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Science is Drokking Fantastic Because...

Started by The Legendary Shark, 21 July, 2011, 11:05:57 PM

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The Doctor Alt 8

Meet a relative...

Controversial worm keeps its position as the progenitor of mankind
by Staff Writers
Gothenburg, Germany (SPX) Apr 02, 2013


Researchers are arguing about whether or not the Xenoturbella bocki worm is the progenitor of mankind. But new studies, involving Swedish researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Gothenburg Natural History Museum, indicate that this is actually the case. Credit: Photo: Hiroaki Nakano.
Researchers are arguing about whether or not the Xenoturbella bocki worm is the progenitor of mankind. But new studies indicate that this is actually the case. Swedish researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Gothenburg Natural History Museum are involved in the international study. The results have been published in Nature Communications.

The Xenoturbella bocki worm is a one-centimetre long worm with a simple body plan that is only found regularly by the west coast of Sweden. The worm lacks a brain, sexual organs and other vital organs.

Zoologists have long disagreed about whether or not the Xenoturbella bocki worm holds a key position in the animal tree of life. If it does have a key position, it is very important for the understanding of the evolutionary development of organs and cell functions, such as stem cells, for example. The question is therefore not only important in the field of biology, but also for potential biomedical applications.

"It's absolutely fantastic that one of the key evolutionary organisms in the animal kingdom lives right on the doorstep of the University of Gothenburg's Centre for Marine Research. And this is actually the only place in the whole world where you can do research on the creature," says Matthias Obst from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.

Genetic studies indicate that the Xenoturbella bocki worm belongs to the group of deuterostomes, the exclusive group to which also man belongs.

"So maybe we're more closely related to the Xenoturbella bocki worm, which doesn't have a brain, than we are to lobsters and flies, for example," says Matthias Obst.

Even though the worm does not particularly resemble man, development biologists have referred to the fact that the early embryonic development of the worm may display similarities with the group to which man belongs. But the problem has been that no one has previously been able to see the development of the creature.

But now a group of researchers at the Sven Loven Centre for Marine Sciences and the Gothenburg Natural History Museum have succeeded in doing what no one else has done before: to isolate newly born little Xenoturbella bocki worms.

"And these new-born worms revealed absolutely no remnants at all of advanced features! Instead, they exhibit similarities with quite simple, ancient animals such as corals and sponges," says Matthias Obst.

The studies also reveal the value of the University of Gothenburg's marine stations for important basic research. "The Loven Centre at the University of Gothenburg is the only place in the whole world where you can study this paradoxical animal (in Swedish called 'Paradox worm').

That's one reason why researchers come from all over the world to Gullmarsfjorden to solve one of the great mysteries in the evolution of animal life," says Matthias Obst.



TordelBack

That's a very intresting piece, but... the obsessive referencing of 'mankind' baffles me (and not just because I thought we'd settled on 'humankind'). 

Isn't the point about Xenoturbella that it may represent its very own phylum, a phylum that may be the ancestor of a bunch of other phyla, including our own (chordata)?  Calling it 'the progenitor of mankind' seems both patronising and teleological to an insane degree - it may be the ancestor of everything from lizards to mammals to sea urchins and starfish (ie every living thing that develops a mouth before it develops an anus (aka the population of the internet)) - pretty much everything except arthropods and molluscs.  And yet the article, and presumably the Gothenberg press release, discusses it again and again in terms of 'mankind' like it's some kind of hominid fossil.

The Doctor Alt 8

Well it might be a lousy translation....


TordelBack

Quote from: The Doctor Alt 8 on 19 June, 2013, 11:29:47 AM
Well it might be a lousy translation....

Good point.  Fascinating stuff all the same. I've loved this pre-Cambrian malarkey ever since reading the magnificent Stephen Jay Gould's Wonderful Life, and it still gives me goosebumps to think that the innumerable strands of life got from varieties of tiny worms to the world of dinosaurs et al in slightly over a quarter billion years, and then another quarter billion down the line to everything we're working so hard at destroying.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Teleological is a damn good word, it's a shame there aren't more occasions that let you use it
You may quote me on that.

TordelBack

Quote from: El Pops on 19 June, 2013, 12:00:14 PM
Teleological is a damn good word, it's a shame there aren't more occasions that let you use it

I only read posts that look like they're going to produce the desired opportunity.

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Quote from: TordelBack on 19 June, 2013, 12:08:27 PM
Quote from: El Pops on 19 June, 2013, 12:00:14 PM
Teleological is a damn good word, it's a shame there aren't more occasions that let you use it

I only read posts that look like they're going to produce the desired opportunity.

That might be why this forum exists, to ultimately provide those opportunities.
You may quote me on that.

Cyberleader2000

ok so with all the advanstments in tecknolagy that Science has given us we can do allmost any thing everyone has the knolage of the world at there finger tips the ability to talk to any one any where and a vast viedow libray where you can view any thing and some genious decids to show viedows of customeres orderes being packed I had no ider this was atachily done till I got a order confermachion e-mail this morning which also informed me that a viedow of my order being packed was now avibile on youtube love the novlity of this but some how I do feel that this is one of the most pointless uses of teckonlagy I have ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTIhTwZ1_I
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can you name the anime

TordelBack

Quote from: Cyberleader2000 on 20 June, 2013, 02:14:01 PM... love the novlity of this but some how I do feel that this is one of the most pointless uses of teckonlagy I have ever seen.

That's utterly brilliant!  I used to be involved in the shady world of SW miniatures trading which frequently depended on both parties simultaneously shipping parcels, and since Ireland refused to offer tracking on overseas packages, I would send my tradee photos of me wrapping their precious stuff and bringing it to the PO, with a thumbs up pic taken as it went into the slot -  I love the idea that this is now formalised in the commercial world!

von Boom

That has to be the strangest porn fetish ever.


Jim_Campbell

#566
Bah. The Fermi Paradox is such rubbish. You don't need anything more to explain it than to grasp the enormity of cosmic time.

Cheers

Jim

Edit: actually, I rambled on about this here.
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Sideshow Bob

Just spent a very interesting hour or so,  reading through stuff about the Fermi Paradox and Mr Campbells' very interesting discourse on Cosmic Time.....I'm with him on this one, but the 'grasping of the enormity' of Cosmic time is a fairly difficult one for a lot of people...

And as far as I can make out,  the problem we have in accepting the idea / concept of Cosmic Time is that it is so infinitely huge that it is almost impossible for us, with our limited lifespan,  to really comprehend just how enormous a length of time that it actually is........
We already have great difficulty in thinking about the age of our civilisations in terms that 'we can relate to' and really that is only 'recorded history'......We all know about the Egyptians and Biblical times, and early Greek civilisations.....we can imagine / relate to all that......Movies and TV have helped with that..

We can imagine the times when Dinosaurs walked the earth but we cannot 'relate to' that timescale........
Oh, we can say several million years or so,  and have a vague idea of how long ago that is, but while the human species only live for at most 100 years,  how do we relate to something in the billions of years......
A discussion on TV once showed the entire formation of the World from 'birth' to the present day as being a 24 hour period, and we as a species have only been here for seconds......and people struggled to comprehend that.....

So, I'm in agreement with you Mr Campbell, but, Cosmic Time is ( I think ) a fairly difficult 'concept' to grasp for your 'average punter'...

Ps : If you reply ...please be gentle with me.... :D
Cheers

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O Lucky Stevie!

Whoa mama! This is what God's version of What the Butler Saw must be like.
"We'll send all these nasty words to Aunt Jane. Don't you think that would be fun?"

JayzusB.Christ

QuoteA discussion on TV once showed the entire formation of the World from 'birth' to the present day as being a 24 hour period, and we as a species have only been here for seconds

What really brought it home to me was this analogy:
Consider the human arm as a representation as the earth's lifetime; the shoulder being the point where the earth was formed.  Life on earth starts at about the elbow. 
Now, imagine giving the fingernails a single swipe with a nail file.  The tiny particles of nail that come off with the file represent the length of time of humans have existed.

And you thought you were something special...
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"