An Ignoble Experiment: Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans' genes for intelligence

2022/07/01

Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans' genes for intelligence

Created for ignoble.experiment@arconati.us | Web Version

July 1, 2022

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Never-before-seen crystals found in perfectly preserved meteorite dust

(Taskaev et al.)

Researchers have discovered never-before-seen types of crystal hidden in tiny grains of perfectly preserved meteorite dust. The dust was left behind by a massive space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, nine years ago.

On Feb. 15, 2013, an asteroid measuring 59 feet (18 meters) across and weighing 12,125 tons (11,000 metric tons) entered Earth's atmosphere at around 41,600 mph (66,950 km/h). Fortunately, the meteor exploded around 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers) above the city of Chelyabinsk in southern Russia, showering the surrounding area in tiny meteorites and avoiding a colossal single collision with the surface. Experts at the time described the event as a major wake-up call to the dangers asteroids pose to the planet.

Full Story: Live Science (7/1)

	Join us at The British Library, Saturday 16 July! The countdown is on for a fantastic line-up of children's authors to come together at The British Library, live on stage, Hear from Sharna Jackson, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Emma Carroll, Rob Biddulph, Phil Earle and more. Book now.

Climate Change

Supreme Court cripples the US government's power to fight climate change

(Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday (June 30) severely limited the federal government's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, in a 6-3 ruling split between the court's conservative majority and liberal minority.

Ruling on the case, called West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the court's six conservative justices held that the EPA — which was established in 1970 to curb widespread pollution and implement national environmental protection policies — does not have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions on a national scale without express approval from the U.S. Congress.

Full Story: Live Science (6/30)

Curious Creatures

Octopuses may be so terrifyingly smart because they share humans' genes for intelligence

(A. Martin UW Photography via Getty Images)

Octopuses are brainy creatures with sophisticated smarts, and now scientists have uncovered a clue that may partly explain the cephalopods' remarkable intelligence: Its genes have a genetic quirk that is also seen in humans, a new study finds.

The clues that scientists uncovered are called "jumping genes," or transposons, and they make up 45% of the human genome. Jumping genes are short sequences of DNA with the ability to copy and paste or cut and paste themselves to another location in the genome, and they've been linked to the evolution of genomes in multiple species. Genetic sequencing recently revealed that two species of octopus — Octopus vulgaris and Octopus bimaculoides — also have genomes that are filled with transposons, according to a study published May 18 in the journal BMC Biology.

Full Story: Live Science (7/1)

Biology

Newfound viruses named for Norse gods could have fueled the rise of complex life

(Brett Baker)

Scientists discovered the "fingerprints" of mysterious viruses hidden in an ancient group of microbes that may have helped fuel the rise of all complex life on Earth: from fungi to plants to humans.

These microbes — known as Asgard archaea after the abode of the gods in Norse mythology — lurk in the frigid sediments deep in the ocean and in boiling hot springs, and existed on Earth prior to the first eukaryotic cells, which carry their DNA inside a nucleus. By infecting Asgard archaea, viruses may have influenced how such life-forms first came to be, and may even have given rise to some of the first precursors to the nucleus, some scientists hypothesize. But before now, no Asgard-infecting viruses had been discovered.

Full Story: Live Science (7/1)