The Upper Atmosphere Of The Sun Is Dominated By Plasma Filled Magnetic Loops (coronal Loops) Whose Temperature

ELISA

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is a plate-based assay technique used to detect substances such as proteins, peptides and hormones. 

An antigen is immobilized on a solid surface 

It is complexed with an antibody that is linked to an enzyme.

The conjugated enzyme activity is assessed via incubation with a substrate.

Which produces a product that can be measured. 

Direct ELISA

Antigen is coated directly to wells of microtitre plate 

an enzyme-labelled primary antibody that detects the antigen is added.

Advantages  

Fast and minimal steps needed.

Minimum precursor requirement makes it less error prone.

Disadvantages

The immobilization of the antigen is not specific - background interference.

Less flexibility of primary antibody.

No signal amplification –> less sensitivity.

Indirect ELISA

An enzyme labelled secondary antibody interacts with a primary antibody to increase sensitivity. 

Advantages

Offers high sensitivity and flexibility as a secondary antibody can label different primary antibodies

It is cheap (fewer labelled antibodies needed)

Disadvantages

Increased background noise from the secondary antibody.

Extra labour.

Sandwich ELISA

Capture antibody bound to surface.

Antigen-containing sample is applied and captured.

A specific antibody is added, and binds to antigen (sandwiching the antigen between 2 antibodies). 

Enzyme-linked secondary antibodies are used as detection antibodies.

Advantages  

Offers high sensitivity and a highly specific reaction due to 2 antibodies (both have to bind to the antigen).

Disadvantages

For recognition of a specific epitope, only monoclonal antibodies can be applied as matched pairs.

Procuring monoclonal antibodies is difficult and expensive.

Goodness look at the interplay between the light of the setting sun and the wave!!

Would It Be A Bad Thing to Wipe Out A Species … If It’s A Mosquito?

Mosquitoes have a nasty reputation.

The species Aedes aegypti, for example, is currently responsible for spreading the Zika virus through the Americas and also infects humans with dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever.

This raises the question: Should there be an effort to get rid of Aedes aegypti for good?

“There’s been lots of debate in the last 10 years whether we should eradicate mosquitoes, or at least the 100 species or so that serve as disease vectors for humans,” says David Magnus, director of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics. “If you look at the science, the majority [of scientists] think we could probably eliminate mosquitoes without too much harm on the environment.”

Read the full story here.

Illustration: Matthew Twombly

The Veil Nebula - Sharpless 103

Located 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust known as the Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula is the visible portion of a massive supernova that erupted around 7,000 years ago to form what is now known as the Cygnus Loop. The Veil Nebula has a diameter of 100 light-years which appears to be 6 times the diameter of the full moon in the night sky. Due to the scale of the Veil, astronomers often segment the nebula into western (Caldwell 34), eastern (Caldwell 33) and northern portions. This particular images shows the western portion of the nebula with NGC 6960 (the Witches Broom), NGC 6979 (Pickering’s Triangle), and other significant cataloged objects.

Credit: NASA/Digital Sky Survey

The maximum life span is a theoretical number whose exact value cannot be determined from existing knowledge about an organism; it is often given as a rough estimate based on the longest lived organism of its species known to date. A more meaningful measure is the average life span; this is a statistical concept that is derived by the analysis of mortality data for populations of each species. A related term is the expectation of life. Life expectancy represents the average number of years that a group of persons, all born at the same time, might be expected to live, and it is based on the changing death rate over many past years.

The concept of life span implies that there is an individual whose existence has a definite beginning and end. What constitutes the individual in most cases presents no problem: among organisms that reproduce sexually the individual is a certain amount of living substance capable of maintaining itself alive and endowed with hereditary features that are in some measure unique. In some organisms, however, extensive and apparently indefinite growth takes place and reproduction may occur by division of a single parent organism, as in many protists, including bacteria, algae, and protozoans. In order to consider life span in such organisms, the individual must be defined arbitrarily since the organisms are continually dividing. In a strict sense, the life spans in such instances are not comparable to those forms that are sexually produced.

There is a brief period during which it is impossible to say whether an organism is still alive, but this time is so short relative to the total length of life that it creates no great problem in determining life span.

Some organisms seem to be potentially immortal. Unless an accident puts an end to life, they appear to be fully capable of surviving indefinitely. This faculty has been attributed to certain fishes and reptiles, which appear to be capable of unlimited growth. Without examining the various causes of death in detail, a distinction can be made between death as a result of internal changes (i.e., aging) and death as a result of some purely external factor, such as an accident. It is notable that the absence of aging processes is correlated with the absence of individuality. In other words, organisms in which the individual is difficult to define, as in colonial forms, appear not to age.

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This Year in Space (infographic)

From Pluto to the most Earth-like planet ever discovered…this years was a fantastic year in space. Here are the most notable astronomical events from 2015.

May you all journey well into 2016.

See all our infographics at: http://futurism.com/infographics/

wait what

…

turns out that pack rats (Neotoma sp.) creates these big middens which they urinate on. The urine then crystallizes over time, creating amber-like deposits. Some of the ones found in caves are 50.000 years old and contains intact plant material, allowing scientists to analyse the prehistoric flora. 

the dark deposits in the middle are 10.000+ year old crystallized rat piss

what a world

Three galaxies at once

Rising majestically above the telescopes of ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile we see the Milky Way accompanied by its two dwarf neighbour galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

Credit: ESO/A. Santerne

It’s a baby bat ray brunch! Using plate-like teeth to grind and chew their sustainable seafood, these youngsters will grow quickly into their role as majestic sea flap flaps.