Worm Madness, Part 2

(Image by Samuel Chow. The yellow things are acoelomorphs.)
Remember seeing a small flatworm when you were little? I don't either. They're not all that common, but they're consistently used in scientific experiments. They have impressive but erratic regeneration capabilities. One can get a flatworm with two heads, two tails, four eyes or all of the above. Flatworms are also the simplest animals to have been proven to have some sort of memory- moreover, this memory is conserved through asexual reproduction (that is, cutting the worm in two and watching both pieces regrow).
Now, it has finally been proven that the Acoelomorpha, which have always considered to be a type of flatworm, are actually their own separate phylum. They are distinct in that they, unlike other flatworms, have no gut whatsoever; they use vacuoles to digest their food, like amoebas. The Acoelomorpha were the first to branch off from the rest of the bilaterals; they are thus less closely related to other flatworms than flatworms are related to us. This has been suspected for a while, but has remained only a hypothesis until now.

-Brown Rhino

Vegetarianism: The first successful emission plan

How do we cheaply lower global emissions and feed the world? The answer is here; well it has been here just nobody has noticed. Learn about the harmful gases that are made when making meat products. Vegetarianism is the right way reduces global emissions. Join us and reduce global emissions.
Vegetarianism: The first successful emission plan
coming whenever I finish it.
by: Mit

Worm Madness

Just as farmers in New Zealand have begun to finally pay attention to their worms (http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/worms-key
-farming-future-3039470), an underwater worm- called the sandcastle worm because its shelter looks like a sandcastle- also is getting the attention of scientists. Its glue is a powerful adhesive that can link wet, hard particles in a wet environment and sets on a change in PH- conveniently the same properties that are required of an adhesive for broken bones! The current method involves putting in tiny bolts to link the bone pieces. A glue could save many lives, as it's easier to use and could be more effective. Personally, I've read many true stories about people dying or becoming crippled due to badly done surgery. As such, I welcome a glue- although many surgeons may have to go to job training.
I also want to admit an error in an earlier post: it said that it was proven that Alzheimer's was caused by lack of sleep. In reality, this is only a hypothesis, and there are problems with it, such as that people who don't get enough sleep often have bad health in general.
See
http://www.rdmag.com/News/2009/09/
Materials-Sandcastle-Worm-Secrets-
Could-Yield-Powerful-Medical-Adhesive/

-Brown Rhino

Social cooperation in hyenas

A new study shows that hyenas might be more socially cooperative than chimps, who have all been seen as such. Pairs of captive spotted hyenas that needed to tug each at one rope at the same time to recieve food, learned to do so quickly and with no training. A pair of hyenas figured out it out in less than two minutes.When chimps try to do a similar things, they often need extensive training and are not very succesful in cooperating.

Social carnivores such as hyenas may be better at cooperative problem solving, because of their survival by group hunting in the wild. Their cooperation is also affected by the group interaction. Two surbordinate hyenas as well as a subordinate and a dominant hyena can work together, but two dominant hyenas will not cooperate. Also, an experienced hyena will help an unexperienced hyena to figure out the problem. Finally, the hyenas solving the problem would do it faster if there was an audience of hyenas watching them.

So, though chimps might be seen as smarter in cognitive functioning, it seems that hyenas may be more socially cooperative.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090928131032.htm


-Černa Kočka

Alzheimer's Proven to Result from Lack of Sleep

Although it was known that Alzheimer's was linked to a lack of sleep, it was previously believed that this lack of sleep was the effect of the mental disease. New experiments show that, contrary to prior belief, it may be lack of sleep that causes the Alzheimer's.
Concentrations of protein that form the plaque build-ups in the brain and in the spinal fluid that cause Alzheimer's were found in mice that did not get enough sleep for three weeks, while those that recieved adequate sleep did not have these same build-ups. Becasue the protein levels in the brain drop every time an animal sleeps, the protein did not have the opportunity to build up in the mice that recieved adequate sleep.
For more information, see Alzheimer's Linked ot Lack of Zzzzs below, under For Further Information, Try:

-bexchada

'Green' Roofs Could Help Put Lid On Global Warming

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2009) — "Green" roofs, those increasingly popular urban rooftops covered with plants, could help fight global warming, scientists in Michigan are reporting. The scientists found that replacing traditional roofing materials in an urban area the size of Detroit, with a population of about one-million, with green would be equivalent to eliminating a year's worth of carbon dioxide emitted by 10,000 mid-sized SUVs and trucks.
To read the rest of the article, see:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090923133000.htm
I highly recommend reading this article. Another related article is in the May 2009 issue of National Geographic or at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/green-roofs/klinkenborg-text

-bexchada

Mitochondria Defects not only Effect Respiration, but other major Body Functions as Well

In each body, there are thousands of cells. Each of your cells holds a mitochondria. The purpose of these small, maze-looking organelles is to convert oxygen and glucose into ATP, which the cells use for energy. New studies show that up to 1 in every 5,000 people can have mitochondrian deficiencies, and it is needless to say that this can prove extremely harmful and even fatal to the body.
For more information, see bellow article under For More Information See: titled Mitochondrial Gene Defects.

-bexchada

Mental Benefits of Exercise

It has long been known that exercise can improve health and lengthen life, but a more recent discovery is that it may have the ability to improve mental health as well. Despite our busy lives, it is imperative that we exercise at least a few times a week to prevent depression, relieve stress, and stop the developement of Alzheimer's disease.

-bexchada

Frog Fungus Hammering Biodiversity Of Communities

Everyone knows that frogs are in trouble and that some species have disappeared, but a recent analysis of Central American frog surveys shows the situation is worse than had been thought.

Under pressure from a fungal disease, the frogs in this biodiversity hot spot are undergoing "a vast homogenization" that is leaving behind impoverished communities that increasingly resemble one another.

to read the rest of the article, visit:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090922160100.htm

-bexchada

Next test: Flu 101

It seems like common sense: you have swine flu, you stay home. But it is proving easier said than done.
see http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/60463767.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU to view the full story.

-bexchada

Scientists Make Paralyzed Rats Walk Again After Spinal-cord Injury

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2009) — UCLA researchers have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk and even run again while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.

For the full story, see:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090920204455.htm

-bexchada

New Species Found on Whale Skeleton

New species of underwater organisms were found last week on a sunken whale skeleton. When a whale dies, the carcass falls to the ocean floor to become a food source for organisms at the bottom of the ocean. Here, scientists found new species or organisms, feeding off the whale.
For further information, see:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090921091601.htm

-bexchada

The Problem with Transgenic Fish

As humans have moved around the world, it was inevitable that animal species would move as well. These new species would sometimes die out in the new place, not adapted to the different vegitation or climates.But other times they would decimate the area, killing all of another native species or proliferating to a point that they became an overly-common pest. Then humans began intentionally moving species in an attempt to remove another species, and that worked too well all too often.
Slowly, humans became smarter, genetically altering species to suit their needs, instead of moving them from another area of the world. They began containing these new species, keeping them in laboratories, on fenced reserves, or in contained man-made lakes. If they were released in the wild, they were altered so that they could not reproduce, ensuring that they would not dominate the area.
A new species of fish has been created for comercial fish farming, but scientists have their fears about allowing these fish to grow outside closely supervised and regulated aquariums in labs. They have proven to grow faster than regular fish with less food and are more resistant to toxins. If these fish were to escape into the wild and infiltrate aquatic ecosystems anywhere in the world, history could soon repeat itself. Although the technology is there, scientists are reluctant to allow the farmers to begin breeding the fish, for despite the fact that it would save farmers alot of overall money, the risk would be great. It only takes a pair of fish to ruin an entire ecosystem. Simulations have been made and the overall outcome has time and time again been proven unfavorable.
For more information on the topic please see the below link under 'For Further Information Try:' labeled Risks Involved With Transgenic Fish.

-bexchada

New Hope for Coral Reefs

These past few years, there has been much concern about coral reefs around the world, and understandably. Rising temperatures, a greater concentration of CO2 in the waters, and increased polution have taken a great toll on coral reefs around the world.
Until recently, there has been major alarm and little hope for these underwater forests. But a new look at the waters around the Galapagos Islands have revealed three species of coral that had not been known to exist before and one that scientists had thought to have died out in a savage El Nino a few years before. These discoveries give new hope to those protecting the coral reef and proof that the reefs might not be as suseptable to changing conditions as was previously thought.
For more information and images of the new coral species, visit guardian.co.uk at
httm://www.guardian.co.uk/enviroment/2009/sep/09/coral-new-species-galapagos

-bexchada