Category Archives: Science

Science

Permanent gene edits to tardigrades help shed light on their amazing resilience

“CRISPR can be an incredible tool for understanding life and aiding in useful applications that can positively impact the world. Tardigrades not only offer us a glimpse at what medical advances might be possible, but their range of remarkable traits means they had an incredible evolutionary story, one we hope to tell as we compare their genomes to closely related creatures using our new DIPA-CRIPSR-based technique.”

Source: Permanent gene edits to tardigrades help shed light on their amazing resilience

My favorite microscopic animal.

Science

Researchers show that introduced tardigrade proteins can slow metabolism in human cells | ScienceDaily

Tardigrade proteins are potential candidates in technologies centered on slowing the aging process and in long-term storage of human cells.

Source: Researchers show that introduced tardigrade proteins can slow metabolism in human cells | ScienceDaily

Is there anything tardigrades can’t do? 🙂

University of Wyoming researchers have gained further insight into how tardigrades survive extreme conditions and shown that proteins from the microscopic creatures expressed in human cells can slow down molecular processes.

This makes the tardigrade proteins potential candidates in technologies centered on slowing the aging process and in long-term storage of human cells.

nature, Science

‘Water bear’ genomes reveal the secrets of extreme survival

‘Water bear’ genomes reveal the secrets of extreme survivalby Casey McGrath, Society for Molecular Biology and EvolutionA photograph of the tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus, in the center of a phylogeny of CAHS, the largest of the six desiccation-related protein families analyzed in this study. Credit: Kazuharu Arakawa, Keio Institute of Advanced BiosciencesTardigrades may be nature’s ultimate survivors. While these tiny, nearly translucent animals are easily overlooked, they represent a diverse group that has successfully colonized freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments on every continent, including Antarctica.

Source: ‘Water bear’ genomes reveal the secrets of extreme survival

Monday Musings, motivation, Music, Science

Monday Musings — 22JAN24

From a commencement speech at Harvard by Charlie Munger (How to Guarantee a Life of Misery):

My third prescription for misery is to go down and stay down when you get your first, second, third severe reverse in the battle of life. Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, this will guarantee that, in due course, you will be permanently mired in misery. Ignore at all cost the lesson contained in the accurate epitaph written for himself by Epictetus: “Here lies Epictetus, a slave, maimed in body, the ultimate in poverty, and favoured by Gods.”

The rest is pretty good too.

https://www.space.com/barbenheimer-star-defies-explanation

a purple and blue explosion behind the periodic table of elements The newly discovered Barbenheimer Star exploded in a supernova billions of years ago, leaving behind a cloud of unusual elements in its wake. (Image credit: University of Chicago/SDSS-V/Melissa Weiss)

Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive star from the early universe that does not fit with our current understanding of the cosmos. 

Epic: The Musical is a loose adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” by Jorge Rivera-Herrans, who wrote the music and lyrics and also orchestrated and produced the tracks. His song clips and process videos have gone viral on social media with over 60 million views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. The yet-to-be-released musical also has an active Discord fan community of over 30,000 people who share fanart, memes, fan theories, cover songs, positive affirmations, and tattoos of the lyrics.

Free to listen on Spotify, or get the ones that have been released on Bandcamp:

https://jayherrans.bandcamp.com/album/epic-the-troy-saga-original-concept-album

A link filled Monday, of stuff that interested me this week. Not much musing going on is there. Just wanted to share good stuff. We all need that don’t we. See you next week.

Science

Floating sea farms: A solution to feed the world and ensure freshwater by 2050

The sun and the sea—both abundant and free—are being harnessed in a unique project to create vertical sea farms floating on the ocean that can produce fresh water for drinking and agriculture.

 

Freshwater accounts for just 2.5% of the world’s water and most of this is not accessible because it’s trapped in glaciers, ice caps or is deep underground,” Dr. Owens says. “It’s not that freshwater is dwindling either, but the small amount that exists is in ever increasing demand due to population growth and climate change.

“The fact that 97.5% of the world’s water is in our oceans—and freely available—it is an obvious solution to harness the sea and sun to address growing global shortages of water, food, and agricultural land. Adopting this technology could improve the health and welfare of billions of people globally.”

Source: Floating sea farms: A solution to feed the world and ensure freshwater by 2050