Category Archives: DNA

Five years ago, Alice Collins Plebuch made a decision that would alter her future or really, her past. She sent away for a "just-for-fun DNA test." When the tube arrived, she spit and spit until she filled it up to the line, and then sent it off in the mail. She wanted to know what she was made of. Plebuch, now 69, already had a rough idea of what she would find. Her parents, both deceased, were Irish-American Catholics who raised her and her six siblings with church Sundays and ethnic pride. But Plebuch, who had a long-standing interest in science and DNA, wanted to know more about her dad's side of the family. The son of Irish immigrants, Jim Collins had been raised in an orphanage from a young age, and his extended family tree was murky. After a few weeks during which her saliva was analyzed, she got an email in the summer of 2012 with a link to her results. The report was confounding. About half of Plebuch's DNA results presented the mixed British Isles bloodline she expected. The other half picked up an unexpected combination of European Jewish, Middle Eastern and Eastern European. Surely someone in … Continue reading →

Joyner Lucas is a force. He's fresh off therelease of his last studio album 508-507-2209, and not much time has passed before he's decided to gift us with another cut in which he slaughter's a familiar track. This time around, Lucas is whipping up new bars over Kendrick Lamar's "DNA." It was early Sunday afternoon that the Massachusetts-bred emcee released the track,less than a week after a cosign from Warriors foward Kevin Durant with the basketball star declaring that no one could really stand up to undeniably talented Lucas. Per usual, Joyner hops on the Mike Will Made It backdrop and absolutely snaps. Quotable LyricsYeah yeah, I know this sounds like some fresh air If you don't hear me right use your left ear I want to say that I'm the next up I want it last year, they said next yearI want it this year, they say not yet But I'ma take it from whoever got next Twin deuce-deuces, I'm Clyde Drexler What is competition, who gon' die next? Original post: Joyner Lucas - DNA. Freestyle [New Song] - HotNewHipHop … Continue reading →

The Canaanites lived at the crossroads of the ancient world. They experienced wars, conquests and occupations for millennia, and as a result evolutionary geneticists expected that their DNA would become substantially mixed with incoming populations. Astonishingly, new genetic analysis shows that scientists were wrong. According to a new study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, todays Lebanese share a whopping 93% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites. The study also found that the Bronze Age inhabitants of Sidon, a major Canaanite city-state in modern-day Lebanon, have the same genetic profile as people living 300 to 800 years earlier in present-day Jordan. Later known as Phoenicians, the Canaanites have a murky past. Nearly all of their own records have been destroyed over the centuries, so their history has been mostly pieced together from archaeological records and the writings of other ancient peoples. Archaeologists at the Sidon excavation site have been unearthing ancient Canaanite secrets for the last 19 years in the still-inhabited Lebanese port city. The team has uncovered 160 burials from the Canaanite period alone, said Claude Doumet-Serhal, director of the excavation. They have found people of all ages in these Canaanite burials, she said children were buried … Continue reading →

LOVE Island fans noticed Kem Cetinays homecoming bash had two very special guests of honour waiting to welcome him back. During tonights reunion show, eagle eyed viewers spotted Britains Got Talent double act DNA loitering in the background during a clip of Kem and Amber Davies visiting his salon in Essex. ITV2 ITV2 Some fans couldnt believe their eyes as they saw Darren, 29, and Andrew,43, mingling with the barbers friends and family. One tweeted: Wtf! Was it just me who just saw DNA in Kems barbers shop? Another wrote: Anyone know why DNA were in @KemCetinay barber shop on Love Island? Darren and Andrew, who made it to the final of Britains Got Talent earlier this year, stayed pretty low key during Kems arrival and didnt speak during the short clip. It turns out the pair are pretty chummy with Kem, and actually hinted they would be performing with them at a later date. They told their Twitter followers: Great seeing Kem and Amber! So happy for them, worthy #LoveIsland winners!! Video of us performing on them coming soon! #KemandAmber. ITV2 ITV2 ITV2 Tonight's reunion show had it's far share of surprises, with Chyna Ellis left stunned when Jonny … Continue reading →

Scientists are working to create yeast that operates with custom-made DNA. They have long been able to make specific changes in an organism's DNA. Now, they're pushing into the more radical step of starting over, and building redesigned versions from scratch. Their work is part of a bold and controversial pursuit aimed at creating custom-made DNA codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide treatments for diseases. It could also someday help give scientists the profound and unsettling ability to create entirely new organisms. The genetic code is like a book written with an alphabet of only four letters: A, C, G, and T. Chemical building blocks that correspond to these letters line up in DNA molecules like links in a chain; genes are made up of specific sequences of those building blocks. These sequences tell the yeast cell how to build particular proteins. The complete DNA code for yeast, called its genome, contains about 12 million letters. An international scientific team aims to add, delete or alter about a million of the DNA letters. Yeast DNA is spread across 16 large chunks called chromosomes, which were parceled out among the team's labs … Continue reading →

Despite their tiny stature and their adorable nicknamesmoss piglets, water bearsthe tenacious tardigrade has some tremendous capabilities.Well-known for beingone of the hardiest-known forms of life, tardigrates can survivedesiccation,deadly radiation, and even thevacuum of space. Now researchers may finally be starting to tease out the genetic basis of tardigrade superpowers. In 2015, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggested that some of their superpowers could come from an another oddballaccomplishment of the microscopic creature:DNA theft. The researchers sequenced a tardigrade species' genome and found that roughly one-sixth of its DNA (around 6,600 genes) appeared to come from other organisms, mainly bacteria. These sections of DNA were thought to be picked up through the process of so-calledhorizontal gene transfers, which is a commoninbacteria and other microbes (scientists have only recently discovered some animals can also do this). If they can acquire DNA from organisms already living in stressful environments, they may be able to pick up some of the same tricks, researcher Thomas Boothby,a Life Sciences postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,told Smithsonian.com in 2015. But just a week after it was published, the studyfaced steep opposition. Another group of tardigrade researchers … Continue reading →

In BriefResearchers have shown the 3D structure of human chromatin inside the nucleus of live human cells. These results revise the standard model for DNA, and suggest a new possible method for fighting diseases like cancer: controlling access to chromatin. Although the basic double helix structure of the DNA molecule is known, its three-dimensional organization has continued to eludescientists. Every single cell somehow packs DNA that is two meters long into its nucleus, a tiny space only one-thousandth of a millimeter across. The question researchers have been trying to answer, then, is how does the structure manage such extreme compaction while maintaining function? The three-dimensional organization and structure of DNA influences everything from how our cells function to how we pass on our genes to offspring. Scientists at the University of California, San Diegos Salk Institute have now provided a world-first view of the three-dimensional structure of human chromatin intact and inside the nucleus of live human cells. Prior to these results, chromatin a mix of DNA and proteins had never before been seen without the cells it was extracted from being broken down and subjected to harsh DNA processing techniques. The Salk researchers identified a novel combined technology called … Continue reading →

Enlarge / The entrance to the cave where the Neanderthal thigh bone was found in 1937. Modern humans and Neanderthals have a confusing genetic relationship. One set of data suggests our two species diverged around 650,000 years agobut other clues point to an ongoing close (that is, sexual) relationship between our ancestors that persisteduntil around 300,000 years ago. This is made all the more muddled by the fact that Neanderthals look like they were living in Eurasia 300,000 years ago whileour own ancestors were still in Africa. And then the two groups clearly intermingled once humans did leave Africa. One way to account for all this contradictory information is to suggest that another group of humans left Africa sometime between the Neanderthals' departure and our own. An analysis of Neanderthal DNA, published this week in Nature Communications, adds new weight to this hypothesis. When people talk about DNA, most often theyre talking about nuclear DNA. Thats the DNA that combines genetic material from a mother and a father and sits in the nucleus of each cell. But the mitochondrialittle energy-producing blobsthat sit inside cellshave their own DNA, which comes exclusively from the mother. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a fantastically useful … Continue reading →

TULSA -- What if your DNA could tell you about how to lose weight, or what foods and exercise are best for your health? 2 Works for You's Chera Kimikofollowed 98.5KVOO's Sunny Leigh for two months after she took the DNAFit test to see if knowing her DNA helped her shed the pounds for food. Leigh, the bubbly morning personality on KVOO has no trouble getting people through their morning drive. But she does have trouble navigating her own health and weight loss goals. "I weighed 130 pounds when I moved here," Leigh said. "I still had a big butt and big legs and I always fought that" Dr. Mark Sherwood with Functional Medical Institute said the answer could be in her DNA. "DNA makes up more than 20,000 genes, each carry instructions for a single protein," Sherwood said. "Together they determine how we look and how our bodies function." First things first, Leigh went to see Dr. Sherwood, where doctors got her health information and sent if off to a lab. Life-changing information for her was revealed on live radio. "I've got to be honest, I am absolutely horrified because it seems like I have every possible bad thing … Continue reading →

Mr. Charmatz said the idea for 10000 Gestures came to him while watching one of his own pieces, Leve des Conflits Extended, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2013. The idea of Leve was that it was based on limited gestures, so you were constantly circling through the sequence, like a living sculpture changing shape, he said. I thought, what if you flip that, and have a piece where none of the dancers ever repeat a gesture or do the same one as anyone else? How do you create 10,000 completely different gestures? Over many, many hours working in a group on various themes, Mr. Charmatz explained. The themes included: doing nothing, microscopic movements (raising an eyebrow, flicking fingers), violence, eroticism, dance history, obscenity, and politics a Brexit means Brexit gesture made by Theresa May is even in there. Each person has a different idea about what an erotic or a violent gesture might be, Mr. Charmatz said, so you get 25 variations on these ideas all happening together. All the themes come in a specific order and last for a predetermined amount of time, he explained, although the number of dancers onstage and the groupings … Continue reading →