Prokaryotic Factoids

Prokaryotes! The prolific group of simple, single-celled organisms that ruled Earth for 1.5 billions years until Eukaryotes and their nucleus's came along. And even though multicellular Eukaryotes (plants, animals, fungi, protists) appear to dominate the planet, prokaryotes are still the most abundant form of life. One drop of seawater contains hundreds of thousands of prokaryotic organisms, a spoonful of soil contains billions, the average human body is home to trillions. I'm sure you've read before, that about 250,000 average-sized prokaryotes can fit within the period at the end of this sentence. Bacteria and Archaea (the two main groups of prokaryotes) are incredibly tiny, but not all of them are. Theomargarita namibiensis, the largest known bacterium, is 700 micrometers in diameter - visible to the naked eye!

Different types of prokaryotes can inhabit nearly any place on Earth, often places where nothing else can live. Some bacteria can live in near-boiling hot springs, while even tougher archaea can happily inhabit water over 230°F (in fact, it will stop growing if temperatures drop below 194°F). Others make their home in Antarctic sea ice. Some species of prokaryotes can be found perpetually crushed by high pressure 1.7 miles below the Earth's surface. Waters as acidic as vinegar or alkaline as household ammonia don't deter some species. Even the Dead Sea, where salt concentrations are seven times that of the ocean, is a home for colonies of tough bacteria and archaea. Bacteria has even been found dormant in the intestines of a mammoth buried in a peat bog for 11,000 years!

If these facts give you dismay that we shall become overrun by microscopic "inferior" beings that cannot be destroyed - don't worry. No single prokaryotic species can survive all these pressures. Most prokaryotes live harmless, specialized lives, in moderate habitats. Popular places include your very own intestines, mouth, skin, and respiratory tract. But before you embark on a prokaryotic killing spree to rid yourself of these invaders, remember that bacteria and archaea fill important and essential roles, not only in our bodies, but on the entire planet. In fact, we are dependent on prokaryotes for our existence. They help us digest our food and absorb vital nutrients. They break down and recycle wastes and dead organisms. They capture nitrogen from the air for plants, who would perish without it. Prokaryotes can even help us clean up our own messes, such as oil spills. When the Exxon Valdez polluted Alaska's Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of crude oil, the beaches were sprayed with a fertilizer that encouraged the growth of an oil-eating bacteria.


Prokaryotes may be the simplest life-forms on Earth, but they are essential for the existence of all other life. These under-appreciated organisms should be celebrated for their diversity, their versatility, and their importance in the world!

Source:
Biology Life On Earth, with Physiology (Eighth Edition)
by Teresa Audesirk, Gerald Audesirk, Bruce E. Byers
(Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008)

Cold-Nosed Rabbits

The Himalayan rabbit has white body fur and it's nose, tail, feet and ears have black fur. Yet Himalayan rabbits have a genotype for black fur all over their body! Genotype is the genetic composition of an organism, what is encoded in their genes. Phenotype is the visible or physical result of a genotype. So a rabbit with a genotype for black fur, should have a phenotype of black fur, but instead, the Himalayan rabbit has a phenotype of white fur with black accents - why?

The Himalayan rabbit is an example of the environment influencing gene expression. Its genotype says that all the fur should be black, but the enzyme that produces black pigment only functions at temperatures below 93°F. At normal climates, extremities of a Himalayan rabbit, such as the nose, ears, tail, and feet, are cool enough for the black pigment to produce black fur. The rest of the rabbit's body is warmer than 93°F and thus has pale fur instead!

Siamese cats are the same. Their fur color is influenced by the surrounding environment.

The 1st Law of Thermodynamics: How old is our energy?

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed.

This means that the energy we use in our bodies is as old as the universe.. that's about 13.5 to 14 billion years!!

According to the first law of thermodynamics, the amount of energy in the universe remains constant, transferring from place to place, from kinetic energy (movement) to potential energy (stored energy) and back again. Kinetic energy includes light (the movement of photons), heat (movement of molecules), electricity (movement of electrically charged particles), and all object movement, such as your fingers as you type, or a rock rolling down a hill. Potential energy is stored energy. This includes the energy stored in chemical bonds between atoms or electrical energy in a battery. A rock at the top of a hill has potential energy that can be transformed into kinetic energy if it begins to roll down the hill.

So how is the energy we use so old? We get our energy from vegetables, meat, dairy, etc. All of the energy we receive from the food we eat originally came from a plant which captured energy from the sun. The sun was formed when our solar system was created out of space dust, about 4.5 - 5 billion years ago, which came from space debris that was already about 9 billion years old!

Sources:

My Biology Professor (K. Thomas)
and
Audesirk, Teresa, Gerald Audesirk, and Bruce E. Byers. Biology: Life On Earth with Physiology. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice hall, 2008.

Origen of Alexandria

Origen was a Christian scholar and theologian who was the head of Alexandria's Catechetical School during the second century AD.
Today, Origen is considered one of the father's of the Christian church, though in his time he was labeled a heretic for his controversial beliefs. Origen believed in the eternal pre-existance of the human soul and the ultimate salvation of all beings - even Satan himself would be redeemed at the end of the world.

Rumor has it that at age twenty Origen had himself surgically castrated so that he could tutor women without suspicion. Of course, there is dispute as to whether or not this is true as he never wrote about it, but in his time castration was considered an acceptable (though drastic) action against sexuality and "the sins of the flesh." It is likely that Patriarch Demetrius of Alexandria maliciously started the rumor. Originally was one of Origen’s supporters, Demetrius eventually became enemies with Origen and had him banished from Alexandria.

Original Source:
Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill
Further Sources:
On Origen by Henry Karlson
Origen of Alexandria from Religion Facts

Horseshoe Crabs

What animal, related to scorpions, has inhabited the earth for 200 million years, crawls around on five pairs of legs, and swims upside down?

Horseshoe Crabs!


Horseshoe crabs are not actually crabs, they are more closely related to scorpions or spiders. Horseshoe crabs have been around for millions of years, and they can survive just about anything. Except, of course, Homo sapiens.

Horseshoe crabs are collected for bait, and also for their blood. Horseshoe crab blood is pale blue, and contains special cells that swarm to the site of a wound and kill certain kinds of bacteria. This substance from horseshoe crab blood is used as a fast and effective way of testing medical drugs to make sure they are free of harmful bacteria before being distributed.

Yet due to overfishing, the number of horseshoe crabs has declined by as much as 90 percent in the past decade. Ironically, we who have existed on earth merely .0005% as long as horseshoe crabs, are contributing to their demise.

Source: Aquagenesis by Richard Ellis

Shooting Venus From The Sky

During World War II, a squadron of B-29 pilots mistook the planet Venus for a Japanese plane and tried to shoot it from the sky.

Source: The Planets by Dava Sobel

Symptoms of Outer Space

Outer space does some crazy things to your inner ears. The confusing information reaching the inner ears causes nearly every astronaut to experience space sickness. Symptoms include but are not limited to: nausea, headaches, and trouble locating your own limbs. Pregnant rats that were sent into space gave birth to tipsy topsy baby rats whose inner ears were still developing while in outer space.

Another symptom of weightlessness: fluids move upward causing nasal congestion and a puffy face; bones lose calcium, forming kidney stones; and muscles atrophy, slowing the bowels and shrinking the heart.
Zero gravity does make you taller though. The decreased pressure on the spine causes most space travelers to grow about two inches.

If you are ever exposed to the vacuum of space without a suit on, don’t hold your breath: Sudden decompression would cause your lungs to rupture. In addition, water on the tongue, in the nose, and in the eyes would boil away. This actually happened in 1965, when a space suit failed during a NASA experiment and the tester was exposed to a near vacuum for 15 seconds.
Contrary to Hollywood, though, you wouldn’t explode. Lack of oxygen in the blood is what would kill you, but it would take about two minutes.
More explosion paranoia: Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space-tourism company, reportedly considered barring women with breast implants due to fears that they might blow up.


If astronauts tried to sprinkle salt and pepper on their food it would float away, and likely cause some serious issues. Instead astronauts add salt and pepper to their meals in liquid form.

Returning astronauts report extreme difficulty moving their arms and legs right after touchdown, one reason why they call landing “the second birth.” Long-duration cosmonauts report that the hardest thing to readjust to about life on Earth is that when you let go of objects, they fall.

So after all of this? A total of eighteen people have died on space missions, but never in space—always on the way up or the way down.

Source: Discover Magazine

Healthy Heroin!

In 1898 mother's could buy Bayer's Heroin off the shelves for their sick kids believing it to be a safe painkiller and cough medicine. It was approved by the American Medical Association and marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute. Interesting claims considering that heroin is extremely addictive and metabolizes into morphine inside the body.


It's name came from the "heroic" feeling the workers felt when they were testing it out in the lab.

Bayer didn't realize it's mistake until 1913, but for a decade after you could find heroin lozenges, heroin elixirs, heroin tablets, and heroin pastilles all across the market.

Source #1: Learn More
Source #2: mental_floss magazine.

The Sneakiest Declaration of War in History

On April 24, 1898 Spain declared war on the United States. The next day, on the 25th, the United States also declared war, but announced that their declaration was "made retroactive to April 21st."

source: mental floss magazine

Incest in the Womb

A female Acarophenax tribolii mite typically gives birth to 15 females and one male. All of her little mite children hatch while still inside her womb and the male mates and impregnates all of his sisters. Then the brother dies and his sisters begin life by bursting their mother open and killing her.

The Living Dead... Bacteria

In 1905, when Captain Scott first laid eyes on the mountainous Antarctic terrain, he called it "valleys of the dead". Now over 100 years later scientists have brought back to life the oldest known frozen bacteria from Antarctic ice samples. The bacteria range in age from 100,000 years old to 8 million years old! In as short as seven days, the bacteria came back to life inside a culture flask. The older bacteria took 10 times as long.

This new knowledge causes us to think a little differently about the effects global warming may have, especially in our oceans. As the Antarctic ice melts, the bacteria frozen inside could come back to life and mix with the microbes in the ocean. This would mean a transfer of genes from land into the ocean, and could lead to a large change within the tiny life of bacterial organisms.

Paul Falkowski, a Rutgers University biologist who directed the bacteria project says that it is important for genomes in the ocean to be recorded as they are now, because the change could happen very quickly. “We are potentially on the cusp of a global revolutionary experiment in the microbial world,” he says. “These evolutionary changes could be visible 50 to 100 years from now, showing us new genomes of marine organisms.”

Source: Discover Magazine Online

Let's talk about...Playboy!

• Playboy magazine's original name was "Stag Party." Instead of a rabbit, its mascot was a buck. Sexy, huh?

• The first issue featured a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Ever wondered why James Bond is surrounded by babes? The famous spy was introduced in a short story by Ian Fleming that he wrote for the March 1960 issue of Playboy.

• Pamela Anderson has been featured on Playboy's cover more than any other model. Between October 1989 and July 2001, she has appeared on the cover 10 times.

• Seven men have appeared on the cover of Playboy. Peter Sellers (1964), Burt Reynolds (1979), Steve Martin (1980), Donald Trump (1990), Dan Aykroyd (1993), Jerry Seinfeld (1993), and Leslie Nielsen (1996).

• Hugh Hefner owns 112 pairs of silk pajamas. Of course, he probably owns more, as these factoids are from 2003.

• Did you know that a woman now owns the Playboy enterprise? In 1982 Hefner's daughter, Christie, became the new president.

More fun facts here.

The Speed Limit

In 1973, Congressed responded to an oil crisis by passing the National Maximum Speed Law which deprived states of highway funding if they allowed speeds higher than 55 mph. This is the speed at which wind resistance starts to increase and more fuel is burned. This restriction actually worked and saved gasoline, but the Congress was pressured to repeal the law in 1987. Now many states allow speeds of up to 70 or 75 mph and in some parts of rural Texas the speed limit is 80 mph.

Source: Mental Floss Magazine - Volume 6 Issue 6

The Nine Lives of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the founder of the democratic party, defeated the British during the War of 1812, and was the 7th President of the United States. He also should have been dead.

Throughout his entire life, Andrew Jackson managed to avoid death. At 14, Andrew and his brother were captured by the British during the Revolutionary War. They were starved, abused, unclothed, and ill with smallpox. When they were released they were forced to walk 45 miles in the rain without shoes or a jacket to reach a POW camp. Their mother finally negotiated their release, but two days after returning home Andrew's brother died, but Andrew Jackson miraculously recovered.
After he had recovered, Andrew Jackson's mother left to care for prisoners of war where she died of cholera, leaving Andrew Jackson a penniless orphan to roam the streets of Salisbury, North Carolina.

Andrew Jackson should have also died about a hundred times during duels, usually over his wife Rachel who was previously married, and whose divorce legality was questioned at the time of her marriage to Jackson. Two of his duels led to near-death experiences. One time he was shot in the arm and shoulder but he refused to let the doctor's amputate. Another time he was shot squarely in the chest, shattering two of his ribs, but he merely staunched the wound with a hankerchief and shot down his opponent. His entire left boot filled with blood. The bullet was lodged so close to Jackson's heart that it couldn't be removed. As a result he suffered from chest pain and phlegm for the rest of his life.

Andrew Jackson also managed to survive on the battlefield. He fought malaria, diarrhea, dysentery, and starvation. He once survived on nothing but acorns.

When he first became President of the United States, Andrew Jackson was so popular that he was nearly crushed by a mob on the White House Lawn. Luckily his friends were there to form a protective ring around him.

But above all of Andrew Jackson's escapes from death, the most memorable is in 1835 when he was leaving the Capitol building and a man named Richard Lawrence approached him and raised his pistol. Lawrence fired a shot but nothing happened. The assailant then pulled out another gun and fired a second shot. Again, nothing happened. Later it was discovered that both guns had been properly loaded. The odds of two misfires in a row? 1 in 125,000. Andrew Jackson was truly a very lucky man.

Source: Mental Floss Magazine - Volume 6 Issue 5

Read some super awesome facts about Andrew Jackson HERE.