DNA analysis of an unusual polar bear (Ursus maritimus) fossil found in Norway confirms that this species separated from the brown bear 150,000 years ago and that it survived an interglacial period warmer than today. The study sheds new data on the origins and evolution of one of the species most threatened today by climate change.
Being a celebrity does not go much for him and what he wants is to continue investigating and getting excited every time he comes across a finding that contradicts the budget. But a quarter of a century ago fate would have this professor of genetics at the University of Leicester, in England, discover by chance the gene fingerprint, the test that allows us to distinguish between two people based on their DNA. Jeffreys reviews the significance of his find with journalist Patricia Luna.
Small domestic dogs emerged in the Middle East more than 12,000 years ago as a result of the domestication of gray wolves (Canis lupus). To reach this conclusion, Melissa Gray and Robert Wayne, from the University of California, have identified variations in a gene called IGF1 that is associated with dog size.
Napoleon, an illustrious insomniac, is credited with this offensive sentence: "Women and idiots need ten hours of sleep, the wounded eight, and men six." The truth is that some men and women sleep less than the average without showing fatigue in their daytime activities. This gift could have a biological explanation, according to a recent study by Ying-Hui Fu's team from the University of California.
At the molecular level we are very simple, since all living beings that populate the Earth are made up of a small number of molecules. In fact, living matter consists mainly of long molecules in which a certain pattern repeats itself over and over again, sometimes with small variations. In addition, some of them fold in an elaborate, complex and extremely precise way. This is the case with DNA.
Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States have sequenced the complete genome of four Bushmen, tribal leaders of approximately 80 years of age who live in the Kalahari Desert (Namibia), and of a Bantu from southern Africa, specifically the famous anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize.
Researchers at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have for the first time sequenced in detail the genome of a human being that lived 4,000 years ago from a hair. Scientists have called the individual Inuk, which means "man" or "human" in Greenlandic.
Not all of us age at the same rate as time progresses. The rate of physiological wear and tear and biological age (different from the chronological one shown by our DNI) depend to a great extent on a sequence of genes, as a team of British scientists has just demonstrated. Details are published in the journal Nature Genetics.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
