Re‐contemplate an entangled bank: The Power of Movement in Plants revisited

We review the ways in which two of Charles Darwin's lesser known works, The Movement and Habit of Twining Plants and The Power of Movement in Plants, stimulated 20th and 21st century research findings and philosophies. The legacy of Darwin's work permeates research on plant movement. For example, Darwin's demonstration that coleoptiles and roots fail to bend in response to light or gravity if their tips are removed helped researchers work toward the discovery of auxin and other plant hormones. Darwin's methodical observations on vine twining directions and circumnutation foreshadowed the recent discovery that 92% of vines twine in right‐handed helices, regardless of their location on the planet. Finally, Darwin's observation of the similarity between plant responses to stimuli and the responses of lower animals foreshadowed the current debate over whether plants have ‘behaviour’. Thus, even Darwin's lesser‐known works continue to influence research in the present day. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 160 , 111–118.     

Un siècle de paléoichtyologie dans les Annales de Paléontologie

Palaeoichthyology underwent a considerable development in France in the 1960's, although it had long been considered there as a marginal aspect of vertebrate palaeontology. Nevertheless, the articles published in the Annales de Paléontologie over the past century foreshadow this development since the 1920's. Notably, they show the historical importance of the discovery of the Early Triassic fishes from Madagascar in the search for the phylogenetic and evolutionary patterns of actinopterygians. Later on, they illustrate the need to expand French palaeoichtyological research to early Palaeozoic taxa, in the framework of major international research programs.     

X-ray sources: 125 years of developments of this intriguing technology

Why took it nearly four decades, from the first evidence of artificial creation of bremsstrahlung, noted indirectly in literature in 1857 by Julius Pluecker, Professor of mathematics and physics in Bonn, Germany, to Professor Conrad Wilhelm Roentgen's breaking discovery and announcement of X-rays in 1895? Following introductory remarks on the difficulties adjusting the parameters required to generate X-rays and the way medical X-rays occupied clinical routine after Roentgen’s revolutionary discovery, and answering the question at the beginning, this paper will discuss in depth the paths taken for improvement up to the present, and some of the culs-de-sac.     

HISTORY OF ICHNOLOGY—Ichnological Eccentrics: The Curious Case of Dr. Joseph Barratt of Middletown,Connecticut

Joseph Barratt was a British-born and educated physician who settled in the United States in 1819. He had a great interest in natural history, collecting both plants and insects and studying geology, mycology, ornithology, chemistry, meteorology, Native Americans, and local history. He was apparently a man of great energy and ambition but one who could not focus to see a project to completion. Barratt was active in the early history of the discovery of vertebrate footprints in the Newark Supergroup in the eastern United States but latter developed some very strange theories regarding the age and significance of these deposits. In his latter years, Barratt's mental state deteriorated and he became even more obsessed with trying to publicize his outlandish theories. Dr. Joseph Barratt is remembered in ichnology for basically two things; he sold Edward Hitchcock a superb specimen of vertebrate tracks; and he may have the most elaborate ichnological tombstone ever constructed.     

737. AEXTOXICON PUNCTATUM

Aextoxicon punctatum Ruiz & Pavón, the olivillo, is a poisonous dioecious evergreen tree native to the sub‐Antarctic forests of Chile and Argentina. Though introduced to cultivation during the late 1920s it has always remained rare. A tree of Aextoxicon punctatum is now fruiting at Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, Ireland. Details of the tree's habitat, ecology and its discovery and subsequent introduction are discussed.     

The Viscoelastic Properties of Passive Eye Muscle in Primates. II: Testing the Quasi-Linear Theory

We have extensively investigated the mechanical properties of passive eye muscles, in vivo, in anesthetized and paralyzed monkeys. The complexity inherent in rheological measurements makes it desirable to present the results in terms of a mathematical model. Because Fung''s quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) model has been particularly successful in capturing the viscoelastic properties of passive biological tissues, here we analyze this dataset within the framework of Fung''s theory.We found that the basic properties assumed under the QLV theory (separability and superposition) are not typical of passive eye muscles. We show that some recent extensions of Fung''s model can deal successfully with the lack of separability, but fail to reproduce the deviation from superposition.While appealing for their elegance, the QLV model and its descendants are not able to capture the complex mechanical properties of passive eye muscles. In particular, our measurements suggest that in a passive extraocular muscle the force does not depend on the entire length history, but to a great extent is only a function of the last elongation to which it has been subjected. It is currently unknown whether other passive biological tissues behave similarly.     

E. E. Just's broad,yet hidden,influence on modern cell and developmental biology

This year, 2019, marks the centennial of embryologist E. E. Just's discovery of what is known as the fast block to polyspermy. Just's observation of the subtle changes that occur at the egg's surface during fertilization (and in experimental parthenogenesis) led him to postulate that the egg, and indeed every cell, possesses a property he called independent irritability, which represents the cell's ability to respond in a physiologically‐relevant way to a variety of signals or triggers. In this paper, I argue that Just's concept of independent irritability informed his contemporary Johannes Holtfreter as Holtfreter attempted to explain the phenomena of embryonic induction and competence and that Holtfreter, in turn, influenced Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart in their formulation of the theory of facilitated variation. Just's influence is especially evident in Gerhart and Kirschner's presentations of what they call weak linkage—a property of living systems that allows core processes and components to be mixed and matched in different ways to generate novel traits. Unfortunately, the connection between Holtfreter's work and Just's has remained hidden. This paper gives examples of phenomena that exhibit weak linkage, and it lays out the case that Just's concept of independent irritability, through Holtfreter, Gerhart, and Kirschner, has broadly infiltrated modern cell and developmental biology.     

Thalidomide‐induced limb defects: resolving a 50‐year‐old puzzle

Despite the recent discovery that thalidomide causes limb defects by targeting highly angiogenic, immature blood vessels, several challenges still remain and new ones have arisen. These include understanding the drug's species specificity, determining molecular target(s) in the endothelial cell, shedding light on the molecular basis of phocomelia and producing a form of the drug that is clinically effective without having side effects. Now that the trigger of thalidomide‐induced teratogenesis has been uncovered, a framework is proposed, incorporating and uniting previous models of thalidomide action, explaining how thalidomide causes not just limb defects, but also all the other defects it induces.     

Der Census of Marine Life zieht Bilanz. Globale “Volkszählung” unter Wasser

Global Underwater Census – a large‐scale project is taking stock The Census of Marine Life, an international large‐scale project to assess the diversity of life in the ocean, will end this fall after a decade of discovery with a grand finale in London. Many so‐called field projects were established to study life from tropical beaches, seamounts, hydrothermal vents, to polar seas and abyssal plains in order to get a better estimate of marine species diversity and gain insight into processes that influence the diversity of life in the oceans. Some of the field projects are presented, including the project CeDAMar under the leadership of the Senckenberg Institute. The study area of CeDAMar is abyssal plains, which comprise about half of the Earth's surface yet are very little known. Mankind's growing demand on minerals and other resources has awoken the industry's interest in a part of the ocean that so far has been relatively pristine. CeDAMar scientists have helped with their expertise to establish guidelines for the protection of the seafloor in international waters, thus demonstrating how concrete the influence of deep‐sea exploration on human society can become.     

Henri Becquerel’s discovery of radioactivity – 125 years later

This year it is 125 years since Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity. It has been argued that this was the result after Becquerel’s long, systematic research into the phenomenon of luminescence. Becquerel’s discovery, together with Marie and Pierre Curie’s discovery of radium, became the breakthrough for the 20th century research in medical radiation physics and the use of radioactivity in medicine. In this paper, we draw attention to Becquerel’s discovery and the impact it had on medicine and society.     

The ecological potential of a restored abandoned quarry ecosystem in Mt. Mufu, Nanjing, China

In order to conserve the remaining rare dolomite rocks and restore Mt. Mufu, a forest restoration program has been implemented over ten years. Emergy analysis was used to evaluate the current status of the restored ecosystem, in addition, the ecological potential of the fully developed system was predicted and analyzed. Four main emergy indices of the two systems, EYR, EIR, ELR, and ESI, were calculated and compared. In addition, a relatively new emergy index, PYR, was used to evaluate the restored forest system's ecological potential. The results revealed that the current restored forest system was still in the initial stage of ecological restoration but it has already resulted in several positive effects, such as richness of plant biodiversity and improving air condition. The value of the predicted system's PYR is as great as 201.53, demonstrating that the restored forest system has a great potential for ecological development in the future.     

The flight of the self: Exploring more‐than‐human companionship in rural Pakistan

The construct of multispecies anthropology has helped explain some of the ways through which humans develop sensory and embodied connectedness with the more‐than‐human. Yet there is a need to fully comprehend how such connectedness leads to the discovery of the inner self. Through an ethnographic study carried out with rural South Punjabi pigeon flyers in Pakistan between 2008 and 2018, this paper argues that companionship with pigeons allows people to generate a meaningful relationship with their animals, explore their inner emotions and achieve a deeper understanding of the self. This paper takes inspiration from Donna Haraway's critique of Jacques Derrida's cat encounter, and philosophical thoughts of a 12th‐century Muslim mystic poet, Farid ud‐Din Attar, to examine how becoming‐with pigeons enables the flyers to structure their lifeworlds, develop entrenched companionship and shape their social choices to achieve wellbeing despite everyday social troubles and emotional anxieties.     

Sixty years of genome biology

Sixty years after Watson and Crick published the double helix model of DNA''s structure, thirteen members of Genome Biology''s Editorial Board select key advances in the field of genome biology subsequent to that discovery.April 25th 2013 is the sixtieth anniversary of the infamous Watson and Crick Nature paper describing a model for the structure of DNA, published 25 April 1953: the now infamous ''double helix'' [1]. Two accompanying papers from Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins and colleagues leant experimental support to the proposed structure in the form of X-ray diffraction data [2,3], as described elsewhere in this issue of Genome Biology [4]. The model was a landmark discovery in the history of modern science, and was notable for its cross-disciplinary importance: the question addressed was of immense biological importance, but it was physicists and chemists whose expertise and techniques were needed in order to arrive at an answer. One of these physicists, Ray Gosling, describes the unveiling of Watson and Crick''s double helix structure as a ''eureka'' moment [4]: its simplicity and elegance were striking, and not only explained the X-ray diffraction data but also the mode of replication of life itself. It is rare for a scientific discovery to achieve such an iconic status, to pervade popular culture and the public consciousness, as well as to become an emblem of scientific inquiry - as exemplified by Genome Biology''s double helix-inspired logo. Although Avery had already shown DNA to be the genetic material [5], it took the convincing simplicity of Watson and Crick''s double helix for this notion to widely take hold, in place of theories favoring proteins. The discovery, therefore, had many important implications, and set the scene for future breakthroughs in the field of genome biology.To celebrate sixty years of such discoveries, we asked a jury composed of Genome Biology Editorial Board members to select key advances in the field since 25 April 1953. The brief was to choose a development that was either the most important or the most surprising, or that had the most personal impact, and to briefly summarize why. A number of selections focused on technological advances - from restriction mapping through microarrays and high-throughput sequencing. These technologies have clearly done much to inform our understanding of the biology of genomes. The most popular choice, however, was the discovery of introns. Much like the double helix, this discovery had something of the ''X factor'' to it: biologists trained in the post-intron era may take the concept of gene fragmentation for granted, but at the time it was a truly radical and paradigm-shifting idea. The sense of surprise made a strong impression on those old enough to remember the discovery, and one of the groups involved went so far as to describe it as ''amazing'' in the title of their paper [6].     

Association of endodermal sinus tumour,testicular teratoma and alpha1-fetoprotein.

An endodermal sinus tumour in the retroperitoneal region was associated with the presence of alpha1-fetoprotein (AFP) in the patient''s serum. At autopsy a simple cystic teratoma of the right testicle was also found. The association of these two tumours has been reported before. The classification of these malignant germ-cell tumours and an understanding of their evolution may be aided by the discovery that AFP is often found in the patient''s serum.     

Parkinson's disease in 1984: an update.

This update reviews several important topics in the field of Parkinson''s disease, including etiologic studies, the types and mechanisms of drug complications and their treatment, when and how to begin treatment, the association of dementia with Parkinson''s disease, and the development of the newer research tools. The recent discovery of a highly selective neurotoxin (MPTP) that causes parkinsonism in humans and other primates and the use of positron emission tomography in living patients should improve our understanding of the cause of cell death in Parkinson''s disease and assist in the development of more definitive treatment for this common, disabling neurologic condition.     

VDAC,The early days

VDAC is now universally accepted as the channel in the mitochondrial outer membrane responsible for metabolite flux in and out of mitochondria. Its discovery occurred over two independent lines of investigation in the 1970s and 80s. This retrospective article describes the history of VDAC's discovery and how these lines merged in a collaboration by the authors. The article was written to give the reader a sense of the role played by laboratory environment, personalities, and serendipity in the discovery of the molecular basis for the unusual permeability properties of the mitochondrial outer membrane. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: VDAC structure, function, and regulation of mitochondrial metabolism.     

The impact of crystallization conditions on structure‐based drug design: A case study on the methylene blue/acetylcholinesterase complex

Structure‐based drug design utilizes apoprotein or complex structures retrieved from the PDB. >57% of crystallographic PDB entries were obtained with polyethylene glycols (PEGs) as precipitant and/or as cryoprotectant, but <6% of these report presence of individual ethyleneglycol oligomers. We report a case in which ethyleneglycol oligomers' presence in a crystal structure markedly affected the bound ligand's position. Specifically, we compared the positions of methylene blue and decamethonium in acetylcholinesterase complexes obtained using isomorphous crystals precipitated with PEG200 or ammonium sulfate. The ligands' positions within the active‐site gorge in complexes obtained using PEG200 are influenced by presence of ethyleneglycol oligomers in both cases bound to W84 at the gorge's bottom, preventing interaction of the ligand's proximal quaternary group with its indole. Consequently, both ligands are ～3.0Å further up the gorge than in complexes obtained using crystals precipitated with ammonium sulfate, in which the quaternary groups make direct π‐cation interactions with the indole. These findings have implications for structure‐based drug design, since data for ligand‐protein complexes with polyethylene glycol as precipitant may not reflect the ligand's position in its absence, and could result in selecting incorrect drug discovery leads. Docking methylene blue into the structure obtained with PEG200, but omitting the ethyleneglycols, yields results agreeing poorly with the crystal structure; excellent agreement is obtained if they are included. Many proteins display features in which precipitants might lodge. It will be important to investigate presence of precipitants in published crystal structures, and whether it has resulted in misinterpreting electron density maps, adversely affecting drug design.     

761. PATRINIA HETEROPHYLLA

The discovery and introduction of Patrinia heterophylla Bunge are described. It was collected during the 2004 Glasnevin Central China Expedition and cultivated at Glasnevin's adjunct garden, Kilmacurragh Botanic Gardens, in County Wicklow.     

Russian comparative embryology takes form: a conceptual metamorphosis toward “evo‐devo”

This essay recapitulates major paths followed by the Russian tradition of what we refer to today as evolutionary developmental biology (“evo‐devo”). The article addresses several questions regarding the conceptual history of evolutionary embryological thought in its particularly Russian perspective: (1) the assertion by the St. Petersburg academician Wolff regarding the possible connections between environmental modifications during morphogenesis and the “transformation” of species, (2) the discovery of shared “principles” underlying animal development by von Baer, (3) the experimental expression of Baer's principles by Kowalevsky and Mechnikoff, (4) Severtsov's theory of phylembryogenesis, (5) Filatov's approach to the study of evolution using comparative “developmental mechanics”, and (6) Shmalgausen's concept of “stabilizing” selection as an attempt to elucidate the evolution of developmental mechanisms. The focus on comparative evolutionary embryology, which was established by Kowalevsky and Mechnikoff, still continues to be popular in present‐day “evo‐devo” research in Russia.