Clipmarks | Genetics Clips

What is a gene?

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:44:44 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: gene - A hereditary unit consisting of a sequence of DNA that occupies a specific location on a chromosome and determines a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes undergo mutation when their DNA sequence changes. (Answers)

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Study offers tool for communicating genetics to public

Heidelberg, 5 September 2008 – Even scientists define 'a gene' in different ways, so it comes as little surprise that the media also have various ways of framing the concept of a gene, according to a new study appearing in the October 2008 issue of EMBO reports.

The study, Frame that gene, is based on the analysis of 300 articles in British and Norwegian newspapers: The Guardian, The Sun and The Daily Mail from the UK; and Aftenposten, Dagbladet, and VG from Norway.

The analysis in EMBO reports shows that journalists present the term 'gene' — either consciously or subconsciously — using a number of different frames that may invoke various prejudiced images in the reader's mind. "Such a diversity of meanings presents a key challenge to science communications, so both scientists and journalists could benefit from a clear classification of the polysemy," the paper argues.

Tags: so, does, it, look, like, denim

Gene linked to commitment-phobia

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:40:08 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: commitment-phobia, everybody has it..

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Men with a common gene variation for "bonding" hormone report more marital strife

There’s news for women who want a man who bonds instead of a James Bond: Scientists have identified a common genetic variation that appears to weaken a man’s ability to emotionally attach to one partner.

The study, to appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to try to examine whether a hormone that encourages monogamy in animals plays a similar role in male humans. Before getting ideas about a DNA-fidelity test, though, women should consider that the study wasn’t designed to determine how much — or even whether — the gene in question is responsible for monogamy in humans.

“We can’t with any accuracy predict effects on behavior,” says Hasse Walum of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “A lot of different things determine how happy you will be in a relationship.”

But women can now wonder, “What about his vasopressin 1a receptor subtype?”

Tags: genetics, commitment-phobia

Sleight Of Hand And Sense Of Self

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:21:15 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: says Dr Moseley. 'That is exactly what we saw.'

'Our sense of our physical self comes from what we're born with and the constant messages the brain receives from all parts of our bodies. We've now shown that this is a two-way street. The mind can also influence the body's tissues. We have demonstrated that the mind can control a specific body part.'

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The rubber-hand illusion involves placing a rubber hand in front of the participant in their field of vision and near to their real hand. The real hand is then concealed behind a partition. If the real hand and the rubber hand are touched or stroked in the same way and at the same time, the participant tries to co-ordinate what they are feeling (their own hand being stroked) and seeing (the rubber hand being stroked). They can experience a shift in where they believe their hand is to the position of the rubber hand.

‘People experience this weird illusion,’ says Dr G Lorimer Moseley of the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. ‘They will say things like, “I feel like I own the rubber hand”.’

Body ownership is a fundamental aspect of self-awareness – the feeling that your body belongs to you and is constantly there.

Finding a genetic link for bipolar disorder.

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:51:30 GMT

clipped by: fewstingscorpio
clipper's remarks: http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/08/18/genetic-link-for-bipolar/2771.html

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Genetic Link For Bipolar

Clip Source: psychcentral.com

Monday, Aug 18 (Psych Central) -- The largest genetic analysis of its kind suggests bipolar disorder is influenced by the balance of sodium and calcium in brain cells.

Researchers found an association between the disorder and variation in two genes that make components of channels that manage the flow of the elements into and out of cells, including neurons.

“A neuron’s excitability – whether it will fire – hinges on this delicate equilibrium,”

“Finding statistically robust associations linked to two proteins that may be involved in regulating such ion channels – and that are also thought to be targets of drugs used to clinically to treat bipolar disorder – is astonishing.”

Although it’s not yet known if or how the suspect genetic variation might affect the balance machinery, the results point to the possibility that bipolar disorder might stem, at least in part, from malfunction of ion channels.

Tags: genetics, biology, science, psychology, neuroscience, neuropsychiatry, research

Jacques Vallee: "Aliens" is Supernatural Matrix

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:21:03 GMT

clipped by: ozzybinoswald
clipper's remarks: Dimensions, Jacques Vallee, 1989, p.243

Clip Source: www.redmoonrising.com

I propose that there is a spiritual control system for human consciousness and that paranormal phenomena like UFOs are one of its manifestations. I cannot tell whether this control is natural and spontaneous; whether it is explainable in terms of genetics, of social psychology, or of ordinary phenomena—or if it is artificial in nature, under the power of some superhuman will. It may be entirely determined by laws that we have not yet discovered. [20]

Tags: jacques vallee, demons, ufo, aliens, spiritual, control, deception, matrix

Exploding chromosomes fuel research about evolution of genetic storage

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:01:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Dinoflagellates are stuffed at the core with tightly compacted chromosomes, yet these organisms contain neither histones nor nucleosomes. "What takes care of neutralizing DNA, to allow chromosomes to condense?" Levi-Setti asked. "Most biology books do not tell you."

Other scientists had already identified positively charged atoms called cations as neutralizing factors. They found that dinoflagellate chromosomes explode upon the removal of calcium and magnesium cations.

Levi-Setti has produced the first images of the distribution of these cations in dinoflagellate chromosomes. These images verify that cations, mainly of calcium and magnesium, neutralize DNA's enormous negative charge, and further suggest a critical role in folding the protein as well.

The finding raises questions about the evolution of chromosomes, Rizzo said. "Did dinoflagellates once have histones and then lost them? Or did dinoflagellates never have histones and just 'figured out' a different way to fold lar

Clip Source: www.labspaces.net

Human cells somehow squeeze two meters of double-stranded DNA into the space of a typical chromosome, a package 10,000 times smaller than the volume of genetic material it contains.

"It is like compacting your entire wardrobe into a shoebox," said Riccardo Levi-Setti, Professor Emeritus in Physics at the University of Chicago.

Now research into single-celled, aquatic algae called dinoflagellates is showing that these and related organisms may have evolved more than one way to achieve this feat of genetic packing.

Even so, the evolution of chromosomes in dinoflagellates, humans and other mammals seem to share a common biochemical basis

Packing the whole length of DNA into tiny chromosomes is problematic because DNA carries a negative charge that, unless neutralized, prevents any attempt at folding and coiling due to electrostatic repulsion.

In humans and mammals, proteins called histones partially neutralize the DNA's negative charge.

Tags: genetics, chromosomes, evolution

Genetic Link to Bipolar Disorder

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:45:02 GMT

clipped by: rattatner

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Study links genetic traits to bipolar disorder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two genes that influence the activity of nerve cells in the brain may play a key role in a person's risk for bipolar disorder, marked by dramatic swings from depression to manic behavior, researchers said on Sunday.

The findings are not expected to lead to a genetic test for the risk of the condition but could help unravel the mystery of how it arises and lead to better treatments, they reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers found those with bipolar disorder more likely to have certain variants of the ANK3 and CACNA1C genes. Proteins made by the two genes help govern the flow of sodium and calcium ions into and out of neurons in the brain, influencing the activity of these nerve cells.

"It's not going to tell us the whole story -- it doesn't give you the whole puzzle -- but it's something to build on," Insel said in a telephone interview.

Tags: bipolar, genetics

Do you know what you eat?-)

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:51:14 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: next time when going out, take a scientist with you...

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Fish Tale Has DNA Hook: Students Find Bad Labels

Many New York sushi restaurants and seafood markets are playing a game of bait and switch, say two high school students turned high-tech sleuths.

In a tale of teenagers, sushi and science, Kate Stoeckle and Louisa Strauss, who graduated this year from the Trinity School in Manhattan, took on a freelance science project in which they checked 60 samples of seafood using a simplified genetic fingerprinting technique to see whether the fish New Yorkers buy is what they think they are getting.

They found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming.

What may be most impressive about the experiment is the ease with which the students accomplished it.

The project began, appropriately, over dinner about a year ago.

where more people can participate.”

Tags: food, genetics

Laziness Gene Discovered

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:21:46 GMT

clipped by: xpersianx

Clip Source: geniusbeauty.com

Now genetics know how to explain why some people are good and efficient workers, while others would rather sit around the house and watch TV all day long. Laziness gene has been found by scientists at University of North Carolina. They have discovered 20 genome parts responsible for laziness in mice and also selected a new, lazy, mouse breed.

Comparing these new mice to the ordinary ones, the latter ones can run 5 to 8 miles in the hamster wheel, while the former (lazy) ones could do only 0,3 miles. As scientists claim, one of the lazy mice put some sawdust into the wheel and arranged a “bed” out of it. If scientists know, where to find laziness genes in mice, then it has to be possible to find them in humans. And this would probably lead to perfect workaholics made of chronic lazybones, dream the scientists.

Tags: laziness, gene

Scientists Make a Fat-Burning Fat

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:17:55 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Scientists Make a Fat-Burning Fat

By Brandon Keim August 20, 2008 | 3:05:29 PMCategories: Body, Genetics

Image: Green depicts cells with inactivated PRDM16; red, a muscle protein is expressed; all nuclei, including those of brown fat cells, are blue.

What if fat could make you lose weight?

So suggests research into a little-known type of adipose tissue called brown fat.

Though it's commonly thought that fat -- beyond the bit necessary for insulation and spare energy -- is unequivocally bad, there are actually two types: white and brown.

White fat is the traditional bane of struggling dieters and would-be beach bunnies. Brown fat is quite different. It's full of mitochondria -- the body's energy-producing cellular machines -- and burns calories to produce heat.

Abundant in babies, whom it helps keep warm, brown fat is found only in traces in adults.

But with a flick of two genetic switches, scientists showed that cells destined to become muscle have the potential to become brown fat.

Tags: science

Most Important Advances in Human History

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:19:49 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: humanknowledge.net

Most Important Advances

Listed below are some of the most important contingent non-parochial revolutionary advances in human history

Stone Tools

2.5 Mya

Fire Control

1.4 Mya

Language

100-50 Kya

Watercraft

40 Kya

Food Production

10.5 Kya

Metallurgy

4000 BCE

Horse Riding

4000 BCE

Writing

3500 BCE

Philosophy

600-335 BCE

Mathematics

550-200 BCE

Firearms

1300s

Movable Type

1454

Heliocentrism

1543

Telescopy, Microscopy

1608

Calculus

1666

Mechanics

1687

Heat Engine

1712;1769

Electromagnetics

1831;1864

Wire Telecom

1844

Evolution

1859

Germ Theory

1862

Genetics

1866

Set Theory

1874

Radio Telecom

1895;1904

Powered flight

1903

Special Relativity

1905

General Relativity

1916

Quantum Theory

1927

Space flight

1929

Big Bang

1929

Incompleteness

1931

Fission

1938

Computing

1946;1948

Packet Networking

1961

Standard Model

1974

(?) String/M Theory

1984

Several important advances are nonetheless either derivative or not quite revolutionary.

The train and automobile are derivative of the heat engine

Tags: most important advances, humanity, advancement, type 0 civilization

Smart girls eat fish!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:52:01 GMT

clipped by: bbking13

Clip Source: sciencenow.sciencemag.org

To test this hypothesis, Lassek and Gaulin analyzed data on about 4000 girls and boys between the ages of 6 and 16. The children had participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Study, part of a U.S. project to assess the health and nutritional status of kids and adults. After the researchers controlled for the parents' income and education and for the children's age, race, number of siblings, and blood lead levels, they found that girls who ate more omega-3 scored significantly better on four cognitive tests, including an IQ test.

Although genetics and parental education influence intelligence far more, the dietary effect explained about 1% of the difference in test scores between girls, about the same amount as exposure to lead, says Lassek. Boys also perform a bit better on cognitive tests if they eat more omega-3s than other fatty acids, but the effect is "twice as great in girls as in boys,"

Tags: statistics

Scientists Slam Prince Charles' Anti-GM Ravings

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:20:09 GMT

clipped by: Smoke TNT

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

The Prince of Wales has been plunged into an extraordinary row with scientists after they accused him of seriously abusing his position over his comments on GM food.

Scientists reacted angrily to the warning from the Prince in his interview in the Daily Telegraph that GM crops risked causing the world's worse environmental disaster.

MPs accused him of being a "luddite" who risked inflicting starvation on millions of people in Africa.

Prof Ottoline Leyser, a plant geneticist at the University of York who is a Fellow of the Royal Society, said: "I am disappointed with the whole environmental movement.

Johnjoe McFadden, professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey, said: "Prince Charles is talking biased baloney.

"Prince Charles, like many wealthy people, has no concept of the hardships of other parts of the world. He wants to retain his vision of a rural idyll by telling the poor to eat organic cake while he pours wine into the fuel tank of his sports car.

Tags: science, food, hunger, hypocrisy, inbred fool

Impossible experiments

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:59:52 GMT

clipped by: Red Pen
clipper's remarks: Psychology Today bloggers were asked what experiment they would love to carry out if neither ethics nor practical reality stood in their way. This is my favorite among the responses.

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Baby Swapping

I would collect all newborn babies and randomly reassign them to new parents. I'm confident that we will confirm the 50-0-50 rule: Adult personality is roughly 50 percent genetic, 0 percent how we were raised by our parents, and 50 percent socialization by peers and friends. I think we will discover that, within a broad range, it doesn't really matter how parents raise their children. —Satoshi Kanazawa (The Scientific Fundamentalist) is an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics.

Tags: psychology, genetics, nature, nurture, parenting, peers, socialization

Neanderthals Didn't Mate With Modern Humans, Study Says

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:22:30 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

Ker Than
for National Geographic News

Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans likely did not interbreed, according to a new DNA study.

The research further suggests that small population numbers helped do in our closest relatives.

Researchers sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome—genetic information passed down from mothers—of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal thighbone found in a cave in Croatia. (Get the basics on genetics.)

The new sequence contains 16,565 DNA bases, or "letters," representing 13 genes, making it the longest stretch of Neanderthal DNA ever examined.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is easier to isolate from ancient bones than conventional or "nuclear" DNA—which is contained in cell nuclei—because there are many mitochondria per cell.

the mtDNA genome is much smaller than the nuclear genome,