March 2015

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An article published in the journal “Genome Biology” shows that many animals, including humans, acquired genes from microorganisms present in their environment in ancient times. This occurred through horizontal gene transfer (HGT), which transfers genetic material to cells that are not their descendants. The analysis of the genes of various species confirmed 17 genes previously identified as acquired in this way and identified another 128 in the DNA of humans.

Horizontal gene transfer has been known for a long time especially among microorganisms. It’s been identified in primitive multicellular creatures such as nematode worms and even in insects. Only in recent years studies started to assess it among complex plants and animals.

Google Code home page

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Google announced the closure of the free hosting service for free software projects Google Code. Since yesterday, March 12, 2015, the possibility of creating new projects on the website was eliminated, from August 24, 2015 it will be impossible to make changes to existing projects while with a read-only access to the pages, on January 25, 2016 the service will be shut down for good.

Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr. (Italian edition)

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The novel “Up the Walls of the World” by James Tiptree Jr. was published for the first time in 1978.

The planet Tyree hosts an advanced civilization of creatures who live in its atmosphere. Similar to large manta rays, they live in flight using the winds and have considerable mental powers. None of this, however, seems useful when the Destroyer approaches their planet. This strange being seems invincible and has already destroyed many worlds. Tyree’s inhabitants can only use their mental ability to search for a new world in another part of the galaxy.

On Earth, a group of people with psychic powers takes part in a military experiment. The results are unexpected because they lead to a mental contact with Tyree’s inhabitants. The huge differences between the two species cause confusion in the humans and on Tyree someone decides that the only salvation lies in transferring their minds into the Earthlings’ bodies.

My FriendFeed home page

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With a bare statement, the FriendFeed team announced that the social network will be shut down. From this week it doesn’t accept new registrations but users can keep on using FriendFeed for another month. On April 9, the social network will be shut down so its services will be no longer available. The cause is the decline of users, due to the fact that the development of the services had ceased after the acquisition by Facebook.

Ames scientists Michel Nuevo, Christopher Materese and Scott Sandford with one of the equipment used in their research (Photo NASA/ Dominic Hart)

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A group of scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center created uracil, cytosine and thymine, three nucleobases that are among the chemical components of RNA and DNA. This result was obtained by reproducing the conditions existing in the space, even interstellar. Obtaining these molecules by non-biological processes shows that at least part of life’s building blocks may have arrived on Earth after being formed in space.

To create the three nucleobases, NASA scientists started from pyrimidine, a molecule composed of hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen. It was found in meteors so there’s the certainty that it exists in space. Uracil, cytosine and thymine are derived from pyrimidine and the experiment aimed to verify that it was possible to obtain them under the conditions found in space.