Environmental News

Another well-known plant gets its DNA sequenced:

Ancient viruses inspired THC production in marijuana plants

Important message here is about viruses vs. somebody else's genome. We all know that viruses edit genomes aiming to (or at least with a result of) generate many more virus. We know that, right? But sometimes that editing goes awry and viral genes persist in their targets.

Genomic sequencing broadly performed shows viral 'footprints' just about everywhere they have been looked for. So, set aside Cannabis as a sparkly item. Think about genomes of plants that humans mostly rely upon for food etc. Where those are grown but generally do not grow well, there may be observed variation in performance. There, genomic variation from viral footprints may further be observed.

We've been breeding plants for goals since dawn of agriculture. Very recently, editing plant genomes towards those same goals. Besides all that it would be useful to look at what viruses have done.

 

Lack of "intermediate forms" in fossil records are often cited as evidence against (gradualist) evolution. In some cases they have been found but in general, not.

A simple explanation relies upon the scarcity and uneven preservation of fossils. New fossils and fossil species are continually being found, and I'm not aware of any rarefaction analysis attempting to predict when things might level off. Such are commonly done in other fields.

It is also possible that some intermediate forms die at early ages, and don't preserve well, or are not recognized as what they actually are. In any large bone house you will find that the vast majority of samples are identified as unknown.

All I can say is that folks 'in the biz' do not seem particularly distraught about paucity of intermediate forms.

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Darwin's Evolution 1.0 was a great leap, but very much less than what has been learned since. Recent broad and deep genomic analyses (as of mystical herb above) is really shaking things up. Reading The Book of Life in that language has only started.

 

If bones were permanent to any large extent, we'd be hip deep in them. Theology and many other 'ologies' would have gone down very different paths.

 

Electric aircraft for commercial passenger travel:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-018-0294-x#Abs1

Apparently suggests that batteries need to get 3- to 8-fold better for this to 'fly'. Visit a library for your free copy or email the coincidentally named corresponding author.

 

There are several very informative paragraphs describing CRISPR gene editing here, among some noise:

CRISPR, one of the biggest science stories of the decade, explained - Vox

 

Deep ocean waters mix slowly and await technology to reveal their information:
The long memory of the Pacific Ocean: Historical cooling periods are still playing out in the deep Pacific -- ScienceDaily

(other) Technology is good enough to extract animal information from forest soundscapes:
Forest soundscapes monitor conservation efforts inexpensively, effectively -- ScienceDaily

And as you probably already knew, overweight dogs have longevity issues:
Overweight dogs may live shorter lives -- ScienceDaily

That research funded by a dog food company, which does not by itself raise our suspicions.

 

Apparently by stardate 22whatever, transporter beaming will have had all 'bugs' worked out. But earlier testing - you can have it, sir.

 

Brazil has revised its Forest Code which may lead to increased rates of deforestation:

Revised Brazilian forest code may lead to increased legal deforestation in Amazon: Researchers show that up to 15 million hectares of forest risk losing protection owing to a new clause in the law -- ScienceDaily

 

Multi-generational migration:

Green darner dragonflies migrate a bit like monarch butterflies | Science News

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Anything about termites rings my bell:

Termites mitigate effects of drought in Tropical Rainforest -- ScienceDaily

but their DOI is DOA, so

Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest | Science

 

Hawaiian snails are sad news in general:

Native Ecosystems Protection & Management | Snail Extinction Prevention Program (SEP)

Island biota are very often replaced by arriving continental cousins. Hard to see a way around that.

 

Accurate, but not particularly constructive. I see plenty of 'value' in last few survivors of rare species. Get kids (chronological and otherwise) aware of natural systems.

This particular snail has a frozen piece in storage and may get cloned. Which would be interesting but a weak substitute for habitat conservation.

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By no means are land snails in general in trouble. They got a big boost ~150 million years ago when land plants got much more diverse. Which was itself a dandy thing, made slightly less so because nobody has a compelling story why that happened.

A large fraction are already extinct, which again is pretty much what one would expect. Their durable diverse shells are what many paleontologists did sit around and stare at. Still do.