Kick-Starting Ancient DNA
labspaces - Binghamton University researchers recently revived ancient bacteria trapped for thousands of years in water droplets embedded in salt crystals.
For decades, geologists have looked at these water droplets — called fluid inclusions — and wondered whether microbes could be extracted from them. Fluid inclusions have been found inside salt crystals ranging in age from thousands to hundreds of millions years old.
But there has always been a question about whether the organisms cultured from salt crystals are genuinely ancient material or whether they are modern-day contaminants, said Tim Lowenstein, professor of geological sciences and environmental studies at Binghamton.
Lowenstein and Binghamton colleague J. Koji Lum, professor of anthropology and of biological sciences, believe they have resolved this doubt. And they've received $400,000 from the National Science Foundation to support further research on the topic.
Lowenstein's team, which has been pursuing this problem for years, began by examining the fluid inclusions under a microscope. "Not only did we find bacteria, we found several types of algae as well," he said. "The algae actually may be the food on which the bacteria survive for tens of thousands of years."
When Lum got involved, the researchers began to wonder about the DNA of the organisms they were finding.
"You have a little trapped ecosystem," Lum said. "Some of these guys are feeding on other ones trapped in this space. The things that aren't alive in there, their DNA is still preserved."
Lum's graduate student Krithivas Sankaranarayanan reviewed existing literature on ancient DNA and helped to develop a protocol for use with Lowenstein's samples.
"We have these samples going back from the present to over 100,000 years in one exact location," Lum said. "So Tim can look at the salinity and reconstruct ancient climates. Now we're looking at the DNA from bacteria, the algae, the fungi and what was living in those waters and how those things changed over time. We have a view of all the different organisms that were in the lakes at the time these inclusions were formed."
The researchers sequence the DNA and culture the bacteria they find. Then it's time to think big. Lum's most optimistic view of the project goes like this: "It's possible that we can observe organisms evolving and see how they're reacting to climate change over geologic time."
The samples Lowenstein works with are drawn from Death Valley and Saline Valley in California as well as from sites in Michigan, Kansas and Italy.
Temperatures at these locations may have reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the past, and the pockets of water trapped inside the rocks are generally very salty.
The environment may sound harsh — in fact, it's among the most extreme on Earth — but the creatures that survive there are tough.
"These are some of the hardiest beasts on the planet," Lum said. And the conditions inside these water droplets are ideally suited to preserving DNA.
"They're like time capsules," Lowenstein agreed.
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Russia may ban crocodiles, penguins as pets
rian - Crocodiles, tigers and penguins may soon disappear from Russian homes as parliament considers a bill to prune the number of animals that can be kept as pets.
The chairman of the lower house's natural resources committee, Yevgeny Tugolukov, said a pending bill on animal care may include a list of animals that are "inadvisable to keep at home."
These include "exotic animals," such as snakes, crocodiles and monkeys that are popular with Russians, but that can carry dangerous diseases.
The bill was submitted to the State Duma on Monday.
It will place the responsibility for good care on owners, a response to a sharp rise in cases of animal cruelty. However, very few of these cases come to court.
The latest outrage was a woman in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, who had been keeping a rare Amur tiger in a cage. More outrageous perhaps is the size of the fine she faces - 2,500 rubles ($80).
Russia is, amongst other things, a nation of pet lovers, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin being the premier lover. His extensive menagerie was recently supplemented by a Karakachan puppy, a present from his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov.
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Yummy...Crocodile and Chips!
staffordshirenewsletter - Stafford mum Zoe Green got a scaly surprise when she found what appears to be a crocodile’s severed head in the middle of the pavement.
The 29-year-old was walking three-year old son Austin home from a chip shop on Sandon Road when she was startled by the leathery lizard on Tuesday night.
Little Austin begged his mum to take it home as “a surprise for daddy”, so she removed her chips from their carrier bag and replaced them with the croc’s cranium.
Tesco worker Miss Green’s boyfriend was “horrified” and, much to Austin’s disappointment, insisted the head was kept outside.
Although Miss Green has not yet contacted the authorities about her large-scale discovery, Stafford reptile shop Tails and Scales has offered to house the head until its owner comes forward.
Miss Green, of Albert Terrace, said: “I am planning to contact the police and RSPCA.
“Until they take it away, it’s my party piece for the weekend and is secured in a bag in my back garden.”
NOTE: Actually, I've eaten alligator meat...it's quite good. Though, I have also eaten rattlesnake, woodchuck, raccoon, opossum, bear, squirrel, wild boar and other creatures of the woods and water...Lon
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Mystery tree grows back to stall park construction
myjoyonline - The construction of a lorry park at Krachie in the Volta Region has been temporarily suspended.
This follows a freak encounter with a mystery tree that grew back over night after it was cut down.
Contractors working on the project say they can only go on with the work when that tree is totally uprooted.
For now, they are consulting various shrines in the area on how they can help cut down the tree.
The contractor Alhaji Rabui Swalley told Joy News they are scared to even go near the tree.
He explained that the tree was one of six that were earmarked to be felled to allow for clearing of the area for the park.
He said the mystery tree was the fourth tree felled but to the bewilderment of the contractors, the tree reverted to its position the next day.
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Bruce Duensing: The Proxies of Manifestation
The word "esoteric" has become a generic shorthand for the catalog of the paranormal, whereas the original context of the word is centuries old and differs radically from it's current usage. It was originally connotative of a specific process that allowed the accurate transmission of knowledge from one individual to another in what was termed a school, which had very strict criteria as to not advertise or recruit, admittance by effort, rules as to not assume one is particularly special, as well as the student given tasks in the form of reality testing outside of it's "inner circle" in order that self verification rather than simply repetition, as in "learning by doing" is applied. It is more of a process of unlearning in order to learn how to learn. When faced with the anomalous, a unraveling of suppositions occur in which the individual is isolated in company, left to his own or her own resources, which is part of a tradition in what is termed involution, the immaterial. or if you will another term (the spiritual) becomes material in the host, which is formed from within to without and the evolutionary portion from without to within, as the context of the environment, which then is reflected in the reconciliation through the processes of life, which from a certain point of view, always produces more energy beyond that to sustain itself than what is consumed from the materials of the environment alone, and in turn receives more than than what itself can produce on it's own volition. In terms of the alchemical processes, the finer energies, the subtle descend to the coarser, while the coarser ascends to the finer and more subtle. As within, so without, so they have told me. The finer materials of daylight apparitions descend while we ascend to assemble clues of a scattering technique of being drawn forward toward these finer materials by an inner gravitation to be pull inward their knowledge. Continue reading at The Proxies of Manifestation
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Analysis of the orang pendek hairs collected in Sumatra during the 2009 expedition
In late 2009 I was given a sample of hairs collected in Sumatra earlier that year by Adam Davies, Richard Freeman and several others taking part in the expedition searching for evidence of the elusive orang pendek, the Indonesian “abominable snowman.”
A small part of the hair sample was subjected to a DNA-analysis, but due to the small amount of DNA extracted and the rather poor condition of it, no firm conclusion could be reached. The DNA did show some similarities to primate DNA, possibly orangutan, but no definite results could be obtained.
Following this I subjected the remaining hairs to a structural analysis to see if this could bring any information to light that might reveal the identity of the owner of the hairs. Continue reading at Cryptozoology Online
