TarsTarkas.NET Blog

I will be making some of these, because I am obsessed with crazy freaky animals. Only they will be bigger! MuHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
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Two conjoined Nile Tilapia fish, dubbed “Siamese Twin”, swim in a small aquarium in Bangkok October 3, 2008. They are both eight months old and share part of the skin together. The bigger fish tends to protect the smaller one from harm while the smaller one looks for food at the bottom of the aquarium.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Who here hasn’t used Scotch Tape to do impromptu X-Rays when creating unholy monsters in the laboratory? This is a simple trick employed by mad scientists across the globe, until one of them blabbed. Now I bet they will change the formula. Good going, blabber! I have to stock up on lots of Scotch Tape, too bad that when it yellows it gets 10% less effective. Don;t they know a recession is on? That even effects my wallet, as my trade in bizarre animal hybrids is down 50%. Thus I create less hyena men, as the current number of hyena men is more than enough than needed at evil lair employment hotspots. Luckily, I am starting a Goon Temp Agency to rent out employees of the crazed hybrid variety for temporary assignment to crazed madmen around the globe. I expect it will be quite popular with evil masterminds looking to cut costs and headcount reports. Then I can buy more Scotch Tape.

Tape measure: X-rays detected from Scotch tape

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter, Ap Science Writer – Wed Oct 22, 7:33 pm ET

NEW YORK – Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape. It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.

Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says.
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He suggests that with some refinements, the process might be harnessed for making inexpensive X-ray machines for paramedics or for places where electricity is expensive or hard to get. After all, you could peel tape or do something similar in such machines with just human power, like cranking.

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In the new work, a machine peeled ordinary Scotch tape off a roll in a vacuum chamber at about 1.2 inches per second. Rapid pulses of X-rays, each about a billionth of a second long, emerged from very close to where the tape was coming off the roll.

That’s where electrons jumped from the roll to the sticky underside of the tape that was being pulled away, a journey of about two-thousandths of an inch, Escobar said. When those electrons struck the sticky side they slowed down, and that slowing made them emit X-rays.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Red chlorophyll is like green chlorophyll but it is red. Hey, don’t expect poetry, there isn’t much you can say introducing it that you shouldn’t already know! There is red, green, and blue chlorophyll, but this is a new version that does Red Edge. Which means absorbs the light near the infrared spectrum. That means if you were wearing Infrared goggles, you would just see a big black spot. I am sure you want to know what horrible thing I am using this for…but it is TOP SECRET!!!! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Living On ‘The Red Edge’: Rare Form Of Chlorophyll Discovered In Newly Sequenced Bacterium

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2008) — Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Arizona State University have sequenced the genome of a rare bacterium that harvests light energy by making an even rarer form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll d. Chlorophyll d absorbs “red edge,” near infrared, long wave length light, invisible to the naked eye.

In so doing, the cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina, competes with virtually no other plant or bacterium in the world for sunlight. As a result, its genome is massive for a cyanobacterium, comprising 8.3 million base pairs, and sophisticated. The genome is among the very largest of 55 cyanobacterial strains in the world sequenced thus far, and it is the first chlorophyll d –containing organism to be sequenced .

Robert Blankenship. Ph.D., Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and principal investigator of the project, said with every gene of Acaryochloris marina now sequenced and annotated, the immediate goal is to find the enzyme that causes a chemical structure change in chlorophyll d, making it different from primarily chlorophyll a, and b, but also from about nine other forms of chlorophyll.

“The synthesis of chlorophyll by an organism is complex, involving 17 different steps in all,” Blankenship said. “Some place near the end of this process an enzyme transforms a vinyl group to a formyl group to make chlorophyll d. This transformation of chemical forms is not known in any other chlorophyll molecules.”

Blankenship said he and his collaborators have some candidate genes they will test. They hope to insert these genes into an organism that makes just chlorophyll a. If the organism learns to synthesize chlorophyll d with one of the genes, the mystery of chlorophyll d synthesis will be solved, and then the excitement will begin.

Blankenship and his colleagues from both institutions published a paper on their work in the Feb. 4, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and also involved collaborators from Australia and Japan. Three Washington University undergraduate students and one graduate student participated in the project, as well as other research personnel.

Harvesting solar power through plants or other organisms that would be genetically altered with the chlorophyll d gene could make them solar power factories that generate and store solar energy. Consider a seven-foot tall corn plant genetically tailored with the chlorophyll d gene to be expressed at the very base of the stalk. While the rest of the plant synthesized chlorophyll a, absorbing short wave light, the base is absorbing “red edge” light in the 710 nanometer range. Energy could be stored in the base without competing with any other part of the plant for photosynthesis, as the rest only makes chlorophyll a. Also, the altered corn using the chlorophyll d gene could become a super plant because of its enhanced ability to harness energy from the sun.

That model is similar to how Acaryochloris marina actually operates in the South Pacific, specifically Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Discovered just 11 years ago, the cyanobacterium lives in a symbiotic relationship with a sponge-like marine animal popularly called a sea squirt . The Acaryochloris marina lives beneath the sea squirt, which is a marine animal that lives attached to rocks just below the surface of the water. The cyanobacterium absorbs “red edge” light through the tissues of its pal the sea squirt.

The genome, said Blankenship, is ” fat and happy. Acaryochloris marina lies down there using that far red light that no one else can use. The organism has never been under very strong selection pressure to be lean and mean like other bacteria are. It’s kind of in a sweet spot. Living in this environment is what allowed it to have such dramatic genome expansion.”

Blankenship said that once the gene that causes the late-step chemical transformation is found and inserted successfully into other plants or organisms, that it could potentially represent a five percent increase in available light for organisms to use.

“We now have genetic information on a unique organism that makes this type of pigment that no other organism does,” Blankenship said. “We don’t know what all the genes do by any means. But we’ve just begun the analysis. When we find the chlorophyll d enzyme and then look into transferring it into other organisms, we’ll be working to extend the range of potentially useful photosynthesis radiation.’

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Junk DNA seems to have every explanation on the planet for what it is for. And they are all wrong. Everyone knows Junk DNA is really spare parts carried in case DNA Vampires from the planet Neptune attack the Earth again. That way, you have spare DNA to keep yourself alive long enough to defeat them yet again. The explosive addition of microRNAs talked about in this article is just the result of one such DNA Vampire attack and the explosive growth in DNA diversity that follows after the vampires’ defeat.

‘Junk DNA’ Can Explain Origin And Complexity Of Vertebrates, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2008) Dartmouth College researchers and colleagues from the University of Bristol in the U.K. have traced the beginnings of complex life, i.e. vertebrates, to microRNA, sometimes referred to as ‘junk DNA.’ The researchers argue that the evolution of microRNAs, which regulate gene expression, are behind the origin of early vertebrates.

Vertebrates - animals such as humans that possess a backbone - are the most anatomically and genetically complex of all organisms, but explaining how they achieved this complexity has vexed scientists since the conception of evolutionary theory.

The team studied the genomics of primitive living fishes, such as sharks and lampreys, and their spineless relatives, like the sea squirt. By reconstructing the acquisition history of microRNAs shared between human and mice, the researchers determined that the highest rate of microRNA innovation in the vertebrate lineage occurred before the divergence between the living jawless fishes like the lamprey and the jawed fishes like the shark, but after the divergence of vertebrates from their invertebrate chordate relatives, such as the sea squirt.

Alysha Heimberg of Dartmouth College and her colleagues showed that microRNAs, a class of tiny molecules only recently discovered residing within what has usually been considered ‘junk DNA’, are hugely diverse in even the most lowly of vertebrates, but relatively few are found in the genomes of our invertebrate relatives.

She explained: “There was an explosive increase in the number of new microRNAs added to the genome of vertebrates and this is unparalleled in evolutionary history.”

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Popularity: 32% [?]

It seems some jerk scientists have stumbled across my private stash of Swinhoe’s turtles and are now hailing their rediscovery. These are my private stash! I’m saving them for a special experiment, but now I have to deal with some conservation nutjobs who haven’t figures out how to mass clone endangered animals. For shame! If I don’t save the wee turtles, who will?

Almost Extinct Turtle Discovered Living In Wild In Northern Vietnam

ScienceDaily (Apr. 19, 2008) — “Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle” was thought to be extinct in nature. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has just announced the discovery of a critically endangered turtle in northern Vietnam that previously was thought to be extinct in the wild. Experts from the Zoo’s Asian Turtle Program confirmed that they have identified the only known living specimen of a Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) in nature.

After three years of searching lakes and wetlands along the Red River in northern Vietnam, researchers sponsored by Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the Cleveland Zoological Society, turned their focus to a lake just west of Hanoi, where local residents claimed to have occasionally seen the gigantic soft-shell turtle. Field biologist Nguyen Xuan Thuan, with Education for Nature in Vietnam, found and photographed the turtle as it basked on the lake’s surface, allowing scientists to confirm the animal was the extremely rare Swinhoe’s turtle.

This is an incredibly important discovery because the Swinhoe’s turtle is one of the most critically endangered species of turtle in the world,” said Doug Hendrie, the Vietnam-based coordinator of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian Turtle Program. “This species has legendary status among the people of Vietnam, so this is perhaps an opportunity for the legend to live on.”

Popularity: 32% [?]

Drop the lawsuits, please! I totally didn’t knock up that sea dragon guy, using artificial eggs and sperm to make him pregnant. He isn’t breeding an army of sea dragons which I will use to threaten offshore oil rigs in exchange for extortion money. There will not be a herd of giant sea dragons roaming the ocean that will attack shipping lanes for cheap goods, hijack oil tankers, and sink Greenpeace vessels for fun. And any news reports you see to the contrary are all a pack of lies. Trust your Dr. Mobusu!

Endangered sea dragon at Ga. aquarium pregnant

Thu Jun 12, 3:19 PM ET

ATLANTA - A weedy sea dragon at the Georgia Aquarium has something to celebrate this Father’s Day. One of the rare creatures is pregnant for only the third time ever at a U.S. aquarium, aquarium officials said. But don’t look for the expectant mom — dads carry the eggs in this family.

The aquarium’s sea dragon has about 70 fertilized eggs — which look like small red grapes — attached to his tail. He is expected to give birth in early to mid-July, said Kerry Gladish, a biologist at the aquarium.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Sure, some of my space superweapons devour stars for energy, and have been on a feeding frenzy lately, but there hasn’t been enough of a chow time to wipe out two whole arms of a galaxy! It’s just a realignment by astronomers, honest! It is definitely not some sort of conspiracy to redesign the galaxy, working in tangent with the committees to reclassify Pluto as not a planet to drive down its real estate prices. So don’t be spreading any false rumors, or Dr. Mobusu will be hunting you down!

New Images: Milky Way Loses Two Arms

Jeanna Bryner
Staff Writer
SPACE.com Tue Jun 3, 1:15 PM ET

ST. LOUIS — For decades, astronomers have pictured our galaxy as sporting four major, spiral arms, however new images effectively sever two appendages, revealing the Milky Way has just two major arms.

“We’re not proposing that they change the positions of the arms,” said Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. “What we’re proposing is a change in the emphasis of the arms.” Benjamin will present his team’s results today here at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

The results are among a handful of presentations at the meeting to paint an evolving picture of our galactic home base.

For instance, other results presented here this week suggest a completely new arm of stars wraps around one side of the galactic bulge. And another group has identified with more accuracy the location and relative distance of the spiral arms.

Popularity: 23% [?]

He was made a unicorn on purpose, for one reason: for kicks! That’s right, what’s better than making freaks of nature? NOTHING! The freakier the better, and this guy is totally freaked up! It rules. Even that new game Spore is all about making freaks of nature. Freaks rule, normals drool. Expect a bunch more unicorns to pop up in the animal kingdom pretty soon, as long as the pregnancies come to term. Nothing burst my bubble faster than spontaneous abortions of my freaks of natures. So many freaks who shall never get to get their freak on. :(

Single-horned ‘Unicorn’ deer found in Italy

By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 11, 3:06 PM ET

ROME - A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.

“This is fantasy becoming reality,” Gilberto Tozzi, director of the Center of Natural Sciences in Prato, told The Associated Press. “The unicorn has always been a mythological animal.”

The 1-year-old Roe Deer — nicknamed “Unicorn” — was born in captivity in the research center’s park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi said.

He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Okay, so maybe I ate a few of them from time to time on special occasions. It wasn’t that many! I can’t help it if they are delicious! They should evolve worst tasting meat. How hard is that? Stupid monk seals. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken a vow of celibacy. I do have a pack of DNA for these monk seals so I can clone replacements, but that’s just standard DNA hording on my part. Don’t expect me to create any new Caribbean monk seals anytime soon, unless I get the urge for a midnight snack. Mmmmm…. Carribbean Monk Seal BBQ.

via MSNBC

After five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals — even just one — the U.S. government on Friday announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.

“Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them,” Kyle Baker, a biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this led to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes.”

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We got frogs with retractable claws now. Just think about that! These frogs have the potential to make a cool horror film, and it can be scientifically accurate! SciFi Channel, take note. This is another example of how there are many cool things still out there waiting to be discovered. And then exploited by mad scientists like I, for I am currently working on a way to incorporate these giant clawed frogs into an army to use to take over swampland worldwide. Then I will sell the swampland in bogus real estate deals, making millions! MuHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Make Way for Superfrog

By Lauren Cahoon
ScienceNOW Daily News
28 May 2008
X-Men fans rejoice: Wolverine has come to life, as a frog. When the comic book warrior faces a fight, metallic blades spring forth from his hand. A new study concludes that certain African frogs are similarly equipped, having sharp, claw-shaped bones that pierce through their own fingertips when the animal is threatened.

More than 100 years ago, scientists observed the mysterious bony appendages in museum specimens of the Arthroleptidae frog family, but they had no idea what to make of them. Some speculated that the protrusions were an artifact of the preservation process. Harvard University biologists David Blackburn decided to solve the mystery once and for all after having the frequent misfortune of being injured by the amphibians while doing field research in Cameroon. “The frogs will start kicking and drag these claws against your skin,” he says. “I’ve gotten bloody scratches from them many a time.”

Due to strict government regulations on removing live animals from Cameroon, Blackburn’s team had to do their anatomical studies on preserved museum specimens. In addition to the talon-shaped finger bones others had seen, the researchers found a small bony nodule nestled in the tissue just beyond the frog’s fingertip. When sheathed, each claw is anchored to the nodule with tough strands of collagen, but, as Blackburn had discovered firsthand, when the frog is grabbed or attacked, the frog breaks the nodule connection and forces its sharpened bones through the skin.

This bizarre skeletal feature is found in only 12 species within the Arthroleptidae family,

Popularity: 26% [?]