The satellite and the chimpanzee.

The satellite and the chimpanzee,this is how satellite data changed chimpanzee conservation efforts.Chimpanzees are an endangered species and scientists and conservationists are turning to the NASA-US Geological Survey Landsat satellites to help bolster their efforts to preserve their forest homes. Approximately 345,000 or fewer chimpanzees remain in the wild, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a substantial decline from the more than two million that existed a hundred years ago. Humans' closest genetic cousins, chimpanzees are an endangered species and scientists and conservationists are turning to the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat satellites to help bolster their efforts to preserve their forest homes. A joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey or USGS, the Landsat series of satellites has provided a continuous record of Earth's land use for 44 years. Images are available cost-free to the public. NASA satellite data gives an understanding of what it means to be a chimp by overlaying distribution of the habitat with the chimpanzee behavior and ranging data. Unlike maps that don't show the chimpanzees' habitat side-by-side with human activities, in Landsat imagery, both scientists and the villagers could see the direct result of various land uses -- farming and logging for example -- and how they shaped the surrounding terrain and forests. When deforestation happens, important ecological functions and services are lost which impacts both chimps and people, the chimpanzees lose feeding and nesting grounds, and it is very difficult for the territorial animals to shift their home range to another location. People lose local forest resources like honey or specific valuable tree species, as well as suffer alterations of the local water cycle that make erosion and flash flooding new problems. The satellite images were a game changer for improving local conservation efforts by using science and data to plan and monitor .

Fungus-infecting virus could help track spread of white-nose syndrome in bats.

A newly discovered virus infecting the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats could help scientists and wildlife agencies track the spread of the disease that is decimating bat populations in the United States, according to a new study. The study published online in PLOS Pathogens, the researchers were able to eliminate the virus from one fungal isolate, which provided a virus-free isolate that they could compare to wild isolates that harbor the virus to look for biochemical changes. White-nose syndrome is a particularly lethal wildlife disease, killing an estimated 6 million bats in North America since it was identified in 2006. The disease, caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, first was found in New York and now has spread to 29 states and four Canadian provinces. Although several species of bats have been affected, some of the most prevalent species in the Northeast -- such as little brown bats -- have suffered estimated mortality as high as 99 percent. These losses have serious ecological implications. For instance, bats have a voracious appetite for insects and are credited with helping to control populations of mosquitoes and some agricultural pests. P. destructans is clonal, meaning it is essentially identical everywhere it has been found in North America, making it difficult to determine how it is moving, but the virus it harbors has quite a bit of variation. All the fungal isolates from Pennsylvania that were analyzed all had the viruses that were similar,but those viruses differ from the ones found in isolates from Canada, New York and so. forth. The differences in the viruses reflect the movement of the fungus, and this viral variability would give a clearer picture of how the disease is spreading.

Fly growth mimics cancer cells.

A study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how the extreme growth experienced by fruit flies in their earliest stage of life shares biochemical similarities with the growth of cancer cells. Scientists who study a molecule known to play a role in certain types of cancers and neurodegenerative disorders have a powerful new tool to study this compound due to research conducted at Indiana University,they found that the same molecule implicated in human cancers is also produced by fruit flies during their larval stage. This discovery is important because it provides the first animal model to understand how these molecules function in healthy cells, if they can understand the function of this molecule in normal cells, then can better understand how it causes human disease and subsequently proffer a solution. The study is the first to find that fruit flies produce L-2-hydroxyglutarate, or L-2HG, a molecule commonly regarded as an "oncometabolite," which can promote tumor formation and growth.

Potential biological control agents found for fungal diseases of soybean.

A new research carried out in the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) suggests we take a closer look at viruses because viruses are everywhere. They affect all forms of life, from complex mammals down to the mere fungus. We may not give much thought to fungal viruses, or mycoviruses. It turns out there are good reasons to care about mycoviruses. Fungal diseases account for approximately 10 percent yield losses annually in corn and soybean. When certain mycoviruses infect those fungi, they can become less virulent -- good news for crop yields. These forms were the targets of a recent investigation by Domier and his colleagues,the research team. The team extracted genetic material, DNA and RNA, from five major types of plant-pathogenic fungi and used computers to search for genetic sequences that resembled those of known viruses. "We found a lot of sequences that were very similar to previously described fungal viruses, but also found some encapsidated forms that were similar to plant viruses. Those were the ones they were most interested in, because they reduce fungal virulence and can be transmitted outside the fungus. This key combination may make it possible for these viruses to be used as biological control agents. "Some mycoviruses have been shown in laboratory or greenhouse studies to be very effective biocontrol agents," Domier says. One day, the encapsidated forms they discovered may be sprinkled on a field to kill pathogenic fungi and improve soybean yield. This study was published in the Journal of Virology.

The new fertility tracker band.

The wristband tells you when you are pregnant, the fertility tracker collects millions of data points while you sleep. 

The high-tech wristband has been launched in the UK that promises to help women get pregnant, by highlighting the time in the month when they are most likely to conceive. The Ava BRACELET contains sensors that monitor nine physiological parameters — including pulse rate, breathing rate, sleep quality, heart rate variability and temperature. 

 All of these parameters are affected by a rise in the reproductive hormones estradiol and progesterone, which are produced when a woman is fertile. The bracelet is designed to be worn at night. It collects more than three million data points while you sleep, and then syncs with an app on your smartphone in the morning. In this way, it claims to be able to detect an average of more than five fertile days per CYCLE in real time, while avoiding the hassles, mess and invasiveness of other fertility tracking methods like ovulation strips and BBT thermometers.

 The Ava bracelet, developed by Swiss medical technology company Ava, is already available in the US, where it is registered as a Class 1 medical device. In a clinical study at the University Hospital of Zurich, it was proven to detect an average of 5.3 fertile days per CYCLE with 89% accuracy. A second clinical study is currently underway, with results expected later this year. continue

Insecticides mimic melatonin, creating higher risk for diabetes.

A study published in Chemical Research in Toxicology, shows that synthetic chemicals commonly found in insecticides and garden products bind to the receptors that govern our biological clocks. The research suggests that exposure to these insecticides adversely affects melatonin receptor signaling, creating a higher risk for metabolic diseases such as diabetes. The research combined a big data approach, using computer modeling on millions of chemicals, with standard wet-laboratory experiments. Disruptions in human circadian rhythms are known to put people at higher risk for diabetes and other metabolic diseases but the mechanism involved is not well-understood. This study demonstrates how environmental chemicals found in household products interact with human melatonin receptors, research focused on two chemicals, carbaryl, the third most widely used insecticide in the U.S. but which is illegal in several countries, and carbofuran, the most toxic carbamate insecticide, which has been banned for applications on food crops for human consumption . It is still used in many countries, and traces persist in food, plants and wildlife.

Pig gene advance could boost sperm stocks from prized animals.

Pig gene advance could boost sperm stocks from prized animals.Gene-editing techniques could help to improve stocks of farmed pigs by boosting supplies of sperm from prized sires. The study is published in the journal Scientific. Scientists have created male pigs that could be used as surrogates capable of producing sperm that contains the genetic blueprint of sought-after pigs. Researchers say the breakthrough will allow farmers to preserve sperm from prized animals in perpetuity. The surrogates have functional testes but do not have specialized stem cells that are required to produce sperm containing their own genetic information, the researchers say. Stem cells from male pigs with desirable characteristics such as greater resilience to disease could be transplanted into the surrogates to produce limitless supplies of their valuable sperm.