Scientists have created new artificial microbes by combining two very different organisms into one functioning entity. The hybrid of a yeast and a bacterium adds evidence to a long-standing hypothesis on how advanced life may have evolved.

Inside the cells of complex lifeforms are tiny, separate organs called organelles, some of which have their own separate genomes to that of the larger organism. That includes the mitochondria in animals and chloroplasts in plants, both of which generate energy for the organism. A leading theory suggests that these organelles were originally separate microorganisms that were engulfed by other cells, and the two eventually entered a symbiotic relationship that paved the way for complex life to evolve.
And now a new study has recreated this process, known as endosymbiosis. Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign designed and engineered artificial hybrids of two microbes – a budding yeast and photosynthetic cyanobacteria.

The resulting chimera was able to photosynthesize like the bacteria to generate energy, and reproduced through budding like the yeast. The organisms were able to propagate for at least 15 to 20 generations, and the team says that the achievement lends weight to the hypothesis that complex life got its start through endosymbiosis.

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There Are Mountains of Sugar Hidden in The Ocean, And We've Only Just Found Out

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Hyundai is actually building those wild unstoppable 4x4s on robot legs

The goal here is to build the most unstoppable rough-terrain vehicles on the market. As such, these things will have four electrically driven wheels, each mounted on bizarre articulating legs. These powerful robotic legs can bend or swivel at the hip, bend again at the knee and ankle, and fully rotate the wheels before they touch down as well. They're capable of lifting these vehicles or lowering them, stepping over things, stepping up and down off sheer ledges, and precisely placing the wheels on the toughest of driving surfaces.

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Breathtaking New Images Show Giant 'Claw Marks' on The Surface of Mars

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A Pair of Twins Grew Up in Different Countries, Then Scientists Compared Them

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Physicists Found a Way to Trigger The Strange Glow of Warp Speed Acceleration

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​The Arctic Ocean, photographed in the same place 105 years ago and today. Both photos were taken during the summer season.

Here is a link to the photographer Christian Aslund, this is his project.

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How Much Would It Cost to Build the Great Pyramid Today?

Even with cranes, helicopters, tractors and trucks at our disposal, it would be tough to construct the Great Pyramid of Giza today. Its construction 4,500 years ago is so astounding in some people's eyes that they invoke mystical or even alien involvement. But the current theory of the building of the Great Pyramid — the notion that it was assembled from the inside out, via a spiraling internal ramp — is probably still the best construction plan.

Following that plan, we could replicate the Wonder of the Ancient World for a cool $5 billion.

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Spooky Discovery on Mars Looks Just Like an Alien Doorway

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Hawaii's White Sand Beaches Are Made From Parrotfish 💩
In Hawaii, where beaches are constantly ranked the best in the world, a significant portion of that pristine, white, beautiful sand is actually poop.

Yep, 💩..
Parrotfishes, or uhu in Hawaiian, are key players in regulating algae and reef life. Their parrot-like beaks and fused-together teeth are used for scraping and biting dead coral, while additional teeth in their throats help to break it all down into sand. Snorkelers can actually hear them chomping or see the bite marks they leave on rocks.
Because parrotfishes don’t have stomachs, their meals pass straight through the long intestine, exploding in a cloud of sand out the backdoor. Larger parrotfish are like sand factories, producing as much as 840 pounds of sand per year.

The manatee's lip pads are movable! And it surprises.

Animals can grab various objects with them. Usually, they grab the vegetation they eat. But here, it seems, the manatee has confused the green hose with the plant.

How to unsee the two small handles on the nose of manatees? 😂

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Scientists Have Powered a Basic Computer With Just Algae For Over 6 Months

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These tiny orange glass balls are moon sand. Yes, sand from the moon magnified 340 times looks exactly like this. The Apollo 17 astronauts collected this "orange soil" on the rim of Shorty Crater in the Taurus-Littrow Valley.

This sand could have formed approximately 3.8 billion years ago during a volcanic eruption on the Moon.

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This is what the ancient Greek stadium looks like before and after the excavations.

Thousands of people filled this stadium thousands of times over the centuries, and then it all just stopped and overgrown. You won’t even think at first glance that there is a whole stadium under the grass.

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That’s how an ancient Egyptian door lock works. Not so different from a modern one, right? Pretty simple, but at the same time very thoughtful.

The general principle has not changed since that time. And I wonder if there were people who could easily pick such locks?

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Giraffes are just as astonishing on the inside as they are to look at. Standing up to 19 feet tall, they require enormously high blood pressure to pump blood up to the head, yet they suffer few, if any, of the consequences that people with high blood pressure would.

Giraffes have sky-high blood pressure because of their sky-high heads that, in adults, rise about six meters above the ground — a long, long way for a heart to pump blood against gravity. To have a blood pressure of 110/70 at the brain — about normal for a large mammal — giraffes need a blood pressure at the heart of about 220/180. It doesn’t faze the giraffes, but a pressure like that would cause all sorts of problems for people, from heart failure to kidney failure to swollen ankles and legs.

Giraffes have solved a problem with high blood pressure. Their solutions, only partly understood by scientists so far, involve pressurized organs, altered heart rhythms, blood storage — and the biological equivalent of support stockings.

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