My gut microbiome is better than yours…maybe.. who knows right now. Based on 22 faecal metagenomes from four countries scientists from the Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract (MetaHIT) Consortium have identified three robust gut microbiome types. Their person specific association and effect on health and development is still not clear, but it is a really cool finding in gut metagenome research.
How much life have we sent to Mars?
It has been estimated that about one trillion microbial spores from spacecraft are now scattered around Mars. At the start of the space age all spacefaring nations signed a treaty to agree to avoid harmfully contaminating other planets, and everything taken to the Moon landings was sterilized. 40 years later and the rules have become relaxed.
At the end of 2011 a Russian mission will for the first time intentionally take two capsules of microbial spores to one of Mars’s moons, Phobos. A lander carrying the capsules will touch down, do some research, then bring the still sealed capsules back to Earth. The idea is it will hopefully prove the theory of Transpermia.
Read the full story here at NewScientist.
(via 8bitfuture)
Gay mice rejoice! Finally male mice too can have babies with each other! If only Elton John and David Furnish could have waited a few decades…
The procedure involves iPS cells derived from one of the male parents. Yay iPS! Oh yeah, there is a female chimera created to induce these XO (lacking Y chromosome) iPS cells to form oocytes… Talk about dedicated surrogate!
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Metagenome of the microbiome of Leaf-cutter ants is much like that of bovines! Not too surprising… But still interesting!
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You better count your chromosomes twice! Basically, aneuploid Arabidopsis look funky…
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Love me some hydrogen! Especially when it is coming at a rate of “465 μmol per mg of chlorophyll per hour in the presence of glycerol”. Cyanothece 51142 is a special little bug because of its ability to produce high levels of hydrogen gas aerobically. Hopefully these cute little things can be optimized and cultured on a larger-scale (the paper reports they can be grown in somewhat large-scale conditions too!).
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Maybe not so much Arsenic after all. Do your controls!!!
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I hope you have seen this! Arsenic! Maybe?
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From gargantuan to minute, life is everything. Click on the pictures to read the full stories!
