According to the paper, high carbon dioxide levels may account for the Cretaceous’ polar forests A study, using a Cretaceous fossil wood database, concluded that Araucaria (including monkey puzzle trees, Araucaria araucana) and podocarpoid conifer forests covered most humid regions of the Earth in the Early Cretaceous. Cypress woodlands existed at mid-latitudes, and pines invaded [...]
Categories: Climate,Climate change,Environment,Science
Tagged: Adele Rackley, angiosperms, araucarioid, Cretaceous, dinosaur forests, Emiliano Peralta-Medina, forest distribution, fossil wood database, Howard J. Falcon-Lang, magnolia-like, monkey puzzle, podocarpoid
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- 28 February 2012 – 12:08
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Citation AtmosNews, Wind power wisdom: NCAR science helps society get more energy from turbines, National Center for Atmospheric Research (07 February 2012) A scientifically interesting tidbit (from the article) about turbine gearboxes and wind shear Turbulence can be a problem for the structural integrity of wind turbines. Therefore, the day to night characteristics of the [...]
Categories: Energy,Environment,Science
Tagged: atmospheric boundary layer, siting, turbulence, wind power, wind shear, wind turbine
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- 27 February 2012 – 08:38
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Knowing as little as we do about the intricacies of brain function, we are reduced to looking at gross correlations for insights into the human behavior that is allegedly based on it A comparison of 50 stimulant drug abusers, their 50 non-drug abusing siblings, and 50 “normals” indicated that 100 siblings all exhibited enlarged amydalas [...]
Categories: Psychology,Public Health,Science
Tagged: Abigail J Turton, addiction, amygdala, basal ganglia, brain, cortical connectivity, dorsal striatum, drug abuse, drug abuser, Edward T. Bullmore, gray matter, Guy B. Williams, inferior frontal gyrus, Karen D. Ersche, limbic system, limbic-striatal, medial temporal lobe, P. Simon Jones, predisposition, putamen, siblings, stimulant, stop-signal task, Trevor W. Robbins, white matter
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- 26 February 2012 – 11:27
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
This happy happenstance courtesy of nesting Ice Age squirrels A Russian research team found Late Pleistocene (therefore fossil) Siberian squirrel burrows 38 meters below today’s ground surface. They found the squirrels’ stash of seeds and immature Silene stenophylla fruit tissue inside and radiocarbon dated the fruit to 31,800 ± 300 years ago. The team propagated [...]
Categories: Genetics,Science
Tagged: Alexandra Yashina, burrows, clonal, David Gilichinsky, Edith Gakhova, fossil, Ice Age, Kolyma River, mammoth, permafrost, Pleistocene, propagation, Siberia, Siberian squirrels, Silene stenophylla, squirrels, Stanislav Gubin, Stanislav Maksimovich, Svetlana Yashina, wooly rhinocerus
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- 21 February 2012 – 12:24
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
An answer and a new question Climate warming has forced Tamias alpinus, the alpine chipmunk that lives in Yosemite National Park, more than 500 meters elevation uphill. The population’s genetic diversity is now reduced compared to what it had been about 100 years ago. The population is also scattered into geographical pockets with noticeable genetic [...]
Categories: Climate change,Environment
Tagged: A. Cole Burton, alpine chipmunk, biodiversity, climate warming, Craig Moritz, Emily M. Rubidge, genetic diversity, James L. Patton, Justin S. Brashares, lodgepole chipmunk, Marisa Lim, Sarah Yang, Tamias alpinus, Tamias speciosus, Yosemite National Park
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- 20 February 2012 – 11:05
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Paedophryne amauensis discovered in New Guinea rain forest See the picture and explanation here: Jane J. Lee, ScienceShot: Smaller Than a Dime, Frog Is World’s Tiniest Vertebrate, ScienceNow (11 January 2012) Adults of these species are 7.7 millimeters in length. The previous littlest vertebrate record was held by females of an Indonesian carp-like species that [...]
Categories: Environment,Science
Tagged: dime, Jane J. Lee, littlest vertebrate, New Guinea, Paedophryne amauensis, rain forest, smallest vertebrate
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- 17 February 2012 – 17:00
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- By BrainiYak
This procedure doesn’t work in plants, but, for animals — Knowing where to look in long DNA strands has always been the problem — whether it be identifying the source of an abnormality or finding a shortcut label for whatever it is research wants to identify. Species identification via mitochondrial DNA “bar coding” has been [...]
Categories: Genetics,Science
Tagged: adenosine triphosphate, ATP, bar code, bar coding, biodiversity, CO1, cytochrome oxidase, DNA, electron transport, energy production, evolution, Michael Gross, oligomer, polymer, speciation, subunit, transmembrane protein
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- 16 February 2012 – 10:15
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Causative pathway demonstrated in rats From UCLA’s press release: UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have provided the first evidence of a causal link between traumatic brain injury and an increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder. Their new study . . . also suggests that people who suffer even a mild traumatic brain injury are [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: agonist, amygdala, Andrew M. Poulos, basolateral amygdala complex, BLA, Christopher C. Giza, concussive brain injury, David A. Hovda, Floyd Buen, GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid, glutamate decarboxylase, glutamic decarboxylase, hippocampus, inhibitory, ion channel, Maxine L. Reger, Michael S. Fanselow, N-methyl-D-aspartate, neurotransmitter, NMDA, NMDA-receptor, post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, TBI, traumatic brain injury
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- 15 February 2012 – 16:06
- Author:
- By BrainiYak
Not surprising, when you think about it The press release regarding this study indicated that: Through a series of experiments, they found that, in general, people tend to prefer the things that they encounter on the same side as their dominant hand. When participants were asked which of two products to buy, which of two [...]
Categories: Psychology
Tagged: body specificity, Daniel Casasanto, Different Bodies, Different Minds, Divya Menon, handedness, irrationality, left-handers, quasi-rationality, rationality, right-handers
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- 14 February 2012 – 17:14
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- By BrainiYak
Biochemistry in action A study of 450 osteoarthritis patients revealed that the chemistry of extracellular (joint) proteins works differently in hips versus knees. The study, according its authors, seems to indicate that deamidation of asparagine into aspartic acid is at work in both joints, but the damage is continually repaired in knees. Citation Jonathan B. [...]
Categories: Medicine
Tagged: amide group, artilage oligomeric matrix protein, asparagine, aspartic acid, Christopher R. McCudden, deamidation, hip, Joanne M. Jordan, Jonathan B. Catterall, Jordan B. Renner, knee, matrix turnover, Michael Bolognesi, Ming F. Hsueh, OA, osteoarthritis, Robert Zura, Sheng Feng, Thomas V. Stabler, Virginia B. Kraus
- Published:
- 13 February 2012 – 17:04
- Author:
- By BrainiYak