The Blog of Science

A team of biologists from Germany and the Czech Republic made a surprising discovery: domestic cows and wild deer apparently have the ability to sense Earth’s magnetic field. But the most surprising aspect of the work relies on the tools and methodology employed. No expensive high-tech devices or extenuating field trips were involved. This five-people team simply browsed the world’s surface using Google Earth to look for cattle and deer herds and record each individual’s orientation. Internet-connected computers, statistical calculations and lots of patience constituted the arsenal involved in this surprising discovery.

The team analysed 8,510 cows in 308 pastures across the globe, and 2,974 grazing and resting red and roe deer at 241 localities. They found that most animals align their body axes in roughly a north–south direction. Direct observations of roe deer revealed that animals orient their heads northward when grazing or resting. The investigators notice that “this ubiquitous phenomenon does not seem to have been noticed by herdsmen, ranchers, or hunters”. To see if wind and light conditions, rather than the magnetic field, could be the factor determining the body axis orientation, they carefully analysed the body orientation of cattle from localities with high magnetic declination where the magnetic north is a better predictor than the geographic north. based on statistically significant data, they concluded that these large mammals indeed align their bodies following the magnetic direction. This fantastic discovery open new avenues for the study of magnetoreception in general and certainly will have significance for applied ethology and neuroscience.

Source: http://www.pnas.org

A group of Israeli scientists have achieved the unthinkable when they germinated a 2,000 year-old seed of date palm. The seed, nicknamed Methuselah was found in the ruins of Herod’s palace, and after 26 months, it grew into a 1.2 metres tall plant.

Now the world’s oldest successful germination, Methuselah was found in the 60’s in the desert fortress of Masada, and since then has been carefully stored at room temperature.

What scientists are looking, above all, is to check whether this ancient species of date palm really has healing properties, as attributed in ancient times. “It used to provide in cases of vomiting blood, such as those produced by tuberculosis. It is also used to treat stomach problems and diarrhea”, they explained.

Until within 4 years we will not know if Methuselah is male or female, if female, it could be fertilised with pollen from a modern male palm tree.

Engineers the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a composite of paper with nanothreads completely waterproof and has an extraordinary ability to absorb hydrophobic materials (like oil). According to its creators, this “supertowel” is capable of absorbing 20 times its weight in oil, so their most immediate application might be to minimize the effect of oil slicks on beaches.

This new material can be recycled many times for future use and which absorbs oil can be reused. Despite the existence of other materials capable of absorbing oil, this is completely impervious to water. In addition, the nanothreads that compose it are stable at high temperatures which allows the oil simply be picked up by boiling the paper.

If everything fall according to plan, mass production can be expected by November. Launching of this revolutionary “supertowel” is aimed to coincide with PokerStar’s prestigious poker tourney currently dubbed simply as the november nine affair. It’ll feature the current top poker stars as they vie for the lone title, making the whole festivity an apt place for the release of what could be the biggest discovery of the decade. Be on the look our for more updates on this.

Laboratory tests on the vehicle explorer “Phoenix” confirmed the existence of water on the planet Mars, NASA said today.

The U.S. space agency said yesterday that the robotic arm of “Phoenix” deposited one sample in an instrument that identified water vapor. “We have water on Mars, said William Boynton, thermal analyzer scientist at the University of Phoenix Arizona.

According to Boynton, this is the first time concrete and secure the presence of liquid on the planet. He added that it had detected signs of frozen water on comments made by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. “But this is the first time that the Martian water is hit and proven,” he added.

The sample which confirmed the presence of water was extracted from a perforation of about five centimeters in the Martian soil and where the robotic arm faced with a tough layer of frozen material.

Yesterday the sample two days had been exposed to the Martian atmosphere and water containing began to evaporate which made its observation, said the statement. “Mars is giving us some surprises,” said Peter Smith, principal investigator of the mission, referring to the different behavior of the Martian material.

The exploratory mission that dropped the Phoenix on May 25 in a sector of the Martian north pole was supposed to last three months and ended in August. But given the successes has been extended until September 30, stated the communiqué of the NAS.

“Phoenix enjoys good health and projections in terms of its solar energy are good and we would like to take this action in one of the most interesting of the planet,” said Michael Meyer, scientist Mars exploration programme.

As biotechnology advances and the methods to detect and analyse DNA are more sensitive and accurate, scientists have found a new twist to the power of DNA. A recent paper in Biology Letters reports that it has been possible to detect the presence of the invasive frog American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) in ponds by measuring subtle amounts of its DNA in water samples.

The experiments showed that it is possible to discover whether a pond has been taken by these frogs, but also the method allows to have a rough idea of the level of invasion by providing three possible results, zero, low or high.

A huge step has just been made in the race to achieve a permanent lunar colony. Scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, have managed to set up a successful bacterial culture on a substrate made with lunar soil, plus the supplementation of air, water and light. They used a kind of bacteria that is very robust and capable of growing in highly inhospitable environments and were among the first organisms to have populated the Earth more than a billion years ago.

They thing future colonists on the Moon will be able to use the cyanobacteria to extract resources such as minerals and other substances from the soil that could be used for other applications like making fuel and fertiliser for crops.

One of the biggest challenges to the plans for lunar colonisation is that Lunar soil is inhospitable to plants because many of the nutrients it contains are in the form of tough minerals that the plants cannot assimilate. The investigators took samples of cyanobacteria from hot springs at the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and put them in containers with a soil designed to simulate the composition of the lunar sands. Amazingly, the bacteria were able to turn the otherwise unassimilable minerals from the soil and turn them into usable nutrients and grow.

The same nutrients could be extracted artificially, nut it requires large amount of energy and complicated processing. But nature does it better. Using only sunlight as the energy source, the Cyanobacteria do their extraction work mor efficiently (although more slowly) than heating the soil artificially.

This project is part of an ambitious plan to build permanent stations in the Moon with the capacity of supporting human settlements. Once the colony is supplied with cyanobacteria-growing chambers fed with water, light and lunar soil they will be able to use the bacterial biomass to make rich fertilizers to grow food plants in hydroponic greenhouses. They could even be used to make methane to be used as rocket fuel.

The applications could be endless, and the first move has already been done.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com