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Surfing spider discovered
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The creature you see above is a spider that can actually surf on top of waves and hunt for a wide variety of animals including not only insects but also fish and toads. Dubbed the Dolomedes briangreenei, this species of spider floats on top of water and senses vibrations below to detect potential prey. The spider can even submerge itself underwater for up to an hour to hunt down prey, which makes it doubly frightening for any creatures caught in its path. The largest animals that the spider has been known to eat are cane toads, which can measure up to nine inches in length. For comparison, the D. briangreenei is about the size of a human palm. ...
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21383 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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Allergic to vibrations?
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Vibratory urticarial is a ultra rare genetic condition that cause people to break out in hives if their skin is vigorously vibrated or rubbed. In fact, even drying yourself with a towel can cause hives, make your face flush, give you headaches, or produce the sensation of a metallic taste. According to a new study published this week, researchers found a mutation in a gene called ADGRE2 that codes for a receptor protein found on the surface of mast cells - immune cells in the skin that dump out inflammatory molecules such as histamines that increase blood flow to an area and can cause hives. The researchers observed that shaking mast cells in a dish breaks apart two subunits of this receptor protein, which prompts histamine release. In p ...
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16258 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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Time to update the science textbooks
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The periodic table has been given four new elements, changing one of science’s most fundamental pieces of knowledge. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 will now be added to the table’s seventh row and make it complete, after they were verified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry on December 30 th. The new elements were discovered by team from Japan, Russia and the USA, who will all get to name their own new elements. All of the four new admissions are man-made. The super-heavy elements are created by shoving lighter nuclei into each other and are found in the radioactive decay - which only exists for a tiny fraction of a second before they decay into other elements. The elements have been worked on since at least 2004, when st ...
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16591 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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Hair loss no more - a promising treatment for baldness
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Isn't it strange, two FDA-approved drugs - topical ruxolitinib or tofacitinib - can reawaken dormant hair follicles! According to the study, within 3 weeks, mice that received topical ruxolitinib or tofacitinib had regrown nearly all their hair (right photo; drug was applied only to the right side of the mouse). Little to no hair growth occurred in control mice during the same timeframe (left photo). According to researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, inhibiting a family of enzymes inside hair follicles that are suspended in a resting state restores hair growth. These drugs, known as JAK inhibitors have been approved to treat blood diseases (ruxolitinib) and the other for rheumatoid arthritis (tofacitinib). Both are being tested ...
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20499 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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This newly discovered bat has one LONG tongue
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The researchers found the bizarre tube-lipped nectar bat ( Anoura fistulata) - the first record of this species in the park. Described in Ecuador just a decade ago and known from only three records. It has the longest tongue in relation to its size of any mammal - stretching 8.5 cm to reach into the deepest flowers. PS: I added the picture of Dorian (villain from The Mask) below it simply because it was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the picture. ...
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22381 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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Is it a mushroom or an animal?
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These weird deep-sea animals, namely, Dendrogramma enigmatica and Dendrogramma discoides, discovered off the coast of Tasmania in 1986, have just been classified - and they're like no animal alive today. The animals' mostly non-symmetrical body plan is unique, which means they’re not part of the Bilateria group, one of the main animal groupings that includes humans.
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6152 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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New bat species discovered
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This striped bat is only the fifth of its kind to be collected, and is so unique, it warranted the creation of a new genus.
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2801 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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A new species of monkey discovered
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Scientists claim they have discovered a species of monkey previously unknown to science in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- only the second new species of monkey to be discovered in 28 years. The monkey has been named Cercopithecus lomamiensis, known locally as the Lesula.
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2942 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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Potential treatment for Down's syndrome?
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Down syndrome is caused by a triple copy of chromosome 21, which leads to a number of cognitive and physical delays. Now researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have found a protein that restores the some of the cognitive and behavioral disorders found in the disease. Mice who were deficient in the SNX27 protein exhibited similar characteristics to mice with Down syndrome—namely, they had fewer glutamate receptors, which are important for learning and memory, the team reported in Nature Medicine on Sunday (March 24). The researchers also showed that in mice with Down syndrome, the protein is blocked by a molecule encoded on chromosome 21, and produced in excess in Down syndrome mice as a re ...
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5655 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
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