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KQED Public Broadcasting in San Francisco recently did a radio story about the UC San Francisco Canine Behavioral Genetics Project run in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania. The aims of the project are:
1. To explore the relationship between genes and behavior, both normal and abnormal, in domestic dogs.
2. To assess the amount and nature […]
(Courtesy www.earthbeatradio.org)
April 22, 2008 is Earth Day in many parts of the world although some celebrate it on Spring Solstice Day. A day for collective reflection and action to protect our precious planet.
Rather than blog on a ‘green’ topic, I have decided to have a philosphical moment on Genetics and Health and have reproduced the poem written by […]
Charles Darwin
Following my recent article about Darwin’s 150th Anniversary, the first draft of his book, “The Origin of Species” which changed the world’s attitude to evolution is available for the first time online. Papers which led to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution were previously only available to scholars at Cambridge University’s library.
This release makes his private papers, mountains […]
H3N2 flu virus (Courtesy www.primidi.com)
Each year, somewhere between five and 15 percent of the world’s population becomes infected during influenza A epidemics. These flu outbreaks are linked to as many as a half a million deaths annually, according to WHO. While vaccinations can be effective, influenza viruses often evolve so rapidly that creating effective vaccines […]
Saturn’s moon Titan - three different views
Courtesy NASA
Titan, one of Saturn’s moons is like a genetic twin to Earth. It enjoys many of the geological features of the Earth - volcanism, tectonics, erosion, deposition and atmosphere. The rivers flowing across these plains are formed of a hydrocarbon soup with methane as its main ingredient.
However the one […]
(Picture courtesy of BBC News)
Scientists have discovered the oldest human remains in western Europe.
A jawbone and teeth discovered at the famous Atapuerca site in northern Spain have been dated between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old.
Scientists also found stone tools and animal bones with tell-tale cut marks from butchering by humans.
Its small size suggests […]
‘Clover structure’ of Transfer RNA
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is ancient. It is the most direct intermediary between genes and proteins. Like many other RNAs (ribonucleic acids), tRNA aids in translating genes into the chains of amino acids that make up proteins. The fact that tRNA is so central to the task of building proteins probably means […]
(The Smiling Faces of Boddhastavas, Cambodia)
Ever the eternal optimist, here’s a piece of research which I can really relate to … Psychologists at the University of Edinburgh working with researchers at Queensland Institute for Medical Research in Australia found that happiness is partly determined by personality traits and that both personality and happiness are largely hereditary.
Rating personalities with […]
(Photo credit: Flu viruses among cilia - National Geographic magazine http://www.nationalgeographic.com/)
US scientists have discovered a possible reason why the flu virus is seasonal and tends to infect people mostly in the winter. It has a jacket that melts in the summer causing the virus to die off, and stays hard in the winter, until it […]
Further to my various articles on our ancestry, differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry appear to affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.
The researchers […]
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