Kyoto University – BioQuakes

New studies have indicated that elephants are using the air that they blast through their trunks to grasp for food in hard-to-reach areas. Way back when, Charles Darwin had even suggested that elephants might manipulate their breath to reach food. Scientists from Kyoto University and SOKENDAI decided to research this behavior in elephants. They predicted that the farther away the piece of food is, the more frequently the elephants would use their breath/air through their trunks to bring it near them. To test their hypothesis, they observed two captive, female elephants, Suzuko and Mineko at the Kamine Zoo. The researchers created this virtual grid in a ditch, enclosing the elephants. They placed food in different areas of the grid. The various types of food included: apples, bamboo, fallen leaves, potatoes, and hay. After spacing out these foods, they filmed the elephants trying to reach for them. 128 trials took place over 32 days; each trial started when it was audible that the elephants began blowing and ended when they finally got the food or gave up. Many other factors played a role in this experiment such as the position and shape of the elephant trunks, the frequency and duration of blowing, and the ability to track the movement of food across the area.

Check out that trunk!

The scientist’s research concluded that on average, it took 3 blasts of air for an elephant to obtain inaccessible food and was less likely to use this technique if the food was nearby. Mineko was the dominant female who was much more skilled at altering the position of her trunk to aim more specifically at the food to push it in the correct direction. This particular behavior has brought up discussion of whether an elephant’s breath can be defined as a “tool” or not; similar to how chimpanzees use sticks to catch ants. It’s been concluded that this study creates a new possibility to rethink the term “tool” and to possibly redefine it. For this behavior to be defined as a “tool,” it shouldn’t solely be debated as whether it’s a physical object or not, but more of how it is a physiological process that promotes problem-solving. I thought this new finding was very interesting because I was unaware at how proficient an elephant can be with its breath. Furthermore, I love how this study promoted discussion on a different topic: what can be defined as a “tool” for animals nowadays. Do you think an elephant’s breath can be referred to as a “tool?” Please share your thoughts! In my opinion, I think it can definitely be referred to as a tool because it aids in carrying out a particular function. If only humans had this type of tool… we wouldn’t have to awkwardly reach across the dinner table ever again!

The original article can be found here.

For more information about the study, check out this article and video: Elephants Use Their Trunks as Leaf-Blowers to Reach for Food.

Recently, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan were able to induce stem cells of rats to become viable eggs, which were then implanted in surrogate mothers. The resultant offspring were fertile, anatomically intact rats that were bred for additional generations, their ancestor being only a cell in a petri dish. This discovery has excited scientists the world over because it marks the first step towards making eggs for infertile humans or gays and lesbians.

The scientists at Kyoto began by taking female embryonic cells and “induced pluripotent stem cells”, and then inducing them to become an early form of eggs. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to express certain genes that make them effectively embryonic cells. There is some debate as to whether iPSCs differ from embryonic stem cells taken from harvested embryos, but in this instance they acted identically to the conventional stem cells.

The immature eggs, called “primordial germ-like cells” or PGCLCs, were then surrounded by “female gonadal somatic cells” (cells usually found in an ovary) to create a reconstituted ovary. These constructed ovaries were implanted into surrogate mothers, where the PGCLCs matured into “germinal vesicle-stage oocytes” or early embryos formed during the primary oocyte stage of oogenesis (egg formation), which occurs before birth. The mice that had been implanted with these constructed ovaries eventually gave birth to fertile offspring, which were followed by a few additional generations.

Though scientists have called this discovery a major step forward in reproductive biology, the lead scientist on the Kyoto team, Dr. Hayashi, cautioned: “it is impossible to immediately adapt this system to human stem cells” for a number of reasons scientific and moral. Creating egg cells from stem cells in humans could allow menopausal women to conceive, which brings its own set of moral quandaries as well. Ronald Green, a bioethicist at Dartmouth University, commented on NPR that one had to consider “the commercial possibilities of people selling to infertile people babies produced from George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston.” Evidently, the possibility that egg manufacture might one day be possible has sparked heated debate, but one must remember that it may only be speculation.

BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: Kyoto University

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