CAT | Molecular Genetics
(submitted by JH) The lone star state of Texas unwittingly set off a firestorm of controversy by collecting 800 samples of blood from new borns. The samples were to be part of a new study and database of mitochondrial DNA. The intent was to provide information for forensic science and other studies [...]
(submitted by LH) In the United States, there is essentially one male for every female. But this series of graphics illustrates that this is not always the case. There are many factors that play into a shift from a bevy of males at birth to a dearth of them at death. Biologically, [...]
Imagine a world where pigeons and squirrels frolic about campus. The occasional feral cat dashing across west mall. Rove herds of woolly mammoths grazing around the MLK statue…
It seems that the genome of the extinct mammoth has been sequenced. This will allow scientists to compare the sequences with modern elephants to study [...]
…there would no longer be a need for humans. The last barrier to opening cat food tins would drop and humans would be reduced to warm spots.
Scientists have recently identified an enhancer that appears to affect the expression of a gene that controls the formation of the joint between the wrist and the thumb. [...]
When they say that people in love have a certain chemistry, there may be something to it. Some time ago, it was observed that voles of different species can have remarkably different behaviour. In general, very few animals are monogamous, but Prairie Voles practice an unparalleled fidelity. While their close cousins are the [...]
Until now, scientists have only been able to produce clones using cells from live animals. This is how researchers created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult animal.
Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility [...]
“See what will happen if you don’t stop biting your fingernails?” — Will Rogers, to his niece on seeing the Venus de Milo
So you can just stop freaking about exams in this class. They aren’t so bad. All materialial will be entirely from lecture notes and handouts. However, none of this is [...]
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Where the future and past meet: teeny robots and Lamarck’s theories
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Molecular Genetics
Researchers say “countless” lives could be saved with a blood test to quickly and easily determine if breast cancer survivors were suffering another bout of the disease.
Experts in the cutting-edge sciences of nanotechnology and the new field of epigenetics are teaming up to develop a test with the aim of diagnosing cancer while it is [...]
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A fish by any other name, still smells as icky
0 Comments | Posted by admin in Molecular Genetics
Is that really super tuna that they are serving you? Some students recently used DNA testing to determine how often sushi-grade meat was actually the type of fish advertised. They found that one in four samples was mislabeled! The technique that they used is called genetic fingerprinting. This involves amplifying particular [...]
1) Have a friend get this tattoo on their back.
2) Sit behind them.
3) Make sure that they don’t wear a shirt that day.
I expect no less dedication to the studmuffin of all molecules from each of you.
This is a fascinating story of a gene fusion event. Last year, in a paper published in PNAS in collaboration with Richard Cordaux (now at the University of Poitiers, France) and Mark Batzer (LSU), the authors reconstructed the evolutionary history of a primate fusion gene called SETMAR. It serves as a good introduction [...]
