Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup

Extremophilic ecosystems writ small

2014-08-07

(Press-News.org) PULLMAN –An international team of researchers has found extremely small habitats that increase the potential for life on other planets while offering a way to clean up oil spills on our own. Looking at samples from the world's largest natural asphalt lake, they found active microbes in droplets as small as a microliter, which is about 1/50th of a drop of water. "We saw a huge diversity of bacteria and archaea," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor in Washington State University's School of the Environment and the only U.S. researcher on the team. "That's why we speak of an 'ecosystem,' because we have so much diversity in the water droplets." Writing in the journal Science, the researchers report they also found the microbes were actively degrading oil in the asphalt, suggesting a similar phenomenon could be used to clean up oil spills. "For me, the cool thing is I got into it from an astrobiology viewpoint, as an analog to Saturn's moon, Titan, where we have hydrocarbon lakes on the surface," said Schulze-Makuch. "But this shows astrobiology has also great environmental applications, because of the biodegradation of oil compounds." Schulze-Makuch and his colleagues in 2011 found that the 100-acre Pitch Lake, on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, was teeming with microbial life, which is also thought to increase the likelihood of life on Titan. The new paper adds a new, microscopic level of detail to how life can exist in such a harsh environment. "We discovered that there are additional habitats where we have not looked at where life can occur and thrive," said Schulze-Makuch. Analyzing the droplets' isotopic signatures and salt content, the researchers determined that they were not coming from rain or groundwater, but ancient sea water or a brine deep underground. INFORMATION:

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Orally delivered compounds selectively modify RNA splicing, prevent deficits in SMA models

2014-08-07

Today the journal Science published results of a preclinical study demonstrating that treatment with orally available RNA splicing modifiers of the SMN2 gene starting early after birth is preventing deficits in a mouse model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Scientists from Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), PTC Therapeutics, Inc., the SMA Foundation, the University of Southern California and Harvard University collaborated to demonstrate that continuous treatment of SMA mice with these compounds increased life span, normalized body weight and prevented ...

Study reveals dynamics of microbes and nitrate

2014-08-07

Human tampering with global carbon balances has received massive public attention because of its effects on global warming, but we pay less attention to another set of chemical processes we are similarly disrupting: human input to the nitrogen cycle. Unfortunately, the story of nitrogen transformations in the biosphere is also less understood. In modern times, humans developed the technology to turn nitrogen gas in the atmosphere into a biologically available form to be used as fertilizer. Before this, bio-available or "fixed" nitrogen was only created sparingly by natural ...

Origami could lead to exotic materials, tiny transformers

2014-08-07

ITHACA, N.Y. – Embracing the pleats, creases and tucks of the Japanese art of decorative paper folding, Cornell University researchers are uncovering how origami principles could lead to exotic materials, soft robots and even tiny transformers. Publishing online in the journal Science Aug. 8, an interdisciplinary team led by Cornell's Itai Cohen, associate professor of physics, and graduate student Jesse Silverberg have discovered how to use a well-known origami folding pattern called the Miura-ori to control fundamental physical properties of any thin sheet of material. Video, ...

Step closer to birth of the sun

2014-08-07

Researchers are a step closer to understanding the birth of the sun. Published in Science, the team led by Dr Maria Lugaro and Professor Alexander Heger, from Monash University, have investigated the solar system's prehistoric phase and the events that led to the birth of the sun. Dr Lugaro, from the Monash Centre for Astrophysics, said the team used radioactivity to date the last time that heavy elements such as gold, silver, platinum, lead and rare-earth elements were added to the solar system matter by the stars that produced them. "Using heavy radioactive nuclei ...

Finding the genetic culprits that drive antibiotic resistance

2014-08-07

Researchers have developed a powerful new tool to identify genetic changes in disease-causing bacteria that are responsible for antibiotic resistance. The results from this technique could be used in clinics within the next decade to decide on the most effective treatments for diseases such as pneumonia and meningitis. The team looked at the genome of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterial species that causes 1.6 million deaths worldwide each year. In the most detailed research of its kind, scientists used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to locate single-letter ...

Learning from origami to design new materials

2014-08-07

AMHERST, Mass. -- A challenge increasingly important to physicists and materials scientists in recent years has been how to design controllable new materials that exhibit desired physical properties rather than relying on those properties to emerge naturally, says University of Massachusetts Amherst physicist Christian Santangelo. Now he and physicist Arthur Evans and polymer scientist Ryan Hayward at UMass Amherst, with others at Cornell and Western New England University, are using origami-based folding methods for "tuning" the fundamental physical properties of any ...

Robot folds itself up and walks away

2014-08-07

A team of engineers used little more than paper and Shrinky dinks™ – the classic children's toy that shrinks when heated – to build a robot that assembles itself into a complex shape in four minutes flat, and crawls away without any human intervention. The advance, described in Science, demonstrates the potential to quickly and cheaply build sophisticated machines that interact with the environment, and to automate much of the design and assembly process. The method draws inspiration from self-assembly in nature, such as the way linear sequences of amino acids fold into ...

Origami robot folds itself up, crawls away

2014-08-07

For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots — reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into arbitrary shapes. In the August 7 issue of Science, they report their latest milestone: a robot, made almost entirely from parts produced by a laser cutter, that folds itself up and crawls away as soon as batteries are attached to it. "The exciting thing here is that you create this device that has computation embedded in the flat, printed version," says Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor ...

NASA sees heavy rainfall in Iselle as the hurricane nears Hawaii

2014-08-07

VIDEO: TRMM satellite rainfall data overlaid on an enhanced infrared image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite shows heavy rainfall occurring around the Iselle's eye. The most intense rain was falling at a... Click here for more information. A NASA satellite has observed heavy rainfall in Hurricane Iselle on its approach to Hawaii. NASA's TRMM Satellite captured rainfall rates within the storm as it passed overhead. In addition, NASA's Aqua satellite provided a larger view of the Central ...

Cell signaling pathway linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes

2014-08-07

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University study shows that Notch signaling, a key biological pathway tied to development and cell communication, also plays an important role in the onset of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, a discovery that offers new targets for treatment. A research team led by Shihuan Kuang, associate professor of animal sciences, found that blocking Notch signaling in the fat tissue of mice caused white fat cells to transform into a "leaner" type of fat known as beige fat. The finding suggests that suppressing Notch signaling in fat cells could reduce ...

Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup

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