BLOG OF DNA FOUND IN METEORITES FROM SPACE

The components of DNA have now been confirmed to exist in extraterrestrial meteorites, researchers announced.

A different team of scientists also discovered a number of molecules linked with a vital ancient biological process, adding weight to the idea that the earliest forms of life on Earth may have been made up in part from materials delivered to Earth the planet by from space.

Past research had revealed a range of building blocks of life in meteorites, such as the amino acids that make up proteins. Space rocks just like these may have been a vital source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on EarthInvestigators have also found nucleobases, key ingredients of DNA, in meteorites before. However, it has been very difficult to prove that these molecules are not contamination from sources on Earth.

"People have been finding nucleobases in meteorites for about 50 years now, and have been trying to figure out if they are of biological origin or not," study co-author Jim Cleaves, a chemist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, told SPACE.com.

To help confirm if any nucleobases seen in meteorites were of extraterrestrial origin, scientists used the latest scientific analysis techniques on samples from a dozen meteorites — 11 organic-rich meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites and one ureilite, a very rare type of meteorite with a different chemical composition. This was the first time all but two of these meteorites had been analyzed for nucleobases.

The analytical techniques probed the mass and other features of the molecules to identify the presence of extraterrestrial nucleobases and see that they apparently did not come from the surrounding area.

Two of the carbonaceous chondrites contained a diverse array of nucleobases and structurally similar compounds known as nucleobase analogs. Intriguingly, three of these nucleobase analogs are very rare in Earth biology, and were not found in soil and ice samples from the areas near where the meteorites were collected at the parts-per-billion limits of their detection techniques.

"Finding nucleobase compounds not typically found in Earth's biochemistry strongly supports an extraterrestrial origin," Cleaves said.

"At the start of this project, it looked like the nucleobases in these meteorites were terrestrial contamination — these results were a very big surprise for me," study lead author Michael Callahan, an analytical chemist and astrobiologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told SPACE.com.

Lab experiments showed that chemical reactions of ammonia and cyanide, compounds that are common in space, could generate nucleobases and nucleobase analogs very similar to those found in the carbonaceous chondrites. However, the relative abundances of these molecules between the experiments and the meteorites differed, which might be due to further chemical and thermal influences from space.

This findings  reveal that meteorites may have been molecular tool kits, providing the essential building blocks for life on Earth, Cleaves said.

"All this has implications for the origins of life on Earth and potentially elsewhere," Callahan said. "Are these building blocks of life transferred to other places where they might be useful? Can alternative building blocks be used to build other things?"

In a different study, researchers discovered molecules that make up key parts of a vital biological pathway, the citric acid cycle, in a number of carbonaceous chondrites.

The citric acid cycle is "thought by many experts to be among the most ancient of biological processes," study co-author George Cooper, a chemist at NASA Ames Research Center, told SPACE.com. "One function of this cycle is respiration, when organisms give off carbon dioxide."

"It is always exciting to find extraterrestrial and ancient 4.6 billion-year-old organic compounds that

might have had a role in early life,"cooper added"
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/09/building-blocks-dna-found-in-meteorites-from-space/#ixzz1UYCzbS6N
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/09/building-blocks-dna-found-in-meteorites-from-space/#ixzz1UYCzbS6N
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/09/building-blocks-dna-found-in-meteorites-from-space/#ixzz1UYCqmBRs

New species of frogs found in Western Ghats

New species of frogs were discovered by a team of biodiversity researchers led by Dr. Anil Zachariah, Veterinary Surgeon, Dept of Animal Husbandry, during their recent exploration in the Western Ghats.

The discovery, published in the latest issue of the Biosystamatica, an international journal on animal taxonomy, ecology and zoo-geography, is a joint effort by the team of voluntary researchers and naturalists undertaken with the active help of the Zoological Survey of India. The team includes Prof. E. Kunhikrishnan, C. Radhakrishnan, K.P. Dinesh, Muhamed Jafer Palot, Sandeep Das, David V Raju, S Kalesh and C.K Vishnudas, apart from Dr. Anil Zachariah.

The discovery shows that the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, still has many new species of amphibians waiting to be discovered.

It was found that the newly-found nine species belonged to the genus Raorchestes and one to the genus Polypedates (family Rhacophoridae). They were discovered in the hill ranges of Southern Western Ghats after several expeditions spanning the last few years. Four species were from Bonacaud, Thiruvananthapuram district; two from Kadalar estate, Idukki; one from Gavi, Pathanamthitta district; one from Ooty, Nilgiris, and one from Naduvattam, Nilgiris.

Six are bush frogs, one is a canopy bush frog and two species are associated with bamboo reeds. With the new species of frog of Rhacophoridae family discovered now, the total number of species of frogs known under genus Polypedates from Western Ghats has come to four, and from India eleven, till date. The genus Raorchestes is, however, restricted to Western Ghats only, with 30 known species till 2010, said Dr. Anil Zachariah.

The new species of frogs discovered are named after outstanding zoologists and conservationists: Polypedates bijui is named after Dr. S.D. Biju, Delhi University; Raorchestes agasthyaensis, after Agasthyamalai, the locality being an important part of the Agastyamalai Biosphere Reserve; Raorchestes crustai, after the Latin term ‘crusta’ meaning ‘bark’, which refers to the microhabitat preference of this canopy frog; Raorchestes johnceei, after late Prof. John C. Jacob (who was popularly known as ‘Johncee’); Raorchestes kadalarensis, named after the locality Kadalar; Raorchestes manohari, named after T. M. Manoharan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Kerala; Raorchestes ravii, named in memory of late Ravi Chandran, an enthusiastic nature lover from Wayanad who first found out the species and was a companion in many field expeditions of the research team; Raorchestes theuerkaufi, named after Wolfgang Theuerkauf, an ardent naturalist and Botanist, Director of Gurukula Botanical Garden, Periya, Wayanad, Kerala; Raorchestes thodai, a species found from Ooty, is named after the indigenous tribal community “thoda” of the Nilgiris; and Raorchestes uthamani, a small pinkish yellow bush frog found inhabiting in the high altitude (around 1000m) reed patches is named after two eminent conservationists, bird photographer P.K. Uthaman and Forest officer K.V Uthaman for their interest and support in nature conservation.

Interestingly, the study was conducted without funding from any agencies, but was carried out by the voluntary efforts of the researchers and nature enthusiasts through long years of dedicated work.

Frogs all over the world is facing high risk of extinction due to climate change, pollution and habitat destruction. The new discovery points to the hidden biodiversity wealth of the Western Ghats, which calls for high level research and conservation efforts in the region.

Our brain fails to map high distances

A new research has indicated that animal's brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain's 'map' of space is surprisingly flat. 
Scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain's map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards.
The study, supported by the Wellcome Trust, looked at two types of cells known to be involved in the brain's representation of space: grid cells, which measure distance, and place cells, which indicate location.
Scientists found that only place cells were sensitive to the animal moving upwards in altitude, and even then only weakly so.
“The implication is that our internal sense of space is actually rather flat – we are very sensitive to where we are in horizontal space but only vaguely aware of how high we are,” said Professor Kate Jeffery, lead author from UCL Psychology and Language Sciences. 
This finding is surprising and it has implications for situations in which people have to move freely in all three dimensions – divers, pilots and astronauts for example. It also raises the question – if our map of space is flat, then how do we navigate through complex environments so effectively?” To begin to answer this question scientists looked at neurons known as grid cells, which become active periodically and at very regular distances as animals walk around, forming a grid-like structure of activity hot-spots. Previous work has found that grid cells are largely concerned with marking out distances.