Welcome to my blog. My name is William Saleu (aka. Wilz Kongo) and I am from Papua New Guinea. I am currently doing research at the Marine Conservation Molecular Facility of the Duke University Marine Lab alongside Kevin Zelino who blogs at Deep Sea News and Andrew Thaler, main author of Southern Fried Science.
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China has made its position in deep sea exploration known to the world after officially welcoming its newest deep sea submersible, Jiaolong. This 27-foot, 22 ton sub was designed to reach depths of 23,000 feet (7,000 meters) and already has 17 dives under its belt with the deepest dive to a depth of 12,332 feet (3,759 meters) making China only the fifth country to dive past the 3,500 meter mark.
 Jialong sub under construction Plans are also underway to build a research base estimated to cost around $73 million at the coastal City of Quingdao, in Shangdong province to serve as a support station for Jiaolong.
Chinese scientists believe deep sea beds between 4,000 and 6,000 meters hold abundant deposits of rare metals and methane hydrate, a solidified form of natural gas bound to ice, which could help satiate China’s energy appetite.
Advancements in molecular biology especially after Kary Mullis invented a method of amplifying DNA by Polymerase Chain Reactions (PCR), has seen the scientific world gone crazy trying to understand extinction, evolution and speciation. The usual practice of using biopsy samples to generate DNA sequences is slowly being out phased by the development of newer techniques making it possible to use virtually anything that was either part of the body or had come into contact with tissues to collect DNA.
One such development is the use of sampling cetacean blows for DNA as described by a team of scientists from the School of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. According to a recent publication, they collected blow samples from six bottlenose dolphins, Tursios truncatus and analysed for mitochondrial and microsatllite DNA and compared these results with similar tests collected from the animals blood. What they found was that DNA profile from blows matched their corresponding profiles generated from the animals blood leading them to conclude that blow sampling would be just as effective as dart biopsying.
Blow sampling could serve as an alternate sampling technique after recent public outcry and scrutiny from ethical boards and conservationists over dart biopsying young animals, however this would mean more closer approaches to the animals (cetaceans in this case). The six dolphins studied were kept at the National Aquarium, in Baltimore, USA.
Reference :
Celine H. Frere, Ewa Krzyszczyk, Eric M. Patterson, Sue Hunter, Alison gainsburg, Janet Mann Thar She Blows! A Novel Method for DNA Collection from Cetacean Blow
 Dorsal view A friend of mine recently posted these pictures on Facebook and out of curiosity I set off to find out what strange creature this was.
A brief history, my friend was walking on Carolina beach, Wilmington and saw this strange creature being pulled out of the shores by a bird who was about to make a meal out of it.
So what is it?
After much consultation with the Peterson Field Guide for Atlantic Seashore, I am confident to say this strange creature is a mole crab (Emerita talpoida).
These creatures are egg shaped and sand coloured and would measure up to an inch in length. Mole crabs have sizable claws on their front legs and three pairs of walking legs with the forth pair folded up behind. They live on sandy beaches, moving up and down with breaking waves and feed on organic debris caught by their feathery antennae.
 Ventral view, showing walking legs and feathery antennae (orange)
Pictures courtesy of Debby Ng
Last week I posted an update on the quarter collection quest I was on where I made special mention of young Elliot Zelnio for donating some quarters to my collection. Well, this time, its my friends from the Southern Fried Science network who have come to the rescue again. Thanks to the SFS team, I now have quarters from 49 of the 50 US states, and 4 island colonies/territories.
I am still on the lookout for a quarter from Maine.
When I started working with DNA sequences to determine population structure and species diversity, the first things that set in my mind were to keep the DNA sequences as long as possible and also that a single base pair change is not enough to differentiate between two distinct species. This has always been my rule of thumb until noon today.
While sitting through a presentation by a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student who was presenting her report on a study on the hybridization of blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) and alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) fish, I noticed that she had a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that was used to distinguish between two different fish species. Her study was to do a DNA comparison of blueback herring and alewife from river systems in Connecticut rivers to determine if there was hybridization between the two species and she concluded that there was hybridization.
What was puzzling was that although she had sequences that were 592 base pairs long, there was a SNP at location 209 of her sequences and that was what was used to differentiate between her the blueback herring and alewife fish species. Furthermore, this analysis was made with reference to sequences that were already on GenBank and they lined up perfectly. She did say that there were other polymorphisms in her sequences too, but this one at 209 was by far the most obvious one to differentiate between the species.
So the question now is, what is the minimum number of SNP’s we need to have in a sequence before we conclude that they are different species. I am also working on some samples and apart from other polymorphisms in my sequences, I also have SNP’s at certain locations that have up to three different bases in the one location. Can I say these are three different species too?
A week ago I posted a plea to help collect different US quarters. Many gave advice on how to go about doing it and some even recommended coin albums that I could buy, but I wanted to see how many I can collect as change. Well, thanks to young Elliot Zelnio, my coin collection had 5 new samples added.
Elliot is 4 years old and is the son of my old lab mate and fellow blogger Kevin Zelnio. Thanks to Elliot, I now have quarters from Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, North Dakota and Puerto Rico. Thank you very much Elliot and to others, I am a month away from my deadline and I need eleven more quarters. Keep looking!
I was recently out on an off shore exploration cruise where I was part of a team hunting for hydrothermal vent plume signatures in the water column. The entire cruise was three months long and involved two exploration cruises with Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensors and a single cruise with a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), each of which spanned a month long.
The average water depth on the leg I was part of was about 2,500 meters (8, 200 ft) while the second phase went a little deeper to depths around 3,000 meters (9,840 ft). What we found then was that all the plume signatures detected were around the 2,000 to 2,500 meters depth. This led to the conclusion (at least in my mind) that hydrothermal vents can only be found to a maximum depth of 2500 meters.
However, a recent publication by colleagues doing similar investigations in the Mid-Cayman Rise reported the worlds deepest hydrothermal vent. Nicknamed Placard, after one of only two human beings to have visited the deepest part of the worlds oceans, Placard is some 800 meters below Ashadze, the previous record holder at 4,200 meters deep. What is more fascinating about Placard is that, because of its geological make up and location, it hosts life forms that were previously only known to exist at only two other vents; Rainbow and Lost City.
These vents create extremely reducing chemical environments that have the potential to host abiotic organic syntheis relevant to studies if prebiotic chemistry and the origins of life.
Source:
“Diverse styles of submarine venting on the ultraslow spreading Mid-Cayman Rise.” By C. R. German, A. Bowen, M. L. Coleman, D. L. Honig, J. A. Huber, M. V. Jakuba, J. C. Kinsey, M. D. Kurz, S. Leroy, J. M. McDermott, B. Mercier de Lépinay, K. Nakamura, J. S. Seewald, J. L. Smith, S. P. Sylva, C. L. Van Dover, L. L. Whitcomb, D. R. Yoerger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 107 No. 29, July 20, 2010.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/deepest-hydrothermal-vent/#ixzz0vZrk2SPr
BomaiCruz has always been fascinated about the fact that the United States seem to have so many different 25 cents (quarter) pieces, probable one from each state and territory. It has become a challenge in the last few weeks as I try to collect all the different pieces.
 List of Quarter collection To date I have 36 different pieces from 34 states and territories, one of the common silver eagles and a bi-centennial piece. I am now making an appeal for people to tell me which ones I am missing and i will do my best to collect them. I hope that I will be able to collect all pieces by September.
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