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Futurology #125 — Earth & humans
Monday, 04 January 2010
Microsoft's new virtual map includes up-to-date air and water quality readings: Microsoft 's Bing Maps and Virtual Earth services (an alternative to Google Maps and its more powerful sibling Google Earth) has introduced a special environmental data feed that integrates with it in real-time.
Eye on Earth is a joint project between Microsoft and the European Environment Agency which uses data from the EEA and overlays it on map images from Bing to provide users with up-to-date information on air and water quality across the EEA's 32 member countries.
[Comment: Well, I'm glad nuclear war is off the list]
New antibiotic causes bacterial suicide: Researchers at Boston University and MIT have discovered a new type of antibiotic agent that causes bacteria to eventually kill themselves.
The researchers found that the drug hydroxyurea kills bacteria by inducing them to produce materials toxic to themselves.
The drug is known for inhibiting the enzyme critical for making the building blocks for DNA. For decades, it has been used to halt DNA replication in E. coli, yeast and cancerous cells.
[Comment: But will it clean the house?]
Cleaning the house to build your own superbugs: A new study has confirmed that antibiotics aren't the only worry when it comes to building the resistance of superbugs.
Scientists at the National University of Ireland tested the effectiveness of a common hospital and home disinfectant, benzalkonium chloride (BKC) on a easily found pathogen, pseudomonas aeruginosa. The pathogen tends to infect those already weakened by illness.
[Comment: Build your own superbugs, it's easy]
Firefly genes in your brain: Bioluminescence could save your life soon. Researchers have been able to inject brain tumor cells with a firefly gene, so they can identify the types of cells that spread.
Researchers at A*STAR in Singapore and the United States used a method called "gene transfection" to develop brain-tumor cells that expressed a firefly gene, so they would emit light. They looked for the cells that were the most mobile within a three-dimensional matrix, and it turned out "the most invasive cells express a gene that makes them mobile." That same gene has been associated with reduced survival in cancer patients.
[Comment: I feel much better but I feel a strange buzzing in my head]
IO9's most controversial scientific discoveries of 2009: A 44-million-year-old hominid, water on the moon — but some of what we learned wasn't as awesome as we'd hoped. LiveScience takes a look at the news that caused scientific controversy this year.
They include Dinosaurs wiped out by algae, fetuses have memories in the womb and 'Climategate'.
[Comment: Boys need more attention – presumably because they have less]
Contact lenses could monitor diabetes: For diabetics, finger pricking could be a thing of the past. A biochemical engineer has developed contact lenses embedded with nanoparticles that react with the glucose in tears. As glucose levels change, so does the colour of the lens.
[Comment: I'm seeing red, you're seeing blue]
Move your farm five miles south every decade: You can outrun global warming — just move your ecosystem about a half-mile closer to one of the poles every year. A new study suggests you scoot your farm slightly south (or north) next spring, about 8.5kms for each decade.
The overall trend of global warming is pushing climate bands gradually further away from the equator, and ecosystems are struggling to keep up with their moving favored temperatures. The research team combined data on the current climate and temperature gradients globally with predictions for the next century, in order to map the "temperature velocity" of the planet.
[Comment: Er, or we could just halt global warming]
Why did our bigger-brained predecessors vanish? Two farmers in a small South African town found a rather strange looking skull while digging in a drainage ditch. The skull, dated 10,000-30,000 years old. SH Haughton, one of South Africa's few formally trained paleontologists at the time, found this human-like skull was capable of protecting a brain 25 per cent larger than our own.
SInce our brains are 25 per cent larger than those of the now defunct Homo Erectus, and we were able to accomplish so much with that 25 per cent extra, what could a brain 50 per cent larger than a Homo Erectus brain do?
Also, whatever genus owned the skull also had small, childlike features — a Boskop face only takes up 1/5 of its cranium size, while a typical European adult face takes up roughly 1/3 of its cranium size. IO9 wonders what happened to this branch of Homo.
[Comment: They probably invented space travel and just left us to it ... haven't we done well?]
