Immortality Exists

(I realize that we were supposed to do a local nature blog but when I read this information I was too fascinated by it. Obviously this blog contains my opinions supported by factual information.)

"In life only two things are certain... Death and Taxes." is a very old quote of unknown origin, which burned itself into my memory as a child. Now it would seem that this quote needs to be rewritten to say "Sorry, it's just taxes now."

In 1990, the most spectacular discovery of all (and I mean ALL) time was made.



It was Immortality.

The first species with the ability to defy death and repeal the law of entropy. A biological evolution in a league of its own that is found in Turritopsis Nutricula, also known as the Immortal Jellyfish.

However it wasn't until January of 2009, nearly two decades after its initial discovery and testing, that the Immortal Jellyfish would be presented to the public. So how do Immortal Jellyfish live up to their names?

Well, when they reach maturity and reproduce they are supposed to die but if they feel the need to, they can completely revert back to their juvenile Polyp stage and go through their lifecycle all over again. Scientists have called this unique process transdifferentiation. Yeah it's just like that but much more difficult. Certain requirements must be met and there are consequences that accompany them.

First, the jellyfish must be in a stage of sexual maturity and that alone is no easy task in an ocean filled with predators. After sexual reproduction if the jellyfish feels threatened by a premature death from injury, starvation, or some other life ending crisis it can forcably change every cell in its body into a earlier/younger stage. The umbrella-like head folds inward and the tentacles are reabsorbed so that the body can return to its stationary life as a Polyp rooted to the ocean floor.

One of the consequences to being young again is that the Polyp has rendered itself immobile and defenseless. In its juvenille Polyp form, it must now spend several years slowly re-aging into its next stage of developement, which is a Polyp Hydroid Colony. This is where a few more complications arise. I failed to mention earlier that adult jellyfish reproduce sexually while their less mature form is also capable of reproducing, asexually. However this asexual reproduction is nothing more than a mass cloning of one genetic type of jellyfish into several.



So if the one Immortal Jellyfish reverts into its younger form it then grows up into several more copies of itself. These clones are all also fully capable of repeating this process...indefinately. The prospect a swarming clone army is potentially devastating if the population exceeds the sustaining environment. In this case the ocean. This little guy is only 4 to 5 millimeters in diameter and is known as a Hydrozoan and it is the key form to rejuventation instead of regeneration.

For those of you who read this and think "Now people can live longer." or "New anti-aging medicines will come from this discovery." you may be disappointed to find out that the key factor in this jellyfish's age control ability has to do with the simplistic design of its genetic code supported by chemical and hormonal changes. Sorry but human D.N.A. is far more complex and the result is a much longer regeneration time.

My Little Hummingbird

This hummingbird was photographed at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Glens Falls New York. I was only able to get one photo before it took off and as you can see it was the flash that drove it away. Sadly the photo doesn’t give me much for species identification but I think that it is a Ruby Throated Female hummingbird. There are three species that can be found in New York Sate. They are the Ruby-Throated, Rufous, and Calliope hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds have several unique characteristics that set them apart from other flying birds. First and foremost is the hummingbird’s flight specialty, hovering. By flapping its tiny wings an average of 50 to 60 times a second it is capable of great aerial agility. On top of that the hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards, giving it unmatched precision and balance for flight. All of this is of course aided by its rather small size. Most hummingbirds range only two to four inches in length and weigh between 2 to 20 grams. A key physical trait is their long and slender straw-like beak, which contains an equally long tongue. They use these beaks to drink the nectar from red and orange tubular flowers such as the cardinal flower and honeysuckle. Small flies and spiders serve as the protein in their diet. In an odd side note, hummingbirds have legs but are unable to walk or hop using them. Their sole mode of transportation is flight.

Great Examples of Size Comparison

This poses a huge strain on their body’s food requirement. At a minimum, a hummingbird must eat double its own body weight each day or risk dying of starvation during the night. Nature's example of honing evolution into a liability.

Gruesome Origins of Man's Best Friend

This blog is in response to the New York Times Science article "In Taming Dogs, Humans May Have Sought a Meal"
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: September 7, 2009

This article offers a very surprising revelation about the origins and domestications of the dog. I’m a little surprised that this kind of discovery hadn’t been thoroughly exhausted years ago, but I suspect that it was simply due to the lack of genetic research techniques that humans possess today.


The article focuses on the theory that all dogs originate from a single domestication event of the wolf, in China, around 11,000 years ago. If this theory holds to be true, then the archeological finds of dog bones, with knife-cut marks, found in China could mean that the first wolves to be domesticated into dogs; were done so primarily for food.
It is not as surprising a notion as one might think. In China, Korea, and Vietnam dog is still served as a food even to this day.


Try envisioning this for example. Cute, but not really why you might get a dog. What has given researchers a reason to suspect that dogs share a common origin point in time is a sample of mitochondrial DNA found to be shared by 80% of the dogs that were tested. The percentage of test results increased the further east that the dogs were tested. China holds the greatest population of genetically diverse dogs, which adds support to the theory that a single domestication event could have originated there, but its not the only one. Some African provinces also boast of a vast genetically diverse canine population and have yet to be tested.


This theory is the brainchild of Peter Savolainen, a doctor of the Royal Institute of Technology.



The more I look into this scientific discovery, the more that I feel that the research performed is overlooking a few possible inconsistencies. I don't think that they've managed to discover the location of "the single" domestication event but rather a single event upon itself. How can they claim to have found the origin when they haven't found a percentile of 98% or greater? Did they manage to focus their tests in Africa aswell? Or are they just using China because it seems more culturally probable? Was the farming of these dogs beneficial enough to the societies at that time?



What about this makes people believe it was a focus or reason?



http://www.animalfreedom.org/english/information/dog_food_or_friend.html

Breaking the Laws of Physics for Technology.

This blog is in response to the New York Times Science article "After the Transistor, a Leap Into the Microcosm"

To sum up the article's overall point, transistor technology has nearly reached its limit in advancement. What this means is that scientists are having a hard time making more powerful transistors smaller because now they are facing the limits of molecular size.

The simplest example is to compare the I-pod of today against its ancestor of 2001. The idea is to make the transistors smaller so as to allow for a greater density of components. As a result, products become smaller, sleeker, and more affordable.

This article can astound its reader in both good and bad ways. The first thing that readers may notice is that the article is very wordy. You are bombarded by scientific jargon like "photolithographic" and "microcosm", which can be a bit confusing. The other confusing aspect can be found in the sheer depth of comparison. Before reading through this article I was unaware of the extent to which humans had managed to craft materials.

The current industry size standard for transistors within microprocessors is 90 nanometers. The article states that the average width of a human hair is 80,000 nanometers. One paragraph in particular stood out.

"A typical high-end Intel microprocessor is today based on roughly one billion transistors or more, each capable of switching on and off about 300 billion times a second and packed densely enough that two million transistors would fit comfortably in a period at the end of this sentence."

Silicon Nanowires like the one in the image are one of the many components which makes up a microprocessor and allow binary operations to be performed at blazing speeds.

Nanotechnology is still something of a science fiction concept to me. I mean, how do you shape items on a molecular level? Apparently you can grow them instead of build them. I'm sure that at some point humanity has to reach a technological plateau. But if you take into consideration the notion that the first basic computers were designed around the 1950s, then you might see that in just 60 years humans have managed to blast through advancement only to be stopped by the very laws of physics themselves.

Readers can rest assured that this article is of importance to the science communities. Nearly every form of research that I can think of relies upon computers for either the recording, monitering, or calculating of its data. It is even possible that some research can't be conducted until the next generation of technology is invented. But what should we do when we've reached the end of advancement? Do we press on and challenge the law which govern us, abandon our quest for new knowledge, or apply what we've achieved towards a planetary coexistence? Without trying to be overly preachy, I simply hadn't considered the notion that humans would get stuck and reach a potential end within my lifetime and truthfully I don't believe we have.

Swine Flu Resurgeance?

This post is in response to the New York Times Science article "College Seasons Begin and Swine Flu Threat Enters Locker Room" written by Katie Thomas and published on August 28th of 2009.

The link below should take you to the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/sports/ncaafootball/29swine.html?_r=1&ref=science

To briefly summarize the article, Tulane University's football players experienced a flu epidemic, which triggered concerns over a possible outbreak of the infamously pandemic Swine Flu. Swine Flu also known as the H1N1 virus. Tulane University's public health officials have undertaken measures to minimalize the spread of the flu by canceling several of its sporting events this season. The total number of reported ill students, thus far, has been 31 football players and 6 volleyball players according to the New YorkTimes article; however the Tulane University website states that 46 student of its athletes have experienced "flu-like symptoms." The article then goes on to give a brief rehash of the tragic history behind the swine flu epidemic which began around April of 2009. The primary concern of the colleges seems to have been spun around the notion of missing out on participating in key sporting events, which generate revenue and reputation building.

I'm not entirely sure that this article should be viewed as a science article. There is very little scientific information being reported. Only a few links are present, which lead to a brief explanation of the influenza virus itself. I have a great deal of disdain for this article simply because it attempts to be more shocking than informative or intuitive. It insinuates that all of these students had contracted swine flu instead of focusing on the 2 test results, which showed that only 2 students tested positive for H1N1. I was expecting the possibility of serious cause of concern for the health and well being of students across America. An upside is that the online article possessed several links which would allow you to gather more knowledge on the viruses in question. The information they possessed was acurate when compared with the Center for Desease Control. The University of Tulane has a research study background that lends some validity to concern. The Links below help.

The Times Link
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/influenza/swine_influenza/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

The CDC Link
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm

For those readers whom, like myself, have never heard of Tualane University try this link.
http://tulane.edu/about/

The irony of Tulane University is in its name.
http://www.sph.tulane.edu/pressroom/fall2009/news01.htm

Confirmation of Creation

As the name implies, I merely wanted to see if this first attempt yielded any results.