October 6th, 2008
It’s Monday, and there’s plenty of catching up to do around the world of genetics. This week month -
The Broad Institute received an astonishing $400 million endowment from the donors that bear its name. The Institute helped mapped the full complement of the human genes. This record-setting gift will fund genomics research.
A melanoma cell […]
By Grace Ibay -- 0 comments
June 10th, 2008
Closely related species of Pairie dog don’t live together (Photo credit Imperial College) Ever wondered why family feuds result in fighting relatives keeping their distance … often for a very long time? Well, reseachers at Imperial College, UK have observed that steering clear of your rels may have evolutionary beginnings. Mammals cannot share their habitat with closely […]
By Elaine -- 7 comments
June 2nd, 2008
(Photo credit: www.marinebio.org)
At the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Bonn nearly 200 countries agreed on measures to protect the world’s most threatened wildlife. They pledged:
1. To set up a deep-sea nature reserve and increase by tens of millions of hectares the area of land protected (the resulting protected area would be twice the size of Germany).
2. To […]
By Elaine -- 1 comment
June 1st, 2008
Stonehenge, UK
(Photo credit: www.activemind.com)
A topical article for me as I will be passing Stonehenge today. It is an amazing feat of 4,500 year old primitive engineering and still provokes feelings of wonder and awe everytime I pass by, especially on solstice and equinox days.
Stonehenge served as a burial ground for much longer than had previously […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
May 24th, 2008
King Akhenaten (photo credit www.usu.edu)
The feminine features and elongated head of ancient Egypt’s King Akhenaten may be attributed to two genetic defects called aromatose excess syndrome and craniosynostosis, reports Yale School of Medicine dermatology Professor Irwin Braverman, M.D.
Akhenaten, a pharaoh during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty credited with starting the practice of worshipping one God, fathered six children. […]
By Elaine -- 1 comment
May 21st, 2008
(Tasmanian Tiger - photo credit www.bbc.co.uk/news)
Using transgenic mice, Australian and American researchers have shown that they can “resurrect” a snippet of DNA from the genome of an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger — and test its biological function in a living animal. The last Tasmanian Tiger died in an Australian zoo in 1936 having […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
May 4th, 2008
A nationwide team of researchers, funded in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has produced the first sequence-based map of large-scale structural variation across the human genome.
Recently created maps such as the HapMap have catalogued the patterns of small-scale variations in the genome that […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
April 22nd, 2008
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 […]
By Elaine -- 1 comment
March 26th, 2008
(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 […]
By Elaine -- 1 comment
March 10th, 2008
‘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 […]
By Elaine -- 0 comments
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