Category Archives: Biology

Tardigrades may have survived spacecraft crashing on moon

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Scientists believe the Beresheet’s unusual cargo may be alive and well on the moon

The odds of finding life on the moon have suddenly rocketed skywards. But rather than elusive alien moonlings, the beings in question came from Earth and were spilled across the landscape when a spacecraft crashed into the surface.

The Israeli Beresheet probe was meant to be the first private lander to touch down on the moon. And all was going smoothly until mission controllers lost contact in April as the robotic craft made its way down. Beyond all the technology that was lost in the crash, Beresheet had an unusual cargo: a few thousand tiny tardigrades, the toughest animals on Earth.

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First human-monkey chimera raises concern among scientists

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Researchers reprogrammed human cells before injecting them in the monkey embryo

Efforts to create human-animal chimeras have rebooted an ethical debate after reports emerged that scientists have produced monkey embryos containing human cells.

A chimera is an organism whose cells come from two or more “individuals”, with recent work looking at combinations from different species. The word comes from a beast from Greek mythology which was said to be part lion, part goat and part snake.

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Mosquito-killing spider juice offers malaria hope

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Scientists have genetically modified a fungus to make it produce the same lethal toxin as is found in the funnel web spider

A genetically modified fungus that kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes could provide a breakthrough in the fight against the disease, according to researchers.

Trials in Burkina Faso found that a fungus, modified so that it produces spider toxin, quickly killed large numbers of mosquitos that carry malaria.

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Autism symptoms replicated in mice after faecal transplants

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Study aims to discover whether gut microbes play a part in development of the condition

Scientists have induced the hallmarks of autism in mice by giving them faecal transplants from humans with the condition.

The experiments were designed to test whether the communities of gut microbes found in people with autism have a role in their symptoms, an idea that is gaining ground among researchers.

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Canadian Arctic fossils are oldest known fungus on Earth

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Fungus is half a billion years older than previous record holder found in Wisconsin

Tiny fossils found in mudrock in the barren wilderness of the Canadian Arctic are the remains of the oldest known fungus on Earth, scientists say.

The minuscule organisms were discovered in shallow water shale, a kind of fine-grained sedimentary rock, in a region south of Victoria island on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

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Pushy bonobo mothers help sons find sexual partners, scientists find

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High-ranking mothers lead sons to groups of females and keep guard while they mate

Their mothers are so keen for them to father children that they usher them in front of promising partners, shield them from violent competitors and dash the chances of other males by charging them while they are at it.

For a bonobo mother, it is all part of the parenting day, and analysis finds the hard work pays off. Males of the species that live with their mothers are three times more likely to father offspring than those whose mothers are absent.

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Cambridge scientists create world’s first living organism with fully redesigned DNA

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Researchers create altered synthetic genome, in move with potential medical benefits

Scientists have created the world’s first living organism that has a fully synthetic and radically altered DNA code.

The lab-made microbe, a strain of bacteria that is normally found in soil and the human gut, is similar to its natural cousins but survives on a smaller set of genetic instructions.

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‘Spectacular’ jawbone discovery sheds light on ancient Denisovans

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Scientists extract proteins from a molar to uncover details of mysterious species’ origins

A human jawbone found in a cave on the Tibetan plateau has revealed new details about the appearance and lifestyle of a mysterious ancient species called Denisovans.

The 160,000-year-old fossil, comprising a powerful jaw and unusually large teeth, suggests these early relatives would have looked something like the most primitive of the Neanderthals. The discovery also shows that Denisovans lived at extremely high altitude and, through interbreeding, may have passed on gene adaptations for this lifestyle to modern-day Sherpas in the region.

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Battle to save frogs from global killer disease

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Amphibians are under attack from multiple pathogens, say experts

Frogs, salamanders, and toads across the world are now under attack from a widening range of interacting pathogens that threaten to devastate global amphibian populations.

That is the stark warning of leading zoological experts who will gather this week in London in a bid to establish an emergency plan to save these endangered creatures. “The world’s amphibians are facing a new crisis, one that is caused by attacks by multiple pathogens,” said Professor Trent Garner of the Zoological Society of London, which is hosting the conference. “We desperately need to devise strategies that can protect them.”

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New species of ancient human discovered in Philippines cave

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Homo luzonensis fossils found in Luzon island cave, dating back up to 67,00 years

A new species of ancient human, thought to have been under 4ft tall and adapted to climbing trees, has been discovered in the Philippines, providing a twist in the story of human evolution.

The specimen, named Homo luzonensis, was excavated from Callao cave on Luzon island in the northern Philippines and has been dated to 50,000-67,000 years ago – when our own ancestors and the Neanderthals were spreading across Europe and into Asia.

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‘A medical marvel’: Woman lived to 99 with organs on wrong side of her body

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Medical students in Oregon made the discovery only after the death of Rose Marie Bentley

Rose Marie Bentley was an avid swimmer, raised five children, helped her husband run a feed store and lived to 99. It was only after she died that medical students discovered that all her internal organs, except for her heart, were in the wrong place.

The discovery of the rare condition, which was presented this week to a conference of anatomists, was astounding — especially because Bentley had lived so long. People with the condition known as situs inversus with levocardia often have life-threatening cardiac ailments and other abnormalities, according to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

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‘Mindblowing’ haul of fossils over 500m years old unearthed in China

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Thousands of fossils date back to huge burst in diversity of life on Earth known as Cambrian explosion

A “mindblowing” haul of fossils that captures the riot of evolution that kickstarted the diversity of life on Earth more than half a billion years ago has been discovered by researchers in China.

Paleontologists found thousands of fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui river in Hubei province in southern China, where primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, algae, anemones, worms and arthropods with thin whip-like feelers were entombed in an ancient underwater mudslide.

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Scientists stunned by discovery of ‘semi-identical’ twins

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Boy and girl, now four, are only the second case of ‘sesquizygotic’ twins recorded

A pair of twins have stunned researchers after it emerged that they are neither identical nor fraternal – but something in between.

The team say the boy and girl, now four years old, are the second case of semi-identical twins ever recorded, and the first to be spotted while the mother was pregnant.

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Why the zebra got its stripes: to deter flies from landing on it

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Pattern seems to confuse flies, researchers who dressed horses up as zebras find

The mystery of how the zebra got its stripes might have been solved: researchers say the pattern appears to confuse flies, discouraging them from touching down for a quick bite.

The study, published in the journal Plos One, involved horses, zebras, and horses dressed as zebras. The team said the research not only supported previous work suggesting stripes might act as an insect deterrent, but helped unpick why, revealing the patterns only produced an effect when the flies got close.

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Gene therapy could treat rare brain disorder in unborn babies

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Doctors could use Crispr tool to inject benign virus into foetus’s brain to ‘switch on’ key genes

Scientists are developing a radical form of gene therapy that could cure a devastating medical disorder by mending mutations in the brains of foetuses in the womb.

The treatment, which has never been attempted before, would involve doctors injecting the feotus’s brain with a harmless virus that infects the neurons and delivers a suite of molecules that correct the genetic faults.

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Ancient rock wiggles could be earliest trace of moving organism

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Scientists say 2.1bn-year-old fossils may show evidence of self-propelled motion

A collection of short wiggly structures discovered in ancient rocks could be the earliest fossilised traces of organisms able to move themselves, scientists say.

If scientists are correct, the 2.1bn-year-old structures point to an earlier origin than generally thought for eukaryotes – cells with a membrane-bound nucleus and which make up plants, animals and fungi – previouslybelieved to have first emerged about 1.8bn years ago. It also pushes back the earliest evidence of self-propelled movement of eukaryotes by 1.5bn years – scooping the title from far younger multicellular lifeforms – and would be the first clear signs of motility for any type of organism.

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DNA discoverer James Watson loses honors over views on race

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New York laboratory cuts ties with 90-year-old scientist who helped discover DNA, revoking all titles and honors

A New York laboratory has cut ties with James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who helped discover DNA, over “reprehensible” comments in which he said race and intelligence are connected.

Related: Interview: James Watson

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UC vs. Harvard: Round 2 in CRISPR fight

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The University of California is fighting back in its quest to regain control over the rights to the powerful gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9. On Monday, in a case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., UC asserted that the valuable patents on the revolutionary tool belong to UC, not the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT - and that the nation's patent office committed serious legal errors when it ruled in 2017 against the University of California.