Mutated DNA Causes No-Fingerprint Disease Almost every person is born with fingerprints, and everyone's are unique. But people with a rare disease known as adermatoglyphia do not have fingerprints from birth. Affecting only four known extended families worldwide, the condition is also called immigration-delay disease, since a lack of fingerprints makes it difficult for people to cross international borders. In an effort to find the cause of the disease, dermatologist Eli Sprecher sequenced the DNA of 16 members of one family with adermatoglyphia in Switzerland . Seven had normal fingerprints, and the other nine did not. The larger SMARCAD1 is expressed throughout the body, but the smaller form acts only on the skin . Being born without fingerprints doesn't occur simply because one gene has been turned on or off, Sprecher said. That mutation is also the first link in a long chain of events that ultimately affects fingerprint development in the womb. (See skin pictures .) American Journal of Human Genetics.
Global Warming and Climate Change skepticism examined 6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain We like to feel superior to the people who lived centuries ago, what with their shitty mud huts and curing colds by drilling a hole in their skulls. But we have to give them credit: They left behind some artifacts that have left the smartest of modern scientists scratching their heads. For instance, you have the following enigmas that we believe were created for no other purpose than to fuck with future generations. The Voynich Manuscript The Mystery: The Voynich manuscript is an ancient book that has thwarted all attempts at deciphering its contents. It appears to be a real language--just one that nobody has seen before. Translation: "...and when you get her to put the tennis racket in her mouth, have her stand in a fountain for a while. There is not even a consensus on who wrote it, or even when it was written. Why Can't They Solve It? Could you? Don't even try. As you can imagine, proposed solutions have been all over the board, from reasonable to completely clownshit. Our Guess:
Meaning of Halflife I'd like to illustrate what this really means. If living creatures had halflives the way radioactive atoms do, the world would be a very different place. What do you mean? Suppose there's an alien species with a halflife of, say, 70 years. You randomly pick out 16 baby aliens and track them to see how long they live. That doesn't sound so weird. True...but remember that the halflife is always the same, regardless of how old the aliens are. That is kind of strange. It gets stranger. Methuselah isn't going to make it, though. Methuselah has just as much chance of surviving the next 70 years as any one of the 15 babies.
Nucleus Medical Media: Medical Video, Animation & Illustration Cell Cycle & Cytokinesis - BioChemWeb.org Cell Cycle Regulation and the Control of Cell Proliferation (Cell Growth + Cell Division) Cell Cycle Research - General resource with links to relevant recent literature, news and job listings. (Ion Channel Media Group) Cell Division - Undergraduate-level lectures on cell division. (Cell Biology Lectures, Mark Hill, University of New South Wales, Australia) The Eukaryotic Cell Cycle and Cancer - Introduction to the eukaryotic cell cycle as it relates to the genetics of cancer. (Phillip McClean, North Dakota State University) (Just above Beginner's Level) ICRF FACS Laboratory Cell Cycle Analysis - Methods for cell cycle analysis using flow cytometry. See also the Apoptosis, Cell Senescence and Signal Transduction pages. Mitosis, Meiosis and the Mechanics of Cell Division See also the Cytoskeleton, Cell Motility and Motors page. Cancer Resources See also the Discussion Groups section of the General Resources and Tutorials page. Labs Studying Visits:
One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco Thirty five years ago I had yet to be born, but artist Scott Weaver had already begun work on this insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay, that he continues to modify and expand even today. The elaborate sculpture is comprised of multiple “tours” that move pingpong balls through neighborhoods, historical locations, and iconic symbols of San Francisco, all recreated with a little glue, some toothpicks, and an incredible amount of ingenuity. He admits in the video that there are several toothpick sculptures even larger than his, but none has the unique kinetic components he’s constructed. Via his website Weaver estimates he’s spent over 3,000 hours on the project, and the toothpicks have been sourced from around the world: I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. See the sculpture for yourself at the Tinkering Studio through the end of June.
Physics Flash Animations We have been increasingly using Flash animations for illustrating Physics content. This page provides access to those animations which may be of general interest. The animations will appear in a separate window. The animations are sorted by category, and the file size of each animation is included in the listing. Also included is the minimum version of the Flash player that is required; the player is available free from In addition, I have prepared a small tutorial in using Flash to do Physics animations. LInks to versions of these animations in other languages, other links, and license information appear towards the bottom of this page. The Animations There are 99 animations listed below. Other Languages and Links These animations have been translated into Catalan, Spanish and Basque: En aquest enllaç podeu trobar la versió al català de les animacions Flash de Física. These animations were written by David M.
Scientists unveil tools for rewriting the code of life MIT and Harvard researchers have developed technologies that could be used to rewrite the genetic code of a living cell, allowing them to make large-scale edits to the cell’s genome. Such technology could enable scientists to design cells that build proteins not found in nature, or engineer bacteria that are resistant to any type of viral infection. The technology, described in the July 15 issue of Science, can overwrite specific DNA sequences throughout the genome, similar to the find-and-replace function in word-processing programs. Using this approach, the researchers can make hundreds of targeted edits to the genome of E. coli, apparently without disrupting the cells’ function. “We did get some skepticism from biologists early on,” says Peter Carr, senior research staff at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory (and formerly of the MIT Media Lab), who is one of the paper’s lead authors. DNA consists of long strings of “letters” that code for specific amino acids. ‘Plug and play’
Welcome - The Rosetta Project 49 Fascinating YouTube Videos to Learn About the Human Body As any doctor, nurse practitioner or other health care professional knows, the body is an interesting system. In many ways, it’s like a machine, with many complex parts. There is a lot to learn about the body and how it works, as well as how its different systems interact to create a larger system. Here are 49 interesting YouTube videos that can help you learn about the human body: Brain Your brain directs the rest of the body’s functions. How the Body Works: The Regions of the Brain: An interesting look at the different regions of the brain, and what they are responsible for.Brain Anatomy Function: How brain works? Nervous System The nervous system brings messages from the brain to all over the body. How the Body Works: The Anatomy of the Central Nervous System: Find out how the nervous system is set up, and how it works.How the Body Works: Anatomy of Nerve: The nervous system is made up of thousands of nerves. Muscles Skeleton Circulatory and Respiratory Systems Other Systems