http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9449

Muscle and bone bring animated characters to life

The program analyses a character’s body shape and works out
the skeleton and muscles that fit inside (Image: Jian Zhang/Xiaosong Yang)

“A system that automatically generates a biologically accurate skeleton and muscles could help movie and games animators create characters who move more realistically… In real life the way people look when they move is governed by their bones and muscles. By starting from the inside with a skeleton and working outwards by adding muscles it is possible to make very realistic animations that can even be used by surgeons (see Virtual humans aid surgery and product design).

Zhang and his colleague Xiaosong Yang (National Centre for Computer Animation in Bournemouth, UK.) have developed a system that takes the outward appearance of a character and automatically generates a skeleton and muscles to fit inside.”

Nice… but I prefer animations to look a bit crap.

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ANU – OVC – MEDIA – MEDIA RELEASES – 2006 – JUNE – 300606DIXONDNA

http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Media/Media_Releases/_2006/_June/_300606DixonDNA.asp

Scientists crack DNA replication mystery

Tus replication terminator

“A team of scientists led by Professor Nick Dixon at the Research School of Chemistry at The Australian National University have cracked one of the great DNA mysteries.

For more than 20 years scientists have tried in vain to understand the last step in the copying of DNA in cells that are about to divide…”

Clues: it involves replisomes, a small protein called TUS, and DNA bases flipping over and inserting into perfectly shaped pockets…

Telegraph.co.uk – Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph – Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml;jsessionid=5HPDK5WH1ZPG1QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/connected/2006/06/27/ecsolumn27.xml&sSheet=/connected/2006/06/27/ixconn.html

The extraordinary life of the single-cell parasite that
makes mice lose their fear of cats

“Around one in four readers of this column has their brain infected with a potentially lethal parasite. The single-celled creature, Toxoplasma gondii, a relative of the agent of malaria, attacks not just Daily Telegraph readers but those of Le Monde (the incidence in France is more than twice that in Britain), together with many other mammals.

One of Toxoplasma’s talents is subtle indeed. In nature, most cats, big or small, eat only live prey. It would hence be foolish of the parasite to kill its mouse or (for those infections transmitted by lions, its human) host and so destroy its own chance for sex.

Instead, for mice and rats at least, Toxoplasma changes its targets’ behaviour to make them easier prey. A parasitised mouse loses its terror of cats – and, far from running away from the vicious carnivore’s smell as normal, takes an appreciative sniff, turns round and marches proudly towards its feline nemesis.

A grateful parasite then celebrates its nuptials in the satisfied pet’s intestine.”

— extract from Steve Jones, ‘View from the lab’.

Will return to this later… off out for some Chinese food now…

Extreme Knitting: Science Videos – Science News – ScienCentral

http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392811

Hyperbolic crochet

“I had been studying hyperbolic geometry for a long time, but until this actually got crocheted, nobody could describe what it was going to look like… There it is — I still can’t describe it, I just have to say, ‘Look!'” – David Henderson

NB: This post is to celebrate my recent elevation to the over-the-hill at 40 club — I thought it appropriate to add some knitting and crochet stuff (not that I have a clue how to to do either and have no desire to learn).

Apologies if this has done the rounds already – I’m new to all this pipe and slippers stuff. Something tells me it’s not really my thing…

Device Effective In Zapping The Pain Out Of Migraines

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/headzap.htm

Zapper brings hope to migraine sufferers

“An electronic device designed to “zap” away migraine pain before it starts may be the next form of relief for millions of people who suffer from the debilitating disease. Results of a study found that the experimental device appears to be effective in eliminating the headache when administered during the onset of the migraine.”

Eavesdropping fringe-lipped bats spread culture through sound

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/uota-efb061906.php

Eavesdropping fringe-lipped bats spread culture through sound

A fringe-lipped bat eating a tngara frog
Image: Alexander T. Baugh

“Like a diner ordering a dessert based solely on the “oohs” and “aahs” of a customer eating the same dish the next table over, frog-eating bats learn to eat new prey by eavesdropping on their neighbors as they eat… bats quickly learned to associate a new frog call with edible prey by observing their neighbor eating, even when the call comes from a frog they wouldn’t normally eat.”

This is the first study to show cultural transmission of learning through acoustic, rather than visual or olfactory, prey cues. I suspect more will follow – particularly in animals such as bats who communicate largely by acoustic means.

The Loom : Humans As Cat Chow

http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2006/06/17/humans_as_cat_food.php

Humans as cat food

Another interesting essay by Carl Zimmer, concerning a paper in PLOS Genetics:

“Two hundred thousand years ago or thereabouts, an African lion killed someone. Along with a meal, the big cat got a wicked stomachache. Today a record of that unfortunate death still survives, in the bacteria that make big cats sick.”

Scientists looking at the origin of the ulcer-causing bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, have concluded from genome examination that big cats got their ulcer bugs from us.

Doctors want to screen out embryos with autism – Times Online

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2230764,00.html

Here’s a story in the news that I was tempted to thumb down because I so don’t like what the doctors are proposing… but I resisted because I feel that the story itself is worth reading (although full of holes!) and should spark debate.

“Doctors want to screen out embryos with autism”

“A team of doctors at one of Britain’s leading hospitals wants to create the country’s first “designer babies” free from autism.

They are preparing an application to the fertility watchdog that would allow them to screen out male embryos to reduce significantly the chance of a couple having an autistic child. As boys are four times more likely to be born with autism than girls, couples with a family history of the condition want to ensure they have only girls. Such sex selection is not at present permitted.”

I will comment later.

Plants Go TOPLESS

Tags

genetics, plants

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/06/plants_go_topless.php

See also: http://www-ciwdpb.stanford.edu/research/research_barton.php and http://www-ciwdpb.stanford.edu/news/archived_news_barton.php (source of images used in this review).

Plants go topless 😉

TOPLESS mutant embryo showing root
development at both poles of the embryo
(Photograph by J. Long).

Scientists in California have created a double-tailed plant: a mutant with a second root where its stalk would typically reside. The mutant was grown in order to study how the fate of a plant is determined in its embryonic stages – perhaps leading to agricultural plants with ‘more desirable traits’.

A variant of the gene known as TOPLESS can cause the development of a root instead of a shoot during the development of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Wild-type (left) and TOPLESS mutant (right) Arabidopsis embryos

Normally, the TOPLESS gene codes for a repressor protein, which inactivates the genes that cause root development in the shoot area of the plant. But when the TOPLESS gene is deactivated through mutation, root-producing genes are activated, and the fate of the top half of the plant cell goes from shoot to root.

Software tracks proteins inside living cells

Tags

biology, cells

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9333

CellTracker can identify a cell’s outer membrane (purple),
that of its nuclei (blue) and the proteins inside it (green)
(Image: Mike White, Douglas Kell)

“A computer system that automatically tracks the movements of proteins within a living cell has been developed by a team of biologists and computer vision experts. It could save researchers the hours often spent analysing microscope images by hand, to determine the way a cell works.”

 

Having spent many, many hours analysing microscope images by hand, I am giving this a big thumbs up! Looks like a promising project.