Posts in the Biology Category at NetMassimo Blog, Page 43

Rita Levi Montalcini in 2009 (Photo Presidency of Italian Republic)

R.I.P. Rita Levi-Montalcini

Massimo Luciani December 30, 2012 0

Rita Levi-Montalcini, neurologist and since 2001 senator for life in the Italian Parliament, passed away today. Born on April 22, 1909, in Turin, Italy, for her discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), in 1986 she received the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Scanning electron micrograph of bacteria from Lake Vida, Antarctica (Image Christian H. Fritsen, Desert Research Institute, all rights reserved)

Bacteria survive in extreme conditions in Lake Vida, Antarctica

Massimo Luciani November 28, 2012 1

A recently published study co-authored by researchers Alison Murray and Christian Fritsen from Nevada’s Desert Research Institute (DRI) has revealed the existence of bacteria that survive in Lake Vida, Antarctica, in very extreme conditions.

Discovery of a bacterium using arsenic debunked

Massimo Luciani July 18, 2012 0

In December 2010, the discovery of a bacterium called GFAJ-1 in Mono Lake in California caused quite a sensation. The scientists who studied it declared that it was capable of using arsenic instead of phosphorus among the basic elements of its biochemistry. Now two new studies disprove that this bacterium uses arsenic in its DNA.

The Viking 2 on Mars at Utopia Planitia in 1976 (Image JPL/NASA)

Maybe the Vikings really found life forms on Mars

Massimo Luciani April 13, 2012 1

In 1976, the Viking 1 and 2 landers carried out an experiment on Mars that aimed to test the possibility that there was life on the red planet. Some chemical reactions revealed were unexpected but they weren’t regarded as evidence of the existance of life forms. The issue remained controversial and now an international team of scientists who conducted new analysis on the data from that time concluded that probably there’s life on Mars.

Mutant double-flowered sunflower of the Teddy Bear type

A genetic research for the mutant sunflowers painted by Vincent van Gogh

Massimo Luciani March 30, 2012 0

The origin of the mutation of the special sunflowers painted by Vincent van Gogh was mysterious but a recent study by a team of scientists at the University of Georgia has identified the gene responsible.