Category: Science
-
Genetics. The greatest farce?
DNA may not be life’s instruction book — just a jumbled list of ingredients: The common view of heredity is that all information passed down from one generation to the next is stored in an organism’s DNA. But one researcher suggests this might not be so. In two new papers, he argues DNA is just…
-
Old forts… New battles…
Archaeologists verify Florida’s Mound Key as location of elusive Spanish fort: Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antón de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish fort was built in 1566 in the capital of the Calusa, the most powerful Native American tribe…
-
Primitive. Actions. Ecology. Pendulums.
Fossil data, historical records, and underwater survey data have been used to reconstruct the abundance of staghorn and elkhorn corals over the past 125,000 years. Researchers show that these corals first began declining in the 1950s and 1960s, earlier than previously thought. (1) Even the most primitive actions of people alter the planet. Even the…
-
Dying languages…
Over 6,000 languages are currently spoken worldwide, but a substantial minority — well over 5% — are in danger of dying out. It is perhaps surprising that this fraction is no higher, as most models have so far predicted that a minority language will be doomed to extinction once contacts with speakers of the majority…
-
Embryos. Analysis. Zero.
Researchers have created the first complete description of early embryo development, accounting for every single cell in the embryo. This ‘virtual embryo’ will help to answer how the different cell types in an organism can originate from a single egg cell. (1) Analyzing life, cell by cell. Atom by atom. Until we reach zero. One…
You must be logged in to post a comment.