Megavirus nudges out Mimivirus, the former heavyweight champion of the viral world

The virus’ DNA features 1,259,197 base pairs, which encode some parasitic bacteria-like features. Unlike a virus, bacteria is a cellular organism — a virus can only infect and replicate itself within the cells of other organisms. It even has some built-in DNA repairing enzymes which allow the virus to repair damage from ultraviolet light, chemicals, and radiation.

Mimivirus was found in 1992, lurking in an amoeba in Bradford, England. Its capsid, the protein shell housing the virus’ genetic material, was 400 nanometres wide. If that still sounds pretty tiny, most viruses fall in the range between 20 and 300 nanometres, making both Mimivirus and the new Megavirus titans of the microscopic world. Mimivirus and Megavirus are believed to have diverged from a shared viral ancestor somewhere along the evolutionary road, both developing into giant viruses in their own right.

Source: Yahoo News

Many space experts also call this as Global Superstorm where snowstorms will cover large geographical areas and will cool down the Earth’s atmosphere. The Global Superstorm will have winds at speed of 300 miles per hour and can last up to months which would practically whitewash cities and geographical areas. Experts believe that the Earth is already giving us signals about the polar shift that is going to happen and it can be seen in the tornadoes that have hit America recently. The intensity of the tornadoes and winters have gone high and that could also lead to Ice Age in many hundred years to come.

“It is good to know that nature can surprise us when we are close to giving up hope, especially amidst our planets escalating extinction crisis,” amphibian scientists Robin Moore of the Virginia-based group said.

“Amphibians are at the forefront of this tragedy, so I hope that these unique species serve as flagships for conservation, inspiring pride and hope by Malaysians and people everywhere,” he was quoted in the release.

Malaysian researcher Indraneil Das set out with his team to rediscover the Sambas Stream Toad last August, searching after dark along the rugged ridges of a mountain range in western Sarawak state.

The toad was listed as one of the “World’s Top 10 Most Wanted Lost Frogs” as part of a campaign by CI and another group to encourage scientists around the world to seek out amphibians that had not been seen in a decade or longer.

After months of combing through the jungle, the Sarawak team eventually discovered a small toad up a tree, which turned out to be the missing Sambas Stream Toad. In total, they found three individuals up three different trees.

“Thrilling discoveries like this beautiful toad, and the critical importance of amphibians to healthy ecosystems, are what fuel us to keep searching for lost species,” Das was quoted in the release.

“They remind us that nature still holds precious secrets that we are still uncovering, which is why targeted protection and conservation is so important,” he said.

Das already made headlines last year after he discovered Asia’s tiniest frog, which is the size of a pea, in a national park in Sarawak state.

Sarawak and neighbouring Sabah states make up Malaysia’s half of Borneo island, which is shared with Indonesia.

Source: MSN

French drugs group Sanofi said on Friday that its vaccine against dengue, a mosquito-borne infection that kills thousands of people around the world each year, could be launched in about four years. — PHOTO: AP

BANGKOK – FRENCH drugs group Sanofi said on Friday that its vaccine against dengue, a mosquito-borne infection that kills thousands of people around the world each year, could be launched in about four years. ‘The vaccine could be available… around 2015,’ Jean Lang, head of vaccine development at the group’s subsidiary Sanofi-Pasteur, told reporters in Bangkok.

The launch date is dependent on regulatory approval in each country based on the results of trials. The vaccine is the first for dengue to undergo advanced ‘Phase III’ clinical trials – the final stage before the results are submitted for regulatory approval.

About 4,000 children in the central Thai province of Ratchaburi, one of the worst affected areas in the country, are participating in a study that aims to establish the efficacy of the vaccine. Dengue causes severe, flu-like symptoms in about 50 million people every year, mainly in developing countries. There are four strains, one of which is a potentially lethal type. — AFP

Source: Straits Times

How Did They Excavate

Scientists used their brains and got the success in finding the ant colonies. They dug out 10 tonnes of cement down under the tubes or a hole made by ants into the mud. After a month with the help of scientist Louis Fortune, they discovered some giant and complex structures made by ant which seems to be a masterpiece amongst all. With the help of digging machines, loads and tonnes of earth’s soil was dug and they found subterranean highways connected to the main chambers and some fungus gardens too. This design was provided shortest path of transporting with great excellence and ventilation facility.

Everything seems to be truly designed by an architect. This Ant colony was a little complex owing to the fact that this was of 50 square meters in structure and 8 meters deep into the earth.

Purpose and Reason – The Giant colony of Ants is so huge for the size of the creature that it seems to be equivalent to the building of Great Wall of China. Although it can’t be seen from moon as the Great Wall of China, it can be easily called as one of the wonders of the world. The video shows that though ants are too small in size, their power cannot be underestimated when they work in unity. They have had known to achieve great things despite their small size.

Summary of the Video

The video talks about the effort spent by the scientists in the excavation process. The amount of cement removed was huge before the excavation work could be started. The scientists removed tonnes of earth with the help of special machines and diggers. The site is located on a side route coming from the main route. Tunnels are designed in such a way so as to provide quick transportation and adequate ventilation facility. The superb structure looks as if it were designed by a professional architect. However it has been made possible by the will power and hard work of none other than the smallest creature on earth-the ant.

The caps can grow to as large as 2 cm (about 1 inch) in diameter, but because the mushrooms are prone to dehydration, they only have a few days to live once the rain stops. The tiny mushroom is one of seven new species of glow-in-the-dark fungi found around the world, bringing the total known to 71. Just goes to show you that the curiosities of the world never cease! Time to explore the world!

Source: National Geography via Slightlywarped

I’m surprised this has not been brought up yet. Could it be just a mere coincidence? It has been clearly stated that one of the effects of x-flare is a greatly increased of risk earthquakes and volcanic eruption at vulnerable locations. Read the highlighted information about x-flare at the figure below.

Click to Enlarge :O

A mutant mosquito could worsen the situation in Malaysia. Who knows?

A similar trial in the Cayman Islands last year – the first time genetically modified mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild after years of laboratory experiments and hypothetical calculations – resulted in a dramatic drop in the mosquito population in a small area studied by researchers. The plan has sparked criticism by some Malaysian environmentalists, who fear it might have unforeseen consequences, such as the inadvertent creation of uncontrollable mutated mosquitoes. Critics also say such plans could leave a vacuum in the ecosystem that is then filled by another insect species, potentially introducing new diseases.

Death caused by dengue will rise if no counter-measure action is taken

Government authorities have tried to allay the concerns by saying they are conducting small-scale research and will not rush into any widespread release of mosquitoes. The Malaysian government-run Institute for Medical Research said it released about 6,000 sterile male lab mosquitoes in an uninhabited forest area in eastern Malaysia on Dec. 21. Another 6,000 wild male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were also placed in the area for scientific comparison, it said in a statement.

The institute provided few details of the experiment, but said it was “successfully” concluded Jan. 5, and that all the mosquitoes were killed with insecticide. It said it is not planning to release any more mosquitoes until it analyzes the results. It was the first such trial in Asia, an official in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements.

Duane Gubler, a professor specializing in infectious diseases at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School who was not involved with the research, said the plan is likely to be effective in fighting dengue if it is combined with other biological control methods.

“We need new tools. Nothing we’ve done in the past 40 years has had an impact” on dengue, Gubler told the AP.

Using genetically altered sterile male insects against fruit flies and other flies that cause damage in cattle has been successful in places like the United States, Gubler said. He added that environmentalists should not be concerned, because the genetically modified mosquitoes would die quickly.

In the Cayman Islands, genetically altered sterile male mosquitoes were also set loose by scientists in a 40-acre (16-hectare) region between May and October last year. By August, mosquito numbers in that area dropped by 80 percent compared with a neighboring area where no sterile mosquitoes were released. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said last year the project was an “innovative” way to fight dengue after a lack of success in campaigns urging Malaysians to keep neighborhoods free of stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed.

The number of dengue-linked deaths in Malaysia increased 52 percent last year from 88 in 2009. The total dengue infections rose 11 percent from 2009 to more than 46,000 cases last year. Dengue fever is common in Asia and Latin America. Symptoms include high fever, joint pains and nausea, but in severe cases, it can lead to internal bleeding, circulatory shutdown and death. There is no known cure or vaccine.

Source: AP

Linhenykus is a new dinosaur found in China

It belongs to a family within the carnivorous dinosaurian group theropods that later gave rise to modern birds. The new dinosaur – called Linhenykus, named after Linhe in Inner Mongolia – most likely grew to a few feet tall and weighed only as much as a large parrot. Linhenykus was discovered by an international team of scientists, led by Xu Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology.

Its singer claw on the upper limbs may have been used to dig out insects like ants, said the scientists in a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Xu and others believe theropod dinosaurs started with five fingers but evolved to have only three fingers and some eventually became birds. Scientists think that, in the course of evolving into birds, various related dinosaur species gradually lost two of their five fingers, likely in response to changes in the environment.

But in recent decades, with the discovery of more theropods that have fewer than three fingers, like the two-finger Tyrannosaurus, scientists agreed that the evolution of dinosaurs’ hands was brought about more by random mutations than by basic adaptive evolution.

“Vestigial structures, like legs in whales and snakes, may appear and disappear seemingly randomly in the course of evolution,” said Jonah Choiniere of the Paleontology division at the American Museum of Natural History.

Source: China Daily

Although it sounds very contradicting to everyone, but researchers at Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy Systems ISE are now working on solar refrigeration technology that does not consume electricity but instead they take all their power from sunlight. Scientists all over the world now believe that most of the new age technology has to be on solar power because that would bring down the level of electricity consumed by these giant machines in large factories and industries all over the world. With the help of such giant solar refrigerators companies and manufacturers of perishable commodities will be able to bring down their cost of production and also contribute indirectly to make this planet a better place to live in.

These solar refrigerators are ideal for those companies where there is no electricity because they are far away from the city and even where temperatures are really high. The concept has not been revealed as of now but scientist have confirmed that they use water-glycol mixture that will absorb heat from the sunlight and pass it on to the mechanism inside the refrigerator that will keep the solar refrigerator in working condition without any problems irrespective of the season or time of the day.

Jyotsna Ramani