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Monkeys show signs of advance memory powers
courtesy of Anders Garm
IN BRIEF First stars were fast spinners
Box jellyfish find lunch by knowing which way is up BOX jellyfish may lack a brain, but they certainly know how to use their two dozen eyes. Now it seems that some of these eyes help the jellyfish to navigate using landmarks above the water. Dan-Eric Nilsson at Lund University in Sweden and colleagues discovered that the weight of a gypsum crystal embedded in the structures surrounding the eyes of the box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) keeps some of them pointing directly upwards at all times. To try to find out why the animals constantly look up, Nilsson and his team placed box jellyfish in a clear tank
and lowered it into their mangrove swamp home in Puerto Rico. When the tank was a few metres from the canopy edge, and the trees were visible overhead, the jellies repeatedly swam towards the trees. But they swam in all directions if the tank was moved away from the edge so that the trees were no longer visible. Because the tank kept out chemical signals, and jellies can’t discern much under the murky water, Nilsson says they navigate using the trees as landmarks (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.054). “This is the first time terrestrial cues have been demonstrated to be used for navigation by any invertebrate,” Nilsson says. Staying under the shelter of the canopy will be helpful to the jellies because the crustaceans they eat are found in those shallow waters.
Toxic gas may stop malaria in its tracks THE elusive mechanism by which people carrying the gene for sickle-cell disease are protected from malaria has finally been identified. This could point to a treatment for malaria. People develop sickle-cell disease, a condition in which the red blood cells are abnormally shaped, if they inherit two faulty copies of the gene for the oxygencarrying protein haemoglobin. 20 | NewScientist | 7 May 2011
The faulty gene persists because even carrying one copy of it confers some resistance to malaria. Now Miguel Soares of the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, Portugal, has found that mice genetically modified to carry one copy of the faulty gene can be infected by the malaria parasite but do not fall ill, and that it is the toxic gas carbon monoxide that has the protective effect.
He found that the gas is present in the blood of mice with the faulty gene and that it prevents the release of haem – a component of haemoglobin – into the blood plasma. It appears that “free” haem is vital to the malaria parasite being able to cause disease (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.03.049). Soares suggests that low doses of carbon monoxide could be used to protect against malaria. The gas has already been shown to have some antibacterial properties.
THE first stars may have rotated several times faster than today’s. Cristina Chiappini of the Liebniz Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam, Germany, and colleagues analysed stars in an ancient cluster called NGC 6522. The cluster’s stars formed at least 12 billion years ago, less than 2 billion years after the big bang. Several of the stars boast unusually high abundances of the heavy elements yttrium and strontium, which the team think formed in earlier generations of fast-spinning stars. Their model simulations support the theory, showing that fast rotation mixes material inside a star, boosting the rate of nuclear reactions that produce heavy elements (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10000). Such “spinstars” may be more likely to explode in bright gamma-ray bursts, suggesting we could see the death throes of the first stars even today.
Monkeys can recall a familiar pattern MONKEY see, monkey recall – at least for a couple of minutes. Ben Basile of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, placed five rhesus monkeys in front of a touchscreen that briefly showed a blue square and two red ones. After an interval of up to 2 minutes, the blue square reappeared in a different place, and the monkeys had to replicate the pattern in its new position by tapping the screen to place red squares. Their success rate was significantly better than chance (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j. cub.2011.03.044), showing for the first time that they are able to recall things from memory. This is more advanced than recognising a familiar object, and could be a precursor to long-term memory.
IN BRIEF First stars were fast spinners
Box jellyfish find lunch by knowing which way is up BOX jellyfish may lack a brain, but they certainly know how to use their two dozen eyes. Now it seems that some of these eyes help the jellyfish to navigate using landmarks above the water. Dan-Eric Nilsson at Lund University in Sweden and colleagues discovered that the weight of a gypsum crystal embedded in the structures surrounding the eyes of the box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) keeps some of them pointing directly upwards at all times. To try to find out why the animals constantly look up, Nilsson and his team placed box jellyfish in a clear tank
and lowered it into their mangrove swamp home in Puerto Rico. When the tank was a few metres from the canopy edge, and the trees were visible overhead, the jellies repeatedly swam towards the trees. But they swam in all directions if the tank was moved away from the edge so that the trees were no longer visible. Because the tank kept out chemical signals, and jellies can’t discern much under the murky water, Nilsson says they navigate using the trees as landmarks (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.054). “This is the first time terrestrial cues have been demonstrated to be used for navigation by any invertebrate,” Nilsson says. Staying under the shelter of the canopy will be helpful to the jellies because the crustaceans they eat are found in those shallow waters.
Toxic gas may stop malaria in its tracks THE elusive mechanism by which people carrying the gene for sickle-cell disease are protected from malaria has finally been identified. This could point to a treatment for malaria. People develop sickle-cell disease, a condition in which the red blood cells are abnormally shaped, if they inherit two faulty copies of the gene for the oxygencarrying protein haemoglobin. 20 | NewScientist | 7 May 2011
The faulty gene persists because even carrying one copy of it confers some resistance to malaria. Now Miguel Soares of the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Oeiras, Portugal, has found that mice genetically modified to carry one copy of the faulty gene can be infected by the malaria parasite but do not fall ill, and that it is the toxic gas carbon monoxide that has the protective effect.
He found that the gas is present in the blood of mice with the faulty gene and that it prevents the release of haem – a component of haemoglobin – into the blood plasma. It appears that “free” haem is vital to the malaria parasite being able to cause disease (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.03.049). Soares suggests that low doses of carbon monoxide could be used to protect against malaria. The gas has already been shown to have some antibacterial properties.
THE first stars may have rotated several times faster than today’s. Cristina Chiappini of the Liebniz Astrophysical Institute in Potsdam, Germany, and colleagues analysed stars in an ancient cluster called NGC 6522. The cluster’s stars formed at least 12 billion years ago, less than 2 billion years after the big bang. Several of the stars boast unusually high abundances of the heavy elements yttrium and strontium, which the team think formed in earlier generations of fast-spinning stars. Their model simulations support the theory, showing that fast rotation mixes material inside a star, boosting the rate of nuclear reactions that produce heavy elements (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10000). Such “spinstars” may be more likely to explode in bright gamma-ray bursts, suggesting we could see the death throes of the first stars even today.
Monkeys can recall a familiar pattern MONKEY see, monkey recall – at least for a couple of minutes. Ben Basile of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, placed five rhesus monkeys in front of a touchscreen that briefly showed a blue square and two red ones. After an interval of up to 2 minutes, the blue square reappeared in a different place, and the monkeys had to replicate the pattern in its new position by tapping the screen to place red squares. Their success rate was significantly better than chance (Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j. cub.2011.03.044), showing for the first time that they are able to recall things from memory. This is more advanced than recognising a familiar object, and could be a precursor to long-term memory.