1. The Retail DNA Test - 50 Best Inventions 2008 - TIME
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854493,00.html

23andMe, I know just three things about her: she's pregnant, she's married to Google's Sergey Brin, and she went to Yale. But after an hour chatting with her in the small office she shares with co-founder Linda Avey at 23andMe's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., I know some things no Internet search could reveal: coffee makes her giddy, she has a fondness for sequined shoes and fresh-baked

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$399 saliva test that estimates your predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions ranging from baldness to blindness. The 600,000 genetic markers that 23andMe identifies and interprets for each customer are "the digital manifestation of you Now personal genotyping is available to anyone who orders the service online and mails in a spit sample.

TIME

Although It has taken homo sapiens several million years to evolve from the apes, the useful information in our DNA, has probably changed by only a few million bits. So the rate of biological evolution in humans, Stephen Hawking points...

But we are now entering a new phase, of what Hawking calls "self designed evolution," in which we will be able to change and improve our DNA.

Computers are evolving – literally. While the tech world argues netbooks vs notebooks, synthetic biologists are leaving traditional computers behind altogether. A team of US scientists have engineered bacteria that could solve complex mathematical problems faster than anything made from silicon.

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RT @zaibatsu: Bacterial computers can crack mathematical problems fast than most computers http://su.pr/1DwpiJ [from http://twitter.com/lekahe/statuses/2856248758]

Bacteria Computer! Wa-ow!

So it takes about 25 kilobits — 3.2 kbytes — of data to code for a virus that has a non-trivial chance of killing a human.

"Mitra’s team wanted to find out what would happen if an isolated bird raised his own colony. As expected, birds raised in soundproof boxes grew up to sing cacophonous songs. But then scientists let the isolated birds give voice lessons to a new round of hatchlings. They found that the young males imitated the songs — but they tweaked them slightly, bringing the structure closer to that of songs sung in the wild. When these birds grew up and became tutors, their pupils’ song continue to conform, with tweaks. After three to four generations, the teachers were producing strapping young finches that belted out normal-sounding songs."

A very cool study, and a well-written article.

via http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/08/can-culture-be-genetically-encoded-new-research-says-yes.html

GReader: Culture May Be Encoded in DNA [feedly] http://ow.ly/58hy [from http://twitter.com/ChipRiley/statuses/1700727055]

Knowledge is passed down directly from generation to generation in the animal kingdom as parents teach their children the things they will need to survive. But a new study has found that, even when the chain is broken, nature sometimes finds a way. Zebra finches, which normally learn their complex courtship songs from their fathers, spontaneously developed the same songs all on their own after only a few generations.

chevere

Animations can be viewed within your web browser (the Macromedia Flash plugin is required) or downloaded for play from your computer.

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's learning center has a nice library of animations demonstrating various biology concepts. Some of the concepts covered in the animations library include DNA restriction and transformation, DNA arrays, and model organisms. The animations can be viewed online or downloaded. In addition to the animations library, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has a library of 3D models. Highlighting the list of 3D models is a model of the human brain. Like the other animations, the 3D models can be viewed online or downloaded for use on your local hard drive.

A fundamental but elusive step in the early evolution of life on Earth has been replicated in a laboratory. Researchers synthesized the basic ingredients

something Creationists said could never be done or observed

RNAの合成に成功。nature may 13

amazing stuff

RT: @rapella {reassuring} So we’re all a bunch of mutants http://bit.ly/a1s6S (I love this, it's made me very happy). [from http://twitter.com/nijay/statuses/3819538334]

'We are all mutants', scientists find http://twurl.nl/li4gus [from http://twitter.com/znth/statuses/3714551195]

I'm a mutant! we are all mutants! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8227442.stm [from http://twitter.com/madguy000/statuses/3712074988]

About 95% of the human genome has once been designated as "junk" DNA. While much of this sequence may be an evolutionary artifact that serves no present-day purpose, some junk DNA may function in ways that are not currently understood. The conservation of some junk DNA over many millions of years of evolution may imply an essential function that has been "turned off." Now scientists say there's a junk gene that fights HIV. And they've discovered how to turn it back on. What these scientists have done could give us the first bulletproof HIV vaccine. They have re-awakened the human genome's latent potential to make us all into HIV-resistant creatures, and hey've published their ground-breaking research in PLoS Biology. A group of scientists led by Nitya Venkataraman and Alexander Colewhether wanted to try a new approach to fighting HIV - one that worked with the body's own immune system. They knew Old World monkeys had a built-in immunity to HIV: a protein called retrocyclin, which c

Darwin's Radio: Prehistoric Gene Reawakens to Battle HIV

"BBC News - 'Artificial life' breakthrough announced by scientists" http://j.mp/cIRoBL

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. Some also suggest that the potential benefits of the technology have been over-stated. But the researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases. The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California.