Yale researchers discover new tick-borne illness, Trapping threatens new Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering site in China

Yale researchers discover new tick-borne illness

Researchers have discovered a new tick-borne illness, similar to Lyme disease and carried by the same deer tick that transmits Lyme.

One of the confirmed cases of this new disease – one that doesn’t even have a name yet – was on Nantucket, and infectious-disease experts are sure that it’s present in other parts of the state.

“One to 4 percent of the (deer) ticks in Massachusetts carry it,” said Dr. Philip Molloy, a rheumatologist at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth.

The identification of the new disease by researchers at Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine could help explain why many patients tested for Lyme disease received negative results.

Borrelia miyamotoi is the name of the bacterium causing the new strain of tick born disease, though it appears to respond well to the same antibiotics used against Lymes. Unlike Lymes sufferers have relapsing fevers. At the current rate at which the disease is spreading they expect 5,000 new cases in the coming year.

Thus far that Florida hunt for invasive snakes has resulted in 21 pythons being killed, and thank goodness, zero people. The hunters are having a more difficult time than they imagined finding the snakes since their natural camouflage helps them blend in so well with the vegetation.

It’s hard to pin down exactly how many Burmese pythons slither through Florida’s Everglades, but officials say their effect is glaringly obvious. According to a study released last year, sightings of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, rabbits and other mammals in the Everglades are down as much as 99 percent in areas where pythons are known to live.

Shorebird trapping threatens new Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering site in China

Four Spoon-billed Sandpipers were found at Fucheng, near Leizhou, south-west Guangdong Province in December 2012. Together with several other recent sightings this record indicates that Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a more widespread wintering species on the coast of southern China than was previously known. However, evidence was found of large-scale trapping of shorebirds and action is needed to address this threat.

…One of the three Spoon-billed Sandpipers recorded at Zhanjiang in 2003 was caught in a bird trapper’s net. Since then the problem of trapping appears to have become even worse and illegal bird-netting now poses a major threat to Spoon-billed Sandpiper and other shorebirds. The team counted a total of 460 mistnets during the survey – these were typically 25 m long and 3 m high, meaning that the nets counted equated to a length of 11.5 km. The nets were placed, often in parallel lines or V-shapes, beside shorebird roost-sites on fishponds, saltpans and sandbars on the coast, as well as in nearby paddyfields and marshes.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

There was no indication in that report of reasons why locals would be netting shore birds. It would take quite a few to provide a decent meal, but this would not be the first time locals have taken to killing dozens to hundreds of birds for dinner.

I may have posted a similar story to thi previously, but I’m fascinated by whales as living links to history, There Are Whales Alive Today Who Were Born Before Moby Dick Was Written

That’s right, some of the bowhead whales in the icy waters today are over 200 years old. Alaska Dispatch writes:

Bowheads seem to be recovering from the harvest of Yankee commercial whaling from 1848 to 1915, which wiped out all but 1,000 or so animals. Because the creatures can live longer than 200 years — a fact [Craig] George discovered when he found an old stone harpoon point in a whale — some of the bowheads alive today may have themselves dodged the barbed steel points of the Yankee whalers.

Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick in 1851, after a brief stint on a whaling ship.

….Thirty four years ago, scientists counted 1,200 whales. Today there are about 14,000 of the mammals out there.

An artist’s rendering of a bowhead whale diving. (Richard Ellis)

Bowheads are named for their thick skulls or the blubber that covers them anyway. They have evolved that trait to break through Arctic ice.

Scientists Predict First ‘Alien Earth’ Will Be Found in 2013, 100 percent recycled bike

First ‘Alien Earth’ Will Be Found in 2013, Experts Say

The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.

While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide “alien Earth.” But that should change in 2013, scientists say.

“I’m very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year,” said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

Planets piling up

Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star in 1995. Since they, they’ve spotted more than 800 worlds beyond our own solar system, and many more candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations.

More exoplanets than expected in the first year of the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog. Image released Dec. 6, 2012. CREDIT: PHL @ UPR Arecibo, ESA/Hubble, NASA

Discovery of these new planets is due to space instruments like Kepler. Kepler itself found an earth-like planet about 2.5 times larger occupying the orbital sweet spot from its star that would allow for water in a liquid state.

100 percent recycled bike is straight out of Portlandia

The ReCycle (of course) bikes are made of recycled, recyclable aluminum. Even though the materials come out of the trash, the small-batch manufacturing ain’t cheap — you’ll have to pledge at least $2,000 on the Kickstarter to get one (though for $5,000 you can get all three models).

Moshi Moshi model by ReCycle

The link to the ReCycle page at Kickstarter and their web site. There are three currently three models, and while you can order one now, not all of them are available for immediate delivery.

Christensen Ranch’s Uranium Mining Throws Safe Drinking Water Act Exemptions Into The Spotlight

As dry as this land may be, underground, vast reservoirs hold billions of gallons of water suitable for drinking, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet every day injection wells pump more than 200,000 gallons of toxic and radioactive waste from uranium mining into Christensen’s aquifers.

What is happening in this remote corner of Wyoming affects few people other than Christensen — at least for now.

But a roiling conflict between state and federal regulators over whether to allow more mining at Christensen Ranch— and the damage that comes with it—has pitted the feverish drive for domestic energy against the need to protect water resources for the future. The outcome could have far-reaching implications, setting a precedent for similar battles sparked by the resurgence of uranium mining in Texas, South Dakota, New Mexico and elsewhere.

Twenty-five years ago, the EPA and Wyoming officials agreed that polluting the water beneath Christensen Ranch was an acceptable price for producing energy there.

The Safe Drinking Water Act forbids injecting industrial waste into or above drinking water aquifers, but the EPA issued what are called aquifer exemptions that gave mine operators at the ranch permission to ignore the law. Over the last three decades, the agency has issued more than 1,500 such exemptions nationwide, allowing energy and mining companies to pollute portions of at least 100 drinking water aquifers.

When the EPA granted the exemptions for Christensen Ranch, its scientists believed that the reservoirs underlying the property were too deep to hold desirable water, and that even if they did, no one was likely to use it. They also believed the mine operators could contain and remediate pollution in the shallower rock layers where mining takes place.

Over time, shifting science and a changing climate have upended these assumptions, however. An epochal drought across the West has made water more precious and improved technology has made it economically viable to retrieve water from extraordinary depths, filter it and transport it.

“What does deep mean?” asked Mike Wireman, a hydrologist with the EPA who also works with the World Bank on global water supply issues. “There is a view out there that says if it’s more than a few thousand feet deep we don’t really care … just go ahead and dump all that waste. There is an opposite view that says no, that is not sustainable water management policy.”

It is possible to clean metals and most biological contaminants from well water, but not radioactivity. With recent studies showing the massive demand on the Colorado River in the coming decades, groundwater is going to become more precious than ever, even that water at depths previously thought uneconomical to tap.

Some health and safety news, Retailers to recall 150,000-plus baby recliners

Four national retailers agreed to recall more than 150,000 Nap Nanny baby recliners after at least five infant deaths and dozens of reports of children nearly falling out of the recliners, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.

Kids with Health Issues Targeted for Bullying

Bullying over health issues is common, according to two studies looking at kids with food allergies and those going through weight-loss programs.

In one study, almost 32% of children with food allergies reported bullying or harassment specifically related to their allergy, often involving threats with food, Eyal Shemesh, MD, of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues found.

In a second study, 64% of teens at weight-loss camps reported weight-related victimization, not just by schoolmates but often by friends, coaches, teachers, and parents too, Rebecca Puhl, PhD, of Yale University, and colleagues reported.

One would think adults, especially those who work with children would know better. While I understand that kids can be insensitive from a lack of life experience, some of the bullies must be learning this type of aggressive behavior from some adult influence.

Source: biodiversitylibrary.org via BHL on Pinterest

Monarda kalmiana. Flora Americae Septentrionalis v.1 London :Printed for White, Cochrance, and co.,1814. Biodiversitylibrary. Biodivlibrary. BHL. Biodiversity Heritage Library

Did the Vikings mate with an American Indian, Removing protein ‘garbage’ in nerve cells may help control two neurodegenerative diseases

Centuries before Columbus, a Viking-American Indian child may have been born in Iceland

Five hundred years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, a Native American woman may have voyaged to Europe with Vikings, according to a provocative new DNA study.

Analyzing a type of DNA passed only from mother to child, scientists found more than 80 living Icelanders with a genetic variation similar to one found mostly in Native Americans.

This DNA signature is thought to have entered the Viking population around A.D. 1000. There is a very slight chance that this DNA entered the European population independently, though that is statistically unlikely. Good article with maps and pictures.

Removing protein ‘garbage’ in nerve cells may help control two neurodegenerative diseases

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center say they have new evidence that challenges scientific dogma involving two fatal neurodegenerative diseases — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) — and, in the process, have uncovered a possible therapeutic target as a novel strategy to treat both disorders.

The study, posted online today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, found that the issue in both diseases is the inability of the cell’s protein garbage disposal system to “pull out” and destroy TDP-43, a powerful, sometimes mutated gene that produces excess amounts of protein inside the nucleus of a nerve cell, or neuron.

The cells natural disposal units -called parkin – could be targeted with some kind of drug therapy to ram up production. These researchers have carried out some experiments along this line that showed delivering parkin genes to neurons slowed down ALS pathologies linked to TDP-43. Though it might be years before such a therapy is developed for humans. The experiments with cell proteins related to neurodegenerative diseases is a good example of why this recent research is important, New Technique, Developed at U.Va., Can Identify Role of Proteins with Unknown Function

An ingenious new technique is making it quicker and easier for scientists to identify the function of uncharacterized proteins in cells. The method, developed by researchers primarily from the Wladek Minor laboratory at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, already is being used to solve some of the most stubborn mysteries of cellular function and is a vital step toward devising future medical treatments.

…The new approach probes a protein’s function by examining how it interacts with cocktails of chemicals carefully chosen to represent the large variety of compounds naturally found in living cells (known as metabolic compounds). Because proteins are selective about metabolic compounds with which they do or do not bind, scientists can unlock their function based on this information. The process starts with a surprisingly small library of compounds, only 100 or so; once the initial interactions are observed, scientists then have a clue as to what kinds of metabolic compounds should yield more specific information. So instead of having an impossibly large number of potential metabolic compounds to test – thousands upon thousands – they can begin with only a few dozen.

indiegogo’ Palm-Sized Dragonfly Robot Project. They have already raised more than they need for this micro-UAV. “Palm-sized robot that flies like a bird and hovers like an insect; Designed for aerial photography, advanced gaming, R&D and security.” As much as this is fascinating in terms of science and robotics, it is also a little disturbing in terms of pranks that could go wrong, privacy concerns and environmental issues.

The Robot Dragonfly from TechJect Dragonfly on Vimeo.

Wheat genome’s key parts unlocked in new study, 2013 Fiat 500e Recharges the Electric Vehicle (EV) Segment with Italian Style

Wheat genome’s key parts unlocked in new study

Scientists have unlocked key parts of the complex genetic code of wheat, one of the world’s most important crops, which could help improve food security.

The team hopes the data will accelerate the development of varieties more resilient to stresses, such as disease and drought, that cause crops to fail.

The 2012 wheat harvest was hit by extreme weather events around the globe, causing a sharp rise in prices.

Details of the findings have been published in the journal Nature.

In 2011, the global output of 681 million tonnes made bread wheat the third most-produced food crop (behind maize and rice) and accounted for about 20% of the calories consumed by the world’s population.

Wheat is one of the oldest cultivated food crops. Humanity has been planting it and crossing breeding it for about 10,000 years. having a complete genomic profile and cross breeding different strains is not the same thing as genetically modified foods. Though some genetic tinkering is so close to the time consuming task of creating strains by cross pollination, that one would have a difficult to impossible time telling the final products apart. That is not to say that there is not reason to be concerned about some genetically modified foods. One concern is in terms of patenting seeds and harassing farmers for other other reason than being down wind from some Monsanto wheat. The other concern is that we have not had a good long term study on the health effects of eating (GE) wheat.

Some interesting facts about wheat from the UN:

-Wheat (Triticum spp) was one of the first domesticated food crops
– For about 8,000 years, it has been the basic staple food of many major civilizations
– The crop can be grown from equatorial regions to within the Arctic Circle
–  Wheat has been recorded growing as high as 4.5km above sea level
– Raised bread loaves are possible because the wheat kernel contains gluten, which traps minute CO2 bubbles when fermentation occurs
-It is grown on more than 240m hectares, more than any other food crop

All-new 2013 Fiat 500e Recharges the Electric Vehicle (EV) Segment with Italian Style and Performance

All-new 2013 Fiat 500e electrifies the Cinquecento lineup with even more innovation and style, plus up to an estimated 116 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) city and 100 MPGe highway of pure battery-electric power and zero tailpipe emissions
Fiat 500e is designed to keep electric vehicle (EV) ownership simple with its familiar no-nonsense design, convenience features and intelligently integrated approach to battery-electric technology
More than 80 miles of estimated range, with city driving range typically greater than 100 miles
World-class handling and braking for an EV that adds to the FIAT brand’s lineup of vehicles with highly engaging driving dynamics
Arriving in the second quarter of 2013 to FIAT Studios in California

Fiat 500e exterior

Fiat 500e interior

That is from a Chrysler Group LLC press release, not an unbiased review. Should make a good commuter car since the average round-trip commute is about 33 miles.

A Rare Bird

Few avian species have as precarious a perch on life as the Tuamotu Kingfisher, a tiny Pacific Islander with a cream-colored head, blue and green feathers, and a white underbelly. A recent census indicated that just a single colony — a mere 125 birds — is all that remains of this once-populous native of one of the world’s most beautiful places.

Believe it or not, this dire number is actually something of an improvement, says Dylan Kesler, the MU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife who is leading an international effort to save them. At one point, no more than 39 birds could be located.

“If we lose these birds, we lose 50,000 years of uniqueness and evolution,” Kesler says. “Because it has lived in isolation for a very long time, it’s unlike any other bird. There is no other bird like this on the planet.”

Centuries ago, the Tuamotu Kingfisher thrived on several South Pacific islands in what is now French Polynesia. Today, it lives only on one small sprig of coral, Niau atoll, a 10-square-mile dot surrounded by deep azure seas.

The reason for the birds’ decline is uncertain. One theory suggests that rats, imported from sailing ships, have depleted populations of the lizards that kingfishers’ depend upon for sustenance. Added pressure, Kesler says, has likely come from the feral cats that roam the island and attack young birds. Typhoons may also have played a role by destroying nesting trees.

Dylan Kesler examines a young Tuamotu Kingfisher for signs of molting; Home Islands: The Tuamotu Archipelago, a chain of atolls in French Polynesia, is one of the world’s most beautiful, and remote, avian habitats. For the endangered Tuamotu Kingfisher, relocation of a “rescue colony” from Niau to the tiny island of Anaa may represent the last best hope for survival; A kingfisher and prey.

The kind of habitat that is maintained is a very important factor in the Tuamotu Kingfisher’s hunting strategy and success. They use a “wait-and-drop” attack. There must be open areas of vegetation where lizards will travel so the Fisher can spot them. The conservation strategy for the this Fisher is unique in that they are introducing the bird into a different location with similar habitat – the atoll islands of Anaa. There are a few more pictures and details at the link.

Source: biodiversitylibrary.org via BHL on Pinterest

Clematis Star of India. The Floral world and garden guide v.14 1871 London,Groombridge and Sons,1858-1880. Biodiversitylibrary. Biodivlibrary. BHL. Biodiversity Heritage Library

The harp sponge: an extraordinary new species of carnivorous sponge, Cope’s Rule seems to be true for some dinosaurs

Scientists discover extraordinary new carnivorous sponge

Ten thousand feet below the ocean’s surface, the seafloor is a dark, desolate, and dangerous place where even the most benign-looking creatures can be deadly predators. Recently, a team of scientists discovered an unlikely new carnivorous species— the harp sponge (Chondrocladia lyra).

C. lyra is called the harp sponge because its basic structure, called a vane, is shaped like a harp or lyre. Each vane consists of a horizontal branch supporting several parallel, vertical branches. But don’t let the harp sponge’s whimsical appearance and innocent sounding name fool you, it’s actually a deep-sea predator.

Clinging with root-like “rhizoids” to the soft, muddy sediment, the harp sponge captures tiny animals that are swept into its branches by deep-sea currents.

The video shows the barbed hooks that cover the sponge’s branching limbs. Those hooks  snare their prey, envelop it in a membrane, upon which digestion begins. Most sponges (phylum – Porifera)  are filter feeders straining organic matter from seawater through their bodies. Though in addition to the carnivorous sponges there are sponges that have symbiotic relationships with photosynthetic micro-organisms that produce food and oxygen for the sponge in exchange for hosting duties.

Were Dinosaurs Destined to Be Big? Testing Cope’s Rule

In the evolutionary long run, small critters tend to evolve into bigger beasts—at least according to the idea attributed to paleontologist Edward Cope, now known as Cope’s Rule. Using the latest advanced statistical modeling methods, a new test of this rule as it applies dinosaurs shows that Cope was right—sometimes.

…”What we did then was explore how constant a rule is this Cope’s Rule trend within dinosaurs,” said Hunt. They looked across the “family tree” of dinosaurs and found that some groups, or clades, of dinosaurs do indeed trend larger over time, following Cope’s Rule. Ceratopsids and hadrosaurs, for instance, show more increases in size than decreases over time, according to Hunt. Although birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs, the team excluded them from the study because of the evolutionary pressure birds faced to lighten up and get smaller so they could fly better.

As for the upper limits to size, the results were sometimes yes, sometimes no. The four-legged sauropods (i.e., long-necked, small-headed herbivores) and ornithopod (i.e., iguanodons, ceratopsids) clades showed no indication of upper limits to how large they could evolve. And indeed, these groups contain the largest land animals that ever lived.

Theropods, which include the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, on the other hand, did show what appears to be an upper limit on body size. This may not be particularly surprising, says Hunt, because theropods were bipedal, and there are physical limits to how massive you can get while still being able to move around on two legs.

Considering that one of humanity’s great chronic ailments is the backache, we might be on the  edge of how tall human bipedals can get without exceeding the carrying capacity of the spine.

How Human Beings Almost Vanished From Earth In 70,000 B.C.

Toba, The Supervolcano

Once upon a time, says Sam, around 70,000 B.C., a volcano called Toba, on Sumatra, in Indonesia went off, blowing roughly 650 miles of vaporized rock into the air. It is the largest volcanic eruption we know of, dwarfing everything else…

That eruption dropped roughly six centimeters of ash — the layer can still be seen on land — over all of South Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian and South China Sea. According to the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the Toba eruption scored an “8”, which translates to “mega-colossal” — that’s two orders of magnitude greater than the largest volcanic eruption in historic times at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which caused the 1816 “Year Without a Summer” in the northern hemisphere.

With so much ash, dust and vapor in the air, Sam Kean says it’s a safe guess that Toba “dimmed the sun for six years, disrupted seasonal rains, choked off streams and scattered whole cubic miles of hot ash (imagine wading through a giant ashtray) across acres and acres of plants.” Berries, fruits, trees, African game became scarce; early humans, living in East Africa just across the Indian Ocean from Mount Toba, probably starved, or at least, he says, “It’s not hard to imagine the population plummeting.”

Then — and this is more a conjectural, based on arguable evidence — an already cool Earth got colder. The world was having an ice age 70,000 years ago, and all that dust hanging in the atmosphere may have bounced warming sunshine back into space. Sam Kean writes “There’s in fact evidence that the average temperature dropped 20-plus degrees in some spots,” after which the great grassy plains of Africa may have shrunk way back, keeping the small bands of humans small and hungry for hundreds, if not thousands of more years.

Mammals, including humans did survive. Humans have set a milestone at a world population of about 7 billion. No other creature of our size ( there are certainly more beetles than humans) has reached such a huge population size.