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mad science
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Genetics
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mad science
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A Special DNA Surprise for Daddy
In the category of weirdest product pitches, you can now include the email I got from Intigene. The company's rep suggested that Father's Day would be a good time to remind people that they could buy Identigene's home DNA paternity tests. At first I thought it was a joke because their website looked so much like something out of one of my fantasies about crappy quack DNA tests online. Their number is even 1-800-DNA-TYPE, which just reeks of used-car sales techniques. But no, it was all too real. More »
mad science
Resurrecting the Extinct Tasmanian Tiger from Preserved DNA
The Tasmanian Tiger was wiped out decades ago, but some scientists from Australia have a mad plan to resurrect the wolf-like marsupials and reintroduce them to their original habitat. We may still be decades away from Jurassic Park, but these researchers did successfully implant Tasmanian Tiger DNA into a mouse and got some of the genes to express themselves. That's a major first. So will we be using mice to breed a new race of Tasmanian Tigers? More »
triviagasm
The Genetic History Of GATTACA
A collector's edition of GATTACA will be out in two weeks, and it's getting the full Blu-ray treatment from Sony. Maybe this box-office flop will finally get the respect that it deserves, especially now that we're getting closer and closer to being able to build superhumans. Find out more about the strange and awesome history of GATTACA below. More »
mad science
First Clone Made from an Adult Human
Yesterday, the chief executive at biotech company Stemagen became the first adult human to see his clone mature into a viable embryo. No, Samuel Wood isn't planning to raise his own baby clone — he's just doing research into a new way of creating stem cells from adult DNA. But scientists pointed out that the embryo he created was viable enough to be implanted in a woman's uterus, IVF-style. There's no reason to believe it wouldn't mature into a human baby. More »
mad science
Geneticists Discover a Way to Extend Lifespans to 800 Years
There is now a way to extend the lifespan of organisms so that humans could conceivably live to be 800 years old. In an amazing development, scientists at the University of Southern California have announced that they've extended the lifespan of yeast bacteria tenfold — and the recipe they used to do it might easily translate into humans. It involves tinkering with two genes, and cutting down your calorie intake. Tests have already started on people in Ecuador. More »
genomic speculation
This tiny sea anemone is a very simple lifeform whose glowing yellow mouth is its most prominent feature. But when bio geeks at UC Berkeley sequenced the anemone's genome last year, they discovered that it had roughly the same number of genes that humans have. Plus, many of those genes are dormant duplicates of human ones. Does this mean that if we activated those genes, an anemone could grow a human body?
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A Sea Anemone Whose Genes Could Turn It Human
This tiny sea anemone is a very simple lifeform whose glowing yellow mouth is its most prominent feature. But when bio geeks at UC Berkeley sequenced the anemone's genome last year, they discovered that it had roughly the same number of genes that humans have. Plus, many of those genes are dormant duplicates of human ones. Does this mean that if we activated those genes, an anemone could grow a human body?
More »
heroes
Jack Coleman has the enviable position of breathing life into television's best and worst father each week on NBC's Heroes. During the day he'll be bringing home teddy bears to his indestructible daughter Claire, while that night he'll gun someone down and work with genetically mutated viruses. He's gone through more character twists than a corkscrew and returned from the dead. We caught up with him at a Beverly Hills lunch spot to find out exactly what's going on with the show and his parenting skills.
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io9 Talks To The Man With The Horn-Rimmed Glasses
Jack Coleman has the enviable position of breathing life into television's best and worst father each week on NBC's Heroes. During the day he'll be bringing home teddy bears to his indestructible daughter Claire, while that night he'll gun someone down and work with genetically mutated viruses. He's gone through more character twists than a corkscrew and returned from the dead. We caught up with him at a Beverly Hills lunch spot to find out exactly what's going on with the show and his parenting skills.
More »
tabloid science
Helium Leaking Out of the Ground in Nevada
- Massive quantities of helium were discovered leaking out of the ground in Nevada. This mysterious gas emission is even stranger because usually geologists only see this kind of thing near volcanoes. Is Nevada about to become a volcanic hellhole? [Discovery News]
- 10,000-year-old trees were discovered during a construction project on a farm in Michigan. They are among the best-preserved fossilized trees ever found, and scientsts speculate that they were crushed under the last glacier to stretch across North America. [Science Daily]
An Icelandic genetics lab has announced that for a just under $1,000, it will combine overnight shipping and genetic profiling into a single, irresistible package, called DeCodeMe. Hello, genome envy!
genetics
