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One of the things thats always fascinating (or inspiring, astonishing, awe-inspiring – take your pick) about what we learn from the evolutionary history of living critters is how much very different sorts of living things have in common. This even reaches down to the level of single cells, where very similar genes can be found in mammals and yeast, even bacteria.

We also find complex subsystems with substantial similarities. So much so that the nervous system of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, which has all of 302 neurons in its whole nervous system (hermaphrodite version), is routinely used as an experimental model for the nervous systems of much more complex animals.

Perhaps even more astonishing than that, however, is that it now appears some genes important for modern nervous systems existed even before there were nervous systems – in sea sponges, which are just about the most primitive animals known.

Origins Of Nervous System Found In Genes Of Sea Sponge

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered significant clues to the evolutionary origins of the nervous system by studying the genome of a sea sponge, a member of a group considered to be among the most ancient of all animals.

And not only are some of the genes there, but the proteins they represent may have interacted similarly to the way that corresponding proteins interact in modern synapses.

"It turns out that sponges, which lack nervous systems, have most of the genetic components of synapses," said Todd Oakley, co-author and assistant professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UC Santa Barbara.

"Even more surprising is that the sponge proteins have signatures indicating they probably interact with each other in a similar way to the proteins in synapses of humans and mice," said Oakley. "This pushes back the origins of these genetic components of the nervous system to at or before the first animals ---- much earlier than scientists had previously suspected."

Other blog articles: here

Original research paper: here

Tags: synapses, neuroscience

Technology Review has a look at a new approach to CAES energy storage - Compressed-Air System Could Aid Wind Power.

SustainX, a startup in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, has received $20 million in venture capital to test its compressed-air energy storage technology on a large scale.

The technology could allow for a wider use of compressed-air storage, which in turn could make renewable energy more attractive, since it would allow wind power generated at night to be stored until daylight hours, when demand is higher. If its successful, the technology could decrease the need to build natural gas plants to supply peak power demand.

The need for storage is increasing as governments mandate the use of more renewable energy. SustainX has demonstrated a 40-kilowatt prototype and is now completing a one-megawatt system, slated to be deployed next year with the power company AES.

In conventional compressed-air storage, electricity is used to compress air, which is stored in underground caverns or aquifers. That air is then released to drive a turbine-generator to produce electricity when needed. Such storage costs roughly a tenth of what battery storage costs, but it isnt used much because in large part because it requires a location with underground storage space. SustainXs system eliminates this problem because it can efficiently use above-ground storage tanks rather than caverns.
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Storing compressed air in tanks aboveground is impractical with a conventional turbine-based system because of the large size and cost of the tanks. SustainXs technology reduces the cost of the tanks and other capital costs. "We do aboveground compressed-air energy storage at belowground prices," says cofounder and vice president Dax Kepshire.

The company reduces costs by using pistons, rather than turbines, to generate electricity. Gas turbines can only generate electricity from a narrow range of air pressures. The pistons can operate at a larger range—and because air can be compressed more, the system can store more energy. Whats more, the pistons operate well after the pressure in the tank has fallen too low to drive a turbine.