You remember Velociraptor: it’s the smallish, but deadly meat-eater featured prominently in Jurassic Park and its two sequels. In the movies, this predator is portrayed as fierce, and cunning — a dinosaur as smart as a dolphin or chimpanzee. But according a prominent paleontologist, you really can’t believe everything you see on the big screen. In fact, velociraptor probably couldn’t outwit a modern-day lap dog.

“If we compare its brain vs. body size, scaled for weight, to modern animals, it is at the very bottom level of modern birds and mammals,” he adds. “Velociraptors are comparable to an emu or an opossum.”

So where did the ‘raptor get its intellectual image? Well, says the scientist, it was something of a genius for its time (the late Cretaceous period), even compared to its contemporary mammals.

But being a genius of the late Cretaceous isn’t saying much.

“They were probably a lot smarter than modern reptiles or snakes,” the paleontologist says. “But a cat, dog or eagle would probably be smarter than a Velociraptor. Dolphins are way out, and chimpanzees are vastly smarter.”

That’s not to say Velociraptor wasn’t dangerous. As he points out, a crocodile is a lot dumber than a lion or tiger but it will kill you just as easily. The real Velociraptor was smaller than it’s portrayed in the movies, however. It was coyote-sized with its tail comprising half its two-meter length. And it had lots more feathers too, probably used for display, making it look something like a really tough peacock.

However, there’s indirect evidence Velociraptors made themselves more efficient killers by hunting in packs. Paleontologists have found multiple, individual fossils of Velociraptor’s close North American relative, Deinoychus, along with a prey dinosaur they were eating, a finding suggestive of predatory team-work.

“The prey dinosaur is a herbivore called Tenontosaurus, a primitive relative of the duck-bills that was about ten times as big as each Deinonychus,” he explains. “The thought is Deinoychus would be too small to take down one of these guys individually, but working as a team they could have, like a pack of wolves after a moose or lions after a water buffalo.”

So we could extrapolate pack-hunting-ability to other dromaeosaurs — the group that includes both Velociraptor and deinoychus — although the scientist is cautions that it’s not a sure thing.

“When you look at lions and tigers, it’s hard to tell their skeletons apart, their bones are almost identical,” he points out. “But lions have very sophisticated pack hunting while tigers are solitary – and we wouldn’t know that from individual skeletons. So it’s within their ability, but whether Velociraptor actually did it is not established.”

What is established is how Velociraptor killed: a Velociraptor fossil has been found with what was going to be its last meal, a primitive horned dinosaur called Protoceratops.

“The Velociraptor has the head of the Protoceratops gripped with one claw and the other hand’s sickle-shaped claw is stuck deep in it’s neck, just a few millimeters from the bone,” he concludes. “So it seems clear that it would grab its prey and rip out its throat and belly with the claw. Although in fairness, the Protoceratops had the Velociraptor’s other hand in its beak so its final move would probably be to close its jaws and snap off Velociraptor’s arm. They would have wound up killing each other.”

It can be an annoying experience going to a zoo and waiting for minutes on end to see an animal that you’re told is just hiding. But maybe it’s hiding for a reason. It hasn’t got anything to do with shyness either. It’s a simple fact that a lot of animals are nocturnal, and by their very nature, they just don’t like to be out and about during the daytime. When most other animals are asleep under the cover of darkness, these other animals come alive, and unfortunately seeing what they get up to is a bit of a mystery. That is, until now.

Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo proudly calls itself “the first wildlife park built to be viewed at night.” Officially opened in 1994, the exhibit took four years to plan and three years to construct – which is not surprising given that it’s set in 40 hectares of fairly dense secondary forest. By using subtle lighting, visitors can view about 100 species that like to go about their business at night. In fact, there are over 1,000 nocturnal animals that call the Night Safari home, so it’s not exactly a small experiment.

The birth of the Night Safari is a result of a combination of factors. The overwhelming response to night tours conducted at the Zoo in the late 1980s indicated a demand for wholesome night entertainment. Displaying tropical animals at night seemed ideal since 90% of them are nocturnal and therefore most active after dusk. Singapore’s predictable sunset at around 7.30pm and cool nights with little rainfall mean fewer operational problems for an outdoor night attraction.

Like the adjacent daytime zoo, the larger Night Safari grounds employs an ‘open concept’ design, where by the use of moats (both wet and dry) and effective camouflage, animals can be seen in their respective areas appearing as if they are roaming freely in the wilderness – everything from such rarely seen creatures as the slow loris or the fishing cats.

The Night Safari itself is divided into eight geographical zones representing the wildlife of Asia, Africa and South America. What’s more, there are three walking trails that make it feel like you’re exploring the dense jungle on foot, even though you’re just a visitor to a very special zoo. After all, it really does feel like a legitimate jungle. That might have something to do with the over 20,000 plants and 900 forest trees that makes up the background for these jungle animals.

What makes the zoo work so well, as a night time only experience, is the careful placement of lighting. The lighting is sufficient to clearly see the animals moving about (after you eyes have acclimatized to the dimness), but not bright enough that they won’t venture from A to B. According to the zoo, the effect is slightly stronger than natural moonlight.

If you’re lucky enough to be heading to Singapore any time soon, be sure to check it out. And rule out the morning or afternoon options. The doors are only open to the public from 7:30pm to midnight.

About half of our DNA does not belong to us altogether. It is especially made virus called “endogenous retroviruses” squatters, who have infiltrated the heart of our cells and we pass on from generation to generation, sometimes from the age of dinosaurs. Fortunately, they are still asleep. Researchers from EPFL have developed in days the mechanism of inhibiting the host surprising. Published in Nature, this discovery tells us more about the complex process of natural selection. More pragmatically, the work of Lausanne could also pave the way for new therapies against the HIV virus or herpes.

Before being endogenous, these viruses were external aggressors, or exogenous, such as HIV, which colonizes the blood cells. However, endogenous retroviruses have targeted germ cells – the precursors of sperm and ova. Therefore, affected individuals have transmitted the intruders to their offspring.

A Boost for the evolution of species

These endogenous retroviruses are not only enemies. They are also great engines of evolution. For these unwanted visitors tend to mutate the DNA of their host. “They are true architects of the genome, explains Didier Trono, Director of Research They can enable, disable or modulate genes. “Indeed, the great waves of onset of endogenous retroviruses coincide with moments when, strangely, the evolution seems to put a boost. “In our genome, we find traces of the last two main waves. The first took place there 100 million years for the development of mammals, seconds it are about fifty million years, appearing just before the first anthropoid primates. ”

In ancient pandemics, some individuals were able to dive into the dormant retrovirus involved. They survived as likely to slaughter. Their descendants, including ourselves, has inherited this ability. To do this, our cells produce inhibitory proteins. These are capable of recognizing viral sequences in our own DNA, and neutralized. The Lausanne researchers have discovered a gene family comprising no fewer than 400 members is involved in this monitoring process.

In a mouse embryo that scientists from EPFL have uncovered the mechanism. Within five or six days of the embryo, a host of auxiliary proteins are responsible for recognizing the many viral sequences in our DNA. A master protein called KAP1, orchestra their sleep. “If we withdraw KAP1 at that time, other proteins do not work,” says Didier Trono. Endogenous retroviruses, old for some hundreds of millions of years, will awaken from their long sleep inside the cell. They induce numerous changes, “just as fast in HIV infection”, compares the researcher. The embryo dies.

This discovery could provide new therapeutic approaches, especially against AIDS. The Lausanne researchers are already in the process of determining whether the KAP1 protein is also involved in the ability of HIV to sleep temporarily in our cells, and thus avoid the treatment. “As in the case of endogenous retroviruses, this may be our own cells that inhibit the virus to defend the body. This could be the same process, but imperfect. We could then imagine waking up the sleeping virus during therapy, to remove them too. “

Hypothesis / Question: I thought that the ants would like honey because it’s pure sugar.

Materials: 1 candy bar, a little bit of salt, and some honey.

Procedure: Put the honey on a paper plate with a little candy bar and salt. Place it outside near an ant pile (or hill). Check on it every 20 or 30 minutes. You can take pictures if you would like, too!!!

Results / Conclusion: My hypothesis was correct: the ants loved the honey and the candy bar, too, but the ants hated the salt. They also started to move onto the paper plate. It was so, so cool.

Links:

ant species

Structural genomics (1) is based on the assumption that solving the three-dimensional structure of proteins will understand the biological processes of life. However, until now, the techniques of structural biology was not possible to know the three-dimensional structure of the intrinsically disordered proteins (PIDs) (2), approximately 40% of proteins encoded by the human genome. A large number These proteins are associated with human diseases, such as Tau protein involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease or the protein p53, one of the most important tumor suppressor implicated in many cancers. The inability to determine the structure of these proteins, especially when their functioning (interaction with their partners, for example), makes impossible the decoding of many molecular processes essential. The development of methods to study the conformational behavior (3) of PIDs is therefore a major challenge for the whole community science in contemporary structural biology.



For the first time, researchers from Grenoble to the Directorate of Life Sciences at the CEA, CNRS and Universite Joseph Fourier, in collaboration with researchers at UVHCI (4), just describe very precisely the properties and structural dynamics of these intrinsically disordered proteins, the nucleoprotein of Sendai virus (virus similar to measles virus). This protein plays an essential role in transcription and replication of virus within infected cells. For this the researchers have developed a technique based on nuclear magnetic resonance. By observing the average chemical shifts of atoms constituting the protein, they could describe the atomic structure of part of the protein that interacts with its partner (viral polymerase) to enable the activation transcription and replication of the virus.



With this technique it is now possible to consider the characterization of many intrinsically disordered proteins, to better understand their function or dysfunction, and develop to term potential pharmacological inhibitors.
Institut de Biologie Structurale Jean Pierre Ebel (IBS)
Both center research technical platform and host and scientific training, the Institut de Biologie Structurale Jean Pierre Ebel (IBS) aims the development of research in structural biology, a field research capital for understanding basic biological mechanisms. In its structural and functional study of biological macromolecules (especially proteins), IBS offers a multi-disciplinary approach (at the frontiers of biology, physics and chemistry) combines fundamental research and development of innovative techniques. The institute focuses on three particular biological themes consistent with a growing social demand in the areas of health and the environment cell division, immunity and host-pathogen interactions and limitations of living.

Created jointly by CEA and CNRS in 1992, the Institute became a joint research unit CEA-CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier in 1999. Since 2002, IBS is part of a larger whole, the Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB), whose primary objective is the study of proteins of biomedical interest. This partnership creates the Grenoble scientific polygon, a center of excellence offering a variety of techniques in structural biology is unique in Europe

Notes:

(1) Structural genomics is a new discipline after genomics. It aims to systematically describe the three-dimensional structure of all proteins encoded by a given genome, using the biophysical techniques of X-ray crystallography and NMR.

(2) intrinsically disordered proteins: proteins that are functional despite a lack of stable three-dimensional structure.

(3) conformational behavior: structural and dynamic properties describing the intrinsic disorder of these proteins.

(4) Professor Rob Ruigrok, Unit of Virus Host Cell Interactions (UVHCI) UMI 3265 UJF-EMBL-CNRS Grenoble.

• - Dr Lee Soo Chin, National University Health System Breast Cancer
• Investigators:
• - Dr. Jerry Chan, National University Health System, Intrauterine Gene Therapy
• - Dr Toh Han Chong, National Cancer Center, Nasopharyngeal Cancer
• - Dr Louis Tong, Singapore National Eye Center, Ophthalmology

The CSA is part of the plan for talent development of Phase II, initiated by the Ministry of Health and A * STAR, Singapore to become a platform scale clinical trials in the coming years in the region of the South East Asia. The CSA consists of two calls for applications per year, and is funded jointly by the Ministry of Health and the NRF (National Research Foundation). It is divided into two categories: Senior Investigator (SI) and Investigator (Inv).

In insects, the antifreeze molecules act to prevent the accumulation of ice crystals, or preventing their formation. They can help cold tolerant organisms survive by preventing cell destruction by freezing. These molecules can also freeze some insects to lower, by a process of supercooling, the temperature of their body below the freezing point without solidifying.

The rough mealworm (Upis ceramboides) contains a molecule allowing antifreeze to survive temperatures below -100 ° F (-73 ° C). Unlike biological antifreeze described previously, this new molecule, called xylomannan is not protein in nature. It is composed of a sugar and a fatty acid with the same characteristics as the fatty acids of cell membranes. For Brian Barnes, zoophysiologiste and Director of the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, this similarity could allow xylomannan integrate into the cell wall and protect cells against the formation of ice crystals internal. Note that the antifreeze molecules from protein can not enter the cell membranes.

Much research must be conducted to determine the mode of action of the antifreeze. The future industrial applications of this discovery are potentially numerous: manufacture of concrete used in frozen ground, new coatings for aircraft wings or wind mixing xylomannan to paint or oil to make them resistant to frost, manufacturing plants genetically modified to resist the cold. In the health field, this molecule could also be used for the preservation of organs transplanted in to keep temperatures cooler and thus longer organs for transplantation.

While hunger is a general feeling of the body, we localize beneath the edge of the ribs, left the tip of the anterior chest (sternum). That is, below the diaphragm, behind the shield of the muscles, that is the musculo-membranous bag that we call the stomach. Empty, it is as big as the hand dilated, it can invade the two-thirds of the abdominal cavity.