American Scientist

The current study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of use of forskolin plant in control of the dangerous changes caused by aflatoxicosis. Forskolin has been isolated from the roots of Coleus Forskohlii, a plant rich in alkaloids which are considered to have a high probability of influence on the biological systems. Tannins, phlobatannins, saponins, flavonoids, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides and alkaloids are active principles of Coleus forskohlii. Forskolin has a unique property of activating almost all hormone sensitive adenylate cyclase enzymes in a biological system. Out of 150 samples of frozen , minced meat, raw milk, kareish cheese, wheat and yellow corn (25 of each). The obtained results revealed that aflatoxigenic moulds of A.flavus and A.parasiticus were recovered from samples of cereals of wheat and yellow corn, respectively (72%, 12% and 60%, 16%), followed by samples of kareish cheese and frozen meat, respectively (44%, 4% and 40%, 4%). Whereas, the lowest level o...

Economic historians make a useful distinction between inventions and innovations (inven- tions that succeed within an economy). Applying this distinction to the evolutionary novelties of the Cambrian metazoan radiation suggests many developmental inventions were necessary but insufficient as causes for the breadth of the diversification. Comparative developmental studies of modern animals are providing a detailed window into these developmental inven- tions, with the protostome-deuterostome ancestor, or urbilaterian, occupying a critical node at the origin of the bilaterian clades. Highly conserved developmental elements between verte- brates and arthropods indicate that there was considerable developmental complexity at this node, but the level of morphological complexity remains disputed. Such inventions do not, however, seem sufficient to generate the morphological breadth of the radiation of body plans. Here the primary factor was likely the construction of new ecospace through positive ecolog- ical feedback.

Human language is one of the finest accomplishments of biological evolution. Much of our species' success is fundamentally dependent on the capacity of language to generate ideas that allow us to escape from the immediate present or to describe events and phenomena that have never existed. Yet the origin and evolution of this powerful tool is quite mysterious. Other forms of animal communication bear so little resemblance to human language that it seems unlikely that any of them could be a precursor to spoken language. Pulling together various observations on the neurology of language, the sophistication and cross-cultural nature of sign languages, and the ability of apes to communicate with signs, Corballis argues that the origins of human language may lie in manual gestures, not in vocalization.