Astonishing New Species Discovered in 2012

Earth is a big place. Even with our billion-dollar satellites and high-tech monitoring equipment, we are still discovering new species on land and at sea.

For example, the iridescent blue Pterinopelma sazimai, commonly known as “Sazima’s Tarantula,” was found in Brazil.

On average, scientists identify 36 new mammals every year. And the ocean is an even more mysterious place. Two-thirds of marine species remain unknown — a huge number, considering between 700,000 and one million species live in oceans.

In 2012, we met some new species currently sharing the Earth with us — a gorgeous blue tarantula and a sneezing monkey, to name a couple. Learn more here.

How do cancer cells behave differently from healthy ones?

How do cancer cells grow? How does chemotherapy fight cancer (and cause negative side effects)? The answers lie in cell division.

Best Microscope Critter Photos

Every year for nearly four decades, Nikon has received hundreds of entries in its Small World microscope photography contest. Every year, the images are more amazing.

Spiders, weevils, wasps, lice, mites and mosquitoes are among the creepiest subjects of the winners of Nikon’s Small World microscope photography competition this year. Super-close-ups of eyes, tongues and silk spinnerets are amazingly beautiful, but also gross enough to induce shivers.

See more here or here.

Big brains are why humans get cancer

There’s a downside to everything. When humans evolved bigger brains, we became the smartest animal alive and were able to colonise the entire planet. But for our minds to expand, a new theory goes, our cells had to become less willing to commit suicide – and that may have made us more prone to cancer.

When cells become damaged or just aren’t needed, they self-destruct in a process called apoptosis. In developing organisms, apoptosis is just as important as cell growth for generating organs and appendages – it helps “prune” structures to their final form.

By getting rid of malfunctioning cells, apoptosis also prevents cells from growing into tumours.

Scientists compared skin cells from humans, chimpanzees and macaques and found that, compared to cells from other primates, our cells are reluctant to undergo apoptosis.

It is hypothesised that humans’ reduced capacity for apoptosis could help explain why our brains are so much bigger, relative to body size, than those of chimpanzees and other animals. Learn more here.

Aphids may be first photosynthesising animal

Aphids may recharge their batteries as they sit in the sun.

A handful of animals live in symbiosis with photosynthetic microbes or plants, but none have been found that harness light directly. Now there are hints that aphids increase their production of ATP – the biological energy molecule – in response to light. While this doesn’t prove they photosynthesise, it is an intriguing hint that they might.

Carotenoids are common in algae and some bacteria and fungi, where they harvest light for photosynthesis. Aphids are the only insects known to have the genes to produce carotenoids; the molecules give them their colour. Learn more here, here or here.

Best Wild Animal Photo of 2012

And the winner is …

Emperor penguins rocket toward an exit hole in the ice in the winning picture of the 2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

To get the shot, taken in Antarctica’s Ross Sea, photographer Paul Nicklen used polar survival skills he’d learned as a child among the Inuit on Canada’s Baffin Island. Nicklen began by lowering himself through a hole in the ice and breathed through a snorkel while waiting for the penguins to return from foraging. More pictures here.

One-fifth of invertebrate species at risk of extinction

One in five of the world’s invertebrate species are threatened with extinction, according to the latest report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

From the checkerspot butterfly to the giant squid, spineless creatures are thought to represent around 99% of biodiversity on Earth. However, until now, scientists have never attempted a comprehensive review of their conservation status. In fact, fewer than 1% of invertebrates had been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which has listed threatened species on its Red List since 1963.

The report estimates that 34% of freshwater invertebrates could be under threat, including more than half of the world’s freshwater snails and slugs. In the southeastern United States, which is a freshwater diversity hotspot, almost 40% of molluscs and crayfish could be wiped out owing to the effects of dams and pollution. In the oceans, almost one-third of reef-building corals are endangered largely because of climate change, which causes coral bleaching and ocean acidification. Learn more here.

DNA: The Ultimate Hard Drive

When it comes to storing information, hard drives don’t hold a candle to DNA. Our genetic code packs billions of gigabytes into a single gram. A mere milligram of the molecule could encode the complete text of every book in the Library of Congress and have plenty of room to spare. All of this has been mostly theoretical—until now. In a new study, researchers stored an entire genetics textbook in less than a picogram of DNA—one trillionth of a gram—an advance that could revolutionize our ability to save data.

The scientists encoded the 53,400-word book, 11 JPG images and a JavaScript program – amounting to 5.27 million bits of data in total – into sequences of DNA. If they were able to upscale the process this would equate to 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA.

Just think about it for a moment: One gram of DNA can store 700 terabytes of data. That’s 14,000 50-gigabyte Blu-ray discs… in a droplet of DNA that would fit on the tip of your pinky. To store the same kind of data on hard drives — the densest storage medium in use today — you’d need 233 3TB drives, weighing a total of 151 kilos. Learn more here, here, here or here.

Frog vs Poison Newt

In the tradition of ‘Killer Whale vs Seal‘, ‘Lion vs Buffalo vs Crocodile‘, ‘Shark vs Octopus‘, ’Leopard vs Porcupine‘, ‘Hornets vs Honey bees‘, ’Salmon vs Grizzly Bear‘, ‘Hippopotamus vs Crocodile’, ‘Polar Bear vs Walrus Colony’, ‘Giraffe vs Giraffe‘ and ‘Caterpillar vs Frog‘,  here is ‘Frog vs Poison Newt’:

100-Million-Year-Old Spider Attack Recorded in Amber

This one really was a fight for the ages. Researchers have discovered the only fossil known of a spider attack on prey caught in its web. The young male arachnid (top) was just about to pounce on a tiny parasitic wasp when the pair became smothered in tree resin in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar 97 million to 110 million years ago. The result was a fossilized piece of amber that captured the event—complete with spider silk—in remarkable detail.

Learn more here or here.