Month: August 2017

Although simple life forms like viruses and bacteria existed on Earth back at least two billion years, scientists are still not sure how life made the critical leap from microbes to the complex multicellular plants and animals that dominate the planet today.  Scientists at the Australian National University analyzed chemical traces of life in sedimentary rocks that are up to a billion years old, to discover that a dramatic ice age called Sturtian glaciation, occurred approximately 700 million years ago. During this time also referred to as Snowball Earth, huge glaciers pulverized entire mountain ranges and caused rapid erosion of landmasses.  When the...

Ten to 15 percent of couples in the United States are infertile and many are desperate to have children.  That’s why a successful study a few months ago from researchers at Northwestern University‘s Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering on bioprinting ovaries was so exciting. The team led by Teresa Woodruff, reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Feinberg, and Ramille Shah, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at McCormick and of surgery at Feinberg, not only 3D printed ovaries, but implanted one of them in a mouse that then gave birth to healthy babies.  The...

Many baby boomers are familiar with the term ‘Magic Mushroom’ and its psychedelic drug effect that comes from the active ingredient psilocybin.  More than 200 species of mushrooms are collectively known as psilocybin mushrooms.  In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers enthusiastically studied the psychological properties of psilocybin and LSD and on many mental disorders and other health related issues.  The results reported were frequently positive, but in 1970, with recreational use of hallucinogens on the rise, President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act making psilocybin a “schedule 1” drug. This effectively also halted all academic research into psychedelics.  In recent...

The NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science are currently leading an 18-day expedition aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to map, survey, and sample deep-sea coral ecosystems from August 12 – 31, 2017, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic Bight. The photo above and video below though show an area the NOAA’s Okeanos Deep Discoverer remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered on July 25, 2017, 7,700 feet below the sea.  This bizarre deep-sea ‘forest’ scene was part of the Laulima O Ka Moana expedition: Exploring Deep Monument Waters around poorly known deepwater areas in the Johnston Atoll...