All Amazing Articles

Last week I described how Fred Hoyle, in 1946,  came up with the idea that carbon is synthesized in hot stars toward the end of their lifetime, and we now know that carbon and the other elements of life are strewn into interstellar space when the star explodes. In his later career, Hoyle was never able to match his earlier triumph of carbon nucleosynthesis, but he certainly tried. Together with his colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe, now at Cardiff University in Wales, he co-authored a series papers and books that proposed an alternative hypothesis for one of the remaining great questions of science, which is the topic of these columns: How did life begin on the Earth?

The scientific consensus is that life began as a chance event in which just the right mix of organic compounds was acted upon by an energy source so that growth and reproduction could occur. The earliest life would not resemble today’s highly evolved version, but more likely was a kind of scaffold that had the essential properties of life. The scaffold was left behind when more efficient living systems evolved.

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People love Top 10 lists and a Top 10 list of new species is no exception. We love the idea so much we took the 2007 choices from the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists and made them … funnier.

We know you have other things to read, like a Top 10 list of String Theory jokes, somewhere so we’ll get right to it.

10. Tecticornia bibenda. One of two on this list that seems to have made it for no other reason than that press releases gave it a catchy nickname, in this case the “Michelin Man™” plant, and that really appeals to fame-seeking biologists who want to have mass appeal. If this actually looks like the Michelin Man™ to you, you’re just being argumentative.

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There are many interesting facts about sleeping that you probably didn’t know. The study of sleep is actually pretty modern, in fact most of what we have learned about it has happened in the last 25 years. With this in mind, I have put together a list of the top 10 amazing facts about sleeping.

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is over 18 days. This person experienced hallucinations, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory lapses.

2. It is almost impossible to tell if someone is really awake without medical supervision. People can have naps with their eyes open and not even know it.

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Sleep may be a way to sweep out the brain and get it ready for a new day of building connections between neurons, according to two new studies of fruit flies. The studies support the controversial theory that sleep weakens or entirely dissolves some synapses, the connections between brain cells. “We assume that if this is happening, it is a major function, if not the most important function, of sleep” [Science News], says Chiara Cirelli, a coauthor of the first study, published in Science.

Pruning synapses may be a practical necessity to keep the brain from being overwhelmed, says Paul Shaw, coauthor of the second study (also published in Science). “There are a number of reasons why the brain can’t indefinitely add synapses – including the finite spatial constraints of the skull. We were able to track the creation of new synapses in fruit flies during learning experiences – and to show that sleep pushed that number back down” [Telegraph], he says.

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Scientists have discovered the source of wisdom in the human brain, it was revealed today.

Experts have pinpointed the part of the brain that guides people when they are battling with difficult moral dilemmas, according to a study.

Highly-sophisticated brain scans show that the response is linked to certain areas usually associated with primitive emotions of sex, fear and anger.

The findings, revealed by the Observer, are to be published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

They are a significant departure into an area of expertise that has long been regarded as one of religion and philosophy.

Study author Dilip Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of California in San Diego, said: ‘Our research suggests there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom’s most universal traits.’

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