The Cool Science Stuff Thread

Tiny water flea has more genes than you.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2011020...jbGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawN0aW55d2F0ZXJmbGU-

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A tiny, translucent water flea that can reproduce without sex and lives in ponds and lakes has more genes than any other creature, said scientists who have sequenced the crustacean's genome.

Daphnia pulex, named after the nymph in Greek mythology who transforms into a tree in order to escape the lovestruck Apollo, has 31,000 genes compared to humans who have about 23,000, said the research in the journal Science.

Often studied by scientists who want to learn about the effects of pollution and environmental changes on water creatures, the almost-microscopic freshwater Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.

But just because this creature -- viewed as the canary in the gold mine of the world's waters -- has more genes doesn't necessarily mean they are all unique, explained project leader John Colbourne.

"Daphnia's high gene number is largely because its genes are multiplying, by creating copies at a higher rate than other species," said Colbourne, genomics director at the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics.

Daphnia has a large number of never-before seen genes, as well as a big chunk of the same genes found in humans, the most of any insects or crustacean so far known to scientists.

"More than one-third of Daphnia's genes are undocumented in any other organism -- in other words, they are completely new to science," said Don Gilbert, coauthor and Department of Biology scientist at IU Bloomington.



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Literotica's repository for scientific musings, articles, programs, thoughts, incoherent ramblings, etc.

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Check out PBS' Nova Science Now web-series. Tonight's show is about the human brain and its inner workings. Subject matter touches perception, time, magnets and odd brain farts.

Episode should be up by morning. Check out out here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/

I'll be poking around this site soon enough! Cool.

My Cool Science stuff for today:
Spencer Wells' Journey of Man
I've just peeked at this so far. Going to be one hell of a trip.

Cool thread!

As I work in IT, I found the Stuxnet virus to be a technological wonder:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

Now that is espionage!! You would think the story itself would be classified -- if it wouldn't immediately identify who did it. Awesome!!

I have read lots of pretty good articles here...and a lil somethin' for everyone :)

http://www.rationalskepticism.org/

If you guys don't see me for awhile, I'll probably be here. ^^^^^^

200 paper planes dropped from space via weather balloon launched in Germany, each contained a memory card so they could be tracked. They were found as far away as Canada, India, and possibly South Africa!

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/03/project-space-planes-paper-airplanes-soar/

It's my understanding that space is generally regarded as beginning at an altitude of 60 miles -- not that 23 miles is shabby!





BEST. THREAD. EVER.
 
I find science bemusing. I am being forced into areas of chemistry, though.
 
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