After a 5 week hiatus, this week we are getting back to the news. Another change is that it’s now just “Science News” instead of “Tuesday Science News”. When I started covering science topics on Tuesdays I was just beginning to flesh out the publishing schedule to include various features on certain days of the weeks, but it doesn’t make since to do so unless I start prefacing my rants on Fridays and satire/comedy on Saturdays as “Friday Rant” and “Saturday Satire”. I could do that, but I’d rather not. Now, to the science news!
Plant origins
Plants came about 1.6 billion years ago when one single celled organism stopped eating cyanobacteria and absorbed it. It’s now thought that the process also required a Chlamydia-like parasite that provided the genes needed for food transport between the chloroplast and the rest of the host cell. (Scientific American)
Regenerated Ice Age plant
Russian scientists found a squirrel cache from the Ice Age and were able to grow a fully viable Sylene stenophylia plant from a tissue found in a fruit (pictured). The burrow was dated to about 30,000 years ago and this would represent the oldest plant ever regenerated. As far as the viability goes, those are fertile seed bearing flowers in the picture! (Washington Post)
Climate change’s impact on the fidelity of birds
The increased climate unpredictability caused by climate change is making birds more promiscuous. This is an important adaptive trait that increases the genetic diversity and thus improves the odds of at least one of any given bird’s offspring reproducing. Just don’t tell Conservatives since this would just make them hate climate change even more, or would they be OK with it since it’s procreative, or would Newt just use it as an excuse… 😉 (Scientific American)
A single atom transistor
Researches at the University of New South Whales have now made the world’s first ever single-atom transistor using a repeatable method! (CNET News)
Autism signs at 6 months
A new study has found signs of autism in the brains of infants as young as 6 months of age who later developed autism. What they found was “that tracts of white matter that connect different regions of the brain didn’t form as quickly in children who later developed autism, compared with kids who didn’t develop the disorder.” This also suggests that it may be possible to prevent or at least minimize the effects on neural development if detected early enough. Sadly, this study probably won’t calm any fears of the anti-vaxers. (Scientific American)