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At the cellular level, we do not have much difference with a spider or a fly: the case of Wnt

A prediction of the theory of evolution is the most basic and fundamental aspects of living beings should be well preserved, though very different animals compare with each other (these features should appear very early in the course of evolution.) On the other hand, the more "macro" and general (eg system level and physiology), may eventually be quite different from animals living in different (and everyone should have adapted to different conditions, being selected generation after generation, natural selection).
This is a prediction of the theory, and makes sense, but needs to be verified experimentally (as any scientific theory). The good news is that it has been tested systematically for decades, consider a particular case:

compare to a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster ) with you, dear reader / a (Homo sapiens ):

• You are a chordate, part of the class of mammals. On the other hand, the fly is an arthropod, which belongs to the class of insects.
• You have a skeleton as such (subphylum of vertebrates). On the other hand, we do not have it fly, but has an enviable armor.
• You have a closed circulatory system with a heart tetraventricular complex and real blood (no need to cut your finger to check). On the other hand, the fly has an open circulatory system, where the "blood directly bathes the tissues. But this "blood" is actually called "hemolymph" and not for anything red.
• You have a respiratory system with 2 powerful lungs, in charge of distributing the oxygen through tissues via the blood. On the other hand, flies do not have a respiratory system as such, rather have a series of "pipes" that run through your body, called tracheae, through which air enters from the outside by diffusion, giving oxygen to tissues without a liquid transporting.

If we continue with the comparison at this level, we find differences appalling and think that insects are aliens, totally alien to our nature. But let's split hairs:

• You are a metazoan eukaryotic cell (with a true nucleus), the fly too!
• Your cells use a way to communicate things from the outside in, called Wnt (pronounced "wint"), flies too!, But not 100% identical version.

This image shows the main "transduction" of cells:

The Wnt pathway is indicated by the arrow. We'll get into the detail of the cell biology of the case (not important for the development of the idea.) Just understand that "Wnt" is a key that comes to lock, which is located in the cell membrane. Once that occurred
interaction triggers a series of steps (one after another) within the cell. What is intended to reach the nucleus and regulate the expression of some genes.
If we compare this route specified between humans and flies, we found a similar creepy! are the same proteins in the same provision, with only slight differences (so called "peer review"). In addition, several homologues of each protein in each animal on its own (different versions), but to simplify our model, we think it is only one for each step of this series.
In humans, the foreign key is called "Wnt1" flies, known as " wingless (wg ), which is a gene" polarity segments ", whose job is to generate patterns in the embryo , as shown in the image below:

cells expressing wingless in this scheme are black circles. This gene is active in places where a group of genes, known as genes "Rule of the couple" are not expressed specifically even-skipped (eve ) and fushi tarazu (ftz ). This creates a pattern of segments and subdivisions of these, called parasegment, each with an anterior and posterior compartment.
neighboring cells wingless cells express a gene called engrailed ( in ). This is active, unlike wingless, where genes "pair rule" are active. Thus, engrailed is present on the trailing edge of each segment, or in the anterior compartment of each parasegment (in another try to understand trial weapon as a fly).
In short, cells wingless and engrailed cells conversing with each other during this part of the development on an ongoing basis to generate this pattern parasegmentario the fly embryo.
In humans, one of the homologues of wingless called "Wnt1" which is a proto-oncogene (genes that promote growth and cell division, but if something is wrong with them, can trigger uncontrolled growth, causing cancer). This protein is very similar to wingless and both are exactly the same route within the cell, only participants have different names. Wnt1
also has an important role in the development of all vertebrates. Therefore, in addition to corroborating the prediction of the conservation of pathways at the cellular level, we speculate that the Wnt pathway is very old and already possessed the animal that gave rise to both arthropods and chordates. That explains why in today spiders, crabs, ants, flies, elephants, giraffes, dogs, cats and humans, we use basically the same tool for different applications.

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Mercury, a shot of cranks and charlatans

artisitc Representation
Messenger probe orbiting Mercury. Credit: NASA / JHU /
Carnegie Institute of Washington.

was launched on August 3, 2004, but before reaching their destination took a few detours for Earth and Venus. Finally, last March 18 and after a journey of 7,900 million km entered the orbit of its planet of study: Mercury . We speak, of course, the probe Messenger (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging), named in honor of Mercurio , the messenger of the gods according to Roman mythology.

Despite its relative proximity, we have visited Mercury only once. It was through the Mariner X during the years 1974 and 1975, being at that time the only images we had the closest planet to our star.

Messenger probe will begin testing its scientific instruments today, March 23, but not until April 4 when it starts to get its first scientific data that will focus on performing a detailed map of the planet's surface, also studying both magnetic field and its stingy atmosphere. To make this work, Messenger is equipped with a dual imaging system (IDM), laser altimeter (MLA) spectrometer atmosphere and surface composition (MASCS) and magnetometer (MAG), among others.

A curious fact of this planet is that the duration of your day (115 Earth days) is longer than its year (87 Earth days). Formerly it was thought that synchronous rotation is always showing the same face to our star, but then found that it was not.

But the fact that strikes me the attention of this planet is the anomalous perihelion advance, and that their movement is not explained by classical mechanics of Newton. In fact, to explain this situation was a scientist named Le Verrier in 1843 that suggested the existence of a planet from the Sun than Mercury, a planet called Vulcan . Everything in science is explained sooner or later, and was a certain Albert Einstein the explanation given to him in 1915 through General Theory of Relativity using known variables and, of course, ruling the planet Vulcano.

not take another 35 years until another Mercury re-examine mission. In 2014 is scheduled to release BepiColombo, a probe will also target the smallest of the planets in our Solar System. Scientists say that the in-depth study of Mercury will yield critical data for understanding the formation of rocky planets in our solar system, which, though more or less clear how they are created, there are still gaps, and perhaps the answers are there in Mercury.

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The "Cactus" hiker, probably the ancestor of worms and arthropods brief analysis of the video

I leave a story taken from a blog friend that I visit a lot:

A new discovery in the world of paleontology, a "cactus" errant who had ten pairs of jointed legs. Measuring 6 inches long. Dwelt in the depths of the Asian seas more than 520 million years and may be the oldest ancestor (discovered so far) of the current spiders.
This strange creature called Diani cactiformis and is considered the first known missing link between worms and arthropods.
The D. cactiformis inhabiting the seabed in what is now the province of Yunnan, the Himalayas and southwest of China.

"Its importance is that arthropods are a group of invertebrate animals is most successful and very nice to have discovered the animal may be the most primitive of this group with jointed legs "

recognizes responsible for research, Jianni Liu, Northwest University, Xian , China.
This discovery, published on the cover of the prestigious journal Nature, provides evidence that arthropods evolved from the ancestors of the worms, whose fossil records date back to the Cambrian period.
Its fossil was discovered in 2006 during an excavation in China's Yunnan province. Then, after analyzing it and look under the microscope, the researcher,

"I realized that was not just a funny animal, but it was a very important discovery"

According to scientists, Diani could move at great speed and leap with great agility, but these superb physical condition also did not prevent extinct.
The team believes, even some of the appendages of these animals evolved into predatory joints were more survivability to the arthropods.

Source: http://www.xatakaciencia.com/paleontologia/el-cactus-que-caminaba

Apparently the way to the jointed legs originated from flexible legs. How in the current Onychophora, which is a phylum of animals rather odd, I leave a picture:

Looks great-grandfather one hundred feet do not you think?

If you want to review the Nature article, please send me an email and we will gladly send them

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Geoética. Credits JFM / AGID

seems that those responsible for the journal Journal of Cosmology (JoC) know the meaning of some words that have not hesitated for a moment to use to refer to people, arguments, we have criticized the supposed discovery of fossils aliens by Richard Hoover. literally been told that "only a few crackpots and charlatans have denounced the study." Well, according to the Royal English Academy of Language, defined as "dazed, out of his senses or trial" and " much talk and no substance ", respectively. And I, gentlemen related to JoC , do not identify with either of those adjectives.

JoC believe that we wanted to sell a story with a deceptive content, empty and pointless, which I think that those responsible for this publication have shown a total lack of sanity trying to hear a story that could taint of lies and talk serious investigations conducted by rigorous scientific, it would be feasible to apply the appositions that have been used against other scientists.

Such

Once the "Journals" are not at the forefront of scientific journals such as Science or Nature, but it is prestigious enough to take into account what is said in them and cover many sectors of science because there are about different topics: Journal of Biology, Journal of Neuroscience , Journal of Geology, etc. But I'll tell you what I thought nothing more to learn of the news. It was something like, "What does it look geology and astrobiology in a review of cosmology?". And I smelled weird.

Astrobiology and Geoética are two disciplines that make my day to day and, personally, what he has done JoC is an insult not only to biologists and geologists, but also to the wider scientific community, but has also been an affront to yes Journals that publish review following the appropriate controls to disseminate quality science.

If anyone is interested, I recommend the article lecutra " The 'alien' damn scientist" in the journal Public . In it, until the director the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Carl Pilcher, goes on to say that "the astrobiology community does not think Richard Hoover is a credible researcher."

say that lack of funds going to stop editing the magazine in the month of May. When you give to a project so there are two ways: through the front door or back door. JoC chose the latter with what I would describe as a suicide.

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A little rigor, please

GRA 95229 meteorite. Credits: Arizona Board of Regents

goes without saying that without being an expert or geology or biology, I consider myself a defender of the theory of lithopanspermia to the extent that meteorite falls could accelerate the emergence life by injecting massive amounts of heat and essential molecules, as outlined in the post I posted on the blog News Cosmo.

have recently been published several stories on the study of several meteorites from asteroids which say they have found life. Well well, me be clear: in my opinion, is false. Why? The reasons are several, but everything starts with a malpractice investigation in response to protocols or Geoética and Planetary Protection to analyze rocks from space.

As a precedent, in 1996, the NASA researcher David McKay published in the journal Science he found traces of life in a meteorite of Martian origin. But ultimately, technology dictated that the meteorite was contaminated with biological material from our planet, giving it what is known in Planetary Protection as a false positive.

After 15 years of this press release, last week, Richard Hoover, another NASA scientist, published an article in Journal of Cosmology magazine of dubious scientific rigor, which claims to have found remains fossils in various asteroidal meteorites. PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, has posted on his blog a clear opinion about this magazine, saying it "is a crude and ugly web site that seems to have been absorbed by a wormhole in the 1990 and publishes large amounts of noise without a substantial gap editorial restriction. It noted that the American space agency itself has been decoupled from Hoover study saying in a statement that "NASA can not support a scientific claim unless it has been reviewed by his colleagues and deeply examined by other qualified experts."

Jesús Martínez Frías, Center for Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA), told me that "it is noteworthy that (...) you choose a magazine that is not part of classical scientific circuit." Hoover probably knew in advance that do not publish in prestigious journals due to poor scientific rigor of the analysis. On the other hand, Carlos Briones, also Center for Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA) told me from the beginning because it sounded to obvious contamination. " In addition to Martínez Frías is another very important as "used as biomarkers minerals such as carbonates and magnetite, which in any case could be geomarcadores of biological activity, and it is very strange, as the author, that life grow on an asteroid because, besides not explain how, all models suggest that the most plausible meteorite-in could be life-would be the planet, for life also calls for developing a geologic vitality. "

Hoover's article could sensationalist tinge lithopanspermia theory, and both products shortly rigorous style magazines such as Journal of Cosmology can distort as much research recently published by Sandra Pizzarello et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) which shows a study by the GRA 95229 meteorite fallen in Antarctica that could plague our planet, large amounts of ammonia, may well accelerate the process of creating of life. What is the difference? the PNAS article itself has passed all controls referees to ensure rigorous review of research and also this if you follow the course of lithopanspermia.

If there is a finding that offers compelling presence of fossils of microorganisms in meteorites, any scientific journal would be willing to publish the discovery, moreover, would mark a before and after in the History of Life. But unfortunately, we always find items lacking scientific soundness, fortunately, much of the scientific community is aware and does not hesitate to take action on the matter to refute all of these items that do nothing to tarnish the world than want to do good science.

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A strange cat

Credits: lolcats.com

Despite the title of this new post, I will not speak or cat with boots, or the Shrek's cat, Garfield or that, even strangers, the cat that I am presenting today is far, far more exotic than the previous. As some of you and you will have of course, I'll talk about the Schrodinger's cat , A hypothetical experiment that gave a lot of headaches. But why would a cat? I guess because Erwin Schrödinger liked these pets, and that this paradox is equally valid for a cat to the pulperro Sheldon Cooper.

Schrödinger's experiment is as follows: a cat locked in an opaque box, within which there is one and only one radioactive particle a 50% chance of breaking down, and if it does, a mechanism opens a bottle with a lethal gas cat dying instantly.

This "simple" experiment attempts to explain various concepts of quantum mechanics as the lethal gas bottle, and by extension the cat's life, depend on the probability of decay of an atom, obeying it directly to the laws of quantum mechanics, so therefore, the cat's life is subject to the principles of this branch of physics.

And what is the conclusion of this experiment? Well, while not making a measurement on the system, ie, while the case remains closed, for someone outside the box, the cat has exactly the same chance of being alive than dead, which effects Mechanic Quantum, the cat is alive and dead at the time.

Although it may seem strange to imagine a cat alive and dead at the same time, to move into the realm of subatomic particles are nothing crazy this type of assumptions are explained by the superposition , which provides a solution to what occurs when the subject simultaneously acquires two or more states or values, going to speak because of physical probabilities, all true at a time except when we make a measurement, since it would disrupt the system, in the case of the experiment, make a move would equivalent to opening the box to see if the cat is alive or not. Even Stephen Hawking himself said "every time I hear about that cat, I begin to get my gun."

This paradox has given rise to many interpretations theoretically valid but not provable on a practical level. For example, if a subatomic particle can sample two states, the particle will become part of two worlds: in each of them will have a different state, but that will not do as long as a measure of the system, because if we all return to our universe. If the cat is behaving like a subatomic particle in a universe would be dead and alive in the other, but to open the box, we disturb the system and returns to our universe, may be alive or dead. It is a way of saying "if the box is closed, not open can you ensure that the cat is inside?".

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I noticed many errors and video, we will review them briefly:

Question 1 on bones of monkeys with wings: As I have explained, fossilization is a complex and highly unlikely, so there are no fossils of every animal that died. However, if we seek fossils of monkeys with wings or scales, we lose time, because that is ridiculous and reflects a total ignorance by the author on the evolution as a process and theory.

Question 2 on the first cell and bacterium that becomes a man: We also know that the problem of the origin of life is not part of the theory of evolution, this only addresses the changes in species as new species appear, not as he left it. Also, I think we all understand that bacteria never become a man, since our lineage diverged amount of time virtually impossible to imagine. Question

3 on the origin of all: do not know if you need to write this, but this question and this issue is not even biology, this is physics and the theory of evolution here is a navy beans in pan.

Question 4, on comets: ....................

Question 5 on the helium: mmm, this is chemical not believe ?.....

Question 6: On the origin of the organs: At last something we can discuss a biologist!, Well, the origin of complex organs such as eyes and brains, did not give random and erratic processes that formed this whole blow (that's ridiculous). Occurred by gradual steps. Can review the tests on the eyes there on the blog. Later we will do with the lungs.

Question 7 on the macro trends and the new complexity: Macro evolution is just a name that alludes to the origin of new species, this has been observed everywhere, such as the Darwin finches (later write on them.) On the "new" complexity and "new" organs, this is not real, the complexity present in living organisms is highly conserved, we all cells, all mammals have bones in the same provision, etc. I see nothing very new ...

Question 8 on the development of caterpillars into butterflies, caterpillars and butterflies are not different species, are the same, this is like asking how a baby develops in an adult?

Anyway, I think it is necessary to follow, I leave the following task!

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Life and silicon. An objective look

silicon dioxide molecules forming a
twinned crystals. Credits: www.123rf.com

few days ago I had the opportunity to exchange views with Jorge Laborda , Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Castilla-La Mancha. The issue that we talked was none other than the possibility of the existence of life forms based on silicon chemistry, in particular ended up talking about the problems that exist to find it. During this conversation, arguments Jorge gave me a great scientific weight to forge an objective opinion about the options in silicon at the biological level.

To begin, let's look at what we face: What is silicon? It is a chemical element in the periodic table situated just below the carbon which gives a special character because it has 4 electrons in its valence shell , which gives an intermediate character between the uptake and transfer of electrons from other atoms to complete its outer shell.

abiotic level silicon can be found in our daily lives. The so-called "crystal"-because in reality it is a glass-forming vessels we have in the kitchen is made up primarily of silicon. But equally the transistors that form the integrated circuits of the device from which you are reading these lines are also formed by silicon wafers. As a significant fact Silicon dioxide or silica is part of 25% of the crust of our planet.

Now for the biological aspect. But first things we know: carbon. What's so special? Jorge Laborda, in Chapter 2 of his book A Luna, a civilization says that "it is true that carbon is the central element of life, and that while perhaps life could arise even in the absence of nitrogen, no could ever arise in the absence of carbon. " One advantage is that carbon is abundant in the universe, but that is very easy to join with other carbon atoms, allowing form long chains, while the ease of interacting with other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen, among others.

But keep in mind another aspect: the water, fulfilling its role of absorbing disorder and coupled with the versatility provided by the carbon molecular, the molecules formed by him with other light elements can be sorted and organized in the liquid element .

And you might think that with silicon could spend the same. But what actually happens? Jorge Laborda is clear: "on paper, it would be possible, perhaps, but in the reality of our universe is impossible." It supports on the argument that "silicon binds oxygen with greater force than it binds to other elements" and so it's normal to find it in the form of silica or silicates.

The link between silicon and oxygen is so strong and so stable silica "prefer to join silicon to oxygen rather than anything else, including himself," notes Laborda based on proven scientific evidence. This strong link that makes it difficult to form long chains silicon and in the case of shaped, silicon and oxygen alone, without other elements.

The only possibility is to find an environment provides in which no oxygen, but there is a problem is that, according to determinations made abundance of chemical elements, Jorge brings out in his book that "for every silicon atom has nine oxygen atoms in the universe."

back into the water, "there is no other liquid that is capable of doing the same thing, referring to the management and organization, with silicon-based molecules" when he meets other lighter elements, hence " would still have the problem that they were in a medium that would allow them to organize themselves spontaneously "makes us see Laborda, to conclude by saying that" without that organization, life is probably impossible. "

I recommend the book A Luna, a civilization and follow his blog" Quilo science. "If you want to know more about it, I also suggest listen to this podcast where Jorge speaks at length about the topic that concerns us today.

Today we only know the carbon-based life and is poised to remain so long as the another candidate in which it was thought, silicon, has many difficulties. But for now we settle for finding life on any of the exoplanets that we are aware interest or bodies in our Solar System. Having found it, we'll see what new avenues and possibilities offered to us to continue this great adventure.

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The anti-evolutionists and their videos, analyze one of them

Many people, mostly religious grounds, attacked tirelessly to biological evolution, for this they use the media available in the XXI century, of which YouTube can be a powerful tool, since many videos can result in brainwashing almost immediate in people who are not informed.
Many of these videos, I leave one of many. I want to see this as a game very healthy for their minds.
As we discussed a lot about evolution, free their minds of prejudice and watch this video (no surprise, better watch it sitting)



I will not tell anything about the video yet, think about it and cuestiónense the things he says, in what is wrong?
I discuss later, think!

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The other

Detail satellite Europa surface obtained by the Galileo probe
. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Colorado
.

When the vast majority of people hear the word Europe, I often come to mind cities like Paris, Madrid and Brussels. But for a small group of people, including myself included, when we hear that word does not think about cities, monuments or countries of the continent. What comes to mind is the giant icy satellite of Jupiter, in my case, I guess its icy crust torn with red filaments rich in salt, giving a distinctive look to other solar system bodies.

The first person on record in Europe was seen Galileo Galilei with his small telescope on January 7, 1610, although there is a side that believes it was the German astronomer Simon Marius the true discoverer of these moons some days before. Whatever the true discoverer, found that Jupiter was orbited by a set of 4 satellites, which were subsequently called Galilean in honor of the Italian astronomer. Years later expanded catalog of satellites of the gas giant which currently are estimated A total of 63 moons.

Although Europe is the smallest of the Galilean is why no less important because Europe is surrounded by a layer of ice, but behind it seems to be a salty ocean where it can make living conditions, which gives it great interest . My colleague Olga Prieto Ballesteros has a Ph.D. in planetary geology of the Center for Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA) told me that "Europe is exploring a new challenge for planetologists and astrobiology."

The trajectory of the spacecraft around the planet Jupiter is very elliptical, which causes the tidal are greater the closer you are, this means that there are tensions within, to deform and cracks occur showy reddish surface.

But what for me is the most important consequence of these forces is what some called tidal heating, allowing the melting and forming the ocean Europe. "So far our habitabildad concept focused on the surface of planets, but Europe breaks with that statement, and forces us to look inside," said my companion. Parameters such as water temperature reached will be crucial for determine if conditions allow the existence of life, thought to be very similar to what might be found in Lake Vostok located on the Antarctic continent. "In the coming decades, he argues Olga-space missions will have to determine the physical, chemical and geological characteristics of the subsurface, and see if Europa's ocean is or is not hostile to life."

If all goes smoothly, in situ exploration Europe could begin in 2020 with the launch of the mission EJSM / Laplace (ESA / NASA), the mission is still planned, and has been the result of a difficult choice between explore this satellite or re Titan, but Cassini-Huygens mission has already had the opportunity to explore the Saturnian satellite. On this occasion, is Europe's turn. ---


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Battleground Europe: Zarmina

image HARPS spectrograph installed on the telescope

3.6-meter La Silla Observatory (Chile). Credits:

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

seems that we have Gliese 581-g for a while ... As if it were a Ryder Cup, the battle between Europe and the United States presents itself as an endless tug of war. yet confirmed the existence of the exoplanet and and has been referred to colloquially as Zarmina.

all started in September 2010 when Steven Vogt and his team published an article claiming to have discovered The exoplanet Gliese 581-g. Soon after, we analyzed the star orbited with HARPS , the instrument on the ground that most exoplanets discovered to date y. .. no trace of Zarmina.

Now a U.S. team that participates in the English Mercedes López Morales (IEEC-CSIC) and not only confirms the existence of Gliese 581-g but it makes a correction of the size of the extrasolar planet in question. These new studies are published in Astrophysical Journal . As I have read in the newspaper Public , López Morales thinks that if we could travel to Gliese 581-g "would be like being in the Canary Islands, as they'd have a limit temperatures of -9 ° C and 51 º C. But even if I had areas of 25 º C as the archipelago, I doubt that, in the case of absence of the exoplanet, its atmosphere is so peaceful and it is ours.

Moreover, Phillip Gregory, University of British Columbia (Canada) has been collating data from different telescopes we have obtained data from exoplanet Zarmina course and come to a conclusion: there is only Gliese 581-g but not Gliese 581-f, S. Vogt announced simultaneously.

in the daily also Public said about this battle exoplanet expert at astrophysicist and alien to the two investigations Ignasi Ribas (IEEC-CSIC) where he stated that "the U.S. team. UU. Calculated completely circular orbits for the planets of Gliese 581, but when used other elliptical, more like what we see in other solar systems, Gliese 581-g disappears. "

Web

The RTVE , I have read that S. Vogt believes there is "a 100% chance that life exists" in the newly named Zarmina. Before making such an assertion, a scientist should await verification by other scientists that not be corroborated, the larger the claim, the bigger the bang and this could undermine the researcher's scientific career.

If I opt for one of two teams who deal in this battle, I do it for the old continent, mostly because I think need to be confirmed by another research team considered valid for an investigation. Also, if there really Zarmina, HARPS have detected any indication of the exoplanet, but this has not happened.

With the announcement in September 2010 the "discovery" of Gliese 581-g started a space race. This time there is between the U.S. and Russia since in this case Europe has relieved the Soviet country. This new race has a much more ambitious goal: to find a planet where there are real possibilities of existence of life. The race has begun, and the struggle to defend and dismiss Zarmina is the first step and now need to see who gets the upper hand, but above all, to see how long it takes to reach the goal. ---


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DNA has not Diogenes syndrome

Recreation of a DNA molecule. Credits:

Università degli Studi di Firenze

few days ago I was talking to my colleague and friend Patxi San Martin (Center for Astrobiology, INTA-CSIC) on DNA. It is not my specialty, so for most of the conversation was he who spoke, I limited myself to listen. I said that "man and the chimpanzee are similar in 96% at the DNA level, but what surprised me is that" more than 90% of DNA is colloquially called junk DNA . " He gave this description because it is known that does not code for proteins or promoters, which is unknown much of its function. That description is still used today.

In the case of human genome has been sequenced in its entirety but have not yet been marked variation between individuals, they are responsible for making us different from each other. What is known, said Patxi, is that "only about 5% contain information that leads to the synthesis of proteins or RNA with catalytic activity."

As I said Patxi significant fact that "each time a cell duplicates ours are copied each and every one of the 3000 million bases that make up our genome and are found to be as faithful to the original. "The human being is composed of about 50 trillion cells, for instance, the skin cells that make up our home to about 7-10 days, we can make the idea of \u200b\u200benergy expenditure involved for the body having to duplicate them. But there is an issue and that all living beings, including humans, tend to maximize energy savings, which, if that 90% of the so-called junk DNA had no utility, natural selection would have already removed several thousands of years and which otherwise would cause a waste of energy.

as my partner Patxi Scientists think that junk DNA plays essential functions, what happens is that have not yet been discovered. In favor of this version is also Peter Andolfatto (University of California), published in Nature that "this in reference to DNA junk DNA" actually have a role in the organism's survival and evolution of the species. " The Universe

something similar happens since it appears that mostly seems to consist of something we can not detect, that "something" is called dark matter and, depending on the sources, are given various percentages but in all cases the proportion of dark matter is more than material ordinary.

A good definition of this type of stuff is offered by Laura Giordani in tendencias21.net by way of introduction to his book of poetry Dark Matter. It reads: "unknown composition that does not emit or reflect enough radiation to be observed directly. This invisible matter constitutes 25% of the universe compared to 5% occupied by ordinary matter. Moreover, the densest regions of ordinary matter is accumulate where there are large concentrations of dark matter, it seems to be the hidden scaffolding that underpins the construction sites of stars and galaxies. "

Finally, after all, that dark matter is something imperceptible to us because of our instrumental bias, over time as we have more sensitive equipment will be able to be gaining ground "becoming" ordinary matter. At present the only evidence we have of the dark matter is the effect it has on the universe.

If only for elegance, should not qualify as derogatory to any facet of science. Surely, for the sake of nomenclature, it would not pull in an informative news article by a scientist who investigates dark matter than one that investigates waste matter. And surely would have occurred so in the case of DNA. ---


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GAL4/UAS system in Drosophila, the Swiss Army knife of geneticists

As I told in a previous post, the small fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster ) has many advantages for use as a model for understanding the genes. I told them that there are many molecular tools. Today we'll talk about one of them, GAL4/UAS system.
This system is used for targeted gene expression and was obtained nothing less than the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . It works by using the transcription factor, "GAL4" (transcription factors are proteins that regulate the expression of other genes), this factor binds very specifically to a regulatory sequence that is upstream of its target genes called UAS (Upstream Activating Sequence). Thus, one can perform an intersection where the female contains a UAS sequence attached to a fluorescent marker such as GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein), which is a protein that absorbs light in the UV spectrum and emits green (This protein was obtained from the jellyfish Aequorea victory). The male, on the other hand, must contain a GAL4 associated with the promoter (the switch) of the gene of interest. Thus, the recombinant flies obtained from the F1 generation, when expressing the gene of interest, will be expressing GAL4, which will join the UAS sequence, triggering the expression of GFP. Thus, cells where the gene of interest is being expressed, shall be marked with a green fluorescent, as explained in the following scheme:

From this junction, when heterozygous parents ( the sign "+" means that the homologous chromosome is wild) can obtain animals that inherit the UAS-GFP from the mother, but not GAL4 father, therefore, there will be no element that triggers the fluorescence. Another alternative is to obtain an animal that inherits the father GAL4, but not UAS-GFP from the mother, therefore, there will be no place GAL can join and no fluorescence. The option you want, is an animal that inherits the 2 elements, and will present fluorescence in cells where the gene of interest is being expressed.
Seeing a little beyond the art, it is noteworthy to use yeast genes and proteins from jellyfish into a fly, you may ask, why is it possible?. I think already know the answer. Joseph B.


Duffy (2002) GAL4 system in Drosohila: A fly geneticist's swiss army knife. Wiley-Liss, Inc. Genesis 34:1-15

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UDFj image of the galaxy-39546284 on a section of the

image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Credits: NASA /

ESA / G. Illingworth / R. Team Bowens/HUDF09

"Once upon a time a photon which started from a faraway place shortly after the origin of space and time. "It could well start in this way that tells a story of adventure that ran the light from the galaxy UDFj-39546284 to be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. These light rays have passed through the cold universe for about 13,220 million of years until finally, a few of these rays have gone to the WFC3 (stands for Wide Field Camera 3) installed in May 2009 in the most famous space telescope in the world.

With the data you offered the finding published in Nature , has reached "a point very close to the formation of the first galaxies that formed about 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang, "said astrophysicist Garth Illingworth (University of California) at the press conference convened on January 26, NASA announced the discovery. In other words, using light as a time machine, looking at this galaxy are seeing the universe as it was "only" 480 million years after the Big Bang.

The galaxy in question is very small relative to the Milky Way, it is estimated that about 100 times smaller, however the light was obtained from this galaxy is an early stage of evolution. As a result of the analysis of these data, it was discovered that during that time the birth rate of stars in the universe was about 10 times greater than today. This seems to conclude that the universe at that time was engulfed in a wave of creation of celestial bodies.

For detection method has been used redshift of light, this procedure is based on the Doppler effect that occurs in the waves by increasing its wavelength when away from a observation point, stretching it to longer wavelengths, in this case, red. The relationship between the redshift of a body and the distance between us and he became Edwin Hubble demonstrated, a fact which served to demonstrate that the universe is expanding rapidly.

still do not have to launch from the rooftops since the discovery is not fully confirmed because the ability of the Hubble Space Telescope has been pushed to the limit in this discovery, but the data analyzed for optimism. Since the Hubble Space Telescope is about to pass away, perhaps his last major discovery in the case and if so, this instrument has exceeded expectations with which it was launched into space in 1990. Now if we take a step closer to sniff the Big Bang we must have patience specifically to the launch of Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled for 2014. Until then we have no choice but to keep speculating about the first moments of the Universe.

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The Longest Journey Where does our reality? Earth and extraterrestrial Types

artist's conception of a black hole. Credits: NASA

recently published in the journal Nature the discovery of a supermassive black hole within a dwarf galaxy. The galaxy in question "is about 30 times smaller than the diameter of the Milky Way" as said Rafael Bachiller (Director of the National Astronomical Observatory) in the newspaper El Mundo . This finding appears to shed light on the formation of galaxies, and it seems that they are a cause for forming it, and not a result as expected.

But ... What is a black hole? Black hole ... a word that sounds like science fiction. Being pragmatic, the answer is simple: a black hole is the final stage of a star much more massive than the Sun speaking, a black hole will happen when the mass of the star exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit .

Then, if the answer to the question "What is a black hole is so simple, why create so much controversy? There are several reasons:

One is that these heavenly bodies are so massive and, therefore, so much gravitational pull that nothing can escape this force. According to Giovanni Miniutti says (Center for Astrobiology, CSIC-INTA) in laflecha.net , "for its intense gravity, no particle of matter, not even light can escape from black holes (...) As the matter falls toward the black hole is so hot that issued its latest call for help in the form of high energy radiation from X-rays before disappearing forever. "And those X-rays which detected. Thanks to them and using indirect methods of study, we know that black holes exist and we know their characteristics.

Another reason, and not least, we do not know what happens when matter crosses the event horizon , and that to escape the pull of the black hole should travel faster than the speed of light (300,000 km / s) and, as we know from the Theory of Relativity of Albert Einstein, is possible to overcome this speed, therefore, no data on what happens inside. In other words, when something crosses the event horizon of the observable universe disappears.

The volume that encompasses the event horizon in physics is called uniqueness, and this occurs when a rule of science is not enforced. In this case, if light can not escape the event horizon is because the escape velocity at these points is greater than the speed of light, that is not true in our physics.

The enormous gravitational forces that appear in the vicinity of a black hole can be bent so the spacetime that we are looking forward we would our own back. When it crosses the event horizon, anything can be valid because once you've crossed that barrier, the laws we know disappear and imagine anything could happen.

If we seek a place where there are no corrupt politicians, where the human being to respect their peers, or where you meet all the wishes of the Miss Universe of Time, that place is inside the event horizon (or at least for now) .

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What is life?, a question answered two Chilean biologists may

Today we Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, two giant biologists have laid many foundations of modern science (sorry they are generally little known to the other Chileans). They apparently made the inevitable question: What is life?
Once the questions started to look what are the characteristics that allow us to distinguish between living and non-living (if they get to philosophize, they will realize that it is not a trivial question.) Thus, discovered a property that is inherent in the phenomenon of life (although there are other systems with this property, as discussed below. However, it is a hallmark of life), this is the autopoiesis.
Autopoiesis is basically the ability of a system of "build itself" to maintain an inner balance that allows you to have a constant organization. In the words of Maturana:

"Living beings are networks of molecular productions that produced molecules with their interactions generate the same network that produces"

To explain this more clearly, I will quote some words from his book: "Machines and Living Beings: Autopoiesis, the organization of the Living ":

" When we were finishing the book the idea of \u200b\u200bmaking a computer model. What I wanted was to use the computer to generate equivalent processes to molecular processes, such that if you let them operate without any reference to all in a unique dynamic neighborhood relations, is a network of processes that constitute an autopoietic system. Much talked about this, until one day (November 1971), in the morning I arrived at the laboratory with a picture that I have yet, representing a particle dynamics in the form of a small set of "synthetic chemical reactions and lysis " that if it took place at the right pace (at the right temperature) would give rise spontaneously as a result, not included as an aspect of process design "molecular", an autopoietic unity in a two-dimensional space, as a computer screen. What we had to do was a computer program to generate these particles with their interactions and transformations in graphic space. If we did, I said, with appropriate rhythms, arise spontaneously dimensional autopoietic units in that space. Since I do not know programming, Francisco with another friend, Ricardo Uribe Berenguer, they could do, and we agree with Francisco that he would first author in the publishing (Varela, Maturana and Uribe, 1975) (see Figure 1).
The dynamics of reactions was proposed as follows: Sean

particles A, B, and M, and let her run the following: 1 .-

2B + A => M + A

2 .- M + M =>
MM MM + M => MMM

3 .- M => 2B

4 .- MMMMM is permeable to the passage of B.

5 .- The M chain is flexible and movable, and can close on itself.

Fig. 1

In conducting the program arose spontaneously in an autopoietic unity in the space of computer graphics. My purpose in this modeling was to show a generative relationship that gave rise to an autopoietic unity as something new in a completely different level domain of operation of its components. At the same time wanted to show that an autopoietic unity was simply the result of spontaneous organization of a set of elements in a particular composite unity as a result of the operation of their properties without any of these to predict what would happen. Anything new that comes as a result of a dynamic generative, arises as a historical novelty, and is inherently new. "

Thanks to this concept of autopoiesis, we can better understand that things are alive and that things do not, however, there are many autopoietic systems that are not alive, such an enterprise (organization remains domestic and "build itself").
Basically, we now know that not all autopoietic systems are living systems, but all living systems are autopoietic systems!, more specifically, living systems are molecular autopoietic systems.

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How evolving a complex eye from something simple? Why

In an earlier talk about Pax-6, an operator of eyes gene is present in both flies and humans, showing that genetic mechanisms to create eyes are highly conserved throughout the animal kingdom. However, do not talk about a question that perhaps many were made: How evolving a complex eye?, We let again the great biologist Richard Dawkins explain us (I recommend watching the video with high quality):



As you can see, because we have representatives present with eyes "primitive", such as snails and worms, we can easily build a line to explain how it is forming a complex eye in camera from just a "point" that only discriminates between light and dark. This solution is that many animals have come (Including us). However, other animals have come to different solutions, such as the compound eyes of insects.

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Artist's Kepler-10b. Credit: NASA

Yesterday I finished the day with the announcement of the discovery of the first Earth-like exoplanet detected by the Kepler space telescope. Kepler has the name of 10-by is a planetary body mass of 4.45 Earth radius is 1.4 times that of our planet and is located at 560 light years away. This discovery was announced at 217 American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle.

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According to Douglas, a NASA scientist who has participated in the discovery, "Kepler's discovery of 10-b is a milestone in the search for Earth's sister planets." I am not entirely agree with him, and who is brother-in size rather older brother, but not in distance to their parent star as it is extremely close to, about 20 times closer than Mercury is from our Sun , so the more you brother, I would call "cousin." However, I believe that this discovery represents an important point in the detection of Earth-like exoplanets, as he looks to be open season on the discovery of these bodies exoplanetary.

Because of the distance to its parent star, the exoplanet is outside what we know as the occupied zone, but this gives us the only thing on this planet is that there is no liquid water due to high temperature, so there is no life as we know it on Earth.

Continuing the theme of life beyond Earth, the journal Philosophical Transactions , published by the Royal Society , puts the fuss, and never better, noting that the UN should prepare an action plan for a possible contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, and that it is possible to be a "hostile encounter."

Simon Conway Morris, University of Cambridge, said with a sentence full of sensationalism peliculera and saying "we must be prepared for the worst", and also Morris ventures to say that these beings, as if they had evidence of them, "will very similar to us. "

Kepler's discovery of 10-b is a great find, I hope to be made public in February found further confirmation for the Kepler space telescope. With respect to the Philosophical Transactions published by , texts like these make you lose the prestigious British Royal Society and a company of this caliber should not enter into thematic focus toward sensationalism, sensationalism and the desire to draw attention to data that do not exist. ---


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fruit fly is so used by the biologists?

Whenever I'm asked about my work, people are amazed and can not understand the fact that a study of flies (plus the fact that they come to mind the black flies that haunt the poop). However, one does not use a lot of flies because you are interested in these insects (unless you're an entomologist), but rather because they are an excellent model for understanding how genes work, and as we have seen, the molecular mechanisms involved in how genes are basically the same for all animals on this planet (Is the reason this?, very simple, evolution).
If some do not know this little bug, looks like this:

His real name is Drosophila melanogaster, this is an insect of the order Diptera, an order which also includes mosquitoes and flies. Its common name is "fruit fly" or "fruit flies" as their main food in the wild are decaying fruit.
Its life cycle is that of a holometabolous insect, this means that after the adults lay eggs, they hatch into larvae, which are aimed to feed. Then these larvae transform into pupae, which emerge from the imago (adult) whose main goal is reproduction. This complete cycle is quite fast, a little over 2 weeks, which is the first major advantage of Drosophila as an experimental model, and you can do and get crosses generations in a reasonably short time.
At the genetic level, we find another major advantage of Drosophila , a completely sequenced genome and 4 pairs of chromosomes, one pair of sex (X and Y) and 3 pairs of autosomes, of which only the first 2 are relevant to geneticists, since the fourth chromosome is very small and not useful for transgenesis. However, there is the number of chromosomes in itself a great advantage (although it is much better than using an animal with dozens of them), but the existence of "chromosomes rocker", a powerful tool that offers this model.
rocker chromosomes have several features, one does not recombine during meiosis with their counterparts, so, if you have an animal heterozygous for a rocker, never mix genes across generations, even better, if a fly is homozygous for chromosomes rocker, will never develop, because, in general, these chromosomes contain lethal recessive genes, which are homozygous in the animal's death in such early stages of development as the embryo. Also, if the animal is heterozygous for the rocker (containing the gene of interest in its counterpart), is easily identifiable by their phenotype, as these chromosomes containing dominant markers, such as curved wings (a swing of the second chromosome), clipped wings (a swing of the third chromosome), etc. In this way, you only need to use a magnifying glass to know if the fly in question is homozygous for our gene of interest or heterozygous.
These are the main advantages has Drosophila genetics in thick, which allow you to cross and get a simple recombinant and effectively. However, the true fame of this animal are powerful molecular tools it has, but we will leave that for later. For now, geneticists believe me that these flies are a real goose that lays golden eggs.

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Will we find life beyond Earth in 2011?

Kepler Space Telescope in the cleanroom

before being released. Credit: Ball Aerospace

Surely the answer to the question is: NO. But be optimistic ...

Science for the search for life is making great strides. In 2010 there were at least two attempts with regard: first, the exoplanet Gliese 581g nestled amid the habitability of its parent star, but finally had to be removed from the catalog for further analysis by other research teams were not clairvoyant to prove its existence, the second attempt, still controversial, was the famous GFAJ-1 bacteria, presumably, can incorporate arsenic instead of phosphorus in their DNA.

Few things get the first opportunity, but someone had to do something fundamental: the first step. Exoplanets in the habitable zones of their parent stars, creatures that can incorporate other elements in their DNA or any other relevant or innovative discovery opens many doors in the research, especially in finding life than we know on Earth. But we must be careful, because sometimes, the desire to publish makes investigations are carried out too quickly and are not as valid as they should.

In February, it is believed that the Kepler space satellite publish the leading candidate exoplanet detected so far, in June 2010 and were more than 700 and all of them, 400 are thought to be confirmed as such. The most interesting will be the type Country, and among those 400, some will be ...

Although in 2011 is no life beyond Earth, do not despair, because if they discover a style GFAJ bacteria-1 that has been exchanged for other elements in DNA , we might be able to find life than we know on Earth. Surely this way of life is comfortable in conditions hostile for other living beings on our planet, and put to speculate, who knows if these hostile conditions are given in an exoplanet detected by Kepler? Time will tell.

A small clarification is that when it comes to search life, we are talking about "boring bacteria" without technology curve and unable to travel from one planet to another at relativistic speeds. To search for intelligent life, you first need to point the telescopes at our own planet ...

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