DNA

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We Read the Human Genome; Next Up, Writing It?

Project would enable creation of synthetic people

(Newser) - Scientists are contemplating a big follow-up to the Human Genome Project: Where that project essentially sought to read human DNA, this new endeavor would involve writing it. The idea, which is "spurring intrigue and concern in the life sciences community," as the New York Times reports, could enable...

Scientists Have Big Plans for da Vinci's DNA ... If They Can Find It

His remains are believed to be in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert

(Newser) - It's a project scientists say Leonardo da Vinci would have loved. Researchers plan to sequence the DNA of the Renaissance genius to discover more about his amazing abilities, and possibly even what he really looked like, the Independent reports. Da Vinci, however, wasn't trapped in amber Jurassic Park-style,...

Yale Grad Students Debunk 1951 Dinner-Party Legend

A hoax of mammoth proportions is revealed

(Newser) - The Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York—now going on its 112th year —has long treated its guests to exotic food items, including in more recent years deep-fried tarantulas, goat eyeball martinis, and the barbecued sex organs of bulls, reports the Atlantic . But the most famous meal of...

Family Sues After Boy Is Expelled Over His DNA
Family Sues After Boy Is Expelled Over His DNA
in case you missed it
Feb 6, 2016 5:00 PM CST

Family Sues After Boy Is Expelled Over His DNA

A trial could help establish exactly who can access one's genetic information

(Newser) - When Colman Chadam was born in 2000, he underwent extra medical tests after a congenital heart issue was discovered. Doctors learned that the infant carried genetic markers associated with cystic fibrosis, but he never went on to develop the disease. In fact, that test was the boy's only interaction...

US Panel: OK to Make 3-Parent Embryos —Male Ones

But there are still legal roadblocks to controversial process

(Newser) - A US National Academy of Medicine committee said Wednesday the FDA should approve clinical trials for three-parent fertilization in human embryos—with some caveats, Nature reports. In its report , the committee recommended such trials be limited to women at risk of passing along "serious mitochondrial disease" to their kids,...

Vietnam Hopes to Start Identifying Its 500,000 War Dead

'Decades later, it may be possible to put names to them'

(Newser) - Unlike the US, Vietnam has identified "just a few hundred" of its soldiers and citizens who died in the Vietnam War, Nature reports. Four decades later, bodies—or what's left of them—are still turning up, and the Vietnamese people are "desperate" for the remains of the...

Creatures Grow Heads, Brains of Other Species
Creatures Grow Heads,
Brains of Other Species
new study
Nov 29, 2015 3:53 PM CST

Creatures Grow Heads, Brains of Other Species

Flatworms regenerate in shocking ways

(Newser) - Worms can grow the head and brain of another species? Then maybe we can do better at regenerating our own organs and tissues. That's the thrust of a new study by researchers who got flatworms to grow the heads of other flatworm species without any alteration to the worms'...

Pet Owners Fuming Over Doggie DNA Request

Florida condo association aims to curb pet poop

(Newser) - Some Florida condo owners are steaming after their homeowners association asked them to submit their dog's DNA in order to fine owners who don't pick up after their pets. Residents of Harbor Landing in Destin, Fla., said they received a letter last week and some feel it's...

Sacrificed Boy May Reveal Clues About Inca Empire

The child was sacrificed 500 years ago, and scientists were able to obtain his DNA

(Newser) - He came to a grim ending, but the mummified remains of a 7-year-old boy sacrificed in an Inca ritual called capacocha are allowing scientists to "learn more about the rise and extent of the Inca Empire," as the Los Angeles Times puts it. The child's frozen corpse...

This Artist's DNA Could Be Yours for the Right Price

'An extremely personal self portrait'

(Newser) - A 29-year-old Dutch artist is selling what he calls "an extremely personal self portrait." How extremely personal? Let's just say it's everything that makes him him—genetically speaking. Jeroen van Loon has made his entire DNA sequence available to the highest bidder as part of a...

DNA Evidence Is More Fallible Than People Think

Juries aren't being told the full story, expert warns

(Newser) - DNA testing has improved to the point where it is starting to incriminate the wrong people in some cases, experts warn. The problem is super-sensitive equipment and DNA transfer, which can lead to a person's DNA being found on a body or murder weapon even if they had only...

Like Hot Dogs Made of Humans? You May Be in Luck

Human DNA found in franks, per molecular report

(Newser) - " Soylent Green is made out of people! " may be back to haunt a true-blue American staple: hot dogs. Using a proprietary "next-generation genomic sequencing workflow" known as Clear Food , Clear Labs analyzed 345 hot dogs and sausages at the molecular level from 75 brands at 10 retailers,...

Dad Learns That Unborn Twin 'Fathered' His Son

Parents were concerned when son had a different blood type

(Newser) - Sorry sir, you're not the father of your newborn child—your unborn brother is. So a 34-year-old man was told in the only known case of a paternity test being tricked by a so-called "human chimera," the Independent reports. It began when a US couple learned that...

Secret to Longevity? Deleting Certain Genes
Secret to Longevity?
Deleting Certain Genes
NEW STUDY
Oct 14, 2015 7:49 AM CDT

Secret to Longevity? Deleting Certain Genes

Scientists discover 238 genes linked to aging

(Newser) - Ten years into research they call "exhaustive," scientists at the University of Washington and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging are reporting in the journal Cell Metabolism that they've isolated 238 genes linked to aging in yeast cells. After working with undergrads to painstakingly delete a...

Ancestry.com Wants to Reveal Your Disease Risks

So far, the FDA isn't having it

(Newser) - The company that tells you whether you can perhaps blame last weekend's sunburn on your Irish roots now wants to tell you your risk of cervical cancer. Ancestry.com, which claims to have amassed genetic information on more than 1 million customers through its $99 DNA kits, is in...

Test Can Detect Every Virus to Afflict Humans, Animals

Even uncommon viruses and ones present in low levels: scientists

(Newser) - A new test developed by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may prove an invaluable aid to doctors who can't figure out what's wrong with their patients. The test, described in a study in the Genome Research journal, is able to detect, all at...

How a Lost US Airman Might Come Home, 71 Years Later

Tom McCaslin's plane crashed in France in 1944

(Newser) - Tom McCaslin's family still hopes he'll come home, 71 years after his B-26 bomber crashed in a field in France. "I think everybody in the family would feel better," says his brother, Joseph McCaslin, one of four surviving siblings who've longed for his return. Now...

We Still Have No Idea Who 30 Katrina Victims Are

Money allocated by FEMA to help identify bodies has dried up

(Newser) - Cleaning up after a massive hurricane is a difficult affair, but a decade after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and claimed what Live Science reports is an estimated 1,833 lives, 30 bodies have yet to be identified. WWL-TV arrived at that number after making a public records request to...

Tongue-Rolling Myth Totally 'Debunked'

Biologist John McDonald aims to set the record straight

(Newser) - For anyone who can still proudly recall one factoid learned in high school biology—that the ability to roll one's tongue is genetic—bad news: You learned it wrong. John McDonald, an evolutionary biologist, is out to debunk what he calls a myth about the genetic roots of tongue-rolling,...

Causes of Cerebral Palsy Not What We Thought

Canadian study looks at the DNA of stricken children

(Newser) - Parents of children with cerebral palsy, take note: Your child's illness may be in the genes. A surprising new study in Nature is linking cerebral palsy to genetic variants and challenging the notion that environmental factors are solely responsible, the Globe & Mail reports. "Nobody really wanted us...

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