Lifeboat Foundation

Neoliberalism slows down evolution! Just kidding…or am I? 🧐😁🤣🙈.

Like other organisms, bacteria constantly have to fight to survive in hostile living conditions. Together with colleagues in Finland, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön have discovered that bacteria adapt to their environment more slowly and less efficiently as soon as they are exposed to two stress factors rather than one. This is due to mutations in different genes. The slower rate of evolution led to smaller population sizes. This means that evolution can take divergent paths if an organism is exposed to several stress factors.

Bacteria rarely live alone; they are usually part of a community of species that is exposed to various stress factors. They can often react to these factors by adapting to new environmental conditions with astonishing speed. Antibiotics that enter soil and water via waste water and accumulate there in low concentrations can trigger the evolution of resistance in bacteria – even though these concentrations are so low that they inhibit bacterial growth only slightly or not at all. However, bacteria do not only have to fight antibiotics; they also have to deal with predators. This is why they often grow in large colonies that cannot be consumed by predatory organisms.

Continue reading “Double the stress slows down evolution” »

Starting on Thursday, the latest Apple Watch models will be able to take an ECG reading, a kind of heart-rate reading that doctors can use to diagnose heart conditions.

To activate the feature, you need the Apple Watch Series 4 and the latest version of WatchOS, which will be available for download on Thursday.

Apple made it easy to access the feature: turn on the app, hold your finger on the device’s crown for 30 seconds, and it will provide a heart rhythm reading that you can use to figure out whether you need to contact your doctor to get your heart checked out. It saves the reading in a PDF file that you can send to your doctor.

Continue reading “Apple’s highly anticipated heart monitoring feature is finally available for the Apple Watch” »

University of Otago researchers have discovered information about a gene that sets primates—great apes and humans—apart from other mammals, through the study of a rare developmental brain disorder.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of our first servicing mission, check out Hubble’s view pre-servicing in 1993 to the 2009 image taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, of one especially photogenic galaxy located 55 million light-years away. Take a closer look: https://go.nasa.gov/2G3a7m7&h=AT2kdzuMJry_LAUVF93l2REPEy09T4…DRh4gS-cCA

Jump to media player The rocket had a hydraulic problem on its way back to Earth.

The longest nighttime and shortest daytime of the year is due this December 22, 2018 during an astronomical event called #WinterSolstice.

READ: https://bit.ly/2BTwUMN

Shou-Cheng Zhang, a Shanghai-born Chinese-American physicist at Stanford University, who graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai, died at age 55 on Saturday, Digital Horizon Capital said in an email on Thursday.

He was identified as one of the top candidates for the Nobel Prize by Thomson Reuters in 2014. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Science of the United States in 2015. He was also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Chinese space agency will be launching the Chang’e 4 moon lander on Friday 7 December, hoping to make China the first country to land on the far side of the moon. Dutch astronomers are also looking forward to the launch as they are collaborating with Chinese scientists on this mission. A satellite containing a Dutch radio instrument has already been launched to the far side of the moon, ready to be switched on once the moon lander touches down.

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A psychologist explains our obsession with other people’s opinions.