GEN-ERIC News

Shrubs far outgrew native grasses in Colorado rangeland when exposed to elevated levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), according to a study published by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators at Colorado State University. The results suggest that rising CO2 levels in the Earth’s atmosphere may be contributing to shifts in plant community dynamics, in which woody vegetation is favored over perennial forage grasses. The study will be published in this week’s online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Is heading straight for a goal the quickest way there? If the name of the game is evolution, suggests new research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the pace might speed up if the goals themselves change continuously. Nadav Kashtan, Elad Noor and Prof. Uri Alon of the Institute’s Molecular Cell Biology and Physics of Complex Systems Departments create computer simulations that mimic natural evolution, allowing them to investigate processes that, in nature, take place over millions of years. In these simulations, a population of digital genomes evolves over time towards a given goal: to maximize fitness under certain conditions. Evolution takes place under changing environmental conditions, forcing organisms to continually readapt. Intuitively, this would slow things down even further, as successive generations must switch tack again and again in the struggle to survive. But when Kashtan, Noor and Alon created a simulation in which the goals changed repeatedly, they found that its evolution actually speeded up. They even found that the more complex the goal – i.e., the more generations needed reach it under fixed conditions – the faster evolution accelerated in response to changes in that goal. Computerized evolution ran fastest, the scientists found, when the changes followed a pattern they believe may be pervasive in nature.

Scientists at the University of Bern, Switzerland, determined that spiders use these scuba tanks, called air bells, as reservoirs, monitoring and replenishing oxygen levels to enable the animals to live underwater. “The water spider’s air bell is in some ways working like an external lung,” said study co-author Michael Taborsky. Found in ponds throughout northern and central Europe, the water spider is the only spider that spends its entire life underwater. Since the small brown arachnids are air breathers, they have adapted the air bell system to gather oxygen from the atmosphere. The air bell serves multiple purposes, said Paul Selden, a professor of invertebrate paleontology at the University of Kansas who was not involved in the study. “[The water spider] uses this air bell as a place to live away from terrestrial predators and as a safe nest in which to keep her eggs and tend the young spiderlings,” Selden said. It is also used as a safe harbor for consuming prey and breeding. Using short hairs on their abdomens and legs, water spiders trap air bubbles from the water’s surface, which they then carry back to specially designed underwater reservoirs spun from silk, the recent study found.

A stray cat relieving itself inside a Marikina City bank drew a police squad after the animal tripped the bank’s burglar alarm late Monday. Members of the Marikina City Police Station were dispatched to the Bank of the Philippine Islands after repeatedly receiving alarm signals around 11 p.m. Monday. With the bank closed and the bank manager’s mobile phone unreachable, the policemen used a ladder to inspect the bank’s roof and saw a small hole, which they thought was a sign of “forced entry.” The policemen became even more suspicious after a peek through the tinted glass doors revealed a collapsed ceiling.

Like the GPS-enabled school uniforms we wrote about earlier this month, the notion of bulletproof backpacks for students is sure to provoke mixed reaction. Some people will call the invention an overreaction, while others will view it as a wise protective gadget. It’s sad–and sobering–to think that a bulletproof backpack could prove a practical back-to-school purchase, but it’s not so far-fetched an idea in these days of campus violence. MJ Safety Solutions, a Massachusetts company run by three dads, has developed what it says is the first full-size, lightweight ballistic protection backpack that’s affordable and practical for kids. The $175 My Child’s Pack contains a 20-ounce bulletproof panel that the creators say can ward off 97 percent of bullets. The packs can be used to offer upper torso coverage on the back or as a shield for frontal protection of the head and upper body.

1845: Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, makes its debut. Founded by Rufus Porter, a prolific inventor as well as a pretty fair painter and the scion of a wealthy New England family, Scientific American was originally printed as a single-page newsletter with a demonstrated liking for news coming out of the U.S. Patent Office.

As China enters the mosquito rampaging season of Autumn, many people in Shanghai, in order to avoid bites and sleepless nights, have downloaded a special mobile phone software which claims to be able to make cell phones emit mosquito repellent waves. About 1,000 people in a surveyed website downloaded the free software which later most of them found did not repel mosquitoes, some users also claimed to have suffered from severe headaches the next morning. But there are others who support the mosquito repellent software, saying it works. A reporter from enet.com.cn interviewed an expert, Xu Renquan from the Shanghai Municipal Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctor Xu said that they had made similar experiments, such as affixing mosquito repellent wave equipment to watches and other accessories. But the results are never good or worthwhile pursuing. In addition, mosquitoes in different regions and areas have different features, the same mosquito repellent software would have obvious limitations.

A Chinese wife has cut her husband’s right hand off because of his internet addiction. Jiang Ming of Chengdu city promised his wife, He Ling, that he would not go on the internet anymore and would spend more time at home to take care of their newborn son. But after a short time he started to sneak into nearby internet cafes again to have video chats with girls. “I was on the internet, and suddenly felt a numbness in my right hand. The arrow on the screen stopped moving,” says Jiang Ming. “Then I found that my right hand was on the mouse pad, and blood was shooting out.” In court, the husband pleaded with the judge to release his wife, since he was to blame for breaking his promise.

High stress levels may contribute to memory loss among people at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. The e4 variant of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene contributes to the risk for memory loss related to Alzheimer’s disease. Similarly, high circulating levels of cortisol, associated with high stress levels, also impairs memory. However, the interactive effects of this risk genotype and chronic stress are not well understood, so a new study being published in the September 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry was designed to explore this relationship. In their study, Peavy and colleagues performed genotyping and measured the chronic stress level in 91 older, healthy subjects (mean age was 78.8 years). Those low on stress or without the APOE-e4 risk factor performed better on memory measures than those with high stress or those positive for APOE-e4, respectively. Those individuals experiencing high stress and who were positive for APOE-e4 showed the greatest memory impairment.

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”