfides, many of which are produced by cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase (CARS), are essential compounds across many different lifeforms. However, the precise physiological roles of CARS-produced supersulfide are unclear. Now, using a strategically engineered yeast mutant with a deficient CARS gene, researchers from Japan have shown that supersulfides control cell longevity by mediating mitochondrial energy metabolism and regulating protein quality.
Published Key moment in the evolution of life on Earth captured in fossils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research has precisely dated some of the oldest fossils of complex multicellular life in the world, helping to track a pivotal moment in the history of Earth when the seas began teeming with new lifeforms -- after four billion years of containing only single-celled microbes.
Published Candida evolution disclosed: New insights into fungal infections
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Identification of genes under recent selection provides insights into the molecular mechanisms of human-related adaptation in Candida pathogens. The study reveals both known and novel genetic variants associated with drug resistance, offering potential targets for improved antifungal therapies.
Published Bioinformatics: Researchers develop a new machine learning approach
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To combat viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, synthetic biology offers new technological approaches whose performance is being validated in experiments. Researchers applied data integration and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a machine learning approach that can predict the efficacy of CRISPR technologies more accurately than before.
Published A novel pathway regulating lipid biosynthesis by fatty acids
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) play a crucial role in lipid biosynthesis. In a recent study, researchers identified a novel cleavage enzyme of SREBP-1c, a key player in fatty acid biosynthesis. Moreover, the team unveiled, for the first time, that the biosynthesis process of fatty acid in the liver is activated by saturated fatty acids and inhibited by polyunsaturated fatty acids, providing new insights into the intricate workings of this cleavage system.
Published Scientists uncover ocean's intricate web of microbial interactions across depths
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of scientists has uncovered the ocean's intricate web of microbial interactions across depths. Their research provides crucial insights into the functioning of ocean ecosystems.