A tiny freshwater polyp called the hydra has a rather neat trick: It can't die. These polyps are able to accomplish this remarkable feat of apparent immorality by reproducing through budding rather than mating. But as geneticists from Kiel University in Germany recently discovered, the same longevity gene that makes the hydra immortal may also explain why humans get older — an important bit of insight that could eventually result in advanced therapies to treat human aging.

The study, which was published this week the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked into the biological processes used by the hydra to avoid the effects of aging. The researchers discovered that each polyp contains stem cells capable of continuous reproduction and proliferation. Without this endless supply of regenerating stem cells, the polyp wouldn't be able to continually bud in the way that it does.

We humans, it's important to note, also produce stem cells that help with cellular rejuvenation. But unfortunately, these stem cells lose their ability to proliferate and form fresh cells as we get older — what typically manifests as a dramatic decrease in muscle mass and other biological degradations.

When studying the hydra, the Kiel research team managed to isolate one particular gene that plays a role in all of this — what's called FoxO. The isolation of this gene, what can be found in both polyps and other animals (including humans), came as a welcome surprise to the researchers. They then suspected a potential link to stem cell production, and by virtue, the aging process — or in the case of the hydra, its ability to avoid it.

Further research into several genetically modified polyps (i.e. by suppressing different versions of the FoxO gene) did in fact reveal a connection to stem cell proliferation. Hydra with normal functioning FoxO exploited the indefinite self-renewal capacity of stem cells, but those without it or with impaired FoxO possessed significantly fewer stem cells.

And in fact, the changes they saw in morphology were similar to what is typically seen in elderly humans.

Fascinatingly, heightened FoxO activity has indeed been found in centenarians — people who have lived beyond 100 years. This offered the researchers a valuable piece of insight into the particulars of human aging, suggesting that there is a direct link and that it plays an important role in determining the length of lifespans. It's important to note that this conclusion is purely observational and conjectural; to prove this hypothesis, the researchers would have to perform similar genetic manipulations on humans.

But that said, the researchers plan on moving ahead with further studies into the hydra and their amazing FoxO genes.

And given the promising connection between the FoxO gene and the indefinite self-renewal of stem cells, it's not unreasonable to suggest that future biotechnologies may tap into this longevity gene to make it a crucial part of an advanced rejuvenation therapy.

Images: CAU/Fraune & CAU/Wittlieb.

While there's little doubt that global warming is set to wreak considerable havoc on the planet's ecosystems, it's not all bad news for some species of this good Earth. Given just how adaptable some animals can be, climate change is set to create entirely new opportunities for a lucky few. So get ready for an Earth inundated by tropical diseases, mosquitoes, plants, jellyfish, and snakes.

To help us get a better sense of this issue, we spoke to Ramez Naam, an expert on the impacts of climate change and the author of the upcoming book, The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet. As we found out from Naam, there are a host of factors to consider. But that said, a picture is starting to emerge about which species are set to become the winners of climate change.

A tangled web of factors

As serious as climate change is, it is happening at a slower time scale than other ecologically unfriendly trends, including the destruction of habitats through land use, pollution (such as nitrogen deposition), the proliferation of invasive species, and of course, the biological consequences of increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Indeed, as Naam told io9, "It's important to understand that global warming, while a significant threat to life, isn't the largest driver of extinction or forced adaptation for life on Earth."

Consequently it's these short-to-medium term, human-caused disruptions to natural habitats that will have the most significant impact on biodiversity. But looking 50 years into the future and beyond, it's clear that, along with these factors, the effects of climate change are very likely to take a prominent role.

The warming Earth

Perhaps the most significant impact of climate change on wildlife will be the shifts in geographical range, what will be influenced by changes to a region's normal temperature and humidity.

Models indicate that for each 1°C increase in temperature an ecological zone will advance by 160 km (100 miles). So, if the climate warms by 4°C over the next century, species in the Northern Hemisphere may have to migrate northward by some 500 km (310 miles) or 500 meters (1,640 feet) higher in altitude to find a suitable ecological niche.

Accompanying this will be increased (and altered) levels of humidity, moisture, and rainfall. As a consequence, some regions, like the Mediterranean basin, will experience a drop in soil moisture — what will increase the likelihood of drought.

The ability of a species to respond and adapt to climate change will depend on their ability to colonize new territory, or to modify their physiology and seasonal behavior to adapt to the new conditions (e.g. flowering or mating). Moreover, they'll have to adapt to the downstream effects of this process — including the introduction of new competitors and prey (not to mention changing geochemical conditions).

Advantageous animals

"The species that are most threatened are those that are least able to adapt," says Naam. "Species that are stuck in one place, and species that have long lifecycles (and thus can't evolve very rapidly) are the ones in the most trouble."

And indeed, broadly speaking, categories of animals that stand to benefit include:

• Animals that can spread their geographic zone quickly
• Animals whose populations are currently inhibited by winter freeze or cold temperatures
• Animals that have very rapid life cycles and large numbers of offspring (two traits that will help them expand or move their range rapidly, and also allow evolution to occur more rapidly among the species)
• Animals that are primed to exploit altered environments (call it the luck of the draw)

• A boon for insects

  So given these conditions, it's a good bet that insects will quickly find a way to adapt. They're cold blooded and extremely vulnerable to chilly temperatures. "The colder it gets, the more of them die off each winter," Naam told us. "And the longer the cold season is, the less time the insects spend active, and the less time they have to reproduce."

  Put another way, as the planet warms, insect species can spread into more areas and stay more active during the year. They will thus reproduce more rapidly and grow their numbers exponentially.

  Naam points us to the example of the Mountain Pine Beetle.

  "It's threatening forests across the west," he says. "A large part of that is that warmer temperatures, particularly at night and winter, have been really good for the pine beetle. The active season for them in Colorado has doubled in length from a decade ago — and it's now long enough that pine beetles can go through two generations (about 60 offspring each) in a single year, when it used to be only one." And those warmer temperatures, he says, have also allowed pine beetles to move to higher elevation, from an old maximum of 9,000 feet, up to a new maximum elevation of around 11,000 feet.

  Another insect that stands to benefit from climate change is the mosquito — what is definitely not good news for us humans.

  Asian Tiger Mosquitoes in particular are seeing their range spread as the Earth warms. "They used to never be seen in Europe or in the northern United States — but now they are," says Naam. And indeed, warmer temperatures are exactly what the mosquitoes need to thrive, what will also allow them to increasingly survive the winter chill.

  Spreading diseases

  And troublingly, the mosquito is a carrier of deadly diseases — another type of organism that will reap the benefits of global warming.

  Indeed, as mosquitoes thrive, so too will diseases like West Nile, Dengue Fever, Encephalitis, and Malaria. Basically, any pathogen whose vector relies on another animal — such as tick-born illnesses — will stand to benefit if their hosts also benefit from global warming (which many will).

  In addition to these diseases, climate change is also set to exacerbate the proliferation of not just animal-borne diseases, but food-borne diseases (e.g. salmonella and other bacteria-related food poisoning) and water-borne diseases (e.g. gastrointestinal parasites like Cryptosporidium and Giardia) as well.

  There's also cholera (which spreads with increases in sea surface temperatures, sea level rise, El Niño-Southern Oscillation — and even algal blooms), anthrax (which in addition to increased temperatures will benefit from an increase in strong winds) and the Bubonic Plague (what is spread by rodents and fleas infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis).

  In anything, the spread of noxious diseases is probably one of the more understated impacts of global warming.

  Rise of the plants

  As the sub-arctic regions of northern Canada, Siberia, Alaska, and Greenland warm, those areas will open up for plants.

  Plants, quite obviously, are dependent on carbon dioxide — one of the main drivers of the greenhouse gas effect. But it's also integral for green-plant photosynthesis. Scientists predict that that increased levels of CO2 will subsequently result in an increase in photosynthesis rates (via CO2 fertilization), which may actually balance the effect of temperature increase.

  But this will only apply to regions in which plant growth is limited by the availability of water — and what will probably alter the competitive balance between species that differ in rooting depth, photosynthetic pathway (or 'woodiness'), as well as the subterranean organisms associated with them. At the same time, the increase of anthropogenic atmospheric nitrogen will impact on nitrogen-limited regions (temperate and boreal forests, and alpine and Arctic regions). As a result, any plant with a high maximum growth rate will absolutely thrive.

  And needless to say, certain plants will be more productive as deeply frozen winters give way to more cycles of freezing and thawing — what increases microbial activity and breaks up the soil.

  "We know plants will eventually grow in areas that are now permafrost, but plant spread is relatively slow," says Naam. "And there are questions about what the soils that permafrost leaves behind will look like. That said, eventually, it's likely that plants native to the more temperate parts of Canada, for example, will migrate north, and that the animal species of the more temperate parts of Canada will follow them."

  But not all plants will like climate change. Early tests show that some maladaptive plants may produce shorter roots in warmer areas, and that nutrients that leach out of the soil during freezing and thawing cycles will most likely end up in rivers, streams, and lakes, where they will cause algal blooms and other problems. Consequently, changes in climate and more extreme climate events could potentially have fairly large effects on nutrient availability and the way plants grow.

  Animal life

  Some megafauna will also stand to benefit from climate change, but it's not entirely clear to what extent or which species in particular. Given that global warming is set to disrupt virtually every ecosystem on the planet, it's difficult to predict the downstream effects of so many variables.

  For example, ocean acidification — what's driven by increases in CO2 levels — will have an adverse impact on all calcifying organisms making it more difficult for coral and some plankton to form biogenic calcium carbonate. Subsequently, the downstream effects on oceanic food chains could be catastrophic.

  What is expected in the oceans, however, is that warm-water species will expand their range at the expense of cold-water species. In addition, phytoplankton cycles will be thrown completely out of whack. And as noted, gobal warming will also facilitate algal blooms, which will also cause significant disturbances to the marine web.

  That said, it's possible that jellyfish could benefit from the changing conditions (blooms of jellyfish have already been seen in the Irish, Mediterranean and Black seas), along with some sharks (like the nurse shark).

  As for terrestrial animals, some scientists predict that snakes and other cold blooded reptiles will do well as warmer temperatures allow them to become more active. Moreover, their populations do well when previous years were warm.

  As for mammals, it's expected that the meek shall inherit the Earth — especially rodents. The yellow-bellied marmots of Colorado's Rocky Mountains area are a good example. These squirrel-like mammals can lose up to 40% of their body mass during hibernation, while longer summers give them more time to eat and store fat which helps them live through the winter and reproduce the following year.

  But that said, larger animals like orca whales may also benefit as it's getting increasingly easier to hunt given fewer patches of sea ice where their prey can hide. But the longer term impacts could be catastrophic; short term gain could represent long term pain for a species like this.

  Some birds may also benefit (again, perhaps temporarily), including the trumpeter swan (they're spreading into warmer regions) and the albatross (who are expanding territories and range on account of stronger wind currents).

  So given all this, get ready for a future filled with mosquitoes, tropical diseases, fast growing plants, algal blooms, snakes, and rodents.

  Images: Shutterstock/Mariusz S. Jurgielewicz/Bjorn Stefanson/Leslie Manning/Natural Resources Canada/Henrik Larsson/Kristina Postnikova/NMF.

Back in the 17th century, Norway and black rats were introduced to the Galapagos Islands by whalers and buccaneers. Since that time they have become an absolute menace, by feasting on the eggs and hatchlings of the islands' native species. But now, in a $1.8 million project to preserve this precious ecosystem, the 180 million strong rat population is set to be completely destroyed.

And indeed, the situation is serious.

The rats have endangered many of the island's unique species, including giant tortoises, lava lizards, snakes, and hawks. They've also depleted many of the plants on which the native species feed. It's gotten so bad that the rat infestation has now reached one per square foot (about 10 per square meter) on the main island, Pinzon.

But now, as the Associated Press is reporting, a two-phase project has been devised by Nature Conservancy that will see all invasive rodents eliminated by 2020. The first phase of the project began back in January 2011, when rats were culled on Rabida island and a dozen other inlets. Previous efforts had already removed goats, cats, burros and pigs from the islands.

For the second phase, which begins today (November 15), helicopters will start to drop nearly 22 tons of a specially designed rat poison bait on the island. The poison, which was developed by Bell Laboratories in the U.S., are only appealing to rats, and the blue cubes dissolve in about a week. Moreover, so as to not create toxic rat carcases, the poison will cause the dead rats to dry up and disintegrate in less than eight days.

But just to be safe, the conservationists have trapped and removed 34 hawks from the region to prevent them from feasting on the poisoned rats (they'll be released in early January). And on Plaza Sur, over 40 iguanas were also captured temporarily for their protection.

The project is being funded by the national park and nonprofit conservation groups including Island Conservation.

Top: Heiko Kiera/Shutterstock. Inset image: AP Photos/ Dolores Ochoa.

Tasmanian devils have a real problem, and it's called devil facial tumor disease — a contagious form of cancer that is decimating populations and threatening the entire species. So, in an effort to save them from complete annihilation, a special "insurance population" of devils will be relocated to the private Maria Islands where they'll be safe from the disease — and where an entirely new self-sustaining colony can now hopefully thrive.

Devil facial tumor disease is spread when the rat-like marsupials fight over food and territory. The cancer causes horrible disfigurations — which eventually result in the death of the animal, after only three to six months. It's a particularly unique and highly virulent form of cancer in which the tumorous cells are transferred from animal to animal.

The disease was first detected in Tasmania in 1996, and since then the devil populations have plummeted by 91% to the low tens of thousands. And what's worse, affected high-density populations suffer up to 100% mortality over a period of 12 to 18 months.

There are basically no regions of the island state where the disease cannot be found — hence the urgency to get a new population started elsewhere.

Maria Island, which is off the east coast of Australia, can only be reached by plane or boat. It's also free from vehicles and shops. But it's also never hosted a Tasmanian devil population before. That said, experts are confident that the devils will not impact on the island's native species. Conservationists also plan on monitoring the ecosystem very carefully, just to be sure.

The experiment is also very small scale — at least for now. Only 14 Tasmanian devils will be released on the Island, but that could increase by another 50 over the next two years if everything goes as planned.

The 14 devils were carefully selected from captive breeding programmes across Australia and have never had contact with another animal carrying the facial tumor disease. And at the same time, Maria Island has no history of the disease — which it wouldn't, given that it's never hosted Tasmanian devils before — and they're the only known carrier of the disease.

[Source: AFP]

Inset image: PLOS. Inset image via.

Researchers from France and Japan have taken us one step closer to an Avatar-like future by developing a robot that can be controlled by thought alone. While it's primarily intended for severely paralyzed people, there's no doubt that this technology will eventually be used by pretty much everyone else — whether it be to travel remotely to far away and inaccessible places, or just have it clean out your garage.

Roboticists at the CNRS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory and the CNRS-LIRMM Interactive Digital Human group have achieved what they call "robotic re-embodiment." They were able to do this by using an EEG controlled interface (what's worn as an electrode cap) and then mapping and translating brain signals into commands the robot could understand.

EEG technologies and neural interface devices are nothing new, but this marks the first time an actual robot has been controlled in such a manner.

The system also utilizes artificial intelligence so that it can not only understand the user's intentions, but also infer the particulars of the task at hand. As a result, the robot won't have to be micromanaged when performing simple tasks like walking to the end of a hall, or picking up a dropped object. Essentially, once the user focuses on a target, the robot's AI takes over and knows what to do with it.

Now all the researchers have to do is build a robot that doesn't look so clunky and pathetic.

Via Diginfo.

Shortly after the Second World War, the Soviet Union constructed a massive industrial city-complex in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan. Home to over 5,000 workers, it was an intricate maze of oil platforms linked by hundreds of miles of roads and featuring a park, cinema, and apartment blocks. Called Neft Dashlari, the ocean city is still in use today, but it'll be only a matter of time before the sea completely consumes it.

Neft Dashlari is located in an area that has long been famed for its rich oil reserves. Looking to tap into the region's valuable natural resources, Soviet engineers began drilling in an area dubbed "Black Rock" in the late 1940s. Their initial discovery of top-quality oil at a depth of 1,110 meters (3,600 feet) below the seabed inspired the construction of an oil platform that began to sprout and take on a life of its own.

Writing in Spiegel, Arno Frank describes the massive and complex structure:

The foundation of the main settlement consists of seven sunken ships including "Zoroaster," the world's first oil tanker, built in Sweden. In Neft Dashlari's heyday, some 2,000 drilling platforms were spread in a 30-kilometer circle, joined by a network of bridge viaducts spanning 300 kilometers. Trucks thundered across the bridges and eight-story apartment blocks were built for the 5,000 workers who sometimes spent weeks on Neft Dashlari. The voyage back to the mainland could take anything between six and twelve hours, depending on the type of ship. The island had its own beverage factory, soccer pitch, library, bakery, laundry, 300-seat cinema, bathhouse, vegetable garden and even a tree-lined park for which the soil was brought from the mainland.

It was a Stalinist utopia for the working class. A Soviet stamp from 1971 summed up the gigantic hopes it embodied in a tiny image: against the black outline of a drilling rig, a road made of bridges snaked its way across the deep blue sea towards further rigs and a red sun on the horizon.

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the discovery of cheaper oil elsewhere, Neft Dashlari began to wane in importance. The ocean city is still active today, but its workforce has halved and most of the rigs are out of use or inaccessible because the bridges have collapsed. Only 45 km (28 miles) of the pre-existing 300 km (185 miles) of roads are still usable.

And indeed, the elements are starting to take its toll. Given that there are virtually no efforts to maintain the structure, it is prone to floods and corrosion.

Submerged portions have become a menace to shipping, and oil leaks remain a problem. There was talk of converting it into a tropical luxury holiday resort, but nothing came of it. And dismantling the entire structure would likely be cost prohibitive.

In all likihood, the sea will eventually have to take it.

And of course, many of you Bond fans will remember something very much like Neft Dashlari from the 1999 movie The World Is Not Enough — which featured a floating city directly inspired by it.

Read more here.

All images via Spiegel/Getty.

The first formal study to take a look at the entire cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein's brain has revealed some interesting clues about the scientist's extraordinary cognitive abilities. Florida State University researchers examined 14 recently rediscovered photographs and compared them to 85 "normal" human brains — and not surprisingly, they noticed some marked differences.

Soon after Einstein's death in 1955, his brain was removed and photographed from multiple and unconventional angles. It was also sectioned into 240 blocks from which many slides were created.

Unfortunately, however, many of these blocks and slides were lost from public sight for over half a century. But their recent rediscovery has allowed neuroscientists to take a closer look, and to analyze them in consideration of the latest functional imaging technologies.

What the researchers found was that Einstein's brain had some definite morphological differences. While the overall size and asymmetrical shape of his brain was normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were "extraordinary," in the words of the researchers.

The neuroscientists, a team led by Dean Falk, suspect that these anomalies may have endowed Einstein with his visuospatial and mathematical abilities. It may also explain his uncanny predilection for thought experiments.

Along with Falk, the study was conducted by Frederick E. Lepore of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Adrianne Noe, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The entire study can be found at the journal, Brain.

Images via Florida State University.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have discovered the most distant galaxy seen in the universe. Called MACS0647-JD, the galaxy is 13.3 billion light years from Earth — which means it formed only 420 million years after the big bang. And just as remarkably, it's only 600 light-years wide, making it less than 1% the size of our Milky Way.

To find such a tiny and distant object, astronomers had to use more than just a space-based telescope. By using an optical phenomenon known as gravitational lensing (where the light gets warped and distended by nearby galaxies), the scientists were able to magnify the region of space by a considerable margin — as much as eight times its normal size. Without this technique there would be absolutely no way for the NASA scientists to observe something so small and so far away.

MACS0647-JD formed when the universe was only 3% of its current age, which means it was one of the first galaxies to ever emerge. The first galaxies started to form around 100 million and 500 million years after the big bang.

It's very likely, therefore, that the galaxy was in the early stages of its development when this snapshot was taken. It's basically a baby galaxy. And it's quite possible that over the course of the last 13 billion years the galaxy has merged with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other galaxies and other galaxy fragments.

But at the time, it was only 600 light-years across. For comparison, the Milky Way is 150,000 light-years in diameter, and our companion dwarf galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is 14,000 light-years across. The baby galaxy likely contained between 100 million to a billion suns — what represents about 0.1% to 1% the mass of our Milky Way's stars.

Going forward, the astronomers are hoping to find more of these embryonic galaxies — what likely provided the energy to burn off the fog of hydrogen that permeated the universe back then — a process, called reionization, that made the universe transparent to light.

The paper is set to be published in the December 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

Images via NASA, ESA, and M. Postman and D. Coe (STScI) and CLASH Team & ScienceBlogs.

Nature lovers visiting Germany's Bavarian Forest National Park are in for a treat. At a height of 145 feet (44 meters), the brand new egg-shaped observatory offers visitors an unprecedented view of the surrounding area. And with its 4,265 feet (1,300 meters) of walkways and innovative open concept design, visitors can view their surroundings in a way that's practically borderless.

Located near the city of Neuschönau, Germany, the Tree Top Walk is situated in a pristine area of the Bavarian forest where the Lusen and Rachel mountains are within sight - and on a clear day it's said that even the Alps are visible.

The spiraling tower is built around three massive fir trees.

The walk is completely safe and accessible for wheelchairs and children's buggies. The walkways don't rise more than 6% to provide a smooth and controlled ascent.

A wooden fence and transparent net allow visitors to interact with nature in an almost seamless way.

The Tree Top Walk features three stations with wooden bridges, rope bridges, and other challenges.

Along the extensive walkways, nature lovers can check out an array of wildlife, including mosses, insects, small animals, and birds.

All images via National Park Bayerischer Wald. H/t EcoChunk.

A grassroots movement has recently emerged in which a number of scientists, philosophers, ethicists and legal experts have rallied together in support of the idea that some nonhuman animals are persons and thus deserving of human-like legal protections. Their efforts have subsequently thrown conventional notions of personhood into question by suggesting that humans aren't the only persons on the planet. So what is a person, exactly? We spoke to two experts to find out.

To help with the discussion, we spoke to Lori Marino, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at Emory University and the Science Director for the Nonhuman Rights Project (not to be confused with the IEET's Rights of the Nonhuman Persons Program, of which I am the founder and Chair), and John Shook, a Research Associate in Philosophy and faculty member of the Science and the Public EdM online program at the University at Buffalo.

As we learned through our conversations with them, it may be some time before we reach consensus on what truly constitutes a person, but it's becoming increasingly clear that many nonhuman animals are smarter and more aware than previously thought — what will certainly upset our notions of their legal and moral standing.

The kind of beings that we are

Lori Marino, through her efforts with the NhRP, is trying to secure legal protections for a special subset of nonhuman species, a list of highly sapient animals that includes all the great apes (like bonobos and chimpanzees), elephants, cetaceans (which includes both dolphins and whales), and even some birds.

And the legal protections that Marino is talking about are not your run-of-the-mill animal welfare laws. Rather, they would be the same set of laws that protect any person — humans included.

If and when these laws get passed, nonhuman persons would be protected from such things as torture, experimentation, slavery, confinement (including zoos and water parks), and the threat of unnatural death (like hunting and outright murder). Essentially, if you wouldn't do it to a human, you wouldn't do it to a nonhuman person.

All this being said, it may seem odd to refer to nonhuman animals as persons.

"It seems strange because we are so used to thinking of persons as equivalent to human and limited to humans," Marino told io9. "But being ‘human' is what describes us as a biological species. Being a person, on the other hand, describes us as the kind of beings that we are."

Semantics or science?

But not everyone is on board the idea. Critics like John Shook argue that the effort to grant nonhuman animals personhood status is both misguided and unnecessary.

"Nonhuman animals cannot be persons because they are not, even in principle, the sorts of beings able to engage in the mutual recognition of equal moral worth and dignity," Shook told io9.

He argues that the way some people recognize an animal as a person is not a sufficient condition for personhood. "That recognition has to be returned equally," he says, "It's not about mere sociality."

He points out that many animals are highly social and that it's easy to find kinship bonds and the tightest bonds of friendship between human and nonhumans. "But those social abilities fall short of the standard for personhood participation," he says.

Shook's main argument is that persons exist together in a "socius" — in a society of mutual recognition. Because they can't possibly understand what it means to take part in the social contract, he says, they can't be considered persons.

But these philosophical notions are starting to be replaced by science.

Earlier this year, a group of prominent scientists signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they proclaimed their support for the idea that many animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are. The rest of society, they said, need to take note and behave accordingly.

Indeed, Marino and others are increasingly using science to demonstrate that personhood is not merely about an animal's ability to participate in the social contract, but rather something that's predicated on the sophistication of their cognitive capacities. It's this very idea that drives Marino in her work.

"I came aboard the NhRP as the Science Director for a very good reason," she told us, "there is an abundance of evidence to support the effort for legal personhood for nonhuman beings. And, I sincerely believe that other animals need to have personhood status in the law if things are to change for them in any real substantive way."

To that end, Marino has also supported other efforts like signing the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Whales and Dolphins at the American Association for the Advancement of Science earlier this year.

Marino says that philosophical notions of personhood are fine, but in order for the basic rights of nonhuman beings to be truly protected they have to be given legal status as persons. "As it stands, no nonhuman being has that legal status — they're all considered property," she says, "And, although there are animal cruelty laws, they are human-oriented rather than focused on the real victims of cruelty – the nonhuman beings."

Moreover, she says that designating some nonhuman animals as persons will do much to change the public's mindset about other animals. "Just as legal personhood status led to a change in how African slaves were viewed and, eventually, to their status as free individuals, I think the same will happen with other animals," says Marino. "I believe that animal rights is the new frontier in the domain of rights. Just as with human slavery, in the future we will look back on how we've treated other animals and will be deeply ashamed."

The struggle to define the person

An immediate challenge for animal personhood advocates is to formally define what they mean by a person — not an easy task. We humans automatically get to be called persons, and as a result, we've never really had to come up with formal definitions. Even the abortion debate hasn't settled the issue; ‘personhood' is typically invoked when a fetus is viable outside the womb — not a very helpful guideline.

What is changing, however, is the notion that personhood is not something that one is simply born into by virtue of their species, or something that's dependant on one's level of sociopolitical engagement. Rather, it's something that comes about by virtue of the presence of certain cognitive psychological, and emotional capacities.

One of the better attempts to define a person came from the bioethicist Joseph Fletcher who presented a list of fifteen "positive propositions." His attributes included such things as self-awareness, self-control, a minimum level of intelligence, a sense of time (including a sense of the past and future), concern for others, curiosity, and so on.

Fletcher's list did not come without controversy. By virtue of his criteria, a person in a permanently vegetative state and with no brain activity would not be considered a person. And at the same time, certain nonhuman animals would have to be considered persons. Put another way, Fletcher's list meant that not all humans are persons, and not all persons are humans.

The subsequent challenge facing scientists and bioethcists has been in proving that nonhuman animals have these capacities. But as the signatories of the Cambridge Declaration conceded, there is a tremendous amount of data emerging in support of the idea that animals are conscious to the degree that humans are.

"Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors," they wrote in the Declaration.

Shook, on the other hand, takes great exception to the idea that personhood can be defined by ticking off a checklist of criteria. "Here's the trouble," he says, "any criteria capable of including all humans will also include far too many lower animals." He worries about a potential slippery slope in which even worms, frogs and rats have to be considered persons should the criteria be exceedingly liberal in its interpretation.

"The same logical dilemma arises for any similar category like 'rights-bearer,'" he says, "Biting the bullet here and saying that only a subset of humans are really persons so that horses or foxes can be persons will arouse far more controversy and a vaster fight with humanism than you are ready for."

Fortunately, says Shook, it is not necessary to either bestow personhood or use universal liberalism to assign rights to beings. "Paternalistic rights are genuine and powerful rights too — the sorts of rights that the Polis can protect as strenuously as equal civil-political rights," he says.

It's what brains do

Marino, on the other hand, is not convinced that such "paternalistic rights" will suffice. Moreover, her personal definition of personhood is far less strict than that that of Fletcher's and other personhood theorists.

"My definition of personhood is very practical and very context driven," she says, "I don't see this as a black and white issue — it is more of an issue of bringing the existing evidence to bear on the efforts."

She agrees that there is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence indicating that many other species, such as cetaceans, elephants, great apes, and some birds, share those basic characteristics that define personhood in our own species. But she takes it even further than that.

"On a personal level, I view all other animals with a brain as persons, she says. "They are not human but they are other persons. But regarding the NhRP we are letting the science lead our legal definition."

Marino doesn't believe that there is a clear-cut line in nature that differentiates conscious from nonconscious animals. "From a neuroanatomical point of view it is reasonable to accept the premise that all animals with a central nervous system are conscious," she says. "This is what brains do for a living — they provide a way for the animal to process information and respond appropriately, and that's true whether you are an aplysia or a chimpanzee."

She concedes that the empirical evidence tells us there are differences across species. "Some readily recognize themselves in mirrors, for instance, and others just don't get it," she says. But when we look at the complete set of data in the literature, she argues, it demonstrates that consciousness is a dimensional phenomenon.

"Some animals may be capable of more complex and profound levels of awareness than others," she says, "But all are conscious."

Images: Shutterstock/Rahmo/Villiers Steyn/FineShine/VogueHouse/Vittorio Bruno/Ivan Cholakov/Miles Away Photography. NP/DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images, AWF.

For the past 80 million years, a tiny water-borne organism called the bdelloid rotifer has lived and thrived without the benefits of sexual reproduction. Now, while asexual reproduction is nothing new to science, the way that these rotifers go about it is particularly unique: They eat DNA found in organic debris. The discovery shows that sex may not be as important to reproduction as previously assumed. Gasp!

In this international study, a research team led by Chiara Boschetti and Alan Tunnacliffe of Cambridge University conducted the first large scale analysis of the mysterious rotifer. What they learned was that the all-female microinvertebrates get about 10% of their active genes by ingesting bacteria, fungi, protists, algae, and other organisms that are found in their aquatic environments. Once they've eaten this foreign DNA, they then 'transcribe' the genetic information in a way that scientists don't quite understand — a process that's being called 'horizontal gene transfer' (HGT).

But what the researchers do know is that, of this genetic material, about 80% codes for enzymes (which makes a considerable contribution to the bdelloid biochemistry), and that 39% of enzyme activity has a foreign contribution. In 23% of cases the activity is uniquely driven by a foreign gene.

And what's just as fascinating is how the HGT process allows the bdelloid to continually evolve and adapt to changing conditions over time. One of the primary benefits of sexual reproduction is that it leads to subtle mutations that allow a species to change and adapt to new environments. With HGT, variations are still happening — but as the result of integrating new DNA from other species.

And indeed, the researchers have cataloged over 400 different species of this rotifer, many of which have developed remarkable adaptations. For example, one varient has developed a tolerance for high levels of ionizing radiation that kills other animals, and others can withstand extreme dehydration. As a result, the researchers have concluded that horizontal gene transfer is a viable mechanism for survival without sex — one that works by diversifying capacities and even replacing defective genes with foreign counterparts.

The entire study can be found at PLOS.

Image: Marine Biological Laboratory.

We know that Mars once had lots of water, considered a prerequisite for habitability. What hasn't been known, however, is just how friendly — or unfriendly — this water might have been to life, as the temperature and chemical conditions of ancient Martian water has remained a complete mystery. But as a new analysis of Martian meteorites has revealed water temperatures on the Red Planet once ranged between 50°C to 150°C (122°F to 302°F) — temperatures that we know are most certainly hospitable to microbial life.

Biologists who study extremophiles on Earth have discovered many microorganisms that can survive and thrive in some of the most extreme environments. As an example, microbes have been found in the volcanic thermal springs at Yellowstone Park — water sources that, as we now know, are comparable in temperature to what was once found on Mars.

To make this determination, John Bridges from the University of Leicester Space Research Centre, took a closer look at a special class of Martian meteorites found only in impact craters. Called nakhlites, these rocks are characterized by an intricate series of small veins which are filled with minerals formed by the action of water near the surface of a planet.

By using an electron microscope and a transmission electron microscope, Bridges and his colleagues studied the peculiar alterations found in eight different samples. They discovered that the first mineral to grow along the walls of the vein was iron carbonate, which would have been formed by carbon dioxide-rich water at around 150°C. Then, after cooling to about 50°C, it formed clay minerals, followed by an amorphous phase that gave it the same composition as clay.

Fascinatingly, microbes use these exact reactions during mineral formation to gain energy and elements required for their survival.

"The mineralogical details we see tell us that there had been high carbon dioxide pressure in the veins to form the carbonates," noted Bridges through the official release. "Conditions then changed to less carbon dioxide in the fluid and clay minerals formed. We have a good understanding of the conditions minerals form in but to get to the details, chemical models are needed."

And indeed, subsequent analysis by Susanne Schwenzer, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physical Sciences at The Open University, confirmed that this order-of-operations in mineral formation was what truly happened. As a result, Bridges and Schwenzer were able to predict water conditions on Mars. At first, the water was around 150°C and contained a lot of CO2 (forming the carbonates), and then cooled to about 50°C (thus forming the clays).

Interestingly, the driving force responsible for heating the water would have likely been asteroid impacts on the surface. Given just how pockmarked the planet is, there's a good chance that Mars once featured many of these warm reservoirs.

The entire study can be found at Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Top image via; inset image via University of Leicester.

Robots of various shapes and sizes have been seen making their way through a number of cities in the United States without any apparent human oversight. Sightings have been reported in Pasadena, Los Angeles, and along Hollywood Boulevard, as well as some undisclosed subway stations and industrial parks. Now, while it's very possible that this marks the beginning of a full scale mechanized invasion, it's also possible that it's a part of a clever prank. Regardless, you can keep track of the ongoing situation by following the Brilliant Machines Tumblr.

And should you spot a robot in your neighborhood, be sure to tweet using the #brilliantmachines hashtag.

H/t Trend Hunter.

A 10-year old dachshund named Jasper has regained the use of his hind legs after being injected with cells grown from the lining of his nose — cells that are showing a remarkable potential to replace damaged nerves. The procedure, which was conducted on a total of 23 dogs, is set to revolutionize the way spinal cord injuries are treated in humans.

All the dogs in the study, a collaboration between the MRC's Regenerative Medicine Centre and Cambridge University's Veterinary School, had suffered spinal cord injuries as the result of accidents or back problems (at least one year prior to the study), and none of them could use their hind legs to walk or feel any sensation in their hindquarters. Interestingly, many of the dogs used in the study were dachshunds — a breed that's particularly susceptible to spinal cord injuries.

For the study, which was published in the neurology journal Brain, the dogs had olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) taken from their noses and put into a cell culture for further growth. These cells, which are found at the back of the nasal cavity, are the only part of the body where nerve fibres continue to grow into adulthood. The potential for these cells to help in spinal cord repair has been known for decades. And indeed, earlier studies with rats had indicated that OECs have powerful regenerative potential.

Several weeks after the initial extraction, the cells were injected into the injured part of the dogs' back to help regenerate the damage done to their spine. After one month, the dogs were tested for neurological function, and for their walking ability (which was evaluated on a treadmill). And amazingly, what the researchers saw was significant improvement. Though not perfect, the dogs had regained considerable function of previously unusable hind legs. Some dogs even regained bowel and bladder control after the treatment.

That said, the new nerve connections were only generated over short distances within the spinal cord — what will likely have to be corrected with a supplementary intervention. For now, the researchers are optimistic but cautious about the therapy being used to treat human patients. Looking ahead, the researchers hope to see the procedure used alongside drug treatments to facilitate nerve fibre regeneration and bioengineering to substitute damaged neural networks.

And as for Jasper, his owner told BBC, "Before the treatment we used to have to wheel Jasper round on a trolley because his back legs were useless. Now he whizzes around the house and garden and is able to keep up with the other dogs. It's wonderful."

Via BBC.

Image: SPL.

Scientists using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have discovered a "super-Jupiter" orbiting around the bright star Kappa Andromedae. The planet, which is about 13 times the size of Jupiter, glows with a reddish color and skirts the line between planet and star on account of its tremendous mass. Moreover, its parent star now holds the record for the most massive sun known to host a directly imaged planet or lightweight brown dwarf companion.

Called Kappa Andromedae b (or 'Kappa And b,' for short), it is 170 light-years away and sits in an orbit about 1.8 times farther than Neptune's. It's also quite young, as its parent star is only 30 million years old (compared to our sun's 5 billion years).

But more interestingly, the object is sitting on the dividing line that separates the most massive planets from the lowest-mass brown dwarfs — a so-called "failed star" that's not big enough to sustain nuclear fusion in its core. Because the astronomers are not sure how to classify it, they're dubbing it a "super-Jupiter." Subsequently, it could represent a celestial "bridge" between planets and stars.

"According to conventional models of planetary formation, Kappa And b falls just shy of being able to generate energy by fusion, at which point it would be considered a brown dwarf rather than a planet," noted NASA's Michael McElwain through their official release. "But this isn't definitive, and other considerations could nudge the object across the line into brown dwarf territory."

Massive planets like this one radiate the heat that's left over from their own formation, what gives them their star-like attributes. They are teetering on the edge of being a full-blown star. Even Jupiter radiates energy — about twice the amount it receives from our Sun.

But for those objects the size of Kappa And b, they're able to generate energy internally by fusing a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. And interestingly, this super-Jupiter is situated at the exact theoretical minimum for this to happen — about 13 Jupiters worth of mass. Consequently, it could very well be a brown dwarf.

And indeed, the massive planet is in fact releasing the heat trapped within it as infrared radiation. It may even be generating some heat from low levels of deuterium fusion in its core. Further analysis with the infrared camera will help to confirm these suspicions.

The discovery also shows that large stars are capable of producing exceptionally large planets. That said, the astronomers believe that this stellar scaling can only extend so far — perhaps to objects only a few times the mass of our sun. Interestingly, the Kappa Andromedae star fits the bill at 2.5 times the size of our sun.

The scientists made the discovery by using the High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) and the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) mounted on the Japanese Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

You can read the entire study here.

All images via NASA/JPL/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger

Back during the late Cretaceous period there lived a stocky, mole-like mammal that spent its days burrowing tunnels underground. Called Necrolestes patagonensis, it managed to survive the Age of the Dinosaurs and live for another 45 million years before finally dying out. And as scientists have recently learned, Necrolestes was neither placental or marsupial, instead belonging to a long lost line of mammals.

Because of its burrowing behavior, paleontologists have nicknamed it the "grave robber." It had turned-up nose and short, wide legs. It also had simple, triangular teeth which allowed it to feed on subterranean invertebrates. And to its credit, Necrolestes's underground habitat was very likely the key to not just surviving life among the dinosaurs, but also the catastrophic event that wiped them out completely. Living in tunnels, it would seem, was not without it benefits. And, fascinatingly, Necrolestes came from a line of mammals that no longer exists.

Back in 2011, Guillermo W. Rougier discovered the fossil of another extinct mammal called Cronopio, a Meridiolestidal animal that lived in the Late Cretaceous and early Paleocene (100–60 million years ago) of South America.

Further analysis revealed striking similarities to Necrolestes, including single-rooted molars. Most mammals have double-rooted molars, providing proof to the researchers that Necrolestes was neither a marsupial nor a placental mammal, and was instead the last remaining member of the Meridiolestida lineage — a species that went extinct 45 million years earlier.

And indeed, the paleontologists believe that Necrolestes's excellent burrowing adaptations were what allowed it to survive for 45 million years longer than Cronopio.

"There's no other mammal in the Tertiary of South America that even approaches its ability to dig, tunnel, and live in the ground," explained researcher John Wible through the official release. "It must have been on the edges, in an ecological niche that allowed it to survive."

The researchers speculate that Necrolestes never lived in abundance, likely subsisting in small populations and in tough, marginal environments.

"In a way, while not related, it's somewhat similar to how the platypus lives today. There aren't many of them, they are found only in Australia, and they live in a specific niche among modern mammals — just as Necrolestes is an isolated lineage only found in South America, with very few individuals living among large numbers of marsupials," he said.

The entire study can be found at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Image: Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

It's almost impossible to believe, but authorities along the northern Gulf of Mexico are having to investigate a rash of violent attacks on dolphins after bodies were found with gunshot wounds, cuts, and missing tails. With no leads or apparent motives, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are asking locals to be on the lookout for injured or dead dolphins, and to report any unusual interactions between the animals and people.

The most recent incident came this past Friday when a dolphin was found on Deer Island with its lower jaw missing — the second time a dolphin has been found with this kind of injury.

Just days before that, members from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies responded to a dead dolphin along the Ocean Springs/Gautier coastline with a 9mm bullet wound. Someone shot it right through the abdomen, piercing the kidneys and killing it.

And in Louisiana, a dolphin was found with its tail cut off.

It marks a string of inexplicable attacks and mutilations over the past several months on what is an utterly defenseless and typically docile marine mammal. At least six dolphin killings have been reported so far this year.

The Sun Herald reports:

"We think there's someone or some group on a rampage," [said Moby Solangi, IMMS executive director], "They not only kill them but also mutilate them."

IMMS investigated the first dolphin shooting earlier this year and incidents have increased in the past few months. In Alabama, someone stabbed and killed a dolphin with a screwdriver, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration press release. In September, a dolphin was found on Elmer's Island, La., with a bullet in its lung. Others have been mutilated with knife-like lesions...

"This is not an ordinary person who is doing it," Solangi said. "We are working with the Coast Guard, police, the sheriff's office and Department of Marine Resources," which he said is the enforcement agency along coastal Mississippi.

Though many people appreciate the beauty of the dolphins that swim along the Mississippi shoreline, he said, others may see them as a nuisance.

Needless to say, harming, harassing, feeding, and killing dolphins is a serious federal offence — one that carries a $100,000 fine and a one year prison term for each violation under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

All images AP.

On September 7, 1937, German construction workers laid the cornerstone for what was to become the world's largest stadium — one that would hold over 400,000 spectators. Designed by Hitler's close adviser Albert Speer, the monumental structure drew as much inspiration from the Greek Panathenaic Stadium of Athens as it did from Hitler's brazen megalomania. But in the end, it was simply not meant to be, a project cut short by the demands of World War II and the eventual demise of the Third Reich.

‘An entire nation in sympathetic wonder'

During the groundbreaking ceremony, Hitler unveiled a two-meter high model of the Deutsches Stadion ("German Stadium") to an excited crowd of 24,000 people. He described it as "words of stone" that were to be stronger than anything that could ever be spoken. And indeed, Nazi architecture was grandiose and domineering for a reason — a way to make the German volk feel insignificant and small, while showcasing the unbridled power of the regime.

At the same time, however, the Nazi architects wanted the structure to emphasize a sense of community, and to create a bond between the competitors and spectators. Writing in 1937, Wolfgang Lotz wrote:

As in ancient Greece, the elite and most experienced men chosen from the mass of the nation will compete against each other here. An entire nation in sympathetic wonder is seated on the tiers. Spectators and competitors merge in one unity.

In addition to serving as a sports complex, Hitler was also planning to use it for Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg — what would have undoubtedly engendered similar feelings among the spectators.

‘It is we who will determine how the sporting field is measured'

There's no doubt that the completed horseshoe-shaped stadium would have been impressive.

The designs called for a structure 800 meters (2,625 feet) in length and 450 meters (1,476 feet) wide. Its external façade would have been 90 meters (295 feet) high, equipped with several express elevators that could take 100 spectators at a time to the upper levels. Each end of the horseshoe shaped stadium was to be joined by two gigantic towers featuring enormous eagles with wing spans of 15 meters (50 feet).

Earlier, while Speer and Hitler were putting the designs together (the Nazi duo often collaborated on their megaprojects), Speer realized that the playing fields did not match official Olympic dimensions. Hitler responded by saying, "That's totally unimportant. The 1940 Olympics will be taking place in Tokyo. But after that they will be held for all eternity in Germany — and in this stadium. And it is we who will determine how the sporting field is measured."

It's a very telling statement — a remark that not only expressed Hitler's overconfidence in winning the war, but also an admission that his ultimate goal was global domination. He also spoke of launching the "Aryan Games" at some future point.

Speer also expressed concern about the project's cost. Again, Hitler dismissed his reservations saying, "That's less than two Bismarck class battleships. Look how quickly an armored ship gets destroyed, and if it survives it becomes scrap metal in 10 years anyway. But this building will still be standing centuries from now."

Hitler hoped to see the stadium completed by 1945 in time for the Reich Party Congress.

Proof of concept

Prior to the groundbreaking ceremony, Speer and Hitler decided that it would be prudent to construct a test stadium to get a better sense of the final version's sightlines and acoustics. To that end, they brought in 400 workers to construct a 1:1 scale model of the stadium — but in a section measuring 27 meters (88 feet) wide, 76 meters (250 feet) deep, and 82 meters (270 feet) high. And to do so, they had to clear an entire hillside of trees near the town of Achtel.

After the cement was laid, the construction workers erected wooden grandstands across the five levels. And though spectators sitting at the top would have been over 80 meters (260 feet) away from the playing field, Speer said that the view was "more positive" than he anticipated.

It took the workers 18 months to achieve this "proof of concept."

At the end of the war, Achtel was almost totally destroyed as the Germans put up a bitter resistance against advancing American troops. But remnants of the test stadium are still intact today, what the locals now call ‘Stadium Mountain.' The objects have had the vegetation removed and is now placed in monument protection — a permanent symbol of Nazi hubris.

Sources: Much of what we know from this episode comes from Speer's personal memoirs written after the war, including Errinerungen and Architektur: Arbeiten 1933-1942. Other sources: Haaretz and Spiegel.

Images: Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgeländ via Spiegel; Lencer via Haaretz.

Three years ago, Japanese researchers discovered a cavern on the moon using the SELENE satellite. It's estimated that the subterranean structure is 65 meters wide and at least 80 meters in depth. Given that it's too deep to be a crater, and that it was likely carved by lava, it's a natural cavern that's just begging to be explored. And indeed, plans are already underway to build a cave-crawling robot that might just be up to the task.

The spelunking robot is currently being developed by William 'Red' Whittaker and his team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And Whittaker is no stranger to getting robots into tight places; he has developed robots that descended into an Alaskan volcano and Three Mile Island to assist during the clean-up.

But now, as Devin Powell from Nature News reports, Whittaker has bigger ideas:

Over the next two years, the [NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)] programme will spend about US$500,000 developing Whittaker's creations. The prototype he tested at the coal mine could be lowered into the Moon pit to check the walls for openings. But a more ambitious approach would be a robot that jumps down the hole or lowers itself using a cable. The first prototype of such a machine, a four-wheeled Cave Crawler, can drive itself around underground and is already practising in the mine's tunnels. Onboard lasers sweep the floors, walls and ceilings to map out the tunnels.

And interestingly, the so-called "lava tubes" that the robot will explore could serve as good locations for future lunar bases. As Geologist Carolyn van der Bogert told Nature, "Their rocky ceilings can protect humans from micrometeorite impacts and cosmic rays."

Now, it has to be said that the prototype being developed by Whittaker is severely lacking in imagination. The large, clunky four-wheeled rover like the one portrayed in his demo video would likely face obstacles far more severe than the ones found in abandoned mines.

Instead, the researchers should focus their efforts on biomimicry and the development of adaptable and resilient animal-like bots that can crawl or roll around the caverns. The hexapod is a good example — a spider-like robot that would stand a far better chance against the unpredictable subterranean elements than a four-wheeled scout.

As for a flying robot like the ones portrayed in the film Prometheus, that would be a bit more challenging to develop given that the moon doesn't have an atmosphere to provide wind resistance.

But seeing that the roboticists are just getting started on the project, it's a safe bet that more sophisticated versions will eventually be developed.

Top image from Prometheus via.

Scientists know that worms, bacteria, and various fungi can eat plants and use the vegetable cellulose as a source of carbon for their growth. Plants, on the other hand, simply sit back and photosynthesize carbon dioxide, water, and light. But now, as German researchers have discovered, algae don't always need to draw their power from the sun. Their research shows that when times get tough, some algae have no qualms about stealing energy from other plants.

The researchers, a team led by Olga Blifernez-Klassen and Olaf Kruse from Bielefeld University, made the discovery after cultivating a microscopically small green algae species called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in a low carbon dioxide environment. The lack of CO2 was stressful for the algae as it couldn't go about photosynthesis.

But what the scientists then observed was that the single-celled plants had a backup plan; they began to tap into the energy from neighboring plants instead — essentially eating their vegetable cellulose. It was an unprecedented case of a plant eating another plant.

Chlamydomonas is able to do this by secreting enzymes that can metabolize the cellulose, breaking it down into sugars — a process that the researchers refer to as cellulose degradation and assimilation. These smaller sugary components are then transported into the cells and converted into a source of energy. So despite the lack of CO2, the algae can continue to grow and thrive.

According to Blifernez-Klassen and Kruse, this is the first time that such behavior has been confirmed in a vegetable organism — an observation that contradicts conventional notions of plant adaptability. They also suspect that other types of algae are capable of the same feat.

And interestingly, their discovery could pave the way for more efficient bioenergy production. Essentially, the algae could bypass the need to use fungus or other organisms to breakdown vegetable cellulose — what would then produce the desired cellular enzymes. Eventually, phototrophic microbes like Chlamydomonas may serve as biocatalysts for cellulosic biofuel production.

The entire study can be found at Nature Communications.

Images: Bielefeld University