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Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami
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Saturday, 14 February 2009 |
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 Sengrim and Litte Red Riding Hood - the wolf as evil and sneaky beast in European tales. (19th-century-postcard, public domain, wikimedia commons)
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Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami
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Saturday, 31 January 2009 |
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Diabetes is a widespread hormonal disorder which disturbes or destroys the blood sugar (glucose) regulation by insulin and glucagon (two hormones of the pankreas). The oversupply of sugar containing food nowadays makes people sick when the sensitive balance between sugar levels in blood and cells is disturbed. A permanent too high glucose level in the blood causes in the longterm morbid effects for all kind of tissues and organs in the human body.
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Tuesday, 27 January 2009 |
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 A new study investigates the survival of seedlings in the tropical rainforest. Photo by Thomas Hesselberg.
One of the most striking differences between walking in a temperate and in a tropical forest is the much higher plant diversity in the latter. Whereas a typical temperate forest contains perhaps a few dozen different tree species at the maximum, a tropical forest can sustain up several hundred different species. However, how do the individual seed and seedlings from so many species manage to survive and thrive in the highly competitive environment of the rainforest? Of course the obvious answer is that most seeds do not survive, but some obviously do or the diversity would not be maintained. The botanists Alvares-Clare and Kitajima from the University of Florida have in a new study examined seed survival from a Tropical forest in Panama.
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Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami
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Sunday, 11 January 2009 |
The heart beats fast, the head is swimming and the the cold sweat of fear stands in the face: a panic attack occurs and you cannot control it. Around 3% of a population suffers from panic disorders making it often difficult to live a normal life for the patients concerned. Now a study of german medical doctors revealed that in 90% of the cases a certain behaviour therapy can cure the panic disorders which are characterized by regular panic attacs.
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Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami
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Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
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Marine biotops are still largely unexplored ecosystems and many scientific questions remain unanswered. One of the great miracles in oceans is the daily mass migration of plankton in the vertical direction towards the light. Little is known about the mechanism how these myriads of small organisms find their way to the light. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg, Germany) and from the Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Biology (Tuebingen, Germany) now discovered how the larvae of invertebrate sea dwellers navigate towards the light. The larvae of a marine annelid (an aquatic worm) served as model organism. The larva of Platynereis dumerilii (scientic name of the annelid) has two primitive eye spots for light detection and cilia for movement. When the scientists spotted light on one of the eye spots the larva changed the frequency of its cilia and moved towards the light source. Between the eye spots and the cilia exists a direct neural connection which allows a 1 to 1 ratio between stimulus (light) and reaction (moving towards the light). The scientists suggest that the earliest eyes in evolution could have worked alike. Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (23) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 1523 | E-mail |
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Tuesday, 11 November 2008 |
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 The Eastern Green Mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) has one of the most venomous bites. From Wikimedia Commons (Photo by user Danleo)
Snakes are limbless reptiles which can be found almost everywhere on the globe although the diversity is far greater in the tropics than everywhere else. Most snakes are poisonous and use the poison to paralyze prey, which typically include rodent, lizards and amphibians. However, the poison is also used for self-defence against larger predators and although only few species are dangerous to humans these often possess a significant threat to humans working in rural tropical settings.
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