the-BA : Science News Digest

Mosquito (Image copyright: istockphoto.com)

In the news this week: burrowing, nurturing dinosaurs, GM mosquitos that could combat malaria and evidence that ugly defendants suffer for their looks...

A creature that has not had sex for up to 100 million years is challenging the commonly held belief that sexual reproduction is necessary for the diversification of species. According to new statistical analyses of jaw shape and genetic makeup, Bdelloid rotifers – microscopic egg laying invertebrates – have managed to evolve into nearly 400 different species, despite their abstinence. This was made possible by the accumulation of mutations during the reproductive cloning process. The study demonstrates that such mutations have enabled the creatures to adapt to specific ecological niches.

‘These really are amazing creatures, whose very existence calls into question scientific understanding, because it is generally thought that asexual creatures die out quickly, but these have been around for millions of years,’ said researcher Dr Timothy Barraclough in the Daily Telegraph.

A fossil specimen has revealed that an ancient "flying" lizard that lived more than 130 million years ago used a wing-like membrane spread between its ribs to glide. This unusual arrangement is currently only used by Asian dragon lizards, reported the Daily Telegraph. Other animals with the ability to glide do so using a membrane spread between their toes or between their body and legs.

Another fossil finding has provided convincing evidence that at least some dinosaurs cared for their offspring, reported the Guardian. Fossilised bones of an adult and two juveniles were discovered in an underground den in Montana. The size of the young indicates that the adults of the species may have reared their progeny for a significant period.

The 2 metre-long dinosaur has been named Oryctodromeus cubicularis, which means “digging runner of the lair”, as it displays traits indicating it was both able to run on two legs and burrow.

Genetically modified mosquitos engineered to be resistant to malaria parasites could eventually help fight the disease which infects 300-500 million people each year and kills up to 2.7 million, reported the Times. American scientists have developed GM mosquitos that express a protein that blocks malaria infection. They have also been altered so that their eye colour makes them easily distinguishable from wild insects.

When feeding on blood infected with the malaria parasite the GM mosquitos have a fitness advantage over wild ones because the Plasmodium organism reduces the breeding efficiency of unmodified mosquitos. If released into the wild, interbreeding would result in the resistance to malaria spreading through the mosquito population – leading to fewer insects carrying and transmitting the disease. However, the scientists say that further research still needs to be done before any modified insect could be introduced into the wild.

The introduction of non-native species into an environment, even if not genetically modified, always needs to be carefully considered. In the past, certain situations have got out of hand: the release of rabbits and cane frogs into Australia, for example. The Guardian outlined other such occurrences.

Meanwhile, ringnecked parakeets have colonised the South East of Britain so successfully that worried officials have ordered a study into their locations and the effects they are having on native birds. An estimated 30,000 now live in Britain – they were among the top 20 most-sighted birds in London last year. If it is found that they are competing for resources with native birds such as robins and woodpeckers and driving them away, a cull may be ordered to control the population, reported the Times.

A beetle that was believed extinct for nearly 60 years – having last been sighted in Sussex in 1948 – has been rediscovered in Devon by an amateur entomologist. The short-necked oil beetle has an unusual lifestyle: the larvae hitch rides on the backs of miner bees to the bees’ nest, where they then live off the bees’ eggs and pollen stores. Their survival was threatened by intensive farming, but BBC News reported that up to 40 of the insects were spotted on a strip of National Trust land during a wildlife survey – leading to hopes that the land can be managed to allow the beetle to thrive once again.

The Guardian reported that the US Congress has been hearing about the extent to which science has been politicised and the dangers of climate change downplayed by the White House. James Hansen, head of the Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and an expert on climate change modelling, has been giving testimony.

Al Gore, the former US Vice-President whose documentary about climate change won two Oscars, has also been to the US Congress to testify about global warming. He spoke to two House of Representative committees on energy and environmental issues and then to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He proposed tough measures to tackle what he called "a true planetary emergency" and presented boxes containing more than 500,000 letters urging Congress to take action.
(BBC News)

A pill to stop cows burping is one of the latest attempts by scientists to help control climate change, reported the Guardian. According to estimates, bovine burping contributes four per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions. The methane release is a natural product of cows’ digestive processes. The atmospheric concentration of the gas has risen six-fold in the past 50 years and it is set to continue rising due to increased meat consumption. The new pill invented by German scientists, coupled with a special diet and feeding times, aims to reduce methane production by cows and boost their metabolism.

18 American and European mathematicians have unveiled the answer to "one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics" that could help us understand the structure of the cosmos. Theoretical mathematics and computer programming were used to map E8 – the symmetries of a 57-dimensional geometric object, first described in the 19th century. The work took four years to complete and has been called a mathematical Mount Everest. The answer is 60 gigabytes in size, and if written out would cover an area the size of Manhattan. It represents a major advance in the use of large scale computing to solve complicated mathematical problems.

‘The group of symmetries of this strange geometry called E8 is one of the most intriguing structures that Nature has left for the mathematician to play with,’ commented Professor Marcus du Sautoy in the Daily Telegraph. ‘What makes this group of symmetries so exciting is that Nature also seems to have embedded it at the heart of many bits of physics. One interpretation of why we have such a quirky list of fundamental particles is because they all result from different facets of the strange symmetries of E8. I find it rather extraordinary that of all the symmetries that mathematicians have discovered, it is this exotic exceptional object that Nature has used to build the fabric of the universe.’

In other news from the BBC, the UK scientific research community received some welcome information: public science spending will rise to £6.3 billion in 2010. That’s compared to a current figure of £5 billion.

NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), on the other hand, is closing due to lack of funds, announced the Guardian. Operating since 1988, the institute aimed to come up with revolutionary ideas that could aid space exploration and inspire new technologies – such as space elevators, crops that could grow on other planets and a shield to protect the Earth from the sun’s rays to counteract global warming.

BBC News reported that Professor Colquhoun, of the pharmacology department of University College London, this week urged the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) to act to stop complementary medicine courses being classed as science degrees. He said subjects such as aromatherapy, herbal medicine and reflexology were not based on scientific evidence and would be better taught as part of a cultural history or sociological course. According to the journal Nature, 45 out of 61 complementary medicine courses are currently offered as science degrees.

Scientists have located the part of the brain that provides an emotional element to the way we tackle difficult moral decisions. It appears there is a small region behind the forehead, called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), that comes into play during moral dilemmas that involve sacrificing one person for the sake of many.

American researchers made the discovery, reported the Daily Telegraph, after studying the decisions made by a group of people with damage to this area. They conducted a study involving six people with damage to the VMPC, 12 with brain damage elsewhere and 12 with no brain damage. The participants faced various scenarios where they had to choose between immediate harm to one person versus certain future harm to multiple people. Whereas most people were torn between the two options, those with VMPC damage stood out for their ability to reach the logical conclusion to sacrifice one person. These people also displayed less empathy and compassion in everyday life.

And finally…

If you ever fall foul of the law and need to appear in court, you’d better make an effort to make yourself attractive. A study by psychologists from Bath Spa University indicates that jurors are more likely to convict those they regard as ugly.

Researchers described their work at the British Psychological Society conference in York. 96 student volunteers were shown pictures of one of four “defendants” in a fictitious mugging case, who had been rated as either very attractive or ugly by a separate group. The less attractive individuals were nearly 50 per cent more likely to be named guilty and were also handed out longer prison sentences. Participants were told they could dole out custodial sentences of up to 10 months. They opted to sentence ugly individuals to an average of seven months compared to four for the attractive muggers, reported the Daily Telegraph.