Who knew there were so many volcanoes in the news? If you were a volcano blogger like Dr. Erik Klemetti, you’d keep up with these kinds of things. Now he’s posted the volcanic activity from each month of 2009. Shown is the eruption of Mayon in the Philippines in December. Link
Original post by Miss Cellania
Most explanations of Darwinian evolution refer to genetic material as the manner in which changes are passed down to one’s descendants. Now, a study by Jiali Li of the Scripps Institute in Florida finds that prions, the proteins that cause diseases like mad cow disease evolve in response to their environment. Prions have no genes, no chromosomes, and no DNA or RNA at all!
Prions are rogue version of a protein called PrP. Like all proteins, they are made up of chains of amino acids that fold into a complex three-dimensional structure. Prions are versions of PrP that have folded incorrectly and this misfolded form, called PrPSc, is social, evangelical and murderous. It converts normal prion proteins into a likeness of its abnormal self, and it rapidly gathers together in large clumps that damage and kill surrounding tissues.
Li has found that variation can creep into populations of initially identical prions. Their [...]
Original post by Miss Cellania
Preparation time: 12-20 billion years.
Link.
Original post by Minnesotastan
Blue Moon
You knew just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for… -Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart
Tonight is the last night of 2009, there’s a full Moon, there’s a sliver of a partial lunar eclipse, and it’s the second full Moon this month.
Q: Does having two full Moons in a month make it a Blue Moon?
A: In our modern times, yes, that’s what we use that colloquialism to mean. The phrase “Blue Moon” is much older than that, dating back to at least 1528, where a pamphlet attacking the dogmatism of the church states:
Yf they say the mone is belewe
We must believe that it is true.
Q: Well, so is it true? Is the Moon belewe blue tonight?
A: No. In fact, if you watch it close to Moonrise or Moonset, you’ll see that it gets progressively redder and redder as [...]
Original post by Ethan Siegel none@example.com
If you search for decent definitions of evolution, the chances are that you’ll see genes mentioned somewhere. The American Heritage Dictionary talks about natural selection acting on “genetic variation”, Wikipedia discusses “change in the genetic material of a population… through successive generations”, and TalkOrigins talks about changes that are inherited “via the genetic material”. But, as the Year of Darwin draws to a close, a new study suggests that all of these definitions are too narrow.
Jiali Li from the Scripps Institute in Florida has found that prions - the infectious proteins behind mad cow disease, CJD and kuru - are capable of Darwinian evolution, all without a single strand of DNA or its sister molecule RNA.
Prions are rogue version of a protein called PrP. Like all proteins, they are made up of chains of amino acids that fold into a complex three-dimensional structure. Prions are versions of PrP that have [...]
Original post by Ed Yong none@example.com
The Properties of Adaptive Walks in Evolving Populations of Fungus:
The rarity of beneficial mutations has frustrated efforts to develop a quantitative theory of adaptation. Recent models of adaptive walks, the sequential substitution of beneficial mutations by selection, make two compelling predictions: adaptive walks should be short, and fitness increases should become exponentially smaller as successive mutations fix. We estimated the number and fitness effects of beneficial mutations in each of 118 replicate lineages of Aspergillus nidulans evolving for approximately 800 generations at two population sizes using a novel maximum likelihood framework, the results of which were confirmed experimentally using sexual crosses. We find that adaptive walks do indeed tend to be short, and fitness increases become smaller as successive mutations fix. Moreover, we show that these patterns are associated with a decreasing supply of beneficial mutations as the population adapts. We also provide empirical distributions of fitness effects among mutations [...]
Original post by Razib Khan none@example.com
2009 ends tonight, and looking back at the weird stories of the year is always fun. Oddee has the twelve most memorable events that had us all doing double takes. Remember these?
6 year-old drives mom’s car.
68-year-old woman tries to get driver’s license for the 772nd time.
86 year-old woman catches thief with her crutch.
Calling 911 because McDonald’s was out of McNuggets.
Car accident leaves man without penis.
Girl get 56 stars tattooed on her face, says she was sleeping.
Drowning diver saved by beluga whale.
This:
Door County authorities are trying to figure out how a motorist ended up near the top of the east arm of the Maple-Oregon Bridge across Sturgeon Bay after the arms of the drawbridge were lifted to a 45-degree angle. The car precariously perched in a downward position was photographed and the photos hit the internet pretty fast. Apparently the bridge tender noticed, lowered the bridge and after a short conversation she goes on her way. The incident [...]
Original post by Johnny Cat
A couple of these are on my pet peeve list; I bet you find a couple that are on yours as well. Enjoy The Oatmeal’s humorous look at some of the most common (and annoying) spelling mistakes!
Link
Original post by Stacy
The US Navy has the frigate Constitution, launched in 1797. The British Royal Navy has the Victory, which dates even further back — to 1765. But both of these vessels are museum ships, rather than truly active vessels.
The oldest naval vessel in active service is the VMF Kommuna, a Russian Navy salvage ship built in 1915. James Dunnigan writes for Strategy Page:
This 2,500 ton catamaran was built in the Netherlands and entered service in 1915. Kommuna began service in the Czar’s navy, spent most of its career in the Soviet (communist) Navy, and now serves in the fleet of a democratic Russia. Originally designed to recover submarines that had sunk in shallow coastal waters, Kommuna remains in service to handle smaller submersibles, does it well and has been maintained over the decades to the point where it cheaper to keep the old girl operational, than to try [...]
Original post by John Farrier
Could anything be cuter than a baby panda climbing out of a crib? I don’t think so. Wen Li the cub tried her great escape at the Chengdu Giant Panda Research Institute in China.
Unfortunately, her sense of balance is still a bit wobbly and she toppled over the side, ending up with little more than an upside-down view of the inside of her pen.
The failed attempt did not appear to deter Wen Li, however. She was later spotted in what seems to be her favourite position once more – dangling from the edge of her playpen again.
Go see the whole series of pictures. Link -via Unique Daily
(image credit: Rex Features)
Original post by Miss Cellania
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