Incomplete dominance

1. Sometimes it is better to remain silent and let people think you are stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

2. Incomplete dominance is a type of inheritance in which one allele for a specific trait is not completely dominant over the other allele. This results in a combined phenotype (expressed physical trait). For example, if you cross pollinate red and white snapdragon plants, the dominant allele that produces the red color is not completely dominant over the recessive allele that produces the white color. The resulting offspring are pink. Alternatively you can have co-dominance, when two different phenotypes are expressed at the same time like in the peacock pictured.

3. Turritopsisnutriculahas to be item one on our list of amazing animals for one reason - it is immortal. That isn’t hyperbole – it really is immortal. After reaching sexual maturity, this jellyfish is able to reverse its aging process and become a polyp again. The ability to reverse the life cycle is probably unique in the animal kingdom, and allows the jellyfish to bypass death, rendering the Turritopsisnutricula biologically immortal. Lab tests showed that 100% of specimens reverted to the polyp stage.

5. Previous slide • A golden orb spider successful kills and eats a brown tree snake in Cairns Australia after it gets caught in its web. • http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2012/04/19/215081_local-news.html

7. Titanoboa • The image is a life size model at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum of the world's largest snake to have ever slithered its way across the Earth. Weighing in at 11,340kg, stretching up to 14.6m and with a body diameter of 1m, it roamed the Earth 65 million years ago. Thankfully, the beast was not venomous, although it could apply up to 2758 kPa (the equivalent of one and a half Brooklyn Bridge's lying on you). • For more information visit: • ... http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/03/titanoboa-cerrejonensis-colombia-smithsonian-the-worlds-largest-snake_n_1398834.html

9. Ant mind-controlling fungus • Research into a fungus found growing in carpenter ants has revealed a dramatic insight into its workings. Infected ants are forced to find and die at spots optimal for the fungus to reproduce. Using transmission-electron and light microscopes, researchers were able to see how the fungus grows inside of an infected ant. The fungus fills the ant's body and head causing muscle atrophy and separating muscle fibres. The fungus can also interfere with the ant's nervous system causing convulsions. This can cause the ant to fall from the trees and into the dense, dark and damp leaf litter floor, ideal conditions for the fungus to reproduce. • On top of this it was shown that at solar noon (when the sun is at it's strongest), the fungus affects the infected ant's behaviour, forcing it to bite the main vein in the underside of a leaf. It then detaches the muscles associated with the opening and closing of the jaw leaving the jaw locked in position around the vein. A few days later, a stroma (the fruiting body of the fungus) grows through the ant's head and spreads spores, able to be picked up by any other passing ant.

12. Synthetic DNA shown to evolve • Scientists from the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology have developed polymerases for artificial DNA, which not only "unzips" the artificial DNA, but manages to transcribe the genetic code to natural DNA, and back again. • This hints that if there is life beyond Earth, it could be bound to evolution if not the same chemistry for life here. It also shows that life may not solely be restricted to DNA or RNA. • It should be pointed out that this does not represent a full genetics platform (as it's still dependent on DNA), and that a self replicating system which does not require DNA still needs to be developed. • This research has implications in many fields, including astrobiology, synthetic genetics and the search into the origins of life (DNA/RNA). It is believed that DNA evolved from RNA, but that RNA in turn evolved from a simpler molecule that performed the same function. • http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v4/n3/abs/nchem.1241.html (Subscription) • http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6079/307.summary (Subscription) • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17769529 (Free, Journalist)

13. Turn that frown upside down. • May I introduce to you, the rosy-lipped batfish (Ogcocephalusporrectus). A close relative to the red-lipped batfish, it can be found crawling along the sea floor off the coast of Costa Rica. Not being very good swimmers they "get about" by walking on their fins. • So next time you're swimming of the coast of Costa Rica, keep an eye out for one of these beauties

14. Bees beat supercomputer • Bees have been known to be good at facial recognition, but thanks to a new study (2010) they have been shown to out think a supercomputer too. The "travelling salesman" is a problem put to supercomputers that often takes days to solve. It involves trying to find the shortest route between cities, whilst only visiting each city once. • This was put to the bees in the form of artificial flowers. With flying requiring a lot of energy bees discover the shortest route between flowers extremely quickly, and when new artificial flowers were added in the study, the bees quickly discovered the shortest route using the angles of sunlight. The study was designed to see if the bees would visit the flowers in order of discovery, or via the shortest route possible (to visit all flowers). Bees are the first animal to have figured this out, according to researchers at the Queen Mary University of London. • So it would seem size isn't important, when it comes to intelligence