Category: Biology

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Giant Frankenstein Viruses Discovered in Austrian Sewer

It’s called “waste” water for one big obvious reason, but researchers in Austria decided not to let the water go to waste, so they trudged through the sludge in hope of finding a new bacteria that might turn ammonia into nitrate. Instead, they found a giant Frankenstein virus that may turn the study of viruses upside down. In case you’re looking for places to avoid on your next vacation in Austria, the giant viruses were taken from the a waste-water treatment tank in Klosterneuburg, Austria. They were then sent to the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, to a lab where JGI postdoctoral researcher Frederik Schulz, DOE JGI Microbial Genomics Program lead and study co-author Tanja Woyke and National Institutes of Health evolutionary and computational biologist Eugene Koonin took a look at the wastewater. The wastewater treatment plant in Klosterneuburg, Austria Well, not just […] Read More

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Scientific study claims: Human DNA carries a message from Extraterrestrials

According to scientists from Kazakhstan, the human DNA was encoded with an extraterrestrial signal by an advanced ancient alien civilization in the distant past. In a study called “The “Wow! signal” of the terrestrial genetic code“, researchers Vladimir I. shCherbak and Maxim A. Makukovfrom the a Department of Mathematics, al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan and the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan respectively believe in the existence of a “Biological SETI” as they are calling it, which is a mathematical code located within the human DNA, something that cannot be explained by the process of evolution as traditional theories claim. And all of a sudden the Ancient Astronaut theory and the idea that humans are in fact an engineered species doesn’t sound as provocative as it did in the past. Ancient Texts mention how humans were created in the image of the “Gods”, now science is a […] Read More

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Proof Real Frankenstein Monsters Would Wipe Out Humanity

I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me. In Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, the creature begged Victor Frankenstein to cure his loneliness by making him a companion – a monster match.com mate compatible with him in looks. The creature promised that the happy couple would the leave the country and leave the good doctor and all of humanity alone. If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again: I will go to the vast wilds of South America. My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment. My companion will be of the same nature as myself, and will be content with the same fare. We shall make our bed of dried leaves; the […] Read More

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New Device Turns Thoughts into Speech

For the first time, scientists have successfully played back a word someone was thinking by monitoring their brain activity. This milestone could lead to people’s intended thoughts being transferred to an electronic speaker or writing device. For those suffering from diseases that prohibit the communication of thoughts, like those suffering from strokes or Lou Gehrig’s disease, this could change lives. Professor Robert Knight and colleagues at UC Berkeley are leading the research by studying how “hearing words, speaking out loud and imagining words involves overlapping areas of the brain.” Transferring thoughts into words is now possible. The scientists first placed electrodes on the surface of the language areas of the brain in patients who were awake. They monitored the pattern of electrical responses of brain cells during perceived speech. After, a computer model was created that could match spoken sounds to these thought signals, taking into account differences in […] Read More

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Researchers Discover a 99 Million-Year-Old Erection

Before you ask … yes, it’s THAT kind of an erection. Researchers in Myanmar studying a spider inside in a 99 million-year-old piece of Burmese amber discovered that the poor arachnid was trapped with an erect penis. Not only that, it’s believed to be the first time an arachnid’s penis has ever been preserved while fully extended (who keeps track of these things?). The unlucky spider is a harvestman (Halitherses grimaldii) and was discovered in 2005. The erection eventually ended up in the hands of (these descriptions are unavoidable) Jason Dunlop from the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. According to the study in the current edition of the journal The Science of Nature, Dunlop and his team used photography and 3-D imaging to find the penis, which they described in the way the only scientists can: [It’s] a slender, distally flattened truncus, a spatulate heart-shaped glans and a short […] Read More

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Strange Slimes are Growing in Mysterious Siberian Lake

 Paul Seaburn Strange slimes – some green and some black – are growing in the world’s most pristine lake. Mysterious slimes are growing in a lake some believe to have aliens and UFOs in it. Unexplained slimes are affecting a lake that received a direct hit from a meteor just a few weeks ago. Those three slime-covered lakes are actually one – Lake Baikal in Siberia – and it may be time to say, “Uh-oh.” Researchers such as Dr. Oleg Timoshkin from the Limnology Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been sounding the alarm about the various forms of slime on the once crystal-clear lake. Dead and dying sponges, which form a black slime, are covering the lake’s shores. Massive amounts of a green slime are covering southern parts of Lake Baikal. The slime isn’t limited to the surface either. Many areas of […] Read More

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LECTURE III. BIOLOGY

This part is heavily annotated with my commentaries. Looking at the past history of life, we see that it takes about 10^6 years to evolve a new species, 10^7 years to evolve a genus, 10^8 years to evolve a class, 10^9 years to evolve a phylum, and less than 10^10 years to evolve all the way from the primeval slime to Homo Sapiens. If life continues in this fashion in the future, it is impossible to set any limit to the variety of physical forms that life may assume. What changes could occur in the next 10^10 years to rival the changes of the past? It is conceivable that in another 10^10 years life could evolve away from flesh and blood and become embodied in an intrstellar black cloud (Hoyle, 1957) or in a sentient computer (Capek, 1923). Here is a list of deep questions concerning the nature of […] Read More