Caterpillar Nicotine Habits Fend off Predators

Hornworm caterpillar.

The hornworm larvae feed off of coyote tobacco plants. Hornworms possess the cytochrome P450 6B46 which passes the nicotine from the midgut to the hemolymph, which can then be used on the exhale of the spiracles. Basically the caterpillar uses their nicotine induced halitosis to defend themselves from being eaten by wold spiders. This was validated by doing an experiment where cytochrome P450 6B46 was silenced in some larvae and left alone in others. Unfortunately, the silenced cytochrome P450 6B46 where eaten up by predators because they did not acquire bad breath. The larvae with functional cytochrome P450 6B46 where less likely to be consumed by predators. The original article by Pavan Kumar, Sagar S. Pandit, Anke Steppuhn, and Ian T. Baldwin can be found here.    

Mushrooms Spread Spores by Creating Wind

Laser light illuminates spores spreading from this Amanita muscaria mushrooms. Credit: Patrick Hickey.

Marcus Roper spoke to livescience.com and explained how some species of mushrooms can generate a wind effect that moves their spores vertically and horizontally. The air flow is created by evaporation. Evaporation creates cold air and warm air from water vapor which forms the mushroom's wind. The article can be read here. 

Space Oddity

My fascination with space continues in this blog post. I'm not a huge fan of David Bowie, but I love the concept of Space Oddity. I just wanted to share some other fans beautiful translations of Space Oddity. The video above is a collection of illustrations done by Andrew Kolb. The video below is of Astronaut Chris Hadfield's revamp cover of Space Oddity shot and edited on the ISS. The commander puts a positive spin on the heartbreaking lyrics and shares the stunning view from space.   

India's MOM

India has recently launched their own spacecraft dubbed the Mars Orbiter Mission with the goal of reaching Mars. The full article can be found on BBC News here. 

Validity of Publications in Online Journals

Here is an older article from NPR that talks about the alarming number of publications of faulty research with the advent of information on the internet. These days you can pay a fee to online journals mimicking their legitimate counterparts to boost your curriculum vitae. Unfortunately, there is nothing in place currently to regulate the deceptive peer review publications. Hopefully, in the future there will be some sort of consequence for these online journals.      

Evolution of Glucose Aversion Cockroaches

German Cockroach Head taken by 

Ayako Wada-Katsumata and Andrew Ernst

​

Researchers, Ayako Wada-Katsumata, Jules Silverman, and Coby Schal, found that some German cockroaches have developed an adaptive behavior of glucose aversion. Glucose, a simple sugar, is used to cover the poison in man-made traps for cockroaches. The German cockroach has gustatory receptor neurons (basically taste buds) in their mouths. The researchers focused on the sweet and bitter gustatory receptor neurons. When the glucose aversion cockroaches were expose to fructose, another type of simple sugar, the sweet gustatory receptor neurons were activated. Activation of the sweet gustatory receptor neuron means that the cockroach will continue eating. However, when the glucose aversion cockroach was expose to glucose, the bitter gustatory receptor neuron were activated. The activation of the bitter gustatory receptor neuron causes the cockroach to stop feeding. The mutation of the glucose aversion German cockroach has helped the cockroaches evade human termination, which allows the glucose aversion German cockroach to pass on the mutation to their offspring. The evolution of the glucose aversion German cockroach is quite interesting because of its advantage in the outmaneuvering man-made traps. The original article can be found here on Science's website. ​

Nanotechnology and Health

​​This article in Scientific American reveals a tiny sponge that can soak up the toxins released by MRSA in mice, therefore allowing the infected mice to survive. The Scientific American article can be found here. The original research appeared in Nature and can be found here.

​Nanosponge

Zebrafish Thinks About Food

This is video of a thought in action!!! Original research by A. Muto, M. Ohkura, G. Abe, J. Nakai, and K. Kawakami can be found here.

Bdelloid rotifers' Horizontal Gene Transfer Ability

Bdelloid rotifer Macrotrachela quadricornifera image by Diego Fontaneto and Giulio Melone

A recent article states that the asexual reproducing organism, Bdelloid rotifer have the ability to engage in horizontal gene transfers (as oppose to vertical gene transfers which arise from  human parents to their human offspring) with eubacteria, algae, protists, and fungi. It is thought that the main benefit of asexual reproduction is that the organism is surviving in a constant environment. However, the genetic diversity found in Bdelloid rotifer exceeds that of what should arise in asexual reproduction. It was previously thought that the Bdelloid rotifer mutates its genome significantly enough so it can acquire special traits like withstanding extreme desiccation. This new research overturns current thought that asexual reproducing organism are less likely to endure evolutionary changes than sexually reproducing organisms.

Original research article by C. Boschetti, A. Carr, A. Crisp, I. Eyres, Y. Wang-Koh, E. Lubzens, T. Barraclough, G. Micklem, and A. Tunnacliffe (2012) published on PLOS Genetics can be found here.

Role Model Scientist

The eloquent words of astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson describing the connection between life and the stars.

Detroit ColLABorative

One of my goals in life is to start an open laboratory in Detroit. The lab would encourage the community to join and start their own experiments as science is best experienced in action. Every age and level would be welcomed. I hope to share my passion for science to the community. I believe that it could help alleviate the struggle of Detroiters access to science education. Unfortunately, the way science is taught currently with rote memorization and the lack of engagement with students would dampen anyone's budding curiosity into science. On top of that I feel that science should not be taught as just a singular subject as some of the best discoveries comes from the collaboration of multiple disciplines. An open dialogue between scientists and the rest of the world needs to be fostered so that greatness can be achieved.