Gene Duplication and Evolution
Posted on February 17, 2009 Comments (1)
Roughly 10 million years ago, a major genetic change occurred in a common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Segments of DNA in its genome began to form duplicate copies at a greater rate than in the past, creating an instability that persists in the genome of modern humans and contributes to diseases like autism and schizophrenia. But that gene duplication also may be responsible for a genetic flexibility that has resulted in some uniquely human characteristics.
“Because of the architecture of the human genome, genetic material is constantly being added and deleted in certain regions,” says Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and University of Washington geneticist Evan Eichler, who led the project that uncovered the new findings. “These are really like volcanoes in the genome, blowing out pieces of DNA.”
Eichler and his colleagues focused on the genomes of four different species: macaques, orangutans, chimpanzees, and humans. All are descended from a single ancestral species that lived about 25 million years ago. The line leading to macaques broke off first, so that macaques are the most distantly related to humans in evolutionary terms. Orangutans, chimpanzees, and humans share a common ancestor that lived 12-16 million years ago. Chimps and humans are descended from a common ancestral species that lived about 6 million years ago.
By comparing the DNA sequences of the four species, Eichler and his colleagues identified gene duplications in the lineages leading to these species since they shared a common ancestor. They also were able to estimate when a duplication occurred from the number of species sharing that duplication. For example, a duplication observed in orangutan, chimpanzees, and humans but not in macaques must have occurred sometime after 25 million years ago but before the orangutan lineage branched off.
Eichler’s research team found an especially high rate of duplications in the ancestral species leading to chimps and humans, even though other mutational processes, such as changes in single DNA letters, were slowing down during this period.
Related posts: 8 Percent of the Human Genome is Old Virus Genes – Mutation Rate and Evolution – DNA Passed to Descendants Changed by Your Life
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Tags: basic research,evolution,Funding,genetics,HHMI,medical research,university research
Samsung Transparent OLED Display
Posted on February 16, 2009 Comments (4)
The webcast shows another cool TV display. This transparent OLED display could for example be used for displaying directions and GPS information to someone driving a car.
Related: Holographic Television on the Way – BCS Title Game, Live in 3D – Video Goggles
Tags: cool,Engineering,gadgets,innovation,Japan,Products,webcasts
Toyota Software Development for Partner Robots
Posted on February 15, 2009 Comments (1)
Toyota Discusses Software Development for Partner Robots
Toyota owned some software assets because it had been developing partner robots for some time before developing the robots for the exposition. But those assets were all one-offs. No one but the developers themselves could comprehend their architectures.
As Toyota was developing more than one partner robot for the exposition, the number of developers involved increased. Considering that we can never complete any development if we use the past assets that rely on an individual developer’s skill, we made everything, including the platform, from scratch again.
Toyota developed the platform focusing on promoting design review by visualizing the control logic. Therefore, the company thoroughly separated control sequences and algorithms. To be more specific, it used state transition diagrams.
Each algorithm is stored in a different block in a state transition diagram. With such diagrams, developers can easily comprehend the flow of the control and review the design even if they do not understand each algorithm. The company employed this method because each algorithm such as a bipedal walking algorithm is too complicated for anyone but their developers to understand it.
Related: Toyota Partner Robots (2006) – Toyota Cultivating Engineering Talent – Toyota iUnit
Tags: Engineering,Japan,management,Robots,software engineering
Science Seeks Stimulas Spending
Posted on February 12, 2009 Comments (0)
Scientists Hope Stimulus Will Give Jolt To Research by Richard Harris
There are 3,000 institutions around the country that receive NIH grants to fund biomedical research. Raynard Kington, the NIH’s acting director, says those labs are also well-positioned to absorb a jolt of financial stimulus quickly.
“We have literally 14,000 applications that have been peer reviewed, that have been found to be scientifically meritorious and that have been approved for funding — but that we don’t have funds to support,” he says.
Give the NIH the money, he says, and in just a few weeks the money can flow out the door and into a thousand labs or more.
Related: Billions for Science in Stimulus Bill – posts on funding – Symptom of America’s Decline in Particle Physics – Funding Medical Research
Google Aids Green Action
Posted on February 11, 2009 Comments (5)
Google has a focus on energy as I have discussed previously. Google has been working to provide a way for people to get information on energy use in their homes that can be used to reduce your energy use.
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We’ve been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a “smart grid,” to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called “smart meters.” There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.
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Over the last several months, our engineers have developed a software tool called Google PowerMeter, which will show consumers their home energy information almost in real time, right on their computer. Google PowerMeter is not yet available to the public since we’re testing it out with Googlers first.
Related: Electricity Savings – Google.org Invests $10 million in Geothermal Energy – Google Investing Huge Sums in Renewable Energy and is Hiring
Scientists Study Saskatchewan Meteorite
Posted on February 10, 2009 Comments (0)
Scientists unravelling mysteries of Saskatchewan meteorite
Later, she studied the flashes and shadows from the various surveillance and amateur videos. She used the information to plot the fireball’s path as it fell to Earth and then tried to figure out its orbit. Milley’s tentative conclusion, which she discussed in Saskatoon Monday, was that it didn’t look like the space rock came from beyond the orbit of Mars.
“It looks like it’s a very kind of tight inner solar system orbit,” she said. “It’s not something that’s extended into the asteroid belt.” If she’s correct, it would be the first time researchers have found debris from a meteorite so close to Earth, Milley said.
In terms of the composition, Milley and her colleagues have determined it’s a relatively common type of meteorite with a high iron content. However, there is still much more to learn about it, they say. More than 100 fragments have already been recovered, but this spring, researchers will be resuming their search for more.
Related: Canadian Meteorite Fragments Found – Peru Meteorite Provides Puzzles – Meteorite Lands in New Jersey Bathroom
Self Re-assembling Robots
Posted on February 9, 2009 Comments (1)
Cool modular robots can self re-assemble if kicked apart. Shape-shifting robots take form:
Related: Roachbot: Cockroach Controlled Robot – Robot Fish webcast – Robot Hall of Fame
Building Engineers by Letting Kids Build Robots
Posted on February 8, 2009 Comments (5)
“People claim that only with the perspective of years can you know how much influence a particular event has had on you,” Tal Tzangen says and proceeds to explain how she is convinced her participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition last year has significantly changed the course of her life. Tal, a 17 year old girl from a rural part of Israel, was taking technology courses at her school, not because she was particularly interested in technology but because the other options seemed even less appealing to her. Although Israel is also known as “Silicon Wadi,” Tal thought technology was “just for geeks.” Last year she agreed to be a member of a newly forming FIRST team, not knowing what she was letting herself in for.
The competition involves 1,686 teams from more than 42,000 high schools spanning the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the U.K. Each team has six weeks to build a robot from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST. Then, they compete with other robots in a new game devised each year.
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She has enlisted some pre-high school girls with the hope of serving as a role model to them. Likewise, she has encouraged the forming of a FIRST LEGO team (9-14 year olds) to ensure the “next generation” for the Robotics Competition.
Related: Lunacy – FIRST Robotics Challenge 2009 – National Underwater Robotics Challenge – Building minds by building robots – LEGO Sumo Robotic Championship
Darwin’s Beetles Still Producing Surprises
Posted on February 7, 2009 Comments (2)
As part of National Science Foundation-funded research on the evolution of male dimorphism in insects, biology professors J. Mark Rowland, UNM, and Douglas J. Emlen, UM, were surprised to find that many species of beetles are capable of producing not only two, but three different types of males.
The sex lives of animals is known to be complicated business. Where competition in mating is particularly intense, many kinds of animals produce enlarged weapons that function in male combat and utilize alternative tactics in deploying them. Such exaggerated structures include horns in dinosaurs and deer, and tusks in elephants and walrus.
Elaborate male weapons are also known to occur in many types of insects. Now it appears, as the research of Rowland and Emlen illustrates, that male weaponry and alternative mating tactics can be much more complex in the lives of beetles than previously imagined.
“We discovered a novel mating system in which the individual males of various species of beetles have the capacity to express one of three alternative morphologies,” said Rowland. “In many dung beetles , smaller males are unlikely to prevail in direct contests with alpha males. These beta males develop disproportionally smaller horns and employ alternative, less aggressive, reproductive tactics.
“The trimorphic species reported here have alpha, beta and gamma (completely hornless) male – three qualitatively distinct forms. A mating strategy with three such tactics implies considerable complexity, but may actually involve operational rules reminiscent of the old rock, paper, scissors game.”
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Friday Cat Fun #13: Kitten in His Box
Posted on February 6, 2009 Comments (0)
Kitten colonized his box and defends it against his siblings.
Related: The Cat and a Black Bear – Genetic Research Suggests Cats ‘Domesticated Themselves’ – Video Cat Cam – Water Buffaloes, Lions and Crocodiles Oh My
Canada Film Board Provides Open Access
Posted on February 4, 2009 Comments (3)
The National Film Board of Canada is marking its 70th anniversary in 2009 with a gift to Canadians and Web users: a new online Screening Room providing free home viewing of over 700 productions, films, trailers and clips from the NFB’s world-renowned collection.
“This new online Screening Room is the latest example of how the NFB plays a major role in the free exchange of ideas through cinema,” said Tom Perlmutter, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board of Canada. “At a time when issues are inter-connected and global communications are mobile and instantaneous, Canada needs a voice. More than ever, the NFB provides that voice: empowering Canadians to share their concerns, express their points of view, tell Canada’s stories. The world is changing – our stories continue.”
From historical films dating back to 1928 to current contemporary releases, including award-winning documentaries, animation and fiction, this initiative invites Canadians from all regions, to browse, discover and be entertained by the stories that bind us together.
The NFB has also opened its vaults to bring forgotten gems to light: archival works that offer rare glimpses back into our past, from Canada’s sacrifices during World War II to traditional communities, exploring the changing face of Canada over the decades.
The site includes many science and nature films including: Life on Ice – Kluane National Park – In Search of the Bowhead Whale – The Enduring Wilderness (Canada’s Natural Parks)
The National Film Board of Canada showing far more vision than many others clinging to outdated models. The internet provides a great opportunity for sharing and using open access to share ideas.
Related: Meteorite, Older than the Sun, Found in Canada – Fishy Future? – Arctic System on Trajectory to New, Seasonally Ice-Free State
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