Jurassic Park, Soon?

I don't know if you guys remember the movie "Jurassic Park". It was actually one of my best movies that I still watch today (even after 10+ years).  The Jurassic period is a period when dinosaurs and majestic unknown creatures once lived on this very planet. Earth at that time had only one supercontinent called Pangaea (Pan=all, all the continents were connected). In the movie, they gave this theory about the mosquito withdrawing blood from a dinosaur and then get fossilized. Scientists then extracted blood from the fossilized mosquito and amplified this DNA/clone the cells to get the actual dinosaur we witnessed in the movie.

Well , this was in the movie. What about real life? Scientists found this mosquito long after the production of the movie  and were curious whether it is possible to withdraw this blood accumulated in its body, (is the DNA still intact/damaged, is there any blood inside its body in the first place?) They actually found blood inside its body because high levels of iron proves the presence of blood. Unfortunately, the problem was with the fossilized blood and the DNA was critically damaged. There is still hopes that they could successfully recover a functional DNA that could be amplified! What do you think?  Personally, I want to see this happen. Maybe I can have an interesting adventure just like in the movie! Thank you Science! As long as I won't get eaten by a velociraptor!

Let's vacuum the baby!

"Dr, Zein We have a problem, we have delivery complications with patient X." The doctor replied with a wicked grin on his face"Just vacuum the baby, and never try to bother me anymore!"

We all vacuum our room to get rid of the dust particles (and whatnot) that are hopelessly stuck on our floor. I always used tools unconventionally: I used a fork to eat a soup (I did that in 30 mins!), used pipettes to irritate my lab partner, and stick a living grasshopper in the fridge and see what happens! But this guy outsmarted me, he actually used a vacuum system to serve humanity! His idea stems from a youtube video (see, youtube is good for us!). He was watching a guy who was successfully able to extract a cork from a wine bottle (why would anyone do that!). Being a non drinker, I have little knowledge about wine (and whatnot), but we all know that once the cork is inside the bottle, it is nearly impossible to get this out without actually breaking the bottle. (On a side note, The guy is a car mechanic from Argentina!). Later, after laying down to sleep, he claims that the idea simply came to him in a dream. "he did what any enterprising mind would: rushed into the kitchen, stuffed his daughter's doll into a glass jar, and pulled her right back out using a fabric bag as his prototype. The doll lived, and he went on to win the prestigious endorsement of the World Health Organization. Now, a medical technology company right here in the USA has licensed his invention for real life production!" See! stupid ideas generate great outcomes! See the link below: you will find the youtube video that inspired the mechanic, as well as a brief demonstration of a baby doll delivery.

http://gizmodo.com/car-mechanic-dreams-up-genius-baby-vacuum-to-ease-birth-1464475511
http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/15/5108390/jose-odon-birthing-tool-odon-device

Good looking flies?

Flies are weird creatures. They are attracted pretty much to everything: food, socks, dead body, hot girls... you name it! I once had enough curiosity to take a closer look at a fly hovering around my meal in the cafeteria. It was actually cleaning itself with its hands/appendages. What a neat creature! (still nasty for me)

Then I wondered: How do females pick the best male out there? Based on which criteria? "they all look the same for me!" A new kind of flies was discovered in the UAE near Dubai. What is interesting about this fly is that it looks weird. Scientists realized that the fly with the uncommon pattern and looks had the advantage for mating and being picked and preferred by females. (And they say Men are visual beings!). One might ask what do I mean by weird? the fly had a detailed picture of an ant carved on their wings (that's so attractive!, maybe not!)-see picture below- . "Each wing carries a precisely detailed image of an ant-like insect, complete with six legs, two antennae, a head, thorax and tapered abdomen" 

Then scientists realized that flies having this pattern on their wings are less likely to be devoured by predators. "When threatened, the fly flashes its wings to give the appearance of ants walking back and forth. The predator gets confused and the fly zips off". What do you think? Could evolution alter the hideous looks of insect to become aesthetically acceptable?

But the question is how the ant got carved to their wings? The question that no scientist was able to answer! What are your suggestions? 

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/science/fruit-fly-with-the-wings-of-beauty

Vampires, they exist!

What if you were placed in an island with two family members and me (stranger)? What if we all could not find food to eat on this very treacherous island? What if we were stuck in the molecular biology class without anything to eat for days and weeks? Well, we EAT each other. So the question is WHO? We eat the stranger! (Fresh meat)!

This is Aphids' logic here! Aphids are small plant lice living on plants. They are equipped with an intricate "sucking" mouthparts called stylets. Using stylets aphids are able to leech the plants' fluid content inside the phloem. (which is the plants' vessels).

Now the interesting part? what aphids do when they lack food? A research was conducted at Harpers Adams university in the UK. They placed three aphids (a mother and two of her "kids") with an unrelated unfortunate aphid in a low food environment (damaged plant) and closely "stalked" their behavior. They noticed that the juveniles were choosy about who they attack. "They were more likely to target unrelated insects, which makes sense: unrelated aphids are competitors and it might be advantageous to attack them regardless of the food situation" If you were wondering How do aphids eat they prey? They suck their blood to death using stylets. (vampires, they exist!)

There is a twist in the second part of the research! On a side note aphids reproduce asexually (by consecutive mitosis division) and all members of a colony share the same genes! (clones of each others). 

Then, the team thought "lets put the same colony in a low food environment and see if they eat each other". Well, they did. Weirdly the small aphids eagerly devoured their mother (yum) with no to little resistance as opposed to the stranger aphid. The team concluded that clones "may be willing to let their fellows eat them because, by doing so, they are ensuring that at least some of the clones will survive to reproduce and pass on their shared genes" and for the why the mom must be the victim? the team noticed that for aphids its more important for juveniles to survive. Think about it yourself: Your mother will allow you to eat her to survive. (Pure logic !!! Maybe not, good we are not aphids!)

For more information check the link below:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24513-zoologger-baby-vampire-aphids-drink-parents-blood.html#.UnXQtZHHgts

Mouse vs Scorpio. Fight !

Being a scorpion fan and being a Scorpio, this totally pissed me off. The fight between the scorpion and the "rodent" results in the death of the unfortunate scorpion. We all know here that scorpions are "equipped with this powerful venom that could easily take the life of a human child/ elderly. On a side note, the deadliest scorpion is called the "deathstalker" which is responsible for 75% of the total scorpion kills. The deathstalker lives in Africa and in the middle east and has a yearly of 5000+ human kills. (GOOD JOB!). I personally saw this majestic scorpion in Lebanon while camping in the mountains. It got near my tent, fortunately I was able to maintain a safe distance.

Anyways, back to molecular Biology! Unfortunately the fight resulted in the death of the scorpion. Anyone wondered why? The fight was conducted between a grasshopper mouse and a bark scorpion whose stings are incredibly fatal for mice given their small size. "when humans get stung, they say the pain's like having a cigarette stubbed out on your skin, followed by hours of throbbing, the toxin should easily be powerful enough to kill a rodent. The rodent viciously eats the scorpion and when it gets stung, it gets stung a lot. It barely seems to notice" Now the why part. We all know that venom or poison usually activates many pain neurons. Rodentwise, the venom attach to a protein called NAV.1.7 which is found on the surface of pain-sensing nerves cells. When the poison sticks to NAV.1.7, The protein changes its confirmation and acts like a doorway for sodium ions to flow in the neuron which cause the nerve to fire! (then we say Ouch, arghh or start to curse!). But what happens with this specific rodent? Another protein called NAV.1.8 (I see no creativity in proteins' naming here!) attach to venom (which is already attached to NAV.1.7) and this prevents the sodium from flowing in. It blocks the door! 

To read more and view the deadly fight click below:

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/24/this-mouse-turns-agonising-scorpion-venom-into-a-painkiller/

New Biology Law

Well, This is not the fourth Newton's law, it is the new law of urination! Ta-da! Yes you have read right: scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology coined a new rule:

"All Mammals takes about 21 seconds to urinate"

According to Patricia Yang "this law of urination applies across a wide range of animal sizes". The question is how she did the research? She got to the Atlanta zoo and closely "observed" animals from goats, cow, dogs to elephants. As the result of these strenuous observations and research she concluded that "every animal took an average of 21 seconds to relieve itself, despite bladders that varied in volume from 100 milliliters to 100 liters"

What was the most surprising is the elephant which is expected to have a longer urination time because of its massive bladder size. On a side note the elephant has a urethra of one meter long with a diameter of 10 cm. How could elephants empty their bladder in about the same time as goats, dogs or even humans (mid-sized mammals) ?  The answer is simple: due to this long urethra the elephant allows its urine to pick more up speed. When the flow rate increases, it allows the elephant to reach a very similar urination time compared to smaller size mammals.

So why is this important. I found this article entertaining and weird. I then realized that this study could provide a proof that mammals used to have a common ancestor. Evolution could do magic in terms of size, look, intelligence but not in terms of urination!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/19/4855076/the-law-of-urination-mammals-take-21-seconds-to-pee

Ice finger of death!

The Antarctic hides many dangers. Right now, an icy tube of water is forming underwater fast enough that it can be seen forming with the human eye. This tube can elongate and become several meters in length. When it reaches the seabed it extends tendrils freezing everything in its grasp. It is called the icicle of death or named brinicle by scientists. The brinicle was first described in 1960s but was caught on camera for the first time by the BBC using new technology called timelapse. This occurs both in northern and southern seas. Here is how it is formed.  Like all other bodies of water, only the surface of the water freezes forming a thick sheet of ice. But the salt in the water does not freeze and accumulate in several small spaces inside the icy sheet. The salty mixture, the brine, seeps to the underwater through cracks in the ice.  Since brine is denser than water and freezes at lower temperature than water, the brine sinks and freezes the water that it comes in contact with, forming an underwater tube. With time, the tube becomes thicker and longer until it reach the seafloor. When it hits the seabed, an icy web spreads its tendrils across the floor.  The organisms living there will be frozen in their places mainly seas stars and urchins and fish that are too slow to escape it.  The brinicles have left hundreds of aquatic skeletons. Dr. Thurber, one of the scientists that saw the brinicles growing, described them: “They look like upside-down cacti that are blown from glass,” he says, “like something from Dr. Suess’s imagination. They’re incredibly delicate and can break with on the slightest touch.”

Check the video below:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2065401/Brinicle-forms-beneath-sea-kills-path.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/swimming-beneath-the-brinicles-in-antarctica/