Thursday, November 30, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Two groups of scientists have announced that they have just sequenced DNA from a Neanderthal fossil. This is a huge breakthrough as it shows that scientists are making progress in their ability to detect, extract, and work with ancient DNA. Technological improvements are a big part of this advance. This is also huge in that it allows us to now begin looking for genetic answers to some questions that researchers have wondered about - when did modern humans and Neanderthals split from a common ancestor? did they interbreed? do we have traces of Neanderthal DNA in us? If so, what does this DNA do? Note: the idea that Neatnderthals were our ancestor has long been abandoned - it is now understood that humans and Neanderthals coexisted for a short while.
I am sure this will raise the question of cloning and whether or not we should/could/would "make" a Neanderthal, but for now I think it is exciting that we are pushing the envelope of genetics.
Neanderthal DNA Comes to Life
Posted by Jim Lemire at 2:24 PM
Thursday, November 02, 2006
So, as the cool kid i am i was surfing the web and i totally found some sick biology songs and figured id share them with you guys. Mostly theyre a little over the top and geeky but i found them amusing. My favorite is the glucose one but i put some others up as well. Hope you enjoy :)
http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Glucose.mp3- Glucose, Glucose
http://faculty.washington.edu/crowther/Misc/Songs/MP3/comeondown.mp3 - Come on Down the Electron Transport chain
http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Krebs_lofi.mp3- The Krebs cycle
Posted by Alyssa at 5:01 PM