- Email: [email protected]
Zoologger: Elephants understand what it means to point
Mark Newman/Getty images
IN BRIEF Cancers may hijack fetus ‘detox’ switch
Elephants understand the point of humans pointing THEY grieve for their dead, can recognise themselves in a mirror and work together to complete a task. Now elephants have added another skill to their repertoire: without any training, the giant herbivores can understand and follow our hand gestures. They are the first non-human animals known to have such smarts. Richard Byrne and Ann Smet at the University of St Andrews, UK, gave 11 captive African elephants a choice of two buckets – one containing food, one without. Both buckets had been rubbed with the food to make them smell the same. Smet then stood between the buckets,
pointing towards the food. On average, the elephants chose the correct bucket 68 per cent of the time, a performance on a par with a 1-year-old child (Current Biology, doi.org/n79). This ability is surprising considering how poor their eyesight is, says Byrne. Elephants rely heavily on smell and sound – their eyesight is similar to that of people with a form of colour blindness called deuteranopia. Although elephants “point” with their trunk in the wild, it was assumed they were simply sniffing the air. The study suggests that the trunk could act as a communication tool as well. “Elephants are cognitively much more like us than has been realised,” says Byrne. “This makes them able to understand our characteristic way of indicating things by pointing.”
Deadly botulism toxin kept under wraps IT’S secret but deadly. A novel type of botulinum – the most lethal toxin around – has been discovered, but the DNA sequence behind it has been withheld from public databases for fear it could be used as a weapon. Without treatment, a mere 2 billionths of a gram of the protein botulinum, produced by soil bacterium Clostridium botulinum, will kill an adult. 16 | NewScientist | 19 October 2013
Current treatments use artificial immune proteins that react with toxins produced by the seven known families of botulinum bacteria. Stephen Arnon and his colleagues at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento report this week that they have found an eighth toxin. It was discovered after sequencing the DNA of a bacterium found in
the faeces of a child who had the typical symptoms of botulism. The toxin reacted only weakly with a few of the standard antibodies – none fully protected mice from its effects. Normally, the gene sequence of the bacterium that creates the toxin would be placed in an international public database. However, the US government deemed that to be too risky until an antidote is found (Journal of Infectious Diseases, doi.org/n8b).
REBOOT to resist. The secret to some cancers’ drug resistance may lie in their power to reboot a switch that potentially protects fetuses from toxins. Tampering with that ability could make the cancers treatable again. The genetic switch, called PITX2, is normally active only in the embryo, where its main job is to orchestrate the symmetry of some internal organs. Frank Thévenod at the Witten/ Herdecke University in Germany and his team have found it also helps to flush toxins out of cells. It is re-awakened in some cancer cells, removing anti-cancer drugs. “The onset of cancer is often through reactivation of embryonic development pathways that are otherwise dormant,” he says. Several genes linked to the flushing out of drugs are already known. PITX2 provides a new treatment target (International Journal of Cancer, doi.org/n78).
Comet’s blackened heart fell to Earth A CHARRED pebble found in the Egyptian desert may offer the first close-up look at a comet’s core. Chemical analysis has revealed that the 30-gram stone has isotope ratios that confirm its extraterrestrial origins (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, doi.org/ n8h). But isotopes of some noble gases in the stone are nothing like those found in other meteorites, which all came from asteroids that formed inside the orbit of Jupiter. Jan Kramers at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa and his colleagues think the rock is instead a piece of a comet that exploded over the desert 28 million years ago. If they are right, studying it may offer clues to the way comets formed in the outer reaches of the solar system.
IN BRIEF Cancers may hijack fetus ‘detox’ switch
Elephants understand the point of humans pointing THEY grieve for their dead, can recognise themselves in a mirror and work together to complete a task. Now elephants have added another skill to their repertoire: without any training, the giant herbivores can understand and follow our hand gestures. They are the first non-human animals known to have such smarts. Richard Byrne and Ann Smet at the University of St Andrews, UK, gave 11 captive African elephants a choice of two buckets – one containing food, one without. Both buckets had been rubbed with the food to make them smell the same. Smet then stood between the buckets,
pointing towards the food. On average, the elephants chose the correct bucket 68 per cent of the time, a performance on a par with a 1-year-old child (Current Biology, doi.org/n79). This ability is surprising considering how poor their eyesight is, says Byrne. Elephants rely heavily on smell and sound – their eyesight is similar to that of people with a form of colour blindness called deuteranopia. Although elephants “point” with their trunk in the wild, it was assumed they were simply sniffing the air. The study suggests that the trunk could act as a communication tool as well. “Elephants are cognitively much more like us than has been realised,” says Byrne. “This makes them able to understand our characteristic way of indicating things by pointing.”
Deadly botulism toxin kept under wraps IT’S secret but deadly. A novel type of botulinum – the most lethal toxin around – has been discovered, but the DNA sequence behind it has been withheld from public databases for fear it could be used as a weapon. Without treatment, a mere 2 billionths of a gram of the protein botulinum, produced by soil bacterium Clostridium botulinum, will kill an adult. 16 | NewScientist | 19 October 2013
Current treatments use artificial immune proteins that react with toxins produced by the seven known families of botulinum bacteria. Stephen Arnon and his colleagues at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento report this week that they have found an eighth toxin. It was discovered after sequencing the DNA of a bacterium found in
the faeces of a child who had the typical symptoms of botulism. The toxin reacted only weakly with a few of the standard antibodies – none fully protected mice from its effects. Normally, the gene sequence of the bacterium that creates the toxin would be placed in an international public database. However, the US government deemed that to be too risky until an antidote is found (Journal of Infectious Diseases, doi.org/n8b).
REBOOT to resist. The secret to some cancers’ drug resistance may lie in their power to reboot a switch that potentially protects fetuses from toxins. Tampering with that ability could make the cancers treatable again. The genetic switch, called PITX2, is normally active only in the embryo, where its main job is to orchestrate the symmetry of some internal organs. Frank Thévenod at the Witten/ Herdecke University in Germany and his team have found it also helps to flush toxins out of cells. It is re-awakened in some cancer cells, removing anti-cancer drugs. “The onset of cancer is often through reactivation of embryonic development pathways that are otherwise dormant,” he says. Several genes linked to the flushing out of drugs are already known. PITX2 provides a new treatment target (International Journal of Cancer, doi.org/n78).
Comet’s blackened heart fell to Earth A CHARRED pebble found in the Egyptian desert may offer the first close-up look at a comet’s core. Chemical analysis has revealed that the 30-gram stone has isotope ratios that confirm its extraterrestrial origins (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, doi.org/ n8h). But isotopes of some noble gases in the stone are nothing like those found in other meteorites, which all came from asteroids that formed inside the orbit of Jupiter. Jan Kramers at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa and his colleagues think the rock is instead a piece of a comet that exploded over the desert 28 million years ago. If they are right, studying it may offer clues to the way comets formed in the outer reaches of the solar system.