"History looks more and more like a science fiction novel in which mutants repeatedly arose and displaced normal humans." John Hawks is one of the authors of the study and has the abstract up.
Yeah, i don't know where to begin. i love this kind of broad statement.... "7 percent of human genes are undergoing rapid, recent evolution"... How can you not get a wide, hysterical grin at that?
Mitalipov's work was the first convincing evidence that skin cells in primates can be reprogrammed into stem cells. "This takes us several steps closer to the production of patient-specific stem cells to treat life-limiting conditions."
Perhaps i shall have fresh, new monkey eyes in the event that i do have this pre-mature onset glaucoma nonsense. Yes, the immediate future is curing disease, not growing organs in vats, i'm so it goes.
A couple of months ago, i bought a kit from the Genographic Project. The postal service lost it the first time... some sort of weird, byzantine shit about strictly and perversely interpreted subcontracts that made my little corner a world a black hole for the postal service. Then Stephen Colbert did his show on it, and i gnashed my teeth.
The replacement that National Geographic provided finally arrived yesterday.
I've done one swab already. The mtDNA test seems to be the way to go for my amusement, as most likely with the Y chromosome test, as i'll probably just wind up with R1b, and probably R1b1c at that.
My DNA is pretty whitebread on my father's side, solidly Western European. The probability of getting R1b just doesn't make it worth it to find if there is something unexpected in there.
I'm going to lay some odds in the coming days on the results, just to amuse myself.
It's not just remarkable that human DNA (from saliva) was found in masticated yucca leaves that ranged in age from 800 to 2,400 years old, it's that the information could be used to track human migration patterns. They've also found DNA on "aprons" or menstrual pads, and plan to check sandals, textiles, and cane cigarettes. Scientists hope to answer the question of whether agriculture was indigenously invented in the Southwest United States or imported from migrations from Mexico.
This makes me very happy. I become quite annoyed with the games that are played with human remains, as i'm more interested in history than respecting burial ceremonies. Yes, this probably makes me an asshole to many people. I do respect cultural traditions, but being satisfied with ignorance is a vast disservice to everyone. jj
Most of the DNA of the oldest specimens had degraded so much from being frozen for so long that scientists were not able to identify the bacteria accurately, but.... damn it... eight million-year-old bacteria!
However, note this:The team suggests that because DNA in the old ice samples had degraded so much in response to exposure to cosmic radiation, life on Earth is unlikely to have hitched a ride on a comet or on debris from outside the Solar System - as some scientists have suggested.
Eh, not convinced yet.
