In 1903 Thomas Edison demonstrated the power of electricity by attaching wires to Topsy the Elephant then throwing the switch
Edison had electrocuted previously numerous cats and dogs at his laboratories. The practice of electrocuting prisoners soon caught on it was seen as a more humane way of dispensing with criminals.
and ankle tied to a rope that was attached then to a horse or ox#s the animals were driven away the victim's body was ripped slowly into four quarters.
but instead did preliminary work in mice. When the researchers placed a piece of the pig bladder scaffold on wounded mice the animals'muscle grew back
and the mice were able to walk again. To make sure that the muscle actually grew back the researchers confirmed that the muscles responded to nerve impulses
and had blood circulation. We wanted to test that because it's sort of hard to assess a limp in a mouse said Badylak told Live Science.
The doctors intentionally studied patients with injuries that were years old. We wanted to make sure that all of the healing that was going to happen naturally had happened Badylak said.
Where Cows and Capybara Roam (Op-Ed) Julie Kunen is executive director for WCS's Latin america and Caribbean Program.
But what if I told you that there is a place in Brazil where cattle graze on native grasses seasonally replenished by an annual flooding cycle where ranches are dotted with lakes full of fish where rivers support giant river otters
and where forests line riverbanks and form highways for jaguars and other rare species? This place the Pantanal is the vast low-lying alluvial plain of the Alto Paraguay River one of South america's mightiest waterways
In the course of a single day and night I saw hyacinth and blue-and-yellow macaws brocket deer white-lipped peccary rhea jabiru stork roseate spoonbill wood stork the greater potoo capybara tapir
and giant anteater. The traditional way of life in the Pantanal for nearly two centuries has been ranching. Typical ranches are quite large
Needless to say that is a practice like this story that bears repeating. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues
#Bears: Facts & Pictures Bears a small group of mostly large omnivorous mammals can be found all over the world;
they live in forests mountains tundra deserts and grassy areas. Though there are different types of bear all bear species have similarities.
They all have covered stocky fur bodies; short legs; and a round head with a long snout.
There are eight species of bear: American black bear Asiatic black bear brown bear giant panda bear polar bear spectacled bear sloth bear and sun bear according to the International Association for Bear Research & Management.
Asiatic black bears have a distinctive white V-shaped patch on their chests. Sloth bears have similar patches as well as light-colored muzzles.
Sun bears have a crescent-shaped marking on their chests that looks like a rising sun. Spectacled bears also called Andean bears get their name because of the white circular markings around the eyes.
Brown bears despite their name come in many colors from light cream to almost black according to the San diego Zoo.
Similarly American black bears can be black as well as chocolate and cinnamon brown causing some people to confuse them with brown bears.
Giant pandas are noted for their striking black-and-white coloration. Polar bears with distinctive white fur are the largest bears.
An adult male polar bear can grow to be 3. 5 to 5 feet long (1 to 1. 5 meters)
and usually weighs between 775 and 1200 lbs. 351 to 544 kilograms. The smallest bear is the sun bear.
It grows to be 4 to 5 feet long (1. 2 to 1. 5 m)
and weighs 60 to 150 lbs. 27 to 68 kg. Brown bears are found in more places than any other bear species. They live in northwestern North america the Atlas Mountains of northwestern Africa northern Asia Europe and the Middle east.
There are several subspecies of brown bears. Brown bears found in coastal Alaska are called Kodiak or Alaskan brown bears. The Alaskan Peninsular brown bear lives only on the western tip of the Alaskan peninsula as its name implies.
In the interior of North america brown bears are called sometimes grizzly bears because their fur has white or tan tips.
Grizzly means sprinkled or streaked with gray.)Related: Image Gallery: Best of Bears American black bears live only in North america
and spectacled bears are found only in South america. Asiatic black bears are found all over Asia. The sloth bear is also found in Asia particularly in India Nepal Bhutan
and Sri lanka but may have disappeared from Bangladesh. Polar bears and giant pandas are some of the rarest types of bears.
Polar bears are found only in icy lands of the Arctic and pandas are found only in wet
and cool bamboo forests of Central asia. Many bears in the Northern hemisphere hibernate when the weather is cold.
Hibernation is a deep sleep that allows a bear to live without food for long periods of time.
Brown bears for example spend four to six months sleeping in their dens according to the San diego Zoo.
Their temperature drops slightly their heart rate slows and their bodies use stored fat to stay alive.
Most bears are solitary and only interact with their young. Most bears are normally active during the day
unless they encounter humans frequently. Then they may become nocturnal to avoid contact. Asiatic black bears on the other hand are typically nocturnal.
They sleep during the day in trees or caves and hunt at night. Bears are omnivorous meaning they eat vegetation and meat.
Each species of bear has certain foods that they eat more than others though. For example the polar bear eats mostly seals
and the giant panda bear spends 12 hours per day eating bamboo. Termites are the primary food of sloth bears.
Sloth bears have especially long noses that allow them to suck termites from their holes. For the most part bears have their young in dens.
Dens are made homes from hollowed-out trees caves and piles of brush. Bears can also create a den by digging a hole into a hillside or under tree roots.
Because bears are mammals they give birth to live young. Baby bears are called cubs. Cubs are completely defenseless
when they are born and rely on their mothers for food and protection. Sun bear cubs have no hair
and cannot smell or hear when they are born. Their mother will often stand upright like a human and carry their cubs in their paws or mouth according to the San diego Zoo.
Cubs can be smaller than teddy bears. Brown bears weigh as little as 16 to 25 ounces (454 to 709 grams)
when they are born. Newborn sun bears are even smaller and can weigh 7 to 12 ounces (198 to 340 g). The taxonomy of bears according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system is:
Six of the eight bear species (all except brown bears and American black bears) are endangered or vulnerable according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The giant panda is endangered the most bear. It is estimated that only 1000 to 2000 remain alive in the wild according to the IUCN.
Polar bears are endangered also. According to the World Wildlife Federation there are only 20000 to 25000 polar bears left.
The IUCN lists sun bears and sloth bears as vulnerable due to habitat loss. e
#Forest Loss and Climate: Empowering Communities Can Help (Op-Ed) Andrew Steer is the president and CEO of the World Resources Institute a global research organization that works in more than 50 countries.
Steer serves on the executive board of the U n. secretary general's Sustainable Energy For All initiative.
He co-chairs the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Natural Capital and is a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.
He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The need for a successful climate deal has never been clearer change cannot wait until the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris next year.
With nine of the hottest years on record occurring in this young century and a total of $2. 8 trillion in extreme-weather costs since 1980 the evidence of a changing climate is pervasive and alarming.
The time to act is now. No solution to climate change can be found without reducing deforestation which accounts for more than 11 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions.
Every minute of every day the planet loses an area of forest the size of 50 soccer fields.
Forest loss and degradation is also the main reason why species loss is running at a rate 1000 times that of the preindustrial era.
Some political leaders believe their countries must cut down forests to develop their economies. But recent experience shows that healthy economic growth is more likely where forests are maintained
and degraded land is restored. Smart governments are now increasingly seeking to protect their forests while accelerating growth.
And yet despite this new understanding and the best of intentions to protect forests the loss continues.
A major reason is that those who know forests best the communities that have lived with them
and used them for centuries are empowered not to protect them. Some of the strongest advocates for the world's forests are the communities that depend on them for food livelihoods and culture.
A new report by World Resources Institute and the Rights and Resources Initiative finds that strengthening forest rights for forest communities is a valuable tool to protect forests
and fight climate change. The research shows that deforestation rates inside community forests with strong legal recognition
and enforcement are dramatically lower than forests outside those areas: In the Bolivian Amazon deforestation was six times lower;
in the Brazilian Amazon 11 times lower; and in the Guatemala Maya Biosphere 20 times lower.
and fudge are among the meals singled out this year for their shockingly unhealthy nutrition content in a new report from a nonprofit watchdog group.
#Gorilla Facts Gorillas are large apes that are native to Africa. They are divided typically into two groups.
The mountain gorilla lives in the mountainous regions of Central africa while the lowland gorilla lives in the flat dense forests of central and western Africa.
Though the two types are very similar they have a few differences. For example mountain gorillas tend to have longer hair
whereas lowland gorillas have short soft hair according to the Smithsonian. Another difference is size. Lowland gorillas are 4 to 6 feet (1. 2 to 1. 8 meters) tall
and weigh 150 to 400 lbs. 68 to 181 kilograms. Mountain gorillas are about the same height
though they tend to weigh a bit more. They are 4 to 6 feet tall and weigh 300 to 485 lbs.
135 to 220 kg. According to the World Wildlife Federation& (WWF) gorillas are the world's largest primate.
Mountain gorillas live in Rwanda Uganda and the Democratic republic of the congo on green volcanic mountains. Lowland gorillas live in the forests of central and western Africa in Equatorial guinea Angola Cameroon the Central african republic Congo Gabon and the Democratic republic of the congo.
A group of gorillas can have a territory of up to 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) according to National geographic. Gorillas are generally herbivores.
They usually eat vegetation such as wild celery shoots roots fruit tree bark and tree pulp but they have been known to eat small animals and insects.
A male can eat up to 40 lbs. 18 kg) of vegetation each day. Gorillas'exact diet depends on where they live.
According to Sea world about 67 percent of a lowland gorilla's diet is fruit; 17 percent comes from leaves seeds and stems;
and 3 percent comes from termites and caterpillars. The mountain gorilla eats a diet that is about 86 percent leaves shoots and stems;
7 percent roots; 3 percent flowers; 2 percent fruit; and 2 percent snails ants and grubs.
Gorillas live in groups. Groups of gorillas are called troops or bands. A band of gorillas can have as many as 50 members
though sometimes a band consists of as few as two members. Troops are led by a dominant male called a silverback
which can often be identified by a gray strip of hair on his back. Each time of day has its purpose for a troop of gorillas.
Mornings and evenings are designated as feeding time. In the middle of the day gorillas take a nap play with other gorillas or groom one another.
At night the gorillas settle down in beds made from leaves and twigs to sleep. Like humans female gorillas are pregnant for nine months
and usually give birth to only one infant at a time. Newborn gorillas weigh about 4 lbs. 1. 8 kg.
From the time they're about 4 months to 2 or 3 years old young gorillas ride on their mothers'backs as a form of transportation.
At around 7 to 10 years the young gorilla will become mature enough to have its own offspring.
At this point the gorilla will leave its mother's group to find a mate.
Gorillas can live around 35 years in the wild and more than 50 years in zoos according to the WWF.
The taxonomy of gorillas according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) is: Kingdom: Animaliasubkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom:
Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordatasubphylum: Vertebratainfraphylum: Gnathostomata Superclass: Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theria Infraclass: Eutheria Order: Primates Suborder:
Haplorrhini Infraorder: Simiiformessuperfamily: Hominoideafamily: Hominidae Subfamily: Homininaegenus & species: Gorilla gorilla gorilla beringeisubspecies: Gallery: Great apes: All 4 Gorilla Subspecies The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the Gorilla beringei species (mountain gorillas
and Eastern lowland gorillas) as endangered on its Red List of Threatened Species. They are hunted and their habitat has been destroyed by mining and agriculture.
IUCN estimates that there are about 680 mountain gorillas left in two isolated populations. While data are lacking to determine the population of Eastern lowland gorillas the IUCN says it is believed that the total population has decreased dramatically.
According to the IUCN the Gorilla gorilla species (Western lowland gorillas and Cross River gorillas) is endangered critically with a population reduction of more than 80 percent over three generations (a generation is about 22 years.
It is unknown exactly how many of these gorillas are left. The WWF estimates that there are about 100000 lowland gorillas still in existence.
Gorillas'arms are longer than their legs. This allows them to walk on all four limbs
while still remaining somewhat upright. These primates are very intelligent. They can use simple tools
and learn sign language. Gorilla beds are called nests. Young gorillas often make their nests in trees
and older gorillas make their nests on the ground. Gorillas usually don't need to drink water from lakes or streams.
They get all of the moisture they need from their food and morning dew
#Oranges: Health Benefits, Risks & Nutrition Facts Sweet juicy oranges make a delicious and healthy snack or addition to a meal.
A whole orange contains only about 85 calories and has no fat cholesterol or sodium.
And of course oranges are well known for their Vitamin c content said Laura Flores a San diego-based nutritionist.
Oranges may boost your immune system and improve your skin; they also aid with heart health cholesterol levels and other issues.
Oranges may additionally help reduce the risk of respiratory diseases certain cancers rheumatoid arthritis ulcers and kidney stones.
Orange juice is packed also with nutrients but does not contain the fiber of a whole orange.
Orange pith the white substance between the peel and the flesh is high in fiber.
Furthermore it is easy to consume more calories when drinking orange juice than when eating an orange warns the Centers for Disease Control.
Here are the nutrition facts about oranges from the U s. Food and Drug Administration which regulates food labeling through the National Labeling and Education Act:
Nutrition Facts Serving size: 1 medium orange (5. 5 oz/154 g) Calories 80 Calories from Fat 0*Percent Daily Values(%DV) are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Immune system Most citrus fruits have a good deal of Vitamin c and oranges have high levels even compared to their tangy brethren.
It bears mentioning that many potato chips are flavored now with Hispanic-style ingredients such as jalapeno peppers or nacho cheese.
To start male lactation has been observed in a few domesticated animals including cats goats and guinea pigs on rare occasions.
However male lactation seems to be common only in dayak fruit bats though it's not yet clear why males of this species have the biology to spontaneously produce milk.
If Ebola virus was introduced into Guinea from afar the more likely traveler was a bat he said.
Buffalo like most mammals bear live young which are called calves. Usually they have one calf at a time
with the help of dogs or by a large group hunting together in a line, combing the island.
it marked the virus's first known foray outside primates, and raised fears of a potential threat to human health.
The Ebola Reston virus was discovered first, in 1989, in crab-eating macaques imported to the United states from the Philippines.
Since then, the virus has killed most infected monkeys, yet had no effect on the 25 people that it infected unlike three of the four other strains of Ebola,
Because few people come into close contact with primates in the Philippines, the risk of catching Ebola Reston in this way is relatively low.
similar to its mode of attack in monkeys. Further pathology tests are due to begin in spring at the Australian Animal health Laboratory in Geelong, Victoria.
as is the case with monkeys, the infections resulted from contact with a reservoir of the virus,
The virus is likely to be spread by bat droppings falling into the pigs'feed,
human-mouse and human-rabbit hybrid embryos fail to grow beyond 16 cells (Y. Chung et al.
UK, who is developing mouse-pig hybrid embryos. The paper outlines only one set of conditions used to create the embryos,
It may be possible to create hybrid embryos using human somatic cells and eggs from nonhuman primates,
but primate eggs are also in short supply, says Lanza. Although Hui Zhen Sheng from the Shanghai Second Medical University in China and her colleagues have reported creating human-rabbit embryos (Y. Chen et al.
but in mice it happens at the two-cell stage, and this mismatch may disrupt development.
Evidence for ancient horse ranch uncovered: Nature Newshumans rode and milked horses as early as 3500 BC,
say an international group of researchers. The findings come from ancient settlements in Kazakhstan, where horse jawbones showed signs of bridling
and ceramic cooking vessels contained traces of horse milk. Researchers also found that the horses'leg bones resembled those of domestic rather than wild horses.
The discovery of horse milk is just amazing, says David Anthony, an archaeologist at Hartwick College in Oneonta,
New york. Combined with previous findings that people discarded horse manure at those sites, he says,
it is pretty unequivocal evidence for domestication. Scientists have debated long when humans first domesticated horses.
Indirect clues such as horse bones buried with other domesticated animals in human graves, go as far back as 4500 BC.
Horses also show shifts in body size range from around 2500 BC, but the changes are not as dramatic as those in other domesticated animals.
More definitive evidence emerges at roughly 2000 BC, when horses were buried with chariots. Settlements of the Botai culture in northern Kazakhstan, dated around 3500 BC,
have attracted attention because they contain masses of discarded horse bones that far outnumber remains from other animals,
as well as tools that may have been used for processing hides. But some scientists have argued that the mix of ages among the killed horses suggests the Botai were hunting wild herds rather than raising
and slaughtering their own horses. Alan Outram, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, UK,
and his colleagues took a three-pronged approach to investigate the possibility of Botai horse domestication.
First, they looked at the lower leg bones of Botai horses, and found that they were more slender than the bones of Palaeolithic Siberian wild horses.
Instead, the bones resembled those of Bronze age domestic horses and modern domestic Mongolian horses. Studying the teeth and jawbones of the horses,
they also detected tooth wear and extra jawbone growth, suggesting the animals'mouths had been damaged by bridling.
Finally the team analysed the hydrogen isotope ratios of fat residue in pottery shards and found two distinct signatures that seemed to correspond to horse carcass fat and mare's milk.
We've not just got domestic horses we've got domestic horses that seem to have been ridden
and milked, says Outram. The findings appear in Science1. The study suggests the Botai culture was a distinct centre of domestication, separate from the'Fertile Crescent'area, between the Mediterranean sea and the Gulf, where cattle,
sheep and goats were domesticated first, says Outram. The findings are unusual he says, because animal domestication typically occurs in cultures that have adopted agriculture,
Horses naturally vary in size across different regions, he says, so the leg differences may not necessarily be due to domestication.
It is possible that horses were domesticated even earlier than 3500 BC, says Carles Vil Â,
the horses were modified already, he says. Outram's team plans to perform further excavations on Botai sites to look for features related to corrals.
They may also investigate sites in Russia to look for earlier evidence of horse domestication.
Plants genes get fine tailoring: Nature Newsafter decades of searching, plant biologists have found a way to selectively snip out one gene
and much more diverse than dogs, says Kim Worley, a genome researcher at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas,
estimates Van tassel. The new sequence also shows that the human genome is more similar to the genome of cattle than to mice suggesting that, for some diseases,
the researchers determined that a precursor to at least one 1918 flu gene was present in mammals before 1911.
the pandemic H1n1 (swine flu virus currently circling the globe bears an uncanny resemblance to an influenza virus that wreaked havoc nearly a century ago,
including mice, miniature pigs, ferrets and macaques. In all but the pig, the virus yields an infection in the lungs that is more severe than would be expected from an average seasonal flu, according to Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues,
and produces more severe disease in ferrets than seasonal flu (see Swine flu reaches into the lungs and gut).
Kawaoka's team observed this virulence in mice and macaques as well, but pigs showed no outward signs of disease
Nevertheless, one alarming feature of the macaque results was the development of severe pneumonia that extended throughout the lungs, notes Earl Brown, a virologist at the University of Ottawa.
according to a non-peer-reviewed report from the US Geological Survey (USGS). More than two-thirds contained levels exceeding the Environmental protection agency's level of concern for the protection of fish-eating mammals,
wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex) has been an enigma to biologists for a long time. Now, a team led by Elizabeth Dumont at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has discovered that the oddly-shaped skulls include jaws that are more powerful than not just other fruit bats but also much larger predatory bats,
which need to be able to sink their teeth into tough hides. When I first saw them I thought
which is roughly 20%stronger than that of any other known bat of the same size and approaches the strength of some of the strongest predatory bats.
Hyenas have large bite forces that allow them access to a wider array of foods
Polar-bear protection: The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed on 22 october to designate around 500,000 square kilometres of critical habitat 96%of which is sea ice for the polar bear.
The bear was listed as a threatened species in 2008 owing to projections of sea-ice declines caused by global warming.
The government is obligated already to avoid actions that jeopardize the bear, but the designation would add another layer of protection by also making it illegal to conduct activities that adversely affect the bear's habitat.
Vaccine report: More children than ever are being immunized, but 24 million infants in the world's poorest nations still do not receive routine immunization, according to a report by the World health organization, UNICEF and the World bank.
The 21 october State of the World's Vaccines and Immunization report says that although four in five children now have access to lifesaving vaccines,
covering a total of nearly 13 hectares, in the northern states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Tamaulipas.
including the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the Northern Rocky mountain grey wolf (Canis lupus). Research Lunar splashdown: A NASA probe sent crashing into the Cabeus crater near the Moon's north pole on 9 october ploughed up a plume containing water, hydrocarbons and, unexpectedly, mercury,
The dog cloner: Nature Newsfor someone who had emerged just from a 40-month trial, Byeong-Chun Lee seemed remarkably energetic.
I'm dogs, said the Seoul National University cloning specialist with a smile, distinguishing his presentation from his junior researcher's,
Lee created an impressive list of cloned and transgenic canines. Among them were three female afghan hounds (Bona, Hope and Peace, who Lee calls Snuppy's girlfriends,
though the 10 puppies that Bona and Hope produced with Snuppy, which prove that clone couples can have healthy offspring,
three male wolves using postmortem cells (to show that it will be possible to save endangered species, like the wolf;
beagles (because the dog is the best choice for human disease modelling; and the first transgenic dog (a beagle, known as Ruby Puppy,
or Ruppy, that has red fluorescent protein that makes its nose, paw pads and claws red, even to the visible eye).
Lee's team also produced seven golden retrievers clones of Korea's best drug-sniffing dog.
Dogs can communicate and obey, says Lee. That's why I focus on them. The team's cloning efficiency has jumped from 1 live clone from 1,
Lee hopes that dogs which are used already as a model for cardiovascular and other disorders,
But Wakayama wonders whether dogs will ever catch on as model animals because they are still relatively difficult to clone
For some diseases dogs provide the best animal model for the human disease. But the use of cloned dogs
or transgenic dogs could be somewhat problematic due to the prime place of the dog in human affections,
says Colman, now at the A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology in Singapore. Still, Lee's cloned
and transgenic dogs are piquing interest. He is collaborating with both the US National Institute of Allergy
With the differences between species in disposition and cognition, dogs are tremendously valuable to basic genetic studies of higher brain order.
cloned dogs will significantly raise the value of this data and make a revolutionary contribution to neuroscience.
The two laboratories are still the only two to clone dogs. Lee has cloned dogs with RNL Bio,
a Seoul-based company spun out from Seoul National University and based on the technology developed by Lee and Hwang.
Hwang has cloned dogs for Mill Valley, California-based Bioarts. The two companies have been tied up in legal wrangles with each other.
gives it exclusive rights to clone dogs as well as cats and endangered species. At Bioarts'urging, Start Licensing sued RNL for infringement.
Bioarts withdrew its dog-cloning services. RNL also claims exclusive dog-cloning rights, based on a license it purchased in June 2008 from Seoul National University.
In a separate trial in South korea, RNL tried to prevent Hwang from cloning dogs by enforcing its patents from Seoul National University.
Hwang persuaded the court that tweaks he had made to the cloning procedure constituted a different method,
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