Discover Magazine | New Species

Big Picture: The Banks That Prevent—Rather Than Cause—Global Crises

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:45:00 -0600

Every year farmers in flood-prone areas of Southeast Asia lose millions of tons of rice to high water that kills their crops. That colossal waste may soon be a thing of the past: SUB1A, a gene discovered by researchers with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of California, allows rice plants carrying the gene to live completely submerged for two weeks. Flood-resistant rice turned up among the 110,000 types of seed stored at the institute. It produced disappointingly low yields, but scientists were able to transfer the gene into more bountiful varieties. These have shown promising results in tests by growers in India and Bangladesh over the past two years.

This rice success story would not have been possible without the trove of genetic diversity tucked away in the IRRI’s vaults. As the world faces new agricultural challenges—shifting climate, bugs and diseases that have developed resistance to old defenses—such genetic resources are likely to become increasingly valuable. Fortunately, the IRRI is one of more than 1,000 organizations around the world (including the USDA, the International Potato Center in Peru, the Millennium Seed Bank in the U.K., and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway) cataloging and preserving crop genes. Most plant species grown for food have an associated bank that stores thousands of samples: seeds of landraces, wild relatives, and varieties that are rare, old, or adapted to very specific environments. The banks ensure that it will be possible to develop new varieties in the future.

What Is This?: What Is This... A Hi-Tech Pin Cushion?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:25:00 -0600

Hint: There are a lot fewer of them now than there were a few years ago.

Brain-Like Chip May Solve Computers' Big Problem: Energy

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:10:00 -0600

Kwabena Boahen is working to create a computer that will fulfill his boyhood vision—a new kind of computer, based not on the regimented order of traditional silicon chips but on the organized chaos of the human brain. Designing this machine will mean rejecting everything that we have learned over the past 50 years about building computers. But it might be exactly what we need to keep the information revolution going for another 50. The human brain runs on only about 20 watts of power, equal to the dim light behind the pickle jar in your refrigerator. By contrast, the computer on your desk consumes a million times as much energy per calculation. If you wanted to build a robot with a processor as smart as the human brain, it would require 10 to 20 megawatts of electricity. “Ten megawatts is a small hydroelectric plant,” Boahen says dismissively. “We should work on miniaturizing hydroelectric plants so we can put them on the backs of robots.” You would encounter similar problems if you tried to build a medical implant to replace just 1 percent of the neurons in the brain, for use in stroke patients. That implant would consume as much electricity as 200 households and dissipate as much heat as the engine in a Porsche Boxster. “Energy efficiency isn’t just a matter of elegance. It fundamentally limits what we can do with computers,” Boahen says. Despite the amazing progress in electronics technology—today’s transistors are 1/100,000 the size that they were a half century ago, and computer chips are 10 million times faster—we still have not made meaningful progress on the energy front. And if we do not, we can forget about truly intelligent humanlike machines and all the other dreams of radically more powerful computers.

The Man Who Discovered What Killed the Dinosaurs

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:55:00 -0500

Walter Alvarez has been credited with many geologic findings—including the precise time and cause of the death of dinosaurs. Here, he offers tales from his career as a truth-teller with rocks.

Who Killed All Those Honeybees? We Did

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:35:00 -0500

The great bee die-off is not such a mystery after all: Industrial agriculture has stressed our pollinators to the breaking point.

Field Notes: Stalking Fish in the Name of Science

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:00:00 -0500

An exhaustive new marine census is tracking everything that swims in the sea, one fish at a time.

How Invaders Break Through the Brain's Great Wall

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0500

Some bacteria pierce the imposing blood-brain barrier by breaking links in the chain; sneakier ones do it by fooling the guard cells.

Numbers: Microbes, From the Tiny Genome to the 70 Trillion in Your Body

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:55:00 -0500

Giant Analysis Agrees: Fossils Are Telling the Truth

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:55:00 -0500

Ancient bones from many animals lying in a big jumble are more easily put in context than you might think.

Jane Goodall on the Lazarus Effect

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:40:00 -0500

Rediscovery of a long-lost species sends a message of hope about second chances for all of us. Goodall relates two beautiful examples: the tiny Caspian horse and the Lord Howe Island phasmid (it's a bug).

Set Your CT Scanner to "Kill" and Look Inside Some Fossils

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:45:00 -0500

Penetrating chunks of amber and ancient rock, powerful new imaging machines render 3-D portraits of fossil creatures concealed for millions of years.

Discover Interview: Thanks, Evolution, For Making the Great Building Material Called DNA

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:30:00 -0500

Electronic computers are great at what they do. But to accomplish really complicated physical tasks—like building an insect—Erik Winfree says you have to grow them from DNA.

Earth's Own Aliens: They Light Up & Live in the Deep

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:45:00 -0500

Marine biologist Edie Widder's underwater spy camera is an underwater SETI, finally giving humans a chance to see the freaky world of deep-ocean bioluminescent animals.

Why Ghost Hunters Is the Best Science Show on TV

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:05:00 -0500

No matter how silly and misguided, Ghost Hunters captures an element of science that Numb3rs, House, and even Mythbusters miss.

The Science of Obama’s Fly-Swatting

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:55:00 -0500

When Obama swatted a fly on national television, the media went wild. So how exactly did the president overcome the fly's impressive perceptual strengths? Through a combination of strategy, quick reflexes, and an evolutionary advantage.

5 Questions: From Fossils in Rocks to Stadium Rock

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:00 -0500

Gregory Erickson studies the life cycles of dinosaurs and teaches concert-like classes.

Darwin Plays Game Theory—and Wins

Fri, 22 May 2009 12:40:00 -0500

A computer simulation correctly predicts that ravens should have evolved a behavior called "gang foraging." How did researchers see this behavior? They tracked ravens by implanting carcasses with different-colored beads that the birds ingested and later coughed up.

A Shad Situation

Sun, 17 May 2009 10:10:00 -0500

The population of American shad rebounded in the 1990s but is again on the wane.

A Scientist's Guide to Finding Alien Life: Where, When, and in What Universe

Mon, 11 May 2009 07:35:00 -0500

A variety of new findings point to the "habitable zones" where we're likely to find extraterrestrials.

What Is This? A Stony, Bloody Battlefield?

Wed, 06 May 2009 11:05:00 -0500

Hint: It's related to the rose and can put the "white" back in your pearly whites.

Can Giant Robots Successfully Mine the Mile-Deep Seafloor?

Mon, 04 May 2009 11:20:00 -0500

Nautilus Minerals bet $266 million on being able to extract valuable minerals through underwater mining. After they seemingly overcame the engineering challenge, it's the economic collapse that threatens the long-held dream.

The Biocentric Universe Theory: Life Creates Time, Space, and the Cosmos Itself

Fri, 01 May 2009 20:50:00 -0500

Stem-cell guru Robert Lanza presents a radical new view of the universe and everything in it.

What Is This? A Piece of Rainbow Rock?

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:05:00 -0500

Hint: To forensic technicians it's a valuable timer; to medical doctors it's a defense against infection.

Birds May Have Used Big Brains to Outlast the Dinosaurs

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:55:00 -0500

The ancestors of modern birds seemed to have sophisticated hearing—and perhaps other sharp faculties, as well.

Diamonds Are a Geologist's Best Friend

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:25:00 -0500

Tiny carbon spheres hidden under rock and ice may be telltales of cataclysmic comet strikes.