January 2012
3 posts
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geek out :: CGI animation of DNA →
Best animation/depiction I’ve seen of basic genetic processes: packaging, transcription, translation, and all in real time (sic). If you’re rusty, unclear, or happen to run on DNA, have a look.
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E. coli engineered to convert alga into ethanol
UCBerkeley Bio Architecture Lab splice 36 kb of Vibrio splendidus DNA into E. coli, allowing it to convert brown macroalgae (e.g. kelp seaweed) sugars into bioethanol at near 80% efficiency.
The novel Vibrio DNA gives E. coli a new path, allowing it to break down, import and metabolise the polysaccharides that make up the algal cell wall, then separately engineered genes convert the...
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
5 posts
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The Language Fossils Buried in Every Cell of Your... →
It is a shame that grammar leaves no fossils behind. Few things have been more important to our evolutionary history than language. Because our ancestors could talk to each other, they became a powerfully cooperative species. In modern society we are so submerged in words—spoken, written, signed, and texted—that they seem inseparable from human identity. And yet we cannot excavate some...
October 2011
3 posts
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September 2011
5 posts
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Soil bacteria g'engineered to drop drug payload... →
Research ongoing in use of modified Clostridium sporogenes in anaerobic interior of solid tumours, where it activates oncolytic enzymes with “exquisite” specificity.
Healthy tissue ‘unscathed’
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Evolution selects for wobbliness of flowers; bees... →
Study finds insects significantly attracted to swaying flowers, balance between “too long and wobbly to function” and “too short to be noticed”.
August 2011
1 post
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July 2011
2 posts
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May 2011
1 post
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