This week it is your turn to find a current event related to our current unit - DNA, genetics, protein synthesis, and transformation. Find a news article related DNA. Write the name of the article and the author in your post. Paste the link into your comment. And then describe the article and how it relates to what you have learned in this unit.
Here are some sources that you can use to find articles:
SF Gate: http://www.sfgate.com/science/
Science News: http://www.sciencenews.org/
NY Times Science News: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/
Popular Science: http://www.popsci.com/
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Penguin DNA evolving faster than thought.
ReplyDeleteby: Tina Hesman Saey
In article, "Penguin DNA evolving faster than thought" states that the study of DNA from ancient and modern Adélie penguins suggests that scientists may have miscalculated the rates at which genetic clocks tick off evolutionary time in other species as well. A group of researchers started taking data from the Adélie penguins and have found that the Ancient penguins are evolving on a molecular scale two to six times faster than the standard calculations indicated. They collected mitochondrial DNA from penguins, the sample would help them determine the rate that the penguins are evolving. Mitochondria are small structures that generate power inside cells. The Adelie penguins might have stronger and possibly advanced mitochondria than any other species on Earth. But the miracle for the scientist was that the DNA specimens were well preserved because of the cold climate in Antarctica that gave DNA its perfect condition.
I picked this article because it perfectly fits our biology unit in Ms.Hero's class called "The DNA".It shows that DNA mutations could be good and bad depending on its mutation that happens in a certain organism during the process of translation or other gene related divisions.
Website: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/49671/title/Penguin_DNA_evolving_faster_than_thought
I chose to summarize the article Rats fed junk food pass down cancer risk through multiple generations of offspring. A recent study out of Georgetown University Medical Center has concluded that what you eat can affect not only you, but your offspring as well. By feeding rats junk food, they were able to conclude that an increase risk of cancer was prevalent in the rat as well as its offspring. The reason behind this is that fatty foods can contribute to epigenetic DNA modifications, which are inherited changes in DNA patterns. If, in fact epigenetic DNA changes are altering genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2, then this would explain why some people are more prone than others to develop certain degenerative diseases. But your personal diet and lifestyle choices are still the primary deciding factors for whether or not you develop a degenerative disease. Lead a healthy lifestyle, get lots of exercise, and stay away from that fatty food, it will may a real difference.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naturalnews.com/029198_cancer_epigenetics.html
New DNA Test's Aimed At Reducing Colon Cancer says, One of two tests held in Philadelphia was successful for using a DNA test instead of a colonoscopies test to find colon cancer.If your not aware of what a colonoscopies test is, it is a test for people over fifty and consist's of a seeing tube that is moved in to the colon. The other test looks in blood for septin 9. This test was developed in Germany. Both tests would be less expensive than colonoscopy.These two test's could change colon testing forever and can make it less invasive for patient's.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/health/29cancer.html?ref=science
I did a summary of the article new DNA tests aimed at reducing colon cancer. There are two tests held in philadelphia that sharpenly reduces colon cancer that has inflicted on 150,000 people per year in the united states.The test could catch cancerous and precancerous tumors at an early stage, when they are curable, and allow doctors to remove them promptly.
ReplyDeleteBoth tests would be less expensive than colonoscopy, and potentially more effective. Compliance with colonoscopy is low, since people don’t want to have one, and the overall cost per detection is high because most people are healthy, and even colonoscopy misses many tumors in the upper part of the intestine. The company reported Thursday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research that in a trial of 1,100 patients, the test had detected 64 percent of adenomas, or polyps, larger than one centimeter in diameter, and 85 percent of cancers, as judged by the colonoscopies also given to the patients.Promising results for the blood-based tests were reported this week at a meeting in Barcelona, Spain. Epigenomics said its test had a sensitivity of 86 percent and a specificity of 93 percent.Dr. Plum said that Epigenomics did not see its test as being necessarily in competition with the Exact Sciences test, because the blood-based test would be good alternative for people put off by stool testing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/health/29cancer.html?_r=1&ref=science
In this article published by Cambridge university, says that politics and there ideas are an actual gene. Though far fetched,some of the evidence is actually plausible. For example, people who have inherited very liberal and creative traits from their parents, even if their parents are conservatives,they will tend to be liberal voters and visa-versa. This i think links to our curriculum in that it shows how powerful our genes and proteins are. Way beyond our understanding.
ReplyDeletehttp://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=7909320
http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-10/eu-backed-steeper-project-aims-make-electronics-10-times-more-efficient
ReplyDeleteIn this article they explain something called the steeper project. This process tries to increase energy efficiency of electronic devices by the order of magnitude and eliminate and they call it a “vampire power”because it bleeds out of devices that are in standby mode. This process uses 15% of peoples energy they use in their houses and this is expected to double a triple. I thought this was interesting because i've never heard about it before. I think this is important for everyone to know.