Ever wonder why some people can drink regularly, smoke, eat all of the “wrong foods” and still live past 100? We’ve known that lifespan has a strong genetic component despite being affected by lifestyle factors. Now scientists believe they have identified the “genetic signature” that can tell us who is more likely to live for [...]
Posts under ‘Genetics’
Engineering synesthetic flies to “smell” light
I’ve long been fascinated with synesthesia, a condition in which”the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception of another sense.” Humans have reported the ability to perceive sounds as having certain colors (sometimes even the ability to “see” music) or “taste” certain words. More commonly, synesthetes perceive numbers and letters as having [...]
Highlights from the AAAS Annual Meeting
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held their annual meeting this week, and naturally a lot of very interesting stories and research results were unveiled: Turning paper and clothing into batteries – By coating fabric and paper with ink “laced” with carbon nanotubes, researchers were able to coax these ordinary materials into [...]
Stem cell therapy lengthens telomeres for those with premature aging disease
People with a rare premature aging disease called dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) experience many of the symptoms we associate with the normal aging process – such as gray hair – but also experience serious symptoms such as anemia and a predisposition to cancer. It is thought that the symptoms of DKC are brought on by the [...]
Military explores creation of immortal synthetic organisms equipped with an off-switch
I’m trying to figure out if this is really cool, really scary, or both: As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, [...]