Adventure Ausrama Blog

Mystery egg of the Night Parrot in Tanami Desert? A mystery egg was found in the Tanami Desert of northern Australia 30 years ago. Many latched on to this specimen as being from the Night Parrot, thought to be extinct. DNA from the egg was compared to DNA of Night Parrot specimens in the Queensland Museum. The Brown Quail was found to be the "mother" of the Tanami egg. All hope was not lost, however. In 2013 the Night Parrot was found to be still with us. A small population was discovered living in Western Australia, far away from Queensland. Much has been leaned about the environmental requirements for the rare bird's survival. This shows that human hope is very strong. We will attribute links to things that are very weak. The egg does have unusual characteristics : it is sand white, not like the quail egg which is pale but speckled brown. It is pointed at one end though, typical of the quail. ◆ Ornithology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Tys Country Amusing Animal Photos

Evolution speeds up with cosmic activity. Most people assume that we are isolated here on this tiny planet called Earth. However, throughout the ages life has been impacted by what goes on out there in the cosmos. Humans would not be dominant in the world today - considering we got down to less than a hundred souls when the climate suddenly took a new direction. An arrow piercing a supernova? When astrophysical phenomena such as black holes send out x-ray flares it affects earthly evolution. It has estimated by computer modelling that two supernovas occurring close together increased radiation on marine life by a factor of three. This is a major change that nascent intelligent life had to adapt to. Radiation sends out muon particles which hit the ground. More of them alters the environment. DNA mutation will speed up, so evolution becomes more rapid. This would account for the sudden disappearance of established species and takeover by new ones. The dark clouded

Sudden death in young people has a genetic cause - Long QT syndrome. There is a predilection for some young adults to suddenly die. In a way it is similar to cot death: until now the cause was unknown. The "disease" has been identified and is called Long QT syndrome. A third of sudden "unexplained" deaths in people up to their mid thirties die of heart rhythm complications due to the inherited illness. The heart problem is not always evident in autopsies. Parents can also die of the condition in later life. The faulty gene runs in families and is generally passed on to some offspring. A gene testing study of children having symptoms of heart disease is showing that many carry the gene.  Ongoing monitoring of youngsters is saving lives.  However, there is no official program that tests all children.  Some, of course are not diagnosed early and it is these who are at risk of sudden death.  It is heart breaking for a family to lose a child in this way, ◆ Genetic

Genetic modification is favored in health but not for food. Convincing people to eat genetically modified food still has a long way to go to gain majority acceptance. Yet, just about everyone is in favor of using gene technology to treat health problems. This is a strange anomaly. Gene manipulation of any kind will change the world we live in. Once a change has been made and it spreads through the environment it is there forever. Drug companies admit they have lost the war in Europe. There is no way that GM food will ever be accepted there. It is largely an emotional decision, not scientifically based. Possibly, in the near future, Europe will ban DNA experimentation in health as well. This will be counter-productive. If money is invested in nations that welcome gene science then the environment will change anyway because we all live in the same world. There is a major problem looming, however, on the real future of genetically modified crops. To be profitable far

Scientists have found a way of transforming ordinary sugar into hydrocodone. This will lead to a cheaper way of manufacturing opiates. Unfortunately, it will also make things easier for drug traffickers selling a cheaper product, Yeast changes sugar into pain killer. This takes out the entire one year growing season for poppies and the factory process itself. At present, 4,400 gallons of yeast is needed to produce a small amount of hydrocodone. Work will proceed to improve this. With yeast as the catalyst, it looks like plant-based medication manufacturing is under threat. Yeast has snippets of DNA added to reprogram cells into target compounds. Notably, a third of the world's supply of the medication artemisinin is already produced from modified yeast. Artemisinin needs six genes while hydrocodone requires 23. Some genes from rats arehydrocodone. put into the yeast to make A "halfway-house" way of manufacturing pain killers is possible. A strain

Brewing goes high-tech. Well at least it does for small breweries. There is nothing worse than gulping down a cool stubbie and getting a flat, foul tasting experience. This seldom happens, of course, due to testing of the product in its creation. Invisible Sentinel has made a fantastic new product that solves most of the problems. A tiny device like a pregnancy tester called  brewPal  fits comfortably into your hand.  It analyses a beer's DNA and shows only one of two findings: either the beer is clear, or it has a spoiling infection. When you exercise, lactic acid builds up in your body. This makes you feel tired. Excess lactic acid is also the cause of "off" beer. Unwanted bacteria produce the acid. Lactobacillus and Pediococcus are resistant to hops so they thrive in the brew. Oddly, some beers need these bacteria. Culturing beer in the lab was time-consuming, especially in the hunt for Lactos and Pedis . It takes a week. Small companies c

It is commonly believed that DNA does its job and is just "there", non-functioning. However, new research shows DNA to be pro-active. It reads our senses and reacts accordingly. DNA detects the seasons and changes ones' body chemistry accordingly. As many as a fifth of all blood cells genes change with the season. Gene switches are turned on or off to achieve this. In winter immune responders are at a high level. The blood gets thinner in summer knowing that you will be more active. Body-building, fat-burning and water retention is the objective in hotter months. It is possible that living in air conditioned buildings could leave you body at risk of disease because the preparatory changes are not complete. Even the length of day is now distorted by artificial light.  While having ant-inflammatory chemicals ready and operational in winter is rationally useful, inflammation in itself damages the body, particularly when there is no attack on the body. It

If you want a strong athletic body take steroids and growth hormones. It is understandable that people do this. The problem is that individual athletic types are born with a genetic predilection to produce high levels of natural growth substances. Those who deem themselves to be unlucky in this department obviously feel miffed. No need to look at the legs they don't change much! Intensive exercising does produce muscle mass, largely because tissue builds up and becomes thicker with more daily work. What is not widely known is that it takes little more than six weeks for a body builder to become average again if he stops exercising completely. If you are naturally "scrawny" exercise will still bulk your body up. There is a cost though and that is time and pain. I ntensive exercise is painful, certainly more so than sitting in a lounge chair in front of the TV. Apart from the initial surge in weight loss due to diminishing stores of fat and narrowing

The day of Frankenstein has arrived. New human beings have been born. The path of human evolution has been changed, and should I say damaged, forever. Even though a person can have three parents it should never have been done. Heaven knows what the long term consequences for the human species will be. Man could die out because natural selection has been bypassed for the first time in human evolution. Now that Britain has passed legislation to allow such births, do-gooders in other countries are calling for its adoption too. Do they have the right to play God? They certainly do not! This affects every person living now and in the future. Consider the legal problems ahead for inheritance. Offspring will ultimately try to claim the wealth of a "host" egg provider when she dies. Your ancestors will be impossible to trace because some members of the population have three or more generations of three parents. The problem with politicians is - They take knee jerk

Pollution is a big problem, particularly from industry which pumps unwanted metals into the soil just about everywhere in the world. Getting rid of this had been an issue looking for a solution for decades. The answer could be at hand from a very weird source. Fish sperm has a property making it ideal for the purpose. It literally hoovers up the metal particles. The sperm contains high amounts of DNA. This contains phosphate which strongly attracts metals. The metal/phosphate compound can be taken out with neodymium magnets consisting of trivalent iron, dysprosium and neodymium. In Italy herring sperm was first identified as being useful in cleaning up the environment. With salmon being bred commercially, it is seen as a better source of fish sperm. The substance has been thrown away as waste until now. ✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml . . . . .