Scientific American 60 Second Science听抄（有音频文件）

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It's Nobel Prizes season which means that the Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded October 4th in Cambridge Massachusetts.The Igs go to work that cannot, or should not, be reproduced. They allegedly are designed to first make people laugh and then make people think or think twice anyway.

Some of the winners, the medicine prize went to a study on swords swallowing. One swords swallow were did on a unicycle which could lead to the worst flat tire story ever.

The biology prize went to a Dutch researcher for her census of all the mites, insects, spiders, crustaceans, bacteria, algae, ferns and fungi that we share our beds with. Fungis were not included.

The chemistry prize was awarded to a Janpanese scientist for extracting vanilla flavoring from cow manure.Yes,the research was a flop.

Speaking of Dutch and Japanese,Spanish researchers took only linguistic prize for showing that rats sometimes can tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards . See as ??????

For more, listen to the October 10th edition of the weekly scientific American podcasts science Talk.

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for 2007, is awarded to Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells".                 
According to the October 8, 2007 press release from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2007 goes one-third, each, to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies. The press release begins by stating, “This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine – from basic research to the development of new therapies.”


The process known as gene targeting is a novel way to develop models based on mice for human disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and diabetes. Gene targeting inactivates single genes through experimentation, what is now commonly called knockout experiments. As of the Nobel Prize announcement, over ten thousand (about half of the genes in the mammalian genome) have been inactivated, or “knocked out.”

The knocking out process allows scientists to produce modifications of DNA in the mouse genome, which helps to identify the role of individual genes in various diseases. The research of Capecchi found the roles of genes in organ development, especially concerning deformations of organs at birth. Evans produced gene targeting models with respect to such diseases as cystic fibrosis and other inherited diseases. Smithies developed similar models for hypertension, atherosclerosis, and other commonly found diseases.

Mario R. Capecchi (1937--) is an Italian American professor of biology and human genetics at the University of Utah’s School of Medicine (Salt Lake City, Utah) and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chevy Chase, Maryland).



Sir Martin J. Evans (1941--) is a British professor of mammalian genetics from Cardiff University (Cardiff, United Kingdom).


Oliver Smithies (1925--) is a British American professor at the department of pathology and laboratory medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology and medicine was announced in early October 8th. The winners were Mario Capecchi from University of Utah, Martin Evans from Cardiff University, and Oliver Smithies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They won for their discovery leading to gene targeting in mice. Gene targeting allow researchers to activate individual genes. But gene absence and its true function is often revealed. Numerous genes involve in health and disease has been found using gene target. And research can not use specific gene to create mice models for human disease including diabetes and cancer. More than 500 such mouse models have been created. The package discovered genes are crucial for millions of organs development in body plane in general that work well revealed to cause severe birthday defects. Evans created model for cystic fibrosis, and Smith created model for hypertension and atherosclerosis. To read science magazine profile about Nobel packy, go to tinyurl.com/26z8wv.

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The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded at October 9th to Albert Fert of France and Germany’s Peter Grunberg for their discovery of a new physical effect called giant magnetoresistance or GMR. They independently found on the right condition weak magnet change could cause big difference in electrical resistance. That phenomenon made it possible to store vast amount of data on an ever smaller hard drives. The info on hard drive are stored in tiny area magnetized in different directions. To get more and more info packed onto a disk, the magnetic changes between sections have to be very small. But Radar head based on GMR can convert tiny magnetic difference into electric resistance difference, and thus the current corresponding to the data on a disk. GMR are considered early as an example of nanotechnology. GMR let electronics which can combine to charge in magnet and properties on electronics. See June 2002 Scientific American cover story about electronics at sciam.com

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German Gerhard Ertl will receive the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry for studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces, which are key to understanding questions like why the ozone layer is thinning.

Ertl's research laid the foundation of modern surface chemistry, which has helped explain how fuel cells work, how catalytic converters clean up car exhaust and even why iron rusts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in announcing the prize on Wednesday.

Ertl, who won the prize on his 71st birthday, told reporters that it "is the best birthday present that you can give to somebody."

The academy said Ertl provided a detailed description of how chemical reactions take place on surfaces and studied some of the most fundamental mysteries in that field.

Ertl showed how to obtain reliable results in this difficult area of research, and his findings applied in both academic studies and industrial development, the academy said.

"Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere," the award citation said.

Americans Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, and Briton Sir Martin J. Evans, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for groundbreaking discoveries that led to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes.

On Tuesday, France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the physics award for discovering a phenomenon that lets computers and digital music players store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.

Prizes for literature, peace and economics will be announced through Oct. 15.

The awards — each worth $1.5 million — will be handed out by Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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October 10th is the birthday of Germany’s Gerhard Ertl who get the best present that scientists can receive. He was awarded Nobel Prize. Ertl won the chemistry prize for his development of methods for study on how chemical reaction occurring on surfaces. Understanding surface chemistry means gaining insight into the details in such fundamental processes as rusting of iron, the work of car’s cathode converters, the function of fuel cell, and reactions that produce artificial fertilizers. Surface chemistry even comes to play in the study of intergrated Oozone layer, because chemical reactions that destroy oozen take place on the surface of ice crystals in the stratosphere. Ertl developed many of the techniques for studying surface chemistry by investigating the Heaber barsro reaction In that reaction which take place in the surface of iron, nitrogen is posed to air combine with hydrogen to form omoniar for using fertilizer. The process has been in use for century, but Ertl explained in detail for the first time. In addition to Nobel Prize, Ertl’s birthday presents include a lovely walking stick.

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine was announced in early October 8th. The winners were Mario Capecchi from University of Utah, Martin Evans from Cardiff University, and Oliver Smithies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They won for their discoveries leading to gene targeting in mice. Gene targeting allows researchers to activate individual genes. But the gene absence and its true function is often revealed. Numerous genes involved in health and disease have been found using gene target. And research can knock out specific genes to create mice models for human diseases including diabetes and cancer. More than 500 such mious models have been created. The * discovered genes are crucial for millions of organs development in body plane in general that work as revealed to causes several birth defects. Evans' developed model is for cystic fibrosis, and Smith created mouse model for hypertension and atherosclerosis. To read scientific american magazine profile of Nobel * * *, go to tinyurl.com/26z8wv.

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DNA is the genetic blueprint of all creatures — it contains the operating instructions for everyday life and for making the next generation. Very recently, an important new dimension of DNA has been revealed — it contains a vast and detailed record of how species adapt and change. That is, DNA is a living chronicle of Evolution. We can now pinpoint the precise changes in DNA that have enabled the marvelous creatures that inhabit our planet to adapt to its many shifting and sometimes extreme environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rain forest. We finally understand not just how the fittest survive, but how they are made.

In the pages of this book, leading biologist and writer Sean Carroll takes readers on an exhilarating tour of this exquisite new record.
Advance praise for The Making of the Fittest
“Crime-scene investigators love DNA evidence. It can close a case that couldn’t be solved any other way. This fascinating book presents the DNA evidence for evolution, and anyone who reads it should agree that it’s an open-and-shut case. I hope The Making of the Fittest will make a difference in the one and only place where Darwin’s case is still seriously debated--the court of public opinion.”

Jonathan Weiner
Pulitzer-prize- winning author of The Beak of the Finch

“Sean Carroll is our plain-spoken emissary from the next great revolution in biology. His earlier book, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, provides a fine introduction to the amazing field called Evo Devo. Now in The Making of the Fittest he offers something even more fundamental--glimpses of what molecular genetics is revealing about the process and course of evolution. This book is fascinating, lucid, surprising, and (in the truest sense) essential.”

David Quammen
Author of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin and The Song of the Dodo

“Sean Carroll's gift as a writer is the way in which he invites his readers to see science from the inside and the ease with which he explains the scientific wonders of cutting-edge research in biology. Always captivating, always accessible, The Making of the Fittest is a book for all readers, and one that fulfills Darwin's promise that the science of evolution would ultimately illuminate every aspect of the study of life itself. In Carroll's hands, it surely does.”

Kenneth R. Miller
Author of Finding Darwin’s God

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Random genetic evolution followed by natural selection is the workday mechanism of evolution. But occasional big genetic accidents can jumpstart the process. University of Wisconsin evolutionary biologist Sean Carol has reported in the current issue of journal Nature that looks like gene duplication which she called source of munase in the model organism of yeast. Says Carol “when you have two copies of genes, useful mutation gets arise one of both gene exposed new function reserved in old function. This phenomenon is going on all the time in living things.” In the Nature study Carol tracked a piece of last one hundred million years of yeast evolution, what happened follow the duplication of gene involved in digestion of sugar glucose. The original gene has two functions related to metaphorism of sugar. Says Carol  “Natural selection takes one gene with two functions and scorped to assemble line with two specialized gene.” And in this case two genes are better than one.

[ 本帖最后由 kevinliu6883 于 2007-10-14 07:02 编辑 ]

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You don't even have to work to make botany interesting.  This just in:

University of Utah scientists discovered a strange method of reproduction in primitive plants named cycads: The plants heat up and emit a toxic odor to drive pollen-covered insects out of male cycad cones, and then use a milder odor to draw the bugs into female cones so the plants are pollinated.

The story from Science Daily goes on to say:

Terry showed that one species of thrips -- Cycadothrips chadwicki -- pollinates the Macrozamia lucida cycads.In the new study, she discovered the hot, smelly details of how that happens.

"These cycads heat up, and associated with that heating is a huge increase in volatile fragrances emitted by the cone," Terry says. "It takes your breath away. It's a harsh, overwhelming odor like nothing you ever smelled before."

"Think of a guy with too much after shave," Roemer says.

Well.  It's clearly not "smelly" to a certain Cycadothrips chadwicki we know.

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Plants known as cycad are so old that they’re sometimes called living fossils and their sex life was thought pretty boring. The male cone, sexual part, of the plant, has pollen. The female cone has eggs. Scientists thought that wind pick up pollen and eggs and randomly mixed them together them together. But recent study show the eggs are too tightly packed to blow away. And in fact insects called thrips pollinate the plant. Now cycad sex is turning steamy. It turned out that the male cones makes chemicals that attract thrips. Then the cones heat up between 11 and 3 afternoon, they can get up to 25 degree warmer than the surrounding air. As the plants get hotter, that stinky chemical gets stronger and stronger until that it’s so overpowering that it drives their thrips out of their cycads. The pollen carrier fliys around, enter the female cones and drop their pollen packages. As the male cools down, the stink dissipate until it reach a level that once are again at thrips enticing. This process continues until the males have used up their energy reserves and female are pollinated and all are worn out.

[ 本帖最后由 kevinliu6883 于 2007-10-14 07:56 编辑 ]

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The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.

The first Ig Nobels were awarded in 1991, at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced." Ten prizes are awarded each year in many categories, including the Nobel Prize categories of physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace, but also other categories such as public health, engineering, biology, and interdisciplinary research. With the exception of three prizes in the first year (Administratium, Josiah Carberry, and Paul DeFanti), the Ig Nobel Prizes are for genuine achievements. (See List of Ig Nobel Prize winners)

The awards are sometimes veiled criticism, as in the two awards given for homeopathy research, prizes in "science education" to Kansas and Colorado state boards of education for their stance regarding the teaching of evolution, and the prize awarded to Social Text after the Sokal Affair. Most often, however, they draw attention to scientific articles that have some humorous or unexpected aspect. Examples range from the discovery that the presence of humans tends to sexually arouse ostriches, to the statement that black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell, to research on the "five-second rule," a tongue-in-cheek belief that food dropped on the floor won't become contaminated if it is picked up within five seconds.

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Science Daily — MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. A new study by biologists at Tufts University has translated what male fireflies are saying to females when they flash their lights - and it looks like the males are bragging.
The National Science Foundation-funded research found that female fireflies are strongly attracted to males who give longer flashes because it indicates they are able to be better fathers by providing more of the essential pre-natal nutrition for their offspring.

"Humans have been fascinated by fireflies for centuries, but we're just beginning to decipher the meaning behind their spectacular courtship displays," said Sara Lewis, associate professor of biology at Tufts. "This study is the first to translate the hidden meaning behind their flashes."

Lewis and her then-doctoral student Christopher Cratsley examined the link between a male firefly's flash the nutritional gift he is able to give to his mate. Their findings, published in the January/February issue of Behavioral Ecology, focused on a common firefly species (Photinus ignitus) native to New England. These fireflies can be seen flashing in open fields shortly after sunset in late June through July.

The Tufts research is part of a broader effort in the field of behavioral ecology to understand how diverse systems of communication - ranging from the firefly flash to human speech - have provided evolutionary advantages in certain species.

Fireflies have long been used by scientists for health related research and to answer basic biological questions. Other recent research has used chemicals from fireflies to test bacteria for antibiotic resistance, giving hope for human health in the battle against drug-resistant tuberculosis in developing countries.

Firefly courtship relies on detailed flash "codes" that help to identify the hundreds of different firefly species. This way the flash codes help males to court potential mates of their own species.

Lewis said that male fireflies "advertise" their availability with carefully timed light flashes, and females on the ground flash back if they're interested.

"Previous firefly research focused on flash pattern differences between firefly species," Lewis added. "But this study is one of the first to examine how and why flash patterns differ within a species."

Cratsley, who graduated with a Ph.D. from Tufts in 2000, and is now an assistant professor of biology at Fitchburg State College, explained "fireflies have an adult life of only two weeks, and during that time all of their energy is devoted to courtship and mating. At the very most, males have only about 10 opportunities to mate, so they need to stand out in the frenzied crowd of male competitors, and communicate to females that they're worthy of consideration for mating."

In their research, Cratsley and Lewis carefully recorded male flash signals, and found that some males produced longer flashes while others produced shorter ones. They used computer-generated flashes and light- emitting diodes to simulate male firefly behavior and see which flash types the females responded to most by tracking the females' response flashes. They found that females were much more responsive to the longer light flashes.

"We were curious to know why females should care so much about the duration of any male's flash," said Lewis. "We were surprised to find that flashes appear to be a male's way of bragging about what he can offer to a potential mate."

After the lights go out and mating begins, she noted, male fireflies provide females with a 'nuptial gift' that accompanies their sperm. This gift, also known as a spermatophore, is a high-protein nutritional package that females digest and use to provision their eggs. By measuring the duration of a male's flashes and comparing them to the spermatophore size of the same males, Lewis and Cratsley discovered that the length of a male firefly's flash is a good predictor of the nuptial gift he's capable of delivering.

"Because Photinus fireflies don't eat once they become adults, male nuptial gifts provide a key source of nutrition for a female and her eggs," says Cratsley.

Lewis plans to continue her firefly research to examine whether the size of nuptial gifts affects the success of fertilization. A female firefly mates with multiple males, but she controls the number of eggs that each male will fertilize. Competition for fertilization continues after mating in a process called "post-copulatory female choice." Lewis' continued research will focus on whether spermatophore size influences this choice.

"When Darwin talked about sexual selection, he spoke primarily of mate choice," said Lewis. "In recent years we have begun to realize that choice of mate isn't everything. Sexual selection continues after mating."

Lewis' previous research on how fireflies use nitric oxide to turn their flashes on and off was published in the June 2001 issue of Science.

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When it comes to courtship, females do favor flash their males. Just take a look at peacocks when brilliant hit their tail feathers. When they suit firefly, it turns out to female trong whose flash is rapid and strong. But the galaxy like big braggers display, what keeps female light show luminance’s, guy convertible with dozens of golden chain around its neck. When it turns out male fireflies too obvious and more likely to get evening, Associated scientist at Tufts University, in November issue of American Naturalist.  To determine why fireflies don’t go out when it comes to illumination, the Tufts team set up tools to cover hidden cost to produce light. They found that flash doesn’t put much strain on fireflies’ energy reserve, so it is not to try to avoid burning out. They are trying to avoid to be taken out, because bugs flash so fast tend to trap more than light their lives. They try to traptoflies looking for snack. And sad to say that there is a lot of probably something like look at me, look at me, look at me …