“…researchers have pinpointed the protein that can lead to genetic changes that cause lung cancer…the production of a protein called FANCD2 is slowed when lung cells are exposed to cigarette smoke. Low levels of FANCD2 leads to DNA damage, triggering cancer. Cigarette smoke curbs the production of ‘caretaker’ proteins, like FANCD2, which normally prevent cancer by fixing damages in DNA and causing faulty cells to commit suicide…”…Although there are probably other proteins involved in this process, we know this is a key one because cells with very high levels of FANCD2 were resistant to the toxic effects of the smoke.”…” Full Slice

“…The discovery of a human settlement at Monte Verde in the mid-1970s provided the first evidence that people had inhabited the Americas before the spread of the so-called Clovis culture around 13,000 years ago.

Scientists were long mystified how people could have reached the southern tip of South America without leaving much evidence along the way.

But many now believe the first Americans spread down the coast where they could exploit the sea for food…The lack of archaeological evidence of this migration may be due to rising sea levels.

At the time sea levels were about 200 feet (61 meters) lower than they are today, and many of the early coastal settlements may now be underwater….” Full Slice

Anyone that has watched children play at the beach or hiked along the beach would recognize the possibility of early people`s using some form of floatation device to travel along a shore. Maybe “scientists” will catch up to common sense some day. And yes, I understand about “necessary proof” etc.

Fungal Breakdown:

The bane of military quartermasters may soon be a boon to biofuels producers. The genome analysis of a champion biomass-degrading fungus has revealed a surprisingly minimal repertoire of genes that it employs to break down plant cell walls, highlighting opportunities for further improvements in enzymes customized for biofuels production.

…a team led by Laurent Koechlin of the Observatoire Midi Pyrénées in Toulouse, France, says a powerful “Fresnel imager” could be made by launching a piece of metal foil, cut with the Fresnel pattern and attached to a solid frame, into space. A spacecraft equipped with a camera and other scientific instruments would sit at the focal point some distance away and record the observations…

…A 30-metre Fresnel imager would be powerful enough to see Earth-sized planets within 30 light years of Earth, and measure the planets’ light spectrum to look for signs of life, such as atmospheric oxygen.

“Glass, sand, toothpaste, and silly putty are among the various materials that can act like a solid or a liquid, depending on the conditions…Finally, the authors suggest that their theory could also be applied to sticking vs slipping of seismic fault ruptures, shear banding in metallic alloys, strain softening in colloidal glasses, and stop-and-go driving in traffic jams.” Full Slice

“A research team…has demonstrated that the metal-organic framework material MOF-74 can absorb more hydrogen than any unpressurized framework structure studied to date, and packs the molecules in more densely than they would be if frozen in a block.

By achieving technologically relevant levels of gravimetric density for stored hydrogen without either the extremely high pressures for gaseous hydrogen or extremely low temperatures for liquid hydrogen, MOF-74 could enable practical mobile hydrogen storage…MOF-74 resembles a series of tightly packed straws comprising mostly carbon atoms with columns of zinc ions running down the inside walls. A gram of the material has about the same surface area as two basketball courts….” Full Slice

The article

“Researchers have identified a key player in the killing of brain cells after a stroke or a seizure. The protein asparagine endopeptidase (AEP) unleashes enzymes that break down brain cells’ DNA, scientists…have found…While some brain cells die directly because of lack of oxygen, others undergo programmed cell death, a normal developmental process where cells actively destroy their own DNA…At first, [scientists] thought the results of a critical experiment that led them to AEP were an aberration because the experiment was performed under overly acidic conditions.

“But if you can repeat the mistake, it’s not a mistake,”…” Full Slice

“A team of researchers…have synthesized a stable inorganic metal oxide cluster which catalyzes the fast and effective oxidation of water to oxygen. The work, a step toward artificial photosynthesis and the efficient production of hydrogen through solar energy…” Full slice

“…The reflection of short wavelengths like ultraviolet gives a good indication of the occurrence of cloud particles, but the utility of ultraviolet observations is enhanced by the presence of an as-yet unidentified ultraviolet absorber in the atmosphere of Venus, which shows up in the form of dark streaks on ultraviolet images….” Full Slice

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet’s north pole.

“What do marathoners and heart failure patients have in common? More than you think according to new findings by physiologists…The new study shows that the fatigue that marathoners and other extreme athletes feel at the end of a race is caused by a tiny leak inside their muscles that probably also saps the energy from patients with heart failure.The leak – which allows calcium to continuously leak inside muscle cells – weakens the force produced by the muscle and also turns on a protein-digesting enzyme that damages the muscle fibers….” Full Slice

The Full Paper

“…Researchers have reconstructed proteins that were likely to have been used billions of years ago by the ancestors of modern bacteria and have found that these proteins provide estimates of the early earth’s temperatures that match those generated by geologists….” Full Slice

“…The researchers were surprised to find another subset of 84 genes triggered when either silicon or iron were limited, suggesting that these two pathways were somehow linked. Under low-iron conditions, the diatoms grew more slowly and genes involved in the production of the silica shell were triggered. Individual diatoms also tended to clump together under those conditions, making them even heavier and more likely to sink

The response of thin and thick cell walls depending on the amount of iron available had been observed at sea but “no one had a clue about the molecular basis,”…” Full Slice

My friend Tom Hill sends this out to the DC area Martians, and I endorse the basic idea: (Moon: No! Asteroids/Mars: Yes!)

If there were scads of dough, I would cavil not at the Moon, but there aren’t, and I do.

“The stripped-out shell of a heart has been made to work again - using brand new cells planted inside it…In just four days, the cells had multiplied and spread to such an extent that the researchers could see contractions in the new muscle tissue.

By the eight day, the home-grown hearts were capable of pumping, albeit at only 2% of the power of a normal rat heart…”When we saw the first contractions we were speechless.”…” Full Slice