Tadpoles Grow Extra Eye On Command

Scientists at the University of Warwick in England have discovered a genetic switch that can cause tadpoles to grow an extra eye. Neuroscientist Nicholas Dale, biologist Elizabeth Jones, and some colleagues made this discovery while they were studying ectoenzyme molecules on the external surface of cells. They injected molecules into frog embryos, which contain eight cells. One of the ectoenzymes produced eye development. When it was added to the cells that would become the head, the tadpole grew three eyes instead of two. Injected into other developing body cells, the ectoenzyme also caused an eye to grow on that body part. This discovery is a major step toward growing eyeballs or eye parts.

I thought this was kind of gross,

but cool at the same time.

It could also be veryhelpful

if you're missing an eye.

:)

See the article here.

Suicide Grasshoppers Brainwashed by Parasite Worms

A team of French biologists discovered the effects hairworms had on grashoppers when they found grasshoppers trapped in a swimming pool in southern France. Although it was not clear how the hairworms got into the grasshoppers, a scientist called Biron says it might happen when the grasshoppers drink larvae-infested water. Once the hairworm is full-grown, it releases proteins that influence the grasshoppers' central nervous systems and causes it to commit suicide so the hairworm can reproduce. This finding may help the development of medical treatments for diseases such as rabies, sleeping sickness, and toxoplasmosis. These diseases manipulate their victim in similar ways that the hairworm does. I thought this article was very interesting and it amazed me the discoveries that scientists could make from discovering strange things.

Click here for a link to the article.

The Water Lab

Today, we had a waterlab. We got to see the different properties of water such as cohesion, adhesion, capillary action, and surface tension. It was lots of FUN and I learned a lot of things I never knew before like how water has both positive and negative charges and how water acted in different situations. This lab was awesomepossum.