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Ant colonies use odour to compete with rivals
A new study has shown that weaver ants share a collective memory for the odour of ants in rival nests, and use the information to identify them and compete, like sports fans knowing each other by their colours.
‘Use new frontiers in nano-technology'
- The new frontiers in nano-technology, for precise and result oriented delivery systems, can help us, in many specialized areas of agriculture and health.
- Issues like environmental safety and sustainability, through integrated pest management approaches are very important.
- The use of chemicals in agriculture and its adverse impact on the ecosystems is further complicating the overall scenario of food production, safety and sustainability.
- Former Member of Planning Commission urged to look into three major areas of concern — increasing load of agricultural chemicals causing soil and environmental problems, gradual increase in use of pesticides and lack of general awareness.
Test tube hamburgers to become a reality in October
- Scientists have claimed they would serve the world's first test tube hamburger this October.
- A team, led by Prof Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, says it has already grown artificial meat in the laboratory, and now aims to create a hamburger, identical to a real stuff, by generating strips of meat from stem cells.
- Although it is possible to extract a limited number of stem cells from cows without killing them, the scientists say the most efficient way of taking the process forward would still involve slaughter.
- Each animal will be able to produce about a million times more meat through the lab— based technique than through traditional method of butchery.
- To produce the meat, stem cells are placed in a broth containing vital nutrients and serum from a cow foetus which allow them to grow into muscle cells and multiply up to 30 times.
- At the moment the method produces meat with realistic fibres and a pinkish—yellow tinge, but the scientists expect to produce more authentically coloured strips in near future.
- The project, funded by a wealthy and anonymous individual aims to slash the number of cattle farmed for food, and in doing so reduce one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.
New iridescent lizard, sea snake species discovered
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- A new species of lizard with striking iridescent rainbow skin, a long tail and very short legs has been discovered in the rainforest in northeast Cambodia
- Scientists named the skink Lygosoma veunsaiensis to honour the Veun Sai-Siem Pang Conservation Area in Rattanakiri province where it was found, Conservation International (CI) said in a statement.
- The lizard was discovered in 2010 in the remote and little-explored rainforest area during biological surveys led by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) in partnership with CI
- These creatures are difficult to find because they spend so much of their life underground
- The lizard was the third new species in the last two years to be found in Veun Sai, following the discovery of a new type of bat and a gibbon.
- Scientists have discovered a new species of sea snake in the Gulf of Carpenteria, a shallow sea enclosed on three sides by Australia, which they claim could provide important clues about evolution.
- The snake, which is unique in having raised scales, has been given the scientific name Hydrophis donaldii and the common name “rough-scaled sea snake” to reflect the scalation
- Hydrophis donaldii had evaded earlier discovery as it prefers estuarine habitats which are poorly surveyed and also not targeted by commercial fisheries.
- All venomous animals are bio- resources and provided sources of many life-saving medications such as treatments for high-blood pressure and diabetes.
- This reinforces why we need to conserve all of nature as the next billion dollar wonder-drug may come from as unlikely a source as sea snake venom
Circadian rhythms linked to sudden cardiac death
- Ventricular arrhythmias, or abnormal heart rhythms, are the most common cause of sudden cardiac death: the primary cause of death from heart disease.
- They occur most frequently in the morning waking hours, followed by a smaller peak in the evening hours.
- The research team discovered that a novel genetic factor, Kruppel-like Factor 15 (KLF15), links the body's natural circadian rhythm to, and regulates the heart's electrical activity. A lack or excess of KLF15, causes a loss or disruption in the heart's electrical cycle and greatly increases susceptibility to arrhythmias.
- A lack of KLF15 is seen in patients with heart failure, while its excess causes electrocardiography (ECG) changes such as those seen in patients with Brugada syndrome, a genetic heart rhythm disorder.
- With this understanding, scientists can propose new patient treatments with the goal of reducing incidences of sudden cardiac death.
- Further studies are needed to examine the how additional components of the biological clock can affect electrical stability in the heart.
Insect excreta
- Do small insects like mosquitoes and ants excrete solid waste? Are these excreta visible to the naked eye?
- Insects feed on different types of food and the nature of their excretory materials mainly depends on the type of foods that they consume. Insects feeding on liquid diet generally excrete liquid waste, whereas insects feeding on solid food produce dark coloured fecal pellets.
- The excretory substance of an insect is discharged from the anus and it contains the undigested food from the gut and metabolic excretions from the Malpighian tubules, the slender outgrowths of the gut that float freely in the blood. Insect gut is composed of fore-, mid- and hind-guts.
- The proteins in the blood meal are hydrolyzed in the midgut into free aminoacids which are essential for the synthesis of its egg yolk proteins.
- Because of the liquid diet, mosquito adults excrete the sticky feces. However, the feces are not visible unless a large number of mosquitoes excrete in a confined area.
A serious initiative to wean away youth from harmful habits
- If a few ounces of water can tell you whether sugar has been adulterated with powdered chalk, hydrochloric acid solution can reveal whether the coffee powder has been spiked with tamarind particles while a little washing soda can do the trick when it comes to determining the authenticity of jaggery.
- Highlighting the loopholes in the implementation of the Control of Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) was the mission of students from Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, who exposed the ambiguity in the pictorial signs on a few paan samples while volunteers from Government Yoga Naturopathy College upheld the Hippocrates axiom that food should be thy medicine and not the other way around; the diet, they said, was a powerful weapon in preventing and controlling disorders such as anaemia, diabetes and obesity.
