ScienceDaily: Top Environment News |
- Expanding the genetic alphabet may be easier than previously thought
- A different drummer: Engineers discover neural rhythms drive physical movement
- Scientists complete most comprehensive genetic analysis yet of corn
- Wallflowers of the Earth system
| Expanding the genetic alphabet may be easier than previously thought Posted: 03 Jun 2012 04:17 PM PDT A new study suggests that the replication process for DNA -- the genetic instructions for living organisms that is composed of four bases (C, G, A and T) -- is more open to unnatural letters than had previously been thought. An expanded "DNA alphabet" could carry more information than natural DNA, potentially coding for a much wider range of molecules and enabling a variety of powerful applications, from precise molecular probes and nanomachines to useful new life forms.  |
| A different drummer: Engineers discover neural rhythms drive physical movement Posted: 03 Jun 2012 04:17 PM PDT In a significant departure from earlier models, neural engineers and neuroscientists have developed a new model for the brain activity underlying arm movements. Motor neurons do not represent external-world parameters as previously thought, but rather send a few basic rhythmic patterns down the spine to drive movement. The finding has implications in prosthetics, the understanding of motor disorders and other uses yet to be discovered.  |
| Scientists complete most comprehensive genetic analysis yet of corn Posted: 03 Jun 2012 04:17 PM PDT Scientists have completed the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn genome. The team expects the achievement to speed up development of improved varieties of one of the world's most important agricultural commodities. The results should boost international efforts to increase yields, expand areas where corn can be cultivated and produce varieties better equipped to resist pests and disease.  |
| Wallflowers of the Earth system Posted: 03 Jun 2012 04:16 PM PDT In cities, the presence of algae, lichens, and mosses is not considered desirable and they are often removed from roofs and walls. It is, however, totally unfair to consider these cryptogamic covers, as the flat growths are referred to in scientific terms, just a nuisance. Scientists have discovered that these mostly inconspicuous looking growths take up huge amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen and fix it at the earth's surface. Cryptogamic covers are responsible for about half of the naturally occurring nitrogen fixation on land and they take up as much carbon dioxide as is released yearly from biomass burning. These new findings will help to improve global flux calculations and climate models, in which up to now the carbon and nitrogen balance of the cryptogamic covers have been neglected.  |
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