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+16 +1
Octopuses Are Brilliant. Now We Know Why.
The first octopus genome is now fully sequenced, according to a new study in Nature. Scientists stitched together the complex genome of the California two-spot octopus, and analyzed 12 different tissues in search of the genes that allow these unique cephalopods to change skin color and control eight arms independently. The findings may help explain how an ancient, ocean-dwelling invertebrate evolved into one of the most intelligent species on the planet.
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+14 +1
Researchers Prove Ground-Breaking Potential of DNA Storage of Digital Data
A team of researchers have successfully demonstrated that data storage in DNA can withstand archival decay of up to 2000 years, proving that we can look to DNA-based storage solutions to store digital data and information rather than conventional hard drives that fail after a few decades.
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+13 +1
How scientists could use DNA to store huge quantities of information
Scientists have developed a way of storing vast quantities of information for up to a million years in a single molecule of DNA. The breakthrough could lead to digital archives of everything from ancient texts to Wikipedia changes being stored in the form of DNA that could in theory survive for hundreds of thousands of years without any loss of data.
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+17 +1
A Surprise Source of Life’s Code
Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA. By Emily Singer.
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+17 +1
Ancestry.com can use your DNA to target ads
With the reduction in costs of genotyping technology, genetic genealogy has become accessible to more people. Various websites such as Ancestry.com offer genetic genealogy services. Users of these services are mailed an envelope with a DNA collection kit, in which users deposit their saliva. The users then mail their kits back to the service and their samples are processed. The genealogy company will try to match the user’s DNA against other users in its genealogy and genetic database.
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+1 +1
Flies that fight off parasites produce offspring with greater genetic mix
Infections may lead organisms to diversify their next generation's DNA.
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+47 +1
What If Tinder Showed Your IQ?
The not-so-young parents sat in the office of their socio-genetic consultant, an occupation that emerged in the late 2030s, with at least one practitioner in every affluent fertility clinic. They faced what had become a fairly typical choice: Twelve viable embryos had been created in their latest round of in vitro fertilization. Anxiously, they pored over the scores for the various traits they had received from the clinic.
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+48 +1
DNA from 4,500-year-old Ethiopian reveals surprise about ancestry of Africans
Until now, the conventional wisdom had been that the first groups of modern humans left Africa roughly 70,000 years ago, stopping in the Middle East en route to Europe, Asia and beyond.
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+40 +1
Your Relative’s DNA Could Turn You Into a Suspect
The three men who showed up at Michael Usry’s door last December were unfailingly polite. They told him they were cops investigating a hit-and-run that had occurred a few blocks away, near New Orleans City Park, and they invited Usry to accompany them to a police station so he could answer some questions. Certain that he hadn’t committed any crime, the 36-year-old filmmaker agreed to make the trip.
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+26 +1
The Galaxy That Got Too Big
We can’t help ourselves—we’re crazy about big things. We’ll venture miles out of our way to see the world’s “largest” rifle (33.3 feet long; Ishpeming, Michigan), high-heeled shoe (6.1 feet tall; New York City), or ball of twine (7.8 million feet unraveled; Cawker City, Kansas).
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+46 +1
Bronze Age Skeletons Were the Earliest Plague Victims
The Black Death notoriously swept through Europe in 1347, killing an estimated 50 million people. Yet DNA from Bronze Age human skeletons now shows that the plague had first emerged at least as early as 3,000 BC. The earlier outbreak probably did not spread as ferociously, the analysis reveals—but it may nonetheless have driven mass migrations across Europe and Asia.
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+27 +1
Humans 2.0
At thirty-four, Feng Zhang is the youngest member of the core faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T. He is also among the most accomplished. In 1999, while still a high-school student, in Des Moines, Zhang found a structural protein capable of preventing retroviruses like H.I.V. from infecting human cells. The project earned him third place in the Intel Science Talent Search, and he applied the fifty thousand dollars in prize money toward...
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+31 +1
DNA from Inca boy sacrificed 500 years ago shows how humans spread to South America
It sounds like something straight out of a “Hunger Games” novel: The rulers of a sprawling empire select beautiful children from throughout their vast territories and kill them in a ritualistic event to reinforce their power. During the Inca civilization, which thrived in South America before the arrival of Europeans, these ritual sacrifices were known as capococha.
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+26 +1
What did the Neanderthals do for us?
Thanks to a spot of prehistoric hanky-panky, many of us carry Neanderthal genes. What is this rogue DNA doing?
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+30 +1
Forensic Pseudoscience
This past April, the FBI made an admission that was nothing short of catastrophic for the field of forensic science. In an unprecedented display of repentance, the Bureau announced that, for years, the hair analysis testimony it had used to investigate criminal suspects was severely and hopelessly flawed.
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+21 +1
This is how to store human knowledge for eternity
Watch the video to find out how everything we know as a species could fit in a space about the size of an elevator.
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+21 +1
Spiders Identified By DNA Extracted From Their Web
Scientists have successfully managed to extract DNA from spider webs, which not only identified a web's architect, but also what insects the spinner was feeding on. The proof-of-concept study, published in PLOS ONE, used captive southern black widow spiders to show that their webs contained enough fragments of DNA to potentially provide a reliable, non-invasive biomonitoring technique. Not only could the researchers identify the inhabitants...
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+42 +1
Genes for a longer, healthier life found
Out of a 'haystack' of 40,000 genes from three different organisms, scientists at ETH Zurich and a research consortium in Jena have found genes that are involved in physical ageing. If you influence only one of these genes, the healthy lifespan of laboratory animals is extended—and possibly that of humans, too. Driven by the quest for eternal youth, humankind has spent centuries obsessed with the question of how it is exactly that we age.
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+15 +1
30 genes out of 40,000 extend lifespan
After combing through 40,000 genes, scientists have identified 30 that have a clear effect on aging and longevity. The genes are all found in humans.
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+21 +1
Geneticists Are Concerned Transhumanists Will Use CRISPR on Themselves
The biggest debate at the International Summit on Human Genome Editing is where to draw the line between "medical treatment" and "body enhancement." Will transhumanists ruin gene editing for everyone else?
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