DNA

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X Chromosome Actually Looks Nothing Like an X
X Chromosome Actually Looks Nothing Like an X
new report
Sep 28, 2013 6:57 AM CDT

X Chromosome Actually Looks Nothing Like an X

It's more like a lumpy blob of spaghetti

(Newser) - Here's your fun fact for the day: Contrary to popular belief, the X chromosome isn't shaped like an X at all—something that scientists have actually long been aware of. What they haven't known, however, is what that shape is ... until now. Per a paper published in...

Elephant Man Mystery May Soon Be Solved

Bleached bones have posed a problem

(Newser) - For years, doctors have tried to conclusively determine which genetic mutations caused the lumpy skin, misshapen head, and other deformities that made Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man . Now researchers hope they'll finally be able to get a definitive answer. Though they could in theory extract DNA from Merrick's...

Cat DNA Database Helps Convict British Killer

Good news, though: Tinker the cat is OK

(Newser) - CSI Meow-i? A newly created DNA database of British cats has helped convict a killer. The University of Leicester today said its catalog of feline DNA buttressed the prosecution case against David Hilder, who was convicted of manslaughter last month at a court in the English city of Winchester. It'...

Family Cuts Deal Over Famous Cancer Cells

Henrietta Lacks' DNA has been studied 74K times

(Newser) - After 62 years, scientists have struck a deal with the family of a woman whose cells are still at the heart of cancer research, the New York Times reports. The National Institutes of Health made the agreement with descendants of Henrietta Lacks, a poor, uneducated, black woman who died of...

Brits May Create Babies With DNA From 3 People

Proposed move would help parents avoid passing on diseases

(Newser) - Can a baby have three biological parents? Maybe. Britain may allow a controversial technique to create babies using DNA from a mother, father, and a donor. The idea behind it is to help couples from passing on rare genetic diseases. For a woman with faulty mitochondria, scientists take only the...

700K-Year-Old Horse Yields World's Oldest DNA

Pushes back their evolution to 4M years ago

(Newser) - Woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and... horses? According to research using the oldest DNA ever found, horses have been trotting around for millions of years—about 4 million, to be exact. The study, published in Nature , explains how scientists used DNA from a 700,000-year-old horse foot bone found in Canada'...

Lowly Snail Reveals Secret of Ireland&#39;s Origins
Lowly Snail Reveals
Secret of Ireland's Origins
new study
Jun 21, 2013 7:56 AM CDT

Lowly Snail Reveals Secret of Ireland's Origins

Human migrants brought snails from Pyrenees: researchers

(Newser) - The first migrants to Ireland some 8,000 years ago may have been Southern Europeans with a taste for escargot, according to new research published in PLoS One . It turns out that a lowly garden snail (Cepaea nemoralis) found in Ireland is genetically different from British ones—but incredibly similar...

Could DNA Finally Explain 98 Reform School Deaths?

Dozens of children died at Florida school between 1914 and 1973

(Newser) - Between 1914 and 1973, a Florida reform school—once the nation's largest—saw 98 deaths, of which 96 were children between ages 6 and 18, researchers have confirmed. But the deaths remain cloaked in mystery, and many of the bodies have never been recovered. Now, researchers at the University...

For Cops, DNA Databases Are the New Fingerprints

Departments around the country keeping profiles

(Newser) - Across the country, local cops are quietly building DNA databases in much the same way they might build a fingerprint catalog, the New York Times reports. New York City has the genetic info of some 11,000 suspects on file, and Orange County, Calif., makes even that trove look tiny,...

Supreme Court: No, You Can't Patent Our DNA

But court rules that synthetic genes are fair game

(Newser) - Sorry, corporate America, you can't own our genes. The Supreme Court declared that unanimously today, ruling against Utah-based Myriad Genetics, which holds patents on a pair of genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. But in something of a compromise, the court ruled that while it was unconstitutional to...

Supreme Court DNA Ruling Has Scary Echoes of Gattaca

Decision opens path to swabbing without suspicion: Noah Feldman

(Newser) - In a 5-4 decision yesterday , the Supreme Court ruled that those arrested for "serious crimes" can have DNA samples taken from their cheeks—even without suspicion. And that "represents a major step toward a Gattaca world," writes Noah Feldman at Bloomberg . In short, evidence can now be...

Supreme Court Upholds DNA Swabs of Those Under Arrest

Not a violation of 4th Amendment

(Newser) - DNA swabbing the cheek of a person arrested—but not yet convicted—for a "serious offense" is just as acceptable as fingerprinting and photographing that person, the Supreme Court ruled today. Such DNA swabs do not violate a person's Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches, the justices found....

Horse Meat Found in 5% of Beef in Europe

EU commission promises stricter standards

(Newser) - Bite into beef anywhere in Europe, and there's a 5% chance you're actually biting into horse meat. An EU study across 27 nations in the wake of the region's horse meat scandal found that 5% of beef products had some horse DNA, reports the BBC . France and...

74 Genetic Markers Found for Major Cancers

Results could help scientists fine-tune tests in coming years

(Newser) - A huge, international cancer study has identified 74 DNA regions associated with breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers, more than doubling the number of genetic markers known, reports the Los Angeles Times . The Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study, or COGS, combined the research on 250,000 people around the world to create...

DNA Taken From Madeleine McCann Lookalike

After sightings reported in New Zealand

(Newser) - For the second time since Madeleine McCann went missing, the DNA of a lookalike is to be tested. New Zealand police insist that a girl spotted in Queenstown is absolutely not the same child who vanished in 2007. Still, they say that they've complied with Scotland Yard's request...

Is This the Face of Richard III?

Scientists release 3D reconstruction as some doubt skeleton is really his

(Newser) - Once scientists had Richard III's skeleton , they quickly set about reconstructing his face, and a 3D model of the reconstruction was unveiled today, Fast Company reports. Philippa Langley, a Richard III Society member who played a large role in the search for his body, noted that "it doesn'...

'Quadruple DNA' Seen for 1st Time

Discovery could aid battle against cancer

(Newser) - Scientists have spotted four-stranded DNA in humans for the first time and say it could provide a key to fighting cancer, the BBC reports. A Cambridge University team revealed the find to Nature Chemistry last year, saying the "quadruple helix" may arise when a cell is unstable or in...

Online DNA Data Can Unveil Whole Family Trees

 'Anonymous' 
 Online DNA Not 
 So Anonymous 
study says
Jan 18, 2013 3:17 AM CST

'Anonymous' Online DNA Not So Anonymous

Surprised researchers raise privacy concerns

(Newser) - If your genetic data, or even a relative's, has made its way online—albeit posted anonymously—it's simple for researchers to uncover your identity. So simple it surprised the researchers themselves. All they needed to suss out a person's name, and the names of members of that...

DNA Yields Clue to Eye Color of the Long Dead

Scientists paint picture of unknown Nazi victims

(Newser) - A new DNA test lets researchers in on the eye and hair colors of people who have been dead for decades—or centuries. Scientists have learned, for instance, that a woman buried among monks in a medieval tomb had brown eyes and brownish hair. They've also deduced the eye...

McDonald's Puts DNA Spray Over Its Doors

Australian outlets add devices after holiday robberies

(Newser) - Like a free DNA spray with that? Following a spate of robberies, McDonald's outlets across Australia are installing DNA-spray devices over their doors to douse fleeing robbers with an indelible mark, the Daily Mail reports. The non-toxic spray will mark alleged thieves with a DNA code that lasts for...

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