In 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson led a large expedition to discover a lost continent he believed was under the Arctic ice cap. They sailed from Victoria, British Columbia on June 17, 1913. Six weeks later their ship was caught in the ice. Stefansson and several companions left the expedition and returned to safety. When the ship was crushed, the crew set up camp on the ice. In March of 1914, Captain Bartlett led what was left of his crew 80 miles across the ice to Wrangel Island. Twelve survivors were picked up by a small whaling schooner in September of 1914.
In 1921, Stefansson claimed Wrangel island for Canada. An expedition from Canada to colonize the island failed. By 1926 Russia re-established their claim to the island by setting up a colony there. Eventually the colonists returned to the mainland leaving the island deserted.
In 1976 the Soviet Union declared the island a "zapovednika", a federally protected nature reserve. In English it is called the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve. It protects large colonies of snow geese, polar bears, and walrus that live here. Only official Russian government personnel and invited guests can visit the reserve.
Wrangel island was never covered by glaciers during the last ice ages and it was never covered by water when the ice retreated. The soil and plants on Wrangel have been undisturbed by time. The interior valleys are mainly ancient Pleistocene tundra. They boast over 400 unique plant species.
Even though it is a very harsh climate Wrangel island has a large and diverse wildlife population. It is the world's largest Polar Bear denning ground. There are about 400 female bears who raise their young here. It has the world's largest population of Pacific Walrus. The island has large populations of Snow Geese, Snowy Owls, seals, Arctic wolves, Arctic fox and lemmings. One thing the island seems to be missing is mosquitoes.
Wrangel island may have been the last place Woolly Mammoths ("Mammuthus primigenius") existed before becoming extinct. The island is littered with mammoth tusks. A population of mammoths existed here some 6,000 years after they went extinct on the mainland. They lasted until about 1650 BCE, when the Great Pyramids of Giza were already 1000 years old. Archaeological evidence on the island shows them to be a smaller variety, "Mammuth primigenius wrangelensis".
DNA methylation
DNA methylation is the main way gene activity is adjusted during life, especially during early development.
It is a process by which methyl groups are added to DNA. This suppresses gene transcription. Two of DNA's four nucleotides, cytosine and adenine, can be methylated. Since adenine methylation is restricted to prokaryotes, all eukaryote transcription is regulated by suppressing cytosine.
Suppressing genes is the basis of epigenetics, the study of changes in gene activity which are "not" caused by changes in the DNA sequence. It is the study of gene expression, the way genes bring about their phenotypic effects.
The changes in gene activity by methylation may last for the rest of the cell's life, and for many generations of cells through cell divisions. However, there is no change in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism. Instead, non-hereditary factors cause the organism's genes to behave (express themselves) differently.
Honey bee
A honey bee (or honeybee) is any bee that is a member of the genus Apis. They produce and store honey and make perennial, colonial nests from wax. They are in contrast with the stingless honey bee.
Honey bees are the only living members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus "Apis". There are only seven species of honey bee, with a total of 44 subspecies. Historically, from six to eleven species have been recognized.
Honey bees are only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus "Apis" are true honey bees. The study of honey bees is known as 'melittology'.
The first "Apis" bees appear in the fossil record at the Eocene–Oligocene boundary (34 million years ago (mya)), in European deposits. This shows that the bees were present in Europe by that time. Few fossil deposits are known from South Asia, the suspected region of honey bee origin.
No "Apis" species existed in the New World during human times before the introduction of "A. mellifera" by Europeans. Only one fossil species is known, a single 14-million-year-old specimen from Nevada.
The close relatives of modern honey bees – bumblebees and stingless bees – are also social to some degree,
Negev tortoise
The Negev tortoise ("Testudo werneri") is a tortoise found mainly in the Negev desert in southern Israel. It was once present in the Sinai Peninsula. In Israel it is protected by law and there are conservation programs. It is currently considered a critically endangered species.
The Negev is one of the world's smallest tortoises. Unlike other tortoises it does not hibernate in winter. Instead, winter is the breeding season. In 2010 the IUCN recommended that Israel take additional steps to protect the Negev tortoise including creating a wildlife preserve.
There is some disagreement over whether the Negev tortoise is the same species as the Kleinmann's tortoise.
Diana Ross (1970 album)
Diana Ross (also re-released as Ain't No Mountain High Enough) is the self-titled debut solo album by American recording artist Diana Ross. It was released on June 19, 1970 by Motown Records. The album was released after Ross left R&B girl group The Supremes, a group Ross had been in since 1959.
The album was quite successful and critics felt that the album is one of Ross’ best albums she had released in her career.
"All tracks written and produced by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, except for "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You", written by Johnny Bristol/Harvey Fuqua/Sylvia Moy and produced by Bristol."
Alanine
Alanine (abbreviated as Ala or A) is an α-amino acid. It has the chemical formula CHCH(NH)COOH.
The -isomer is one of the 20 amino acids encoded by the genetic code. Its codons are GCU, GCC, GCA, and GCG. It is classified as a non-polar amino acid.
-Alanine accounts for 7.8% of the primary structure in a sample of 1,150 proteins. Leucine is the only amino acid which is more common.
-Alanine occurs in bacterial cell walls and in some peptide antibiotics.
Nature reserve
A nature reserve (preserve or (national/nature) conserve) is a protected area. It protects wildlife, flora (plants) and fauna (animals). Reserves may also protect geological features or other special interests. A nature reserve is land that is kept for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research.
Nature reserves can be created by government institutions. They can also be created by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an organization that helps countries and others with conservation programs and management.
Wrangell Island
Wrangell Island is an island in the Alaska Panhandle of southeastern Alaska. It is long and 8–23 km (3–14 miles) wide. It has a land area of , making it the 29th largest island in the United States. Wrangell is separated from the mainland by the narrow Blake Channel.
Wrangell has been ruled by Russia, Great Britain and the United States. It was visited in 1799 by "The Dragon", a ship out of Boston, Massachusetts. They traded with the Stikine Tlingit peoples. It was occupied in 1834 by the Russians. It is named after Ferdinand Wrangel, a German explorer in Russian service. From 1867 to 1877 it was a U.S. military post. Later it was a stopping point for hunters, explorers and miners using the Stikine river route to the Yukon.