NEW BEAUTIFUL PURPLE LIFE
As we explore Beautiful Purple this week, today we look at new discoveries of purple life. From good news for purple sea urchins, to eating purple to save your life to new purple visions of our neighboring galaxies, we've got Beautiful Purple things happening right now.
PURPLE SEA URCHINS
While the acidification of our oceans due to increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is bad news for many species, it may be good news for others.
According to a recent study by researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara, purple sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus are capable adapting -- evolving to cope with this shift in ocean chemistry.
When the urchins were exposed to increased acidity, it did result in smaller animals, thinner shells, and shorter spines.
However, according to the study, which was published in the journal Global Change Biology, researchers noted a wide variation in size. And some of the larger urchins had apparently inherited a tolerance for higher carbon dioxide.
These “super-urchins” will produce super-urchin offspring, which will lead to the rapid evolution of their species.
Purple sea urchins are considered to be a “keystone species” as they play a vital role in the undersea ecosystem.
PURPLE TOMATOES
Scientists have been thinking about purple tomatoes for a while now. This is what they envisioned one might look like before one was actually produced. But now, purple tomatoes are not only a reality, they are proving to be a potential savior of the human race!
Our knee-jerk reaction to genetically modified (GMO) food is “No!!!” But a newly developed genetically modified purple tomato is showing that it might fight cancer.
The tomatoes are purple because they have been altered to contain larger doses of anthocyanins, a powerful cancer-busting purple antioxidant. These GMO purple tomatoes are being grown and harvested in Ontario, Canada to fuel further studies, both to treat and prevent cancer and cardiovascular disease.
There is also evidence that anthocyanins are anti-inflammatory and promote visual acuity, as well as hinder obesity and diabetes.
In a pilot test, conducted by Oregon State University, the lifespan of cancer-susceptible mice was significantly extended (by 30%) when their diet was supplemented with the purple tomatoes compared to supplementation with normal red tomatoes, according to the researchers.
The next step will be to take the preclinical data forward to human studies.
The "Indigo Rose" was first developed in the 1960s by two breeders who crossed cultivated tomatoes with wild species from Chile and the Galapagos Islands. It is the first "really" purple variety of tomato.
This purple tomato is released as an open-pollinated variety. The seed saved from self-pollinated plants will grow true and not produce hybrids. Genetic engineering techniques are never used to develop these lines. These tomatoes are not GMO.
Does the new variety taste good? The tomato is well balanced in flavor between its sweetness and its acids and tastes just like a tomato. Anthocyanins are essentially tasteless.
While other fruits, such as blueberries, have higher concentrations of anthocyanin, tomatoes are the fourth most popular fresh-market vegetable behind potatoes, lettuce and onions, according to the USDA.
So a purple tomato would be consumed more than blueberries ever would be.
Seed company catalogs that carry Indigo Rose include Territorial, Nichols, High Mowing (organic), and Johnnys (organic).
PURPLE SKIES
Looks like the gods spilled the sugar! This recently released ultraviolet image, produced by NASA's Swift satellite, showcases the multitude of stars that reside within one of the Milky Way's small companion galaxies. It is the the most massive ultraviolet-light survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) ever attempted.
It took almost 2 days to expose the film to create the 656 individual snapshots that were stitched together to create a composite image that spans 7,000 light-years across.
While to Southern Hemisphere sky-watchers this dwarf galaxy looks like a small, hazy patch, the Swift satellite revealed 250,000 individual ultraviolet sources within the SMC.
"With these mosaics, we can study how stars are born and evolve across each galaxy in a single view, something that's very difficult to accomplish for our own galaxy because of our location inside it," NASA's Stefan Immler said in a press statement.
Read more about Beautiful Purple, it relates toArts/Design,Nature/Science,Food/Drink, Place/Time,Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including 10 Purple Jewelry Showstoppers.
Enter this week’sBN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Purple. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 03.02.14.
Photo Credits:
Photo: By Steve Jurvetson. The shell of a purple sea urchin.
Photo: By NKK. See Urchin at Playa el Coco in Nicaragua.
Photo: Courtesy of District of Lights. Purple sea urchin.
Photo: Courtesy of Gastonomican. Purple sea urchin.
Photo: By Bill Bumgarner. Purple Sea Urchin.
Photo: by Brian Wolfe. Flowering purple sea urchins.
Photo: Courtesy of Thanis Lim. Purple Tomato.
Photo: Courtesy of The Dish. Purple Tomato.
Photo: Courtesy of Penn and Cords Garden. Heirloom Tomatoes.
Photo: Courtesy of Slow Food Corvallis. Indigo Rose Tomatoes.
Photo: Courtesy of the John Innes Centre. GM Purple Tomato.
Photo: By Mr. Brownthumb. Indigo Rose Tomato.