Tampilkan postingan dengan label DNA. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label DNA. Tampilkan semua postingan

Selasa, 31 Mei 2011

Agriculture Was Brought into Western Europe by Southern European Males

Learning has not been linear for human beings. Advancement can be different from one place to another. It is now known from DNA analysis of 5,000 year old skeletons in a French cave that women did not travel into western Europe. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down only from the mother which shows that European women had local ancestry. On the other hand the Y chromosome passed down through males shows movement of males into new European regions. Knowledge of farming came into new areas when the males moved in and mated with local females.

Analysis of DNA from 29 skeletons found in France, highlighted this difference between the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome. Males had moved from the Mediterranean to western Europe. Most of the males in the 29 skeleton group were related, so when the males arrived they stayed on the land with their new hunter gatherer wives.

The southern males had a problem: they did not have the lactose tolerant gene of central Europeans. They had to drink fermented milk from sheep and goats. Adult central European males could easily digest milk from cows.

More work is being done to further clarify how and when agriculture spread across Europe.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
History

Senin, 23 Mei 2011

Radiation From Mobile Phones Is Dangerous

New evidence shows that mobile phones really are dangerous. Even the average user can suffer from brain damage, lower sperm count and altered DNA. Just 4 hours of continuous use will preempt the brain's capacity to repair itself.

When scientists originally said that pulsed digital signals from cell phones cause DNA breaks they were condemned for making it up. Now proof is very strong. Apparently, the industry has known about situational damage from mobile phone use for years. They have intentionally hidden the truth.

Research on insects shows that DNA fragmentation occurs in ovarian cells. Insects do have ovarian cells. This reduces the insects' capacity to breed. Long term exposure kills cells completely. Other work with rats shows bone damage to fetuses from just six minutes of radiation per day. And rats had memory loss. From this work it can be deduced that children are more at risk.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Internet

Selasa, 17 Mei 2011

Australian Moths and Butterflies Are Barcoded

Australian moths and butterflies are being barcoded. There are 10,000 species in Australia and 65 per cent of them have been coded, 28,000 specimens in all. They are not flying around with a tag on them. DNA is analyzed then recorded with an image of a specimen in a barcode system.

The database is a combined project by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and CSIRO's Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC). It is the first time such a system has been used to categorize a group of insects in a country. This is the beginning. Plans are in train to record most organisms worldwide.

The technology has been used to determine if wrongly named fish are being sold. It will be used to identify dangerous pests coming into Australia. Species will now be more effectively categorised in research.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Science

Jumat, 21 Januari 2011

Smoking Damages Your Health - Quickly

Some new medical findings can be a bit "oh-hum". It has been found that smoking, just intaking smoke from one cigarette, can damage DNA almost immediately. This does make one think about not taking up the habit. However, it is widely accepted that danger is only there after smoking for 20 or 30 years.

So much work has been done on tobacco. Very little on the other widely used smoking drug - marijuana. Stay away from cigarettes one may say and partake of weed instead. Apparently, the intake of grass is quite safe.

Why is there such a desire for humans to consume such a highly addictive naturally occurring compound? It all boils downs to evolution, natural selection. Unless something you consume reduces your competency to reproduce until the age of about 25, genes will not be selected to combat it. Whether smokers die later in life when they are way past producing and bringing up offspring is irrelevant to survival of the species.

Smoking is like drinking alcohol - it is enjoyable at the moment of consumption but later you may suffer consequences. Restricting sales may be the wrong thing to do. If people want to damage themselves why shouldn't they be allowed to do it? There are so many social problems out there. Concentrating on just one of them is really a waste of resources.
~~~~~Health~~~~~
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .