Deep red garnets are found all over the world, from Thailand and Sri Lanka to the Adirondacks.
The stones that make their way into rings and necklaces must have a flawless interior. But sometimes garnets are marred with intricate traceries of microscopic tunnels.
Magnus Ivarsson, a geobiologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and his colleagues found evidence that contradicted standard geological explanations for how the cavities might be formed. In a paper in PLOS One, the researchers are floating a new hypothesis: Perhaps what's making the tunnels is alive.
The mineral doing the tunneling must be harder than the surrounding substance, and garnets happen to be very, very hard.
When the researchers cracked the garnets open, they tested the insides of the tunnels and found signs of fatty acids and other lipids, potential indicators of life.
The researchers' best guess goes like this: Normal wear-and-tear on the surface of a garnet creates divots. Microorganisms, probably fungi, can colonize these hollows. Then, if the stone is the best nearby source for certain nutrients, such as iron, perhaps they use an as-yet mysterious chemical reaction to burrow deeper, harvesting sustenance as they go.
Zombie gene may protect elephants from cancer
Maybe it's the elephant's genes that never forget.
In addition to having great memories, elephants are known for having a very low incidence of cancer. Research has uncovered a surprising factor that protects elephants against the disease: a gene that had gone dormant in their ancestors, but got turned back on as their bodies grew ever bigger.
Scientists call it a "zombie gene" — "a reanimated pseudogene that kills cells when expressed."