Hans Roy, a geomicrobiologist from Aarhus University in Denmark and his team hauled a chunk of red colored mud from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He did not expect any surprises but he got one. Hans and his team embarked upon a month and a half long journey to only study the chemistry of the seafloor. The goal was to determine how much oxygen it absorbs from the water up above. Roy realized that some of the expected oxygen was missing after comparing the predicted levels of oxygen to the new measurements they had pulled up. Roy and his team believe that a hidden population of microbes was living in the mud, breathing in the oxygen. This is a prime example of why we should always expect the unexpected. Life can exist even in the most unexpected. Down at the depths of the seafloor, there are hidden, ancient organisms, just barely alive.

 

 

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and www.scientificamerican.com

When people hear about E.Coli poisoning, many automatically think of it as caused from eating beef. The outbreak traced back to raw spinach is a reminder that the dreadful bacteria can spread through the droppings of animals to the produce growers’ soil, fertilizer, and water. The Microbiologists, Andrew Brabban and Betty Kutter’s goal is to destroy the disgusting bug in the intestines of the livestock; the prime source of the problem. They plan on doing this by using a virus that is a natural enemy of E.Coli. While students were studying E.Coli in sheep at the USDA Food and Feed safety research Unit, researchers at Washington’s Evergreen State College discovered the enemy virus. “Everytime they tried to infect the sheep with E.Coli, the sheep seemed to be within two days perfectly happy and they couldn’t find the bacteria,” says Brabban. “They had some natural resistance.” This is an interesting discovery.

 Information obtained at wwwdiscovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.wikimedia.org and www.usda.gov

A new weapon against malaria comes from an unexpected place. It actually comes from the guts of a mosquito. George Dimopoulos, a microbiologist from John Hopkins University discovered a class of Enterobacter bacteria that lives inside of certain Zambian mosquitoes. It causes the insect to be resistant to Plasmodium falciparum, which is a parasite that causes malaria. The two microbes were placed into a petri dish. When they squared off, the Plasmodium was prevented from growing. When mosquitos sucked up the parasite along with the bacteria, the disease was not transmitted. Dimopoulos found out that the bacteria prevented the development of Plasmodium by unleashing a torrent of unstable oxygen molecules. Dimopoulos believes that those molecules are either chemical weapons that are normally used against rival bacteria or natural waste products. “The idea is to feed mosquitos in the field with an artificial nectar supplemented with bacterium,” says Dimopoulos. “It would be like a probiotic for the mosquito.” Mosquitos only have to ingest a tiny amount of the Enterobacter bacteria and they will be resistant to malaria. It is possible that the probiotic could be deployed in mass and can be strategically used throughout the tropical world. This can help to stop the mosquitos from spreading the disease to the approximate 250 million people that usually contract the disease ever year.

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com Pictures obtained at www.bimcbali.com and www.clarosci.com

Don Winget, the astronomer studies stars. His targets however are only about a yard away from him. Winget and his colleagues, for the past two have been creating plasmas that are miniature versions of white dwarf stars at the University of Texas at Austin and Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. White dwarfs are ancient stars that have burned up all of their nuclear fuel. As Winget says, “Astronomy has now become an experimental science.” Once like our sun, white dwarfs are slowly dying embers of stars. These stars collapse into Earth-sized balls that are bound tightly to oxygen and carbon nuclei with an outer layer of hydrogen plasma due to no nuclear fusion to sustain them. Astronomers have a lot to learn about the stars’ plasma exterior, due to the fact that it is the only part directly visible through a telescope. Astronomers also have a lot to learn about these white dwarf stars in general.

 

 

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com pictures obtained at www.voanews.com and www.celestiamotherlode.net

Recently, scientists are able to rebuild the vocal tracts and record the sounds of ancient creatures, including the mammoths that died out about 14,000 years ago, the now extinct Hawaiian bird, and even our 3 million year old human ancestor named, Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis). The scientists are able to do this by using three-dimensional imaging and a burgeoning knowledge of ancient anatomies. Our ancient ancestor, Lucy stood four feet tall. She swung from tree branches and was able to run on the ground with two feet. “Lucy could not speak the way we do, because she most likely had air sacs, balloon-shaped organs that attach to an extension of the hyoid bone,” says the expert in evolution of speech at Vrije University in Brussels, Bart de Boer. Modern day humans

Lack air sacs but have a bone that supports the tongue muscles. This enables us to have a wide range of vocalizations. “Air sacs make sounds louder and lower-pitched, just the way a musical instrument sounds lower and louder when it’s bigger,” says de Boer. “I was in Brazil recently and heard howler monkeys in the wild. They sounded like scary monsters because of their air sacs.”

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.nationalgeographic.com and www.physorg.com

At the Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts, John Monroe, A warrior systems integration team leader looks to the future. While thinking of ways for future soldiers to avoid getting killed in a new millennium, Monroe is in the process of developing his vision of what American soldiers might be wearing during combat many years from now. The U.S. Army is preparing to create uniforms with a chest-mounted mouse for weapons and radio control. Monroe’s future warrior concept is projected for 2025. This uniform is far-out engineering. The soldier will have night vision glasses that will correct the distortion caused by the curving visor. The soldier’s helmet called the “headgear subsystem information central” will connect with the suit of the soldier. The helmet will also be linked to the firearm so that the soldier will only have to look at his target. The gun will be voice activated, able to lock on the enemy and fire. The actual suit will be made of a bullet-resistant mesh of carbon nanotubes. The suit will contain embedded enzymes to neutralize chemical or biological weapons. This 2025 suit as of now is more like a dream due to the fact that the technology necessary for this “conceptual simulation” is years off.

 

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com and pictures obtained at www.army.mil

A lady by the name of Perla Lewis-Truong was pregnant. The due date of her baby was March 1^st. The day right after thanksgiving, Perla was admitted to the hospital. She suffered with a severe case of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a disorder that involves the rapid rising of blood pressure that can put the baby and the mother at a high risk. Doctors had no choice but to deliver the baby by a cesarean section 13 weeks earlier than the expected date. The baby, Celia, came out weighing only a pound and a half. Four months later, she was lying in the Children’s Hospital of the University of California, Davis. The baby then weighed around four pounds. She was still nearly translucent but nonetheless healthy. Luckily for Celia, the hospital she was born in had a neonatal intensive care unit. There are many problems that a premature baby can face. For example, necrotizing enterocolitis is one problem. During this, the intestinal walls deteriorate allowing bacteria to invade. Nearly 25% of babies who are diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis die. The survivors, for years will suffer from neurological problems. A neonatologist at U.C. Davis, Mark Underwood seeks better help and treatment for his patients. Unlike most doctors, Underwood focuses his attention on diet rather than drugs. It is believed by Underwood that necrotizing enterocolitis can be prevented by just giving premature babies like Celia a cocktail of probiotics and prebiotics daily. Probiotics are healthy bacteria and prebiotics are the food that those bacteria eat. This is all inspired by human milk, which he considers the “super food.”

 

 

Information obtained at www.discovermagazine.com Pictures obtained at www.whitegadget.com and www.ucdavis.edu