God's crown (Phaleria macrocarpa)

Mahkota dewa or God's crown (Phaleria macrocarpa) is a plant species in Thymelaeaceae, a dense tree, taproot and yellow, cylindrical stem, rough, gummy surface, brown bark, many branches and sympodial, white wood.

P. macrocarpa leaves sit opposite each other, oval in shape, pinnate veins, smooth surface, green in color, pointed tip, flat margin, 7-10 cm long and 3-5 cm wide. Compound flowers, long trumpet-shaped, green and white to maroon in color, grow spread out from the main stem to the branches.

Eclipse-shaped fruit, 3 cm in diameter, green when unripe and red when ripe. Poisonous white round pit. Each fruit has 1-2 seeds, oval, brown and anatropic per fruit. Crown gods grow at an elevation of 10-1200 meters with a productive age of 10-20 years.

This plant contains flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, phenolic hydroquinones, tannins, steroids, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes.

Plants are used as a detoxifier to neutralize toxins in the body, a source of antibacterial and antiviral, boost the immune system, increase vitality, reduce blood sugar levels, reduce blood clotting.

Promote blood circulation throughout the body and prevent blockages in blood vessels, reduce cholesterol levels and reduce fat accumulation on blood vessel walls, reduce levels of risk of coronary heart disease. Contains anti-inflammatory, helps reduce pain in case of bleeding or swelling and antihistamines.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Malvales
Family: Thymelaeaceae
Genus: Phaleria
Phaleria: macrocarpa

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down

Elephant bell gourd (Trichosanthes tricuspidata)

Elephant bell gourd ( Trichosanthes tricuspidata ) is a plant species in the Cucurbitaceae, stems grow elongated to propagate or climb, many branches, cylindrical in shape and green in color. T. cochinchinensis has stem tips or branches that twist to attach themselves to a support or other plant. It grows to climb to cover a support, usually on another plant, up to several meters and creeps along the ground to reach another support. Arrow-shaped leaves, split base, sharp apex and two wings at an acute angle, have many veins ending at a sharp edge, green and have a long petiole. Single flower is white. The fruit is round to oval, ends with a tail, young green and turns red with maturity, thin skin, thick flesh and reddish yellow, has a short stalk and hangs. The seeds are in the middle of the fruit. Seeds are white, oval and flat. Black coated seeds. Elephant bell gourd grows wild in primary and secondary forests, agricultural land, roadsides, watersheds, especially on slopes, damp a

Yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) use thermal infrared to navigate hosts

NEWS - Aedes aegypti transmits the viruses that cause dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other diseases every year, while Anopheles gambiae transmits the parasite that causes malaria. Their capacity to transmit disease has made mosquitoes the deadliest animals. Moreover, climate change and global travel have expanded the range of A. aegypti beyond tropical geography. The mosquitoes are now present in subtropical climates that were previously unheard of just a few years ago. Male mosquitoes are harmless, but females need blood for egg development. There is no single cue that these insects rely on to feed; they integrate information from many different senses across a wide range of distances. " A. aegypti very adept at finding human hosts. This work provides a new insight into how they achieve this. Once we got all the right parameters, the results were clear and undeniable," says Nicolas DeBeaubien of the University of California at Santa Barbara UCSB. The researchers added

Nactus simakal, gecko evolved in geomorphological habitat of Dauan Island

NEWS - Researchers report a new species of Nactus simakal that lives in a boulder-strewn habitat with deep crevices on Dauan Island in the northern Torres Strait. The Torres Strait Islands lie between Cape York Peninsula, north-eastern Australia, and the southern coast of Papua New Guinea and are rare in gecko biodiversity. The vertebrate fauna of the islands is a mix of Australian and New Guinean species with only two endemic species described to date. Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University in Townsville and colleagues describe the new species as highly distinctive based on ND2 mtDNA genetics and morphologically on its slender, elongated striped pattern. N. simakal is broadly similar to Nactus galgajuga (Ingram, 1978) which is restricted to a boulder-strewn habitat about 750 km to the south in mainland north-eastern Queensland, but is easily distinguished morphologically and genetically from saxicolines. N. simakal is the second vertebrate species to be described and considered

Dlium