Science cartoon based on "Silver hairs keep Saharan Silver Ants cool"

Silver hairs keep Saharan Silver Ants cool

Gold and silver remain always precious for mankind. Saharan silver ants are adding a new chapter in evolution by using silver to remain cool. This ant lives in the desert where the surface temperature reaches to 70°C, far beyond 53.6°C, critical temperature to survive.  Norman Nan Shi and his team from Columbia University,  Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Washington, USA and University of Zürich, Switzerland found that the secret of silver ant to survive in hot desert is silvery hairs. They found that the ants have dense array of uniquely shaped triangular hairs with two different thermoregulatory effects. They enhance not only the reflectivity of the ant’s body surface in the visible and near-infrared range of the spectrum, where solar radiation culminates, but also the emissivity of the ant in the mid-infrared. The latter effect enables the animals to efficiently dissipate heat back to the surroundings via blackbody radiation under full daylight conditions. This biological solution for a thermoregulatory problem may lead to the development of biomimetic coatings for passive radiative cooling of objects.

Link to original article: Keeping cool: Enhanced optical reflection and heat dissipation in silver ants

Science Cartoon based on Yellow-breasted buntings 'being eaten to extinction by China'

Science Cartoon based on

Yellow-breasted buntings 'being eaten to extinction by China'

     Once upon a time, yellow breasted bunting was known for the population and known with the status "Superabundance". This bird used to be one of the most abundant song birds of the paleartcic, with a very large breeding range stretching from Scandinavia to the Rassia. The population of yellow breasted bunting has started declining by 90 percent since 1980 because of hunting for food. Because of initial declining data, China banned the hunting of this bird, but being popular food people continued the hunting and selling in the black market. It is claimed that one million bunting were consumed in Guangdong province of South China. Yellow-breasted buntings have since 2013 been classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as an "endangered" species due to rapid population decline from trapping outside their breeding grounds. A study conducted by under leadership of Dr Johannes Kamp from the University of Munster, Germany found that this bird will decline like passanger pegion declined century ago which was dominating once on the planet. Here I am presenting a cartoon based on research published by Dr. Kamp and his team in the online publication of Conservation Biology.

Links: Original article in Conservation Biology: Global population collapse in a superabundant migratory bird and illegal trapping in China.

Report in The Guardian: Yellow-breasted buntings 'being eaten to extinction by China'

Feel free to share it because it is available under Creative commons lic 4.0 for non-commercial purpose. 

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Science cartoon based on New Pathological test for all viruses

VirScan: The new test could reveal every virus that's ever infected you

Identifying the viral infection is one of the important parts in the diagnosis. Generally it was possible  to find out the infection of one virus with one test. New method developed by researchers led by biologist Stephen Elledge of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School could look at every current or past viral infection in one fell swoop. It is possible because viruses are causing not only illness, but they leave footprints in the form of proteins. These proteins can be identified with the help of antibodies and later can be identified.  The new test named as VirScan will be useful in identifying the history of viral infection of past since birth.  VirScan uses DNA microarray synthesis &  bacteriophage display to create a uniform, synthetic representation of peptide epitopes comprising the human virome. Immunoprecipitation and high-throughput DNA sequencing reveal the peptides recognized by antibodies in the sample. The analysis requires less than 1 μl of blood. It is one of the revolutionary development in the field of virology. 

Links:
Original research:Comprehensive serological profiling of human populations using a synthetic human virome
Related article in Science Magazine:New test could reveal every virus that's ever infected you

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Science cartoon based on "Lethal Interpersonal Violence in Middle Pleistocene"

   The study, conducted by an international team of collaborators including Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam  found the first case of murder in history. The research was published in journal PLoS ONE. Research was carried out at the site of the Sima de los Huesos (Northern Spain), located deep within an underground cave system & contains the skeletal remains of at least 28 individuals that date to around 430,000 years old (i.e. from middle Pleistocene period).

A nearly complete skull from the Sima de los Huesos is composed of 52 cranial fragments recovered during excavations at the site over the last 20 years. This skull shows two penetrating lesions on the frontal bone, above the left eye. According to Quam, it is the Evidence for interpersonal violence in the human fossil record is relatively scarce, and this would appear to represent the coldest cold case on record. They have studied it through modern forensic techniques, such as contour &  trajectory analysis of the traumas, the authors of the study showed that both fractures were likely produced by two separate impacts by the same object, with slightly different trajectories around the time of the individual’s death. According to the authors, the injuries are unlikely to be the result of an accidental fall down the vertical shaft. Rather, the type of fracture, their location and that they appear to have been produced by two blows with the same object lead the authors to interpret them as the result of an act of lethal interpersonal aggression—or what may constitute the earliest case of murder in human history.

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Science cartoon based on Biodegradable computer chips made from wood

Biodegradable computer chips made from wood

E-waste is one of the most hazardous pollutant. When recycling of e-waste is a big challenge, wood can be used as supporting material for making chip is novel and eco-friendly approach. The research team, led by UW-Madison electrical and computer engineering professor Zhenqiang "Jack" Ma demonstrated the feasibility of replacing the substrate, or support layer, of a computer chip, with cellulose nanofibril (CNF), a flexible, biodegradable material made from wood. This research will help in developing biodegradable electronic hardwares which will be eco-friendly. 

Source from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Journal Reference: High-performance green flexible electronics based on biodegradable cellulose nanofibril paper

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પ્રકાશની મદદ થી દુખાવો દૂર કરવાનો પ્રયાસ

સેંટ લુઈસમાં આવેલ વોશિંગ્ટન યુનિવર્સિટિની સ્કૂલ ઓફ મેડિસિનના વૈજ્ઞાનિક માઈકલ બ્રુચાસ અને  તેની ટીમ દ્વારા 30 એપ્રિલ ૨૦૧૫ ના રોજ ન્યુરોન જર્નલમાં એક સંશોધનપત્ર પ્રકાશિત કરવામાં આવેલ છે જેમાં લાઇટની મદદથી દુખાવો દૂર થઈ શકે તેવું સાબિત કરવામાં આવ્યું છે. ઓપ્ટોજેનેટિક્સ નામની ટેક્નિકની મદદથી ચેતાતંત્ર અને ખાસ કરીને દુખાવાના સિંગનલનું નિયમન કરી શકાય છે. આ સંશોધન પર થી કહી શકાય કે ભવિષ્યમાં શરીરનો દુખાવો દૂર કરવા માટે ગોળી નહીં પણ લાઇટનો ઉપયોગ થશે.  

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Science Cartoon on "Light as Painkiller"

MichaelR. Bruchas' team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published paper on April 30, 2015 in the journal Neuron regarding killing pain with the help of light. According to them Optogenetic, widely used tool for manipulation of neuronal activity can be used to control pain with targeting the opioid receptors. It can be predicted from this research that in future, pills will be replaced with the light to control pain.

 

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