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Hot Topic
Origins
Extreme Life
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Even Single Cells Stick Together
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/25/06 |
| New research published by Rice University biologists in this week's issue of Nature finds that even the simplest of social creatures - single-celled amoebae - have the ability not only to recognize their own family members but also to selectively discriminate in favor of them. |
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The Ammonia-Oxidizing Gene
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/19/06 |
| Archaea may play a larger role in the nitrogen cycle than previously thought. A recent genetic analysis of soil samples indicates that crenarchaeota are the most abundant land-based creatures to oxidize ammonia. Combining ammonia with oxygen forms nitrates, which are used as nutrients by plants. |
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A Tower of Slime
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
08/15/06 |
| In times of plenty, the uni-cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum leads a solitary life. But when slime molds starve, they collectively form a multicellular slug-like creature that locomotes en masse to a more favorable spot. Then they literally stand up, forming a tower designed to save the children. |
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Searching for Aliens
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
07/27/06 |
| In this interview, Chris McKay talks about the potential for other kinds of life in the universe, and how we could begin to look for those aliens. |
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Treasure at Sea?
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
07/23/06 |
| An international team of scientists is exploring seafloor near Papua New Guinea in western Pacific Ocean this month with remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, investigating active and inactive hydrothermal vents and formation of mineral deposits containing copper, gold, and other minerals. |
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Switching Skeletons
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
07/09/06 |
| Leopards may not be able to change their spots, but corals can change their skeletons, building them out of different minerals depending on the chemical composition of the seawater around them. |
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Deliquescence in the Atacama
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
07/06/06 |
| After years of searching for evidence of microbial life in the driest region of Chile´s Atacama Desert, chemist Jacek Wierzchos finally found it. Living inside rocks made of salt. But how it manages to eke out a living there is still a bit of a mystery. |
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The Last Time It Rained
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/25/06 |
| Astrobiology Magazine´s managing editor, Henry Bortman, is hanging out with a group of astrobiologists in the driest place on Earth, Chile´s Atacama Desert. Yungay, an abandoned mining settlement in the Atacama, was until recently thought to be completely devoid of life. But new evidence hints at the possibility that even here, where rainfall is an event that occurs once a decade, microbial life can eke out an existence. |
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Flying in Space
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/24/06 |
| Thousands of tiny fruit flies soon will journey into space to help NASA scientists better understand changes in the human immune system caused by space flight. |
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Journey to Yungay
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/22/06 |
| The Yungay region in Chile´s Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. It rains perhaps once every 10 years. It is so dry that not even microbial life can survive there. Almost as dry as Mars. That makes it an interesting place for astrobiologists to study. Later this month, Astrobiology Magazine will begin a series of field reports from Yungay. |
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