Living things on Earth is divided into two major categories, prokaryotes, and Eukaryota. Class of prokaryotes have no nuclear membrane, composed of bacteria and the Achaeans. Meanwhile, Eukaryota group includes algae, fungi, animals, and plants.

Kamran Shalchian-Tabriz, head of the Microbial Evolution Research Group (MERG) at the University of Oslo is a new creature by examining morphological and genetic analysis. He named the creature Collodictyon and say that these characteristics do not represent creatures that exist kingdom.

Some unique characteristics of Collodictyon is particularly a four flagella, similar motion devices that are relatively long hair. Mammalian cells, amoeba and fungi have only one flagelum. Meanwhile, some algae, plants and unicellular parasites have two flagella.

Another unique characteristic is, Collodictyon have internal structure such as parasites. However, studies show that these new organisms foraging in a way similar to the amoeba. So, this creature as a combination of the most primitive creatures and eukaryota.

It is known that living beings can experience high levels of mutation. Archaea had just recognized in 1990. So, it is possible there is a new creature represents the kingdom today. The results of this research were published in the journal Molecular Biology Evolution.

Global warming is the hypothesis that Earth’s atmosphere is warming because of the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, through activities like deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. But are the facts actually for or against global warming? Scientists can convince people otherwise that global warming is perhaps “natural” and “inevitable”, but could we humans also be the sole part of the problem? The rising worldwide issue warns the scientific community of rising dangers; technological, economic, and political issues that have to be resolved before a “concerted worldwide effort to reduce emissions” have gotten no simpler as well. 

But in reality, the truth can’t be denied. According to NASA’s Surface Temperature Analysis, the 10 hottest years recorded were within the last 12 years. National Geographic News also states that “yes, it is happening”. The global average temperatures have increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. As a matter of fact, today’s CO2 levels have also increased by 43% since the late 1800’s, after the Industrial Revolution. Before that time, the average concentration of carbon dioxide was 260-280 parts per million (ppm), but in 2008, levels hit a record high of 388 ppm. These CO2 are the highest they’ve been in the last half millennium. For further statistics, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise another 1.5 to 1.9 degrees Celsius. 

As it turns out, there is nothing “positive” about this dramatic worldwide warming. The effect of an increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount of pattern of precipitation, which may furthermore lead to an expansion of subtropical deserts. Other likely effects of the warming include more occurrences of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, and heavy rainfall. 

But after all, the truth can’t be denied. When you look at science, it’s clear what is happening. The problem is, we are causing the problem. Human activities are pumping increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. About 75% of all emissions are contributed to the burning of fossil fuels. These increases have altered the human atmosphere. But the important thing is, this warming is actually destroying ecosystems that humans and other species depend on. For example, in the Russian Arctic, higher temperatures are melting the permafrost causing 5 story apartment buildings to slump. Rain is also more intense, while floods and storms are more severe and rivers freeze later in the season than usual. The Arctic and the Antarctic are also warming far more quickly than scientists have expected. In large parts of Eastern Europe, Central Canada, and California, peak stream flows have advanced from spring to winter thus creating more rain than snow, resulting in floods. On the other side of the world, Lake Chad, Senegal, and large basins of Niger in Africa have decreased in water by 40-60%. This leads to a higher chance of drought and summer drying. It is also important to note that 25% of mammals and 12% of birds are closing in rapidly to extinction. 89% of these are at high risk because the food chain will change. 

Now that the world has enough evidence to take action and “save themselves”, environmental activism to reduce carbon dioxide emissions has reached a new intensity. Such incidences include the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) being demanded by the Supreme Court to regulate the release of CO2 as a part of air pollution responsibility. Many other steps are being taken, which is a good thing, but overall I think the world still needs to acknowledge the real, significant danger (if not instant, then long-term) global warming poses. 

Male and Female Fruit Flies

A study has been taking place at the University of California, in San Francisco, into the secret life of the fruit fly and it seems that male fruit flies who are rejected by females drink more alcohol than those who find a willing sex partner!

The research has shown that this binge drinking is probably due to a chemical which is replicated in the human brain.  The chemical neuropeptide Y in humans seems to be extremely similar to neuropeptide F which can be found in the fruit fly.

Th chemical appears to go into overdrive when a sex driven human (or fly!) is rejected and it basically tells the brain to settle for an over indulgence of alcohol to compensate for lack of sex.

So how did the University of California go about this research?

A number of male fruit flies were taken and placed in a box with several virgin females who succumbed to the males chat up lines and salacious sexual appetites.  In a separate box, male flies were placed with the slutty, recently satiated girls who’d obviously had their fill and decided to give the males the brush off.

Following this, the males were then given two choices of food – their normal fare or normal fare laced with 15% alcohol.  The males who’d recently mated with the virgin flies went for their normal food, whereas the majority of those who’d been deprived of a bit of nooky headed straight for the wine bar and went on a bit of a bender!  It’s thought that this works on the basis that if you can’t have the reward you were expecting (in this case sex) then you compensate by going for the next best thing (i.e. alcohol).

Following this revelation, the scientists decided to look for a connection between the sex deprivation and hitting the bottle and came across the neuropeptide F theory.

According to tests carried out on the flies, the rejected males had a lower level of this chemical than those who’d ended the night making whoopee so those poor saps had hit the bottle to compensate.  In fact, the mated flies actually had an elevated level of the chemical.

This research has basically come up with the suggestion that rejected males whether they be insect or mammal, often turn to the bottle when they’re rejected by the women in their lives.

At the moment, nobody is willing to put their head on the block to confirm definitely that this is how the land lies but scientists are now hoping that the research, if it progresses still further, might just aid them in the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse.

I am just wondering if this research might be relevant to a discovery several years back that reckoned women who lived on their own and didn’t have husbands or boyfriends to satisfy their sexual needs were relatively happy to settle in front of the TV of an evening with a big bar of chocolate!

Rosichon when contacted Kompas.com, Tuesday (04/03/2012), said, “This we really missed. I and we are from LIPI really disappointed and angry too.”

Associated with this event, Rosichon said that Indonesia should not be lost again. “Now the most important, the specimens are used for identification must be returned to Indonesia. Until now there has been no,” said Rosichon.

Specimens used for identification (holotype) should be one of the collection that adds a wealth of collections at the Museum of Zoology Bogor. Specimen collection is very useful for further taxonomic research, as a comparison to find other new species.

University of California Davis currently has hundreds of thousands of insect species. Lynn S Kimsey, researchers involved in the discovery Megalara eagle was discovered 300 new species.

For comparison, the Museum of Zoology Bogor still not able to be a representation of Indonesia’s biodiversity. There are many species in Indonesia that is stored in Europe, and even Singapore.

Rosichon related requests to return to the holotype Megalara garuda Indonesia, Deputy Head of LIPI, Endang Sukara, saying it should be done.

“The specimen that was ours. If we ask them yes (UC Davis) must be obedient,” said Endang when contacted on Wednesday (04/04/2012).

Endang said that LIPI will study this case. According to him, include the name of the researcher Indonesia, if it involved the research, is a must and part of ethics.

If found to have violated ethics, LIPI will then write to the University of California, Davis, in this regard.

A really shocking fact is that many disease and  possibly cancer curing plants grow within tropical rain forests, but are being depleted as the forests are being destroyed. These plants can be used for medical reasons, but we haven’t had the time to see the effects of these plant species before they’re being destroyed. We really need to conserve these forests so that they can help providing our oxygen and continue taking in our carbon dioxide. Keeping tropical rain forests around is very beneficial to our environment.

One of the puzzles related to mimicry, imitating the behavior of a species or other objects to defend themselves from predators.

Based on the theory of evolution, a species must have a mimicry as possible so they can get away from the “destiny” to be the food of predators. If there are individuals who are unable to perform mimicry well, then they would fall prey to.

The reality was different in nature. Individuals with bad behavior and mimicry are well turned out nearly as abundant. That is, there is no right in the interpretation of the theory of evolution.

Tom Sherratt of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, doing research on floating flies (hoverflies) to solve the puzzle.

Floating flies are harmless insects that mimic the appearance of bees and wasps to avoid birds. In addition to imitate the appearance, buoyant flies also imitate the sound of bees and wasps.

Sherratt studied 81 species of flies floating and compare its resemblance to bees and wasps. Observations made by the polls and in the laboratory.

Sherratt showed photographs of each species in some people and asked him to give the value of 1-10 to declare similarity. Meanwhile, observations on the characteristics of 81 species were also determined, for example by looking at the wings, antennae and more.

Based on the research, revealed that the floating flies more like a size bigger than bees and wasps are small. It appears that as the growth of the floating fly, mimicry ability is greatly increased.

‘If you are a small insect, the bird was not interested in you. You basically do not benefit as food so that weak selection on mimicry, “says Sherrat.

Thus, for small floating flies, the ability of mimicry not be too good. Good mimicry skills development is not proportional to its profits.

“But if you are floating fat fly, then you are good food for birds. And, in that case, you will experience stronger selection can seem like a bee or wasp to increase protection from predators,” explained Sherraat

Debby Herbenick, Indiana University the Centre for Sexual Health Promotion co-director says that this field – orgasm during periods of physical exercise  has been largely unstudied, though it was in 1953 when Alfred Kinsey first reported the phenomenon.

5 % of women interviewed by the team then mentioned having experienced such feelings, and the past half century, ever more reports of these so-called coregasms – so dubbed because of their apparent links to core abdominal muscles – have been appearing in the media.

This month  the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy discusses the issue, about which little is yet known scientifically about these supposed exercise-induced orgasms. Herbenick and her team employed online surveys to collect data.

The results were surprising, in that 124 women claimed to have experienced exercise-induced orgasms, while a further 246 women claimed that sexual pleasure induced by exercise had been their personal experience.

The women, ranged in age from 18 to 63 – average age 30 – were for the most part in either steady relationships or married, almost 70% claiming heterosexuality. It appeared that some 40% of all women questioned had experienced either pleasure or orgasm induced by exercise 11 occasions or more.

This could easily account for the fact that most women who admitted to orgasms felt some level of embarrassment when exercising in public locations, and they they were never sexually fantasising at the time

This orgasmic group reported that 45% of  the time, first experience happened during abdominal exercises – 19%  linked to biking –  9.3% to climbing poles or ropes 7% on both weight lifting and running,  though many other forms of workout – not orgasmic – still led to experiencing sexual pleasure.

Open-ended survey questions revealed that, for instance, abdominal exercises tied to orgasms seemed to be particularly associated with the captain’s chair type of exercise, while those exercises done in sets, so that the woman had made extra effort, also produced the effect.

Many women involved discussed having known these feelings since childhood, one woman involved still a virgin who find the experiences very thrilling.  Just why certain exercises lead to orgasm or sexual pleasure is still unclear, though ongoing research may begin to provide some answers. Exercise is already known to be highly beneficial to health and well-being, and with the potential to enhance female sexual seems more attractive than ever.

With around one out of four women failing to reach a climax through sex physical exercise, long discounted, may help explain, if many women are experiencing orgasm during exercise. then this might reveal much more about  the process of orgasm, and how female l bodies work in that regard.

The philosophers of science started to take a serious observation to the changes and improvements in biology most especially after the discovery of the structure of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) in 1953, and to the more recent advances in genetic engineering.

Philosophy of biology is a recent subfield under the philosophy of science. The philosophy of science, as an area in philosophy, focuses on the epistemic, metaphysical, and semantic concerns of science. Philosophy of biology, therefore, also deals with epistemological and metaphysical issues particularly on the biological and biomedical sciences.

Now, it happens to be increasingly evident that starting from the 1990’s, there emerges an exciting and interesting field philosophy of biology which explores questions regarding the communicative developments within and between the tiniest cells and tissues, or even between organisms of various fauna and flora.

These developments also includes other key ideas such as the incorporation of psychology into a much wider neuroscience, as well as the reduction of all life processes to biochemical reaction, such as, the explanations of the origin of life from sparks of chemical reactions, i.e., from non-life.

Today, philosophy of biology has transformed into a very important and most-sought field of expertise. As a matter of evidence, there exist an International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), a professional organization founded in 1990 with its principal office in Virginia, USA that brings together scholars from diverse disciplines, including the life sciences and other areas of science.

ISHPSSB’s yearly encounters are widely known for their scientific, multidisciplinary conferences, and for fostering cooperative exchanges and participations. The society’s name itself already reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field. It is open to all scholars interested in any aspect of biology.

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Until recently, morality was viewed as something that humans were forced to develop in order to maintain societal order, to keep chaos from breaking out lest our natural “base urges” overtake us and cause us to run amok. 

But Frans de Waal, a biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that “humans have a lot of pro-social tendencies.”

New research on higher animals from primates and elephants to mice shows there is a biological basis for behavior such as cooperation, said de Waal, author of “The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society.”

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De Waal explained that human children — and most higher animals — are “moral” in a scientific sense, because they need to cooperate with each other to reproduce and pass on their genes.

Biologist Thomas Henry Huxley argued in the 19th century that morality is absent in nature and something created by humans, and that point of view has been commonly held until research showed it to be incorrect.

And de Waal wants it known that Charles Darwin never had a thing to do with perpetuating that harsh view, nor did it have anything to do with his Theory of Evolution.

“Darwin was much smarter than most of his followers,” said de Waal, quoting from Darwin’s “The Descent of Man” that animals that developed “well-marked social instincts would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience.”

De Waal showed the audience at the meeting videos from laboratories revealing the dramatic emotional distress of a monkey denied a treat that another monkey received; and of a rat giving up chocolate in order to help another rat escape from a trap.

Such research shows that animals naturally have pro-social tendencies for “reciprocity, fairness, empathy and consolation,” said de Waal.

“Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.”