Scientists report that they have reconstructed the genome of Neanderthals, a human species that was driven to extinction some 30,000 years ago, probably by the first modern humans to enter Europe. The Neanderthal genome, when fully analyzed, is expected to shed light on many critical aspects of human evolution. It will help document two important sets of genetic changes: those that occurred between 5.7 million years ago, when the human line split from the line leading to chimpanzees, and 300,000 years ago, when Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans parted ways; and second, the changes in the human line after it diverged from Neanderthals. An early inference that can be drawn from the new findings, which were announced Thursday in Leipzig, Germany, is that there is no significant trace of Neanderthal genes in modern humans. This confounds the speculation that modern humans could have interbred with Neanderthals, thus benefiting from the genes that adapted the Neanderthals to the cold climate that prevailed in Europe in last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago. Researchers have not ascertained if human genes entered the Neanderthal population. Possessing the Neanderthal genome raises the possibility of bringing Neanderthals back to […]
In some countries social order has already begun to break down in the face of soaring food prices and spreading hunger. Could the worldwide food crisis portend the collapse of global civilization? One of the toughest things for us to do is to anticipate discontinuity. Whether on a personal level or on a global economic level, we typically project the future by extrapolating from the past. Most of the time this works well, but occasionally we experience a discontinuity that we failed to anticipate. The collapse of civilization is such a case. It is no surprise that many past civilizations failed to grasp the forces and recognize signs that heralded their undoing. More than once it was shrinking food supplies that brought about their downfall. Water tables are falling in countries that contain half the world’s people, including the three biggest grain producers — China, India, and the United States. REUTERS Water tables are falling in countries that contain half the world’s people, including the three biggest grain producers — China, India, and the United States. Does our civilization face a similar fate? Until recently it did not seem possible, but our failure to deal with the […]
Almost 40 percent of Americans support criminal investigations into the Bush Administration’s use of harsh interrogations and warrantless wiretapping program, even after President George W. Bush left office, a USA Today/Gallup poll found Thursday. Forty-one percent favor a criminal investigation into the Bush Administration’s use of the Justice Department for political purposes; 38 percent favor an investigation for the Administration’s warrantless wiretapping and 38 percent favor a criminal probe for the possible use of torture in terrorism investigations. Close to two-thirds of respondents also said they’d like to see formal investigations of Bush policies, even if not criminal probes. These results are based on a Jan. 30-Feb. 1 USA Today/Gallup poll. Strikingly, Gallup and USA Today presented the polls in entirely different lights. USA Today headlined their article, ‘Poll: Most want inquiry into anti-terror tactics,’ while Gallup bannered theirs, ‘No Mandate for Criminal Probes of Bush Administration.’ Bush, meanwhile, claimed a mandate for his agenda in 2000 with just 48 percent of the popular vote. One third of respondents said they wanted nothing to be done. Another third favored an independent panel, with 25 percent favoring neither. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, […]
An in-depth study by Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors Corp. has found that plant and forestry waste and dedicated energy crops could sustainably replace nearly a third of gasoline use by the year 2030. The goal of the ’90-Billion Gallon Biofuel Deployment Study’ was to assess whether and how a large volume of cellulosic biofuel could be sustainably produced, assuming technical and scientific progress continues at expected rates. The study was conducted over a period of nine months. Researchers assessed the feasibility, implications, limitations, and enablers of annually producing 90 billion gallons of ethanol – sufficient to replace more than 60 billion of the estimated 180 billion gallons of gasoline expected to be used annually by 2030. Ninety billion gallons a year exceeds the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal for ethanol production established in 2006. The ’90 Billion Gallon Study’ assumes 75 billion gallons would be ethanol made from nonfood cellulosic feedstocks and 15 billion gallons from corn-based ethanol. The study examined four sources of biofuels: agricultural residue, such as corn stover and wheat straw; forest residue; dedicated energy crops, including switchgrass; and short rotation woody crops, such as willow and poplar trees. It examines the […]
New research provides strong support for the idea that one of the key functions of sleep is the consolidation of memories. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 12th issue of the journal Neuron, provides fascinating insight into the cellular mechanisms that govern the sleep-dependent consolidation of experiences that occur while we are awake. Although sleep is thought to facilitate memory and learning, the molecular links between sleep and synaptic plasticity are not well understood. Ocular dominance plasticity (ODP) is a classic model of experience-dependent cortical plasticity that allows scientists to follow specific changes in the visual cortex in response to the occlusion of one eye. ‘We have shown that ODP is consolidated by sleep,’ says senior study author Dr. Marcos G. Frank from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. ‘Our previous studies indicate that the underlying mechanisms, though still unknown, may involve N-methyl D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and intracellular kinases.’ Dr. Frank and colleagues performed a series of experiments designed to test this hypothesis. The researchers found that sleep consolidates ODP primarily by strengthening cortical responses to stimulation of the nondeprived eye. NMDAR- and protein kinase A-mediated intracellular cascades […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
