Week In Science

An article about black holes and spin rates appeared recently. Before examining it, a brief overview of black holes might be helpful. What are they?

A black hole is an object that is so dense that light is unable to escape its gravitational pull. Two terms you will come across when reading about black holes are singularity and event horizon.

Another six news items of interest are included in "Another Week in Science". Click "Read More" or the article's header above to see them all.

How Neurons and Dendrites Work

This first news item is an excellent article about research related to the capacity of the human brain functions as both a "learning machine" and a mathematical calculator. Researchers published their findings in a trio of papers published in PNAS. The key to the brain's abilities may lie in the nature of biological wires called dendritic spines which not only can receive incoming electrical signals but can also modulate them.

*We are in a period of time when what is called 'The Leonid Meteor Shower' occurs. It is due to peak on Sunday, November 19, 2006. Multiple meteors can be viewed per hour, weather permitting.

*Astronomers continue to discover previously unidentified stellar systems. 20 new ones have been identified in our local part of the Milky Way. All are red dwarf stars which appear to be the most common stellar objects in our galaxy.

A news release of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies with the title, "Jumping genes": new target for body's innate immune protection system against viruses, appears at the linked website. The report is focused on a group of proteins known as APOBEC antiviral proteins which can be instrumental in disabling pathegenic viruses. Until this research effort, the function of an APOBEC family member known as APOBEC3A, or simply A3A, was unknown. It has been discovered that A3A is capable of protecting against both jumping genes and adeno-associated viruses (AAV).

A team of scientists headed by Robert Hazen, of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution has developed new "protocols and procedures" for using DNA microarrays to rapidly identify mineral catalysts which pair well with abiotic building blocks of important biomolecules.

This week scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology managed to control the transfer of rotational motion from beams of light to sodium atoms at the quantum level.

Rotation has been tranferred from light to particles before, but this is the first time it has been done in quantized increments.

An international team of 240 scientists, that included researchers from the Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has announced the completion of the sequencing of the genome of the sea urchin (strongylocentrotus purpuratus).

In keeping with the theme of the website, as suggested by its name, readers are offered links to five websites providing recent news about different scientific discoveries. A brief summary of each article appears.

We discuss a review entitled 'Genome Complexity: Adaptive evolution or genetic drift? Does genome complexity produce organismal complexity?'; (Heredity (2004) 93, 122-123, advance online publication, 12 May 2004 by R. B. Philips) (follow the link to see the article). Although this review appeared in 2004, the subject matter and an analysis of it are relevant today.

Associated Press in Japan is reporting that a dolphin with two pelvic fins has been captured in Japan.

The unusual dolphin was captured alive off the western coast of Japan near Wakayama prefecture on October 28th by fisherman.