How Does a Zebrafish Grow a New Tail?

If a zebrafish loses a chunk of its tail fin, it will grow back within a week. Like lizards, newts, and frogs, a zebrafish can replace surprisingly complex body parts. A tail fin, for example, has many different types of cells and is a very intricate structure. It is the fish version of an arm or leg.

Scientists have discovered some of the genes and cell-to-cell communication pathways that enable zebrafish to restore their tail fins. The ability involves creating cells that can take any number of new roles. This can be done by re-programming cells that already have a given function or by activating resident stem cells. Through a series of signals, cells waiting for their calling learn which spot to take to help form the embryo, what kinds of cells to become there, and how many cells like themselves should be reproduced.

Amazing Parrot

A captive African grey parrot named N'kisi has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humor! He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with new ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. Only about 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material. He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.

One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York. When he first met Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?" When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera."

UPDATE:

This page has a link to a "conversation" between N'kisi and his trainer. She is using a musical children's toy with buttons as a training aid.

New Zealand Fossil Challenges Scientific Theory

A team of scientists has discovered a unique, primitive type of land mammal that lived at least 16 million years ago in New Zealand. The discovery of tiny fossilized bones of a mouse-like creature in the Central Otago region is the first hard evidence that New Zealand once had its own indigenous land mammals. The finding could prompt a major rewrite of pre-history textbooks.

Scientists have long believed that New Zealand had an unusual avian biota that lived on the ground because there were no mammals to impede or compete with birds. It appears that this little mouselike animal was part of the fauna on the ancient Gondwana supercontinent and it got stuck on New Zealand when it separated from the continent more than 80 million years ago. The discovery also challenges geological claims that New Zealand was entirely submerged beneath the sea from 25 to 30 million years ago and re-colonized by plant and animal species from nearby land masses like Australia once it re-emerged.

Newly Discovered Sea Critters

Creatures thriving at the hot and cold extremes of the marine environment have amazed scientists who are celebrating the discovery of 500 previously unknown species in the oceans in the past year.

They have been found beneath ice shelves, in the darkest, deepest abysses and in scalding water around hydrothermal vents on the sea bed. They have smashed records for distance, numbers and sheer tenacity in the most inhospitable habitats imaginable.

Among the most astonishing discoveries is a shrimp living within inches of the hottest water yet found at the bottom of the oceans. The animals live on a thermal vent at the equatorial floor of the Atlantic Ocean that spews out water and a soup of heavy metals heated to 765F — more than hot enough to melt lead! The shrimps dependent on the vent live in a narrow band of water at 140F and because of swirling currents are frequently washed with water at 176F or hotter. Scientists are intrigued about how they survive at such extreme temperatures and are trying to find out why their proteins do not break down. The species has yet to be determined, but is very similar to the Rimicaris exoculata shrimp seen at cooler vents.

At other oceanic extremes scientists discovered dozens of animals, including jellyfish, living beneath ice 2,300ft thick and 125 miles from open water. Among the biggest surprises discovered this year by census takers in the Coral Sea, northeast of Australia, was Neo glyphea neocaledonica, a shrimp previously thought to have died out 50 million years ago. It has been dubbed the “Jurassic Shrimp”. The biggest marine animal to be discovered was Palinurus barbarae, a rock lobster located off Madagascar. It weighed 4lbs and its body, excluding legs and pincers, was more than 18in long.

Other previously unknown species include a squid from the mid-Atlantic that rather than simply bite and swallow chunks of prey is thought to be able to chew its food, and Kiwa hirsuta, a furry crab living on a hydrothermal vent 900 miles from Easter Island.

In the Sargasso Sea, 200 zooplankton species, 12 previously unknown, were found three miles beneath the surface while in the air the sooty shearwater broke the record for migratory distance by flying a round trip of 46,000 miles!

Tiny Animals On Fingers

The title of this Flickr group says it all. Below are some neat examples:

Honda's New "Ultra-Clean" Diesel Fuel System

Honda has announced a new "ultra-clean" diesel fuel system. Diesel engines now power half of Europe's new cars and are slowly becoming popular with fuel-conscious consumers around the world. They typically get 30% better mileage than gasoline cars, but their weakness has been the higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), a greenhouse gas.

Honda said its new diesel system has a unique method that generates and stores ammonia within a two-layer catalytic converter to turn nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen.

The company plans to introduce the new engine in the United States within three years.

Man builds 105 MPG car

For only $2,339 and 1,000 hours of labor, Jory Squibb built a 105 MPG car using two old Honda motorcycles. The car is capable of a 53 MPH top speed and returns over 80 MPG in the city and over 105 MPG on highway. He calls his car Moonbeam. Although it’s a two-seater, it’s best for one adult and one child. It’s practical as a grocery-getter with its space for storage behind the seats and on both sides of the engine. Plus, it’s a convertible.

World's tallest man saves two dolphins

In Beijing, China the long arms of the world's tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling out plastic from their stomachs. The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium. Veterinarians asked for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-feet-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms. Xishun was confirmed in 2005 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest living man.

Flying Mammal From 125 Million Years Ago

Scientists have discovered an extinct animal the size of a small squirrel that lived in China at least 125 million years ago and soared among the trees. It is the earliest known example of gliding flight by mammals, and the scientists say it shows that mammals experimented with aerial life about the same time birds first took to the skies, perhaps even earlier.

From an analysis of the fossil, the researchers concluded that this gliding mammal was unrelated to the modern flying squirrel and unlike any other animal in the Mesozoic, the period best known for dinosaurs living in the company of small mammals. They announced today that the species qualified as a member of an entirely new order of mammals.

Until now, the earliest identified gliding mammal was a 30-million-year-old extinct rodent. The first known modern bat, which is capable of powered flight, dates to 51 million years ago, but it is assumed that early bats were probably gliding much earlier.

Archaeopteryx, the earliest known bird, lived about 145 million years ago, though scientists are not sure if it could flap its feathered wings in fully powered flight. But it lived about the time birds did take off in flight.

The discovery of the new flying mammal was made last year in Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China. Farmers found the delicate fossil embedded in sandstone.

Creature Camouflage

According to Nature magazine, The molecules that make octopus skin so successful as a camouflage could one day provide scientists with a new way to make super-reflective materials.

Octopus, squid and cuttlefish have developed sophisticated skins so they can hide in an ocean full of hungry predators. Scientists have studied this skin and have identified a new group of proteins with remarkable properties. The bottom layer of octopus skin, made up of cells called leucophores, is composed of a translucent, colorless, reflecting protein.

These proteins are very unusual in the animal kingdom. They reflect all wavelengths of light that hit at any angle. The material looks very white in white light, and blue in the bluish light found beneath the ocean's waves. They also match the intensity of the surrounding light, all of which helps the creatures to blend into their surroundings.

The pictures show an octopus (top) and a cuttlefish (bottom) blending into their surroundings.