the-BA : Science News Digest

Plants evolve to cope with the urban landscape

In the science news as National Science and Engineering Week begins: A frog provides a key to treating type 2 diabetes, city-dwelling plants evolve to cope with the urban environment, and cyborg insects become a reality. But first, should we let sleeping astronomers lie?

Researchers in Florence are arguing with the Roman Catholic Church over the remains of the scientist Galileo, BBC News reported this week.

Born in 1564, astronomer and physicist Galileo supported Copernicus' theory that the Earth and all the other planets in our solar system revolved around the sun, rather than the accepted theory of the time that the sun and the other planets revolved around the earth.

Galileo's backing of this theory, which he proved was correct using a refracting telescope, caused conflict with religious authorities at the time and he was sentenced to life imprisonment under house arrest.

Scientists want to exhume Galileo’s body and use DNA tests to find out what caused his blindness. They also want to establish if the body he is buried with in Florence’s Basilica of the Holy Cross is that of his daughter. She played an important part in his life, writing numerous letters to him during his imprisonment. The Church thinks it would be disrespectful to exhume the bodies, while researchers argue it is an important piece of scientific history, answering questions about one the greatest scientists in history.
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Science magazine reported this week that weeds have evolved at breakneck speed to help them survive city life. Crepis sancta, commonly known as hawksbeard and looking something like a dandelion, has responded to the challenge of concrete in just 12 years.

The plant, like other members of its family, produces two types of seed. One kind is heavy and falls in the grass beneath the seed-head. The other type is light with a wispy tail, qualities that allow it to float to a new habitat.

In the city, the floating seeds stand little chance of settling on suitable ground. Instead, they are more likely to alight in inhospitable corners of the urban landscape. New research has shown that compared to their country cousins, city plants of the same species produced a greater number of heavy seeds that simply dropped at the foot of the plant.

The work indicates that human effects on the ecosystem can cut plants off from one another, reducing the exchange of genetic material between plants. The scientist who led the research, Pierre-Olivier Cheptou of CNRS, the French national research agency in Montpellier, said "I was surprised that evolution can go so fast."
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“The next time a moth alights on your window sill, watch what you say… it could actually be a spy - one of a new generation of cyborg insects with implants wired into their nerves to allow remote control of their movement” reports New Scientist this week.

Scientists at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are experimenting by installing surveillance equipment into insects to use them as spies. Other animals have been fitted with surveillance equipment for this purpose, but they aren’t as inconspicuous as insects.

The technology involves inserting probes into the insects at the early stages of development that can control movement once maturity is reached.

Researchers hope to be able to insert battery-powered microphones and environmental sensors complete with the battery and transmitters to relay the information back to head quarters. This technology is a long way off, but an exciting development in surveillance technology.
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Car-lovers with a conscience were wooed by classic car-maker Morgan this week.

The hydrogen-powered sports car, which is to be revealed at this month’s Geneva Motor Show, is the result of a partnership between the UK government and several UK companies and universities.

With a lightweight aluminium chassis and wooden interior, the concept-car weighs only 700kg, compared to a typical family car weight of 1.4 tonnes. With efficiency at the core of the entire design, kinetic energy from braking is channelled back to assist in powering the car.

The car’s hydrogen fuel cells, developed by defence company Qinetiq, power the car using electrons released from the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen that produces water.

Due to the lack of a combustion engine, the car produces little sound. Quoted on the BBC News website, Morgan representative Matthew Parkin said “We may have to supply headphones with the sounds of a five litre V8 linked to the throttle pedal”.

Critics of the automobile industry point out that the electricity required to produce hydrogen in the first place is mostly produced by power stations burning fossil fuels. Consequently, the car still generates carbon emissions. Additionally, although the car can roam as far as 250 miles on one tank, there is little infrastructure for refuelling the cars.
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A South American “shrinking frog”, Pseudis paradoxa could be the key to finding a new treatment for type 2 diabetes. As reported by BBC News this week, a compound has been identified in the frog’s skin secretions that promotes insulin release. A synthetic version of the compound, known as pseudin-2, has been tested on pancreatic cells in the laboratory and was found to stimulate insulin secretion in these cells.

Type 2 diabetes develops when the pancreas can’t produce enough insulin, or the insulin that is produced doesn’t work properly. Being overweight is linked to many cases of the disease and often the condition can be controlled by changes in lifestyle. However, tablets and insulin injections are sometimes used to normalise levels of insulin in those with the condition. One way medication can control the condition is by aiding pancreatic cells to produce more insulin.

Scientists found that synthetic compound, pseudin-2, produced better results in the laboratory than the natural compound. This opens the way for a potential new treatment for type 2 diabetes. Although the condition can be controlled by lifestyle changes, the progressive nature of the syndrome means that medication can sometimes be the best option.

Diabetes type 2 is the most common form of diabetes. According to the charity Diabetes UK, over 2.3 million people in the UK have diabetes, with a further 750,000 people unaware that they have the condition.
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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, remarkable for its high resolution photographic equipment, has gleaned remarkable new photographs from the Martian surface.

Avalanches of ice and dust were spotted falling from a precipitous slope, the Mission announced this week, in an event never photographed before on the planet. The movement produced clouds as large as 600ft wide.

Unsure what set off the slide, scientists from the mission were observing changes in carbon dioxide levels on the planet’s surface in an attempt to understand the water cycle on Mars. Because of low atmospheric pressure on the planet, water can exist only as ice, but some experts think that water may have flowed on Mars in the planet’s past. The probe was launched in 2005 to determine whether water had been present on the planet for long enough to host life.

The scientist who spotted the avalanches on film, Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Tucson, Arizona, expressed her pleasure in glimpsing the event. "It really surprised me," she said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."

To find out more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and see some of the photographs taken by the probe, visit the NASA website.

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