Friday Facts is BACK!

Greetings everybody!!

It has been an awfully long time since we have graced all of you guys with a new post and we deeply apologise for that. Honestly the last couple of months have been super busy because we have now officially finished our degrees in Biology! We are now aiming to get back on track with our blog so be sure to keep up to date with our new posts, and with that message we give you FRIDAY FACTS!

Originally it was thought that fish such as the zebrafish acquired the chemicals needed for sunscreen synthesis through their diet or from microbes that may live either on or in the fish themselves. Now, we know that this amazing ability is a cause of their genes.  

(Nature: Vol. 512 No.7552)

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Medical implants, such as artificial heart valves pose risks of blood clot formations. Theses are caused by blood cells and proteins sticking to the surfaces of the valves. Donald Ingber sought out a solution for these sticky surfaces, and found it in the form of carnivorous pitcher plants. Why Pitcher plants? Pitchers have a slick layer of water that causes insects to slide into the mouth of the plant. Using the pitcher they adapted a two layer coating for the valves, the first uses a perfluorocarbon that binds to smooth surfaces, whilst, the seconds is made of a liquid perfluorocarbon that acts as a slippery surface. Tubes coated with these layers had fewer clots. This technology could reduce the need for anti-clotting drugs.                    

(Nature: Vol 514 No. 7522).

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Chimpanzees take a strong liking to ripened figs, however these are only available for a short period of time and they are in competition for this resource from other animals. Through the observation of wild female chimps, it was found that when ripe figs were available they would woke up early and departed earlier when fig trees were farther away. 
(Nature: Vol. 515 No. 7525)

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It is a common argument by conservationists that the level of biodiversity supports ecosystem services such as crop pollination. A study investigated this by separating the effects of species richness (the number of different species) from species abundance (the number of individuals per species). The team counted thousands of individual bees from 56 different species. They found that pollination was dictated by a few common bee species. Losing rare species would not change pollination rates much, but if the numbers of common bees were to decline this would make a huge difference in pollination rates.

(Nature: Vol 512 No. 7552)

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Infants have the power to heal bone fractures with no medical intervention, so really there is truth when people say that babies are built for first time parents. They achieve this by muscle contractions and tissue growth combining together to move the bone fragments back into place. Newborn mice that received fractures were imaged to see the process in full. They found a soft callus that contained cartilage. This forms at the fracture site were the growth of tissue on one side of the fracture provides the force to realign the bone fragments. The callus hardens, allowing the bone to heal.

(Nature: Vol. 515 No. 7525)

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Well that has been Friday Facts ladies and gentlemen hope you enjoyed it and keep up to date on what is going on, on our blog and our twitter. 
Biobunch, 
Over and out.