STEMtacular!

Nope. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. I just need to find a first aid kit. Tis simply a flesh wound.

Digital Reconstructions of Hominids from the set ‘Descendenteí,’ Human Kind Lineage Project

by Eduard Olaru

Identification:

First row: Paranthropus boisei (KNM-ER 406)

Second row left: Paranthropus robustus (SK 48)

Second row right: Homo habilis (STW 53)

Third row left: Homo rudolfensis (KNM-ER 1470)

Third row right: Homo georgicus (D2282)

Fourth row: Homo ergaster (SK 847)

Fifth row left: Homo floresiensis (LB1)

Fifth row right: Homo erectus (Sangiran 17)

Sixth row: Homo heidelbergensis (Atapuerca, Skull 6)

Seventh row: Homo neanderthalensis (St. Césaire)

Click through for full sequential soft tissue facial reconstruction posters from The Human Kind Lineage Project

Natural gene selection can produce orange corn rich in provitamin A for Africa, US

Purdue researchers have identified a set of genes that can be used to naturally boost the provitamin A content of corn kernels, a finding that could help combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries and macular degeneration in the elderly.

Professor of agronomy Torbert Rocheford and fellow researchers found gene variations that can be selected to change nutritionally poor whitecorninto biofortified orange corn with high levels of provitamin A carotenoids - substances that the human body can convert into vitamin A. Vitamin A plays key roles in eye health and the immune system, as well as in the synthesis of certain hormones.

"This study gives us the genetic blueprint to quickly and cost-effectively convert white or yellow corn to orange corn that is rich in carotenoids - and we can do so using natural plant breeding methods, not transgenics," said Rocheford, the Patterson Endowed Chair of Translational Genomics for Crop Improvement.

Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children every year, half of whom die within a year of losing their eyesight, according to the World Health Organization. The problem most severely affects children in Sub-Saharan Africa, an area in which white corn, which has minimal amounts of provitamin A carotenoids, is a dietary mainstay.

Inside a Changing Autumn Leaf

One of the great wonders of life is watching the leaves change colors in the fall. When temperatures get cool, chlorophyll begins to break down revealing the underlying pigments in the plants’ sap. This depiction of the inner-workings of a maple leaf shows the process in action.