BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Some towns in northeastern Syria are flying yellow, green and red Kurdish flags as long-oppressed Kurds exploit an uneasy vacuum left by President Bashar al-Assad's retreating forces. Syrian Kurds may be enjoying a breath of freedom after Assad appears to have ceded control of some areas to focus on the battle against mainly Sunni Muslim Arab rebels fighting in Damascus and ...
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Itwas a memorable moment in the movie The Terminator 2: Judgement Day, when the cyborg takes a switchblade knife and removes the artificial skin from his hand. Though thought to be only a cool, futuristic effect, this could soon be reality.
Huffington Post reports that scientists at Harvard have created a cyborg-like tissue made of nano-wires that can reach deep into tissues and read electrical signals from cells.
The team, headed by chemistry professor Charles Lieber, has also embedded the nano-wires in bio-engineered blood vessels that can monitor influences on pH levels within the blood. They have used the tissue to build it into a three-dimensional scaffolding that one day they hope can be integrated directly with living tissues.
With this technology, for the first time, we can work at the same scale as the unit of biological system without interrupting it, Lieber said.
Ultimately, this is about merging tissue with electronics in a way that it becomes difficult to determine where the tissue ends and the electronics begin.
Before the discovery, doctors would encase organs with a flat, flexible device that could only read signals from tissues on the surface. According to the New Scientist, artificial tissue can already be grown and implemented in this way, but this new discovery introduces biological materials that are electrically active within the tissues structure.
The current methods we have for monitoring or interacting with living systems are limited, Lieber stated in a news release.
The aim for the future is tointegrate the nano-wires into prosthetics so that they could communicate directly with the nervous system. The nano-wires could also read signals inside the body and react to injury or illness by releasing drugsor through electrical stimulation.
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Aug 31, 2012 8:22am
(Image Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Some beaches in Cape Cod, Mass., could be closed for the big Labor Day weekend after fishermen reported shark sightings hundreds of feet from the shoreline.
Beaches from the Orleans-Chatham town line south along Nauset Beach to Monomoy were closed Wednesday with no date for when they will reopen.
A family enjoying the day off the coast of Chatham last week came across a great white shark feasting on a gray seal, according to ABC News affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.
Swimmers were warned to stay at least 300 feet away from seals. Sharks have been more visible along Cape Cod this summer with numerous sightings. Experts blame a drastic increase in the areas seal population on which sharks feed.
The elbow of the cape has these large, dense concentrations of gray seals now, and these white sharks go to the area to feed, said Greg Skomal, a senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Because the seals are so abundant, now the white sharks are paying more attention.
A man was attacked in July by what is believed to be a great white shark in the waters off Ballston Beach in Truro, Mass. Police said Chris Myers was bit in both legs below the knees in possibly one single, crushing blow.
Ive been swimming at that beach since I was a little kid, and no one in recent memory has ever had a shark attack, let alone by a great white, which they are saying they think it was, Myers told Good Morning America after the suspected shark attack. Maybe people need to be a little more careful.
Three weeks before that incident, a great white shark was spotted trailing a kayaker at Nauset Beach, about 25 miles south of Ballston Beach.
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Public release date: 30-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lars Lindberg Christensen lars@eso.org 49-173-387-2621 International Astronomical Union
The IAU XXVIIIth General Assembly in Beijing China ends today, Friday 31 August 2012, after two busy weeks packed with presentations centred on both astronomical heritage as well as new results. The General Assembly was an enormous success, with almost 3000 attendees from about 80 countries all around the world, including almost 100 members of the press. These numbers made it the largest IAU General Assembly ever organised. The participants enjoyed a vast collection of scientific presentations in eight Symposia, seven Joint Discussions and eighteen Special Sessions focused on development, advancement and collaboration within astronomy.
Three countries joined the organisation at this occasion: Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan. The General Assembly also approved 1006 new individual IAU members at its Closing Ceremony, bringing the total to almost 11 000 members.
Four Resolutions were approved by vote at the Closing Ceremony. These included new guidelines for the designations and specifications of optical and infrared filter passbands, the redefinition of the astronomical unit of length, the establishment of an International Near-Earth Object (NEO) early warning system and the restructuring of the IAU Divisions in order to bring them in line with current major research areas in astronomy and enable the IAU to be more involved with education and outreach.
As the first large astronomical meeting in China, this was also a historic occasion for science in Asia, and provided a unique opportunity, especially for young astronomers, to get involved in exchanging ideas, presenting their research and settling their paths in terms of career development.
The General Assembly also fostered many important international collaborations and partnerships (see for instance the IAU press release iau1204 - http://www.iau.org/public_press/news/detail/iau1204/). The president of the Chinese Astronomical Society, Xiangqun Cui, says: "This IAU General Assembly provides us with an opportunity to exchange views extensively with international counterparts. Hopefully, it will promote the development of Chinese astronomy, and provide a platform for international cooperation in astronomy." This aspect was also recognised by the outgoing IAU president, Robert Williams: "This General Assembly was a landmark for Chinese astronomy."
The new IAU President is Norio Kaifu, the new IAU General Secretary Thierry Montmerle, the new Assistant General Secretary Piero Benvenuti and the new IAU President-elect Silvia Torres-Peimbert.
One of the absolute highlights of the meeting was the visit of His Excellency Xi Jinping, the Vice-President of the People's Republic of China. Among the many inspiring words in his speech at the General Assembly were: "Science and technology are the most active, most revolutionary factors in eco-social development. Every grand advancement of human civilisation is closely related to the revolutionary breakthrough in science and technology."
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The sale of 41.8% of Korea Aerospace Industries (047810.SE) for KRW1.05 trillion ($926 million) collapsed Friday as shareholders received just one preliminary bid--from Korea Air Lines Co. (003490.SE).
Public-auction laws stipulate there must be two or more bidders for a sale to proceed.
It is the latest illustration of the difficulty of doing deals ahead of a the presidential election in December. Incumbent Lee Myung-bak is struggling with low public approval near the end of his term.
A stakeholders' meeting will now decide if the block will be offered again, shareholders for KAI, led by state-run Korea Finance Corp., said in a statement Friday without stating a date.
This outcome has been widely expected since mid-August when just one letter of intent to bid was received.
The 41.8% slice of Korea Aerospace was offered by Korea Finance, Hyundai Motor Co. (HYMLY), Doosan Group and Samsung Techwin Co. (012450.SE). Together they own 56.7%.
Korea Aerospace was formed in 1999 by the merger of the aerospace divisions of Samsung, Hyundai and the now defunct Daewoo following difficulties encountered during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
The government failed three times in as many years to privatize the nation's largest financial holding company, Woori Finance Holdings (053000.SE). The plan to list state-owned KDB Financial Group before the year is also being opposed by some lawmakers.
Write to Kanga Kong at kanga.kong@dowjones.com
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Korea Aerospace Sale Falls Apart After Korean Air Is Only Bidder
By Kyunghee Park and Seonjin Cha - 2012-08-31T07:03:22Z
Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (047810) shareholders plan to sell a 1.05 trillion won ($925 million) stake in the countrys only planemaker failed because of a shortage of offers.
Korean Air Lines Co. (003490) was the only bidder to register by the 3 p.m. deadline today, Korea Finance Corp. said in a statement. The shareholders will decide whether to hold another round of bidding after further discussions, it said without elaboration. At least two bids are needed because of rules governing sales by government entities.
Interest in the planemaker may have been damped by concerns about the impact of December presidential elections and objections to the sale raised by some lawmakers. The company expects to more than double orders this year as North Koreas militarization and rising defense spending in emerging markets spur demand for its helicopters and T-50 trainer jets.
Apart from the political risk, the bigger question is who will want to buy the company, said Justin Lee, a Seoul-based analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. Itll take some time to find an owner as the deepening economic uncertainties discourage takeovers.
Korean Air, which already makes parts for Airbus SAS and Boeing Co., submitted a preliminary bid as it tries to expand its aerospace business. The company didnt say how much it would offer. The sale is being managed by Korea Development Bank and Credit Suisse AG.
Korea Finance is offering part of its 26 percent stake in Sacheon-based Korea Aerospace in the sale. It plans to remain the second-biggest shareholder. Hyundai Motor Co. (005380), Samsung Techwin Co. and Doosan Group are each selling 10 percent holdings.
The planemaker has a market value of $2.2 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares dropped 1 percent to close at 25,750 won in Seoul before the announcement. Korean Air rose 0.1 percent to 47,500 won.
Lawmakers have objected to the sale because of concerns about transparency. Korea Finance is acting hastily and placing the planemaker under private control may weaken public accountability, Chyung Ho Joon of the Democratic United Party said during a July 30 meeting of the National Policy Committee, a parliamentary body that oversees Korea Finance and other agencies.
Kim Jung Hoon of the ruling New Frontier Party also said at the same meeting that the current administration shouldnt rush the sale. His colleague Park Geun Hye is leading opinion polls ahead of the December election. President Lee Myung Bak will end his five-year term in February.
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MISSISSAUGA, ON, Aug. 31, 2012 /CNW/ - Magellan Aerospace Corporation is pleased to announce today that it has completed the acquisition of John Huddleston Engineering Limited ("JHE"). JHE is a leading European supplier of precision machined aerospace components with facilities in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Poland .
With the acquisition of JHE, Magellan is strengthening and enhancing its core manufacturing capabilities and further expanding its European operations. Over the last five years, JHE has made significant investments in the latest high speed 5-axis machining equipment. In addition, JHE has been a strategic supplier to Magellan of precision machined structural components. JHE's revenues for the financial year ending March 31, 2012 were approximately $25 million , which includes approximately $3.6 million revenue from the deliveries to Magellan. The acquisition was funded out of Magellan's working capital. JHE operations will be integrated and managed through Magellan's UK operations.
Mr. James S. Butyniec , President and CEO of Magellan Aerospace Corporation said, "This acquisition is part of Magellan's global growth strategy to invest in opportunities that complement our business and strengthen Magellan's core manufacturing operations. The JHE acquisition provides additional capacity and engineering resources to enable us to support the growth in key customer programs."
About Magellan Aerospace: Magellan Aerospace is one of the world's most integrated aerospace industry suppliers. Magellan engineers and manufactures aeroengine and aerostructure assemblies and components for aerospace markets, advanced products for military and space markets, and complementary specialty products. Magellan is a public company whose shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MAL.TO), with operating units throughout Canada , the United States , the United Kingdom , and India .
About John Huddleston Engineering Limited (JHE): JHE is a leading manufacturer of machined aerostructures components. JHE's facilities in Belfast and Blackpool, UK employ some of the latest high speed machining technology. The companies support both civil and defence markets supplying the global aerospace industry. JHE's treatment facility in Mielec, Poland provides the aerospace industry with a comprehensive range of surface treatment processes.
Forward Looking Statement: This press release contains information and statements of a forward-looking nature and is based on assumptions and uncertainties as well as on management's reasonable evaluation of future events related to the acquisition of JHE. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, and/or are beyond the Corporation's control including the risks and uncertainties set forth in Magellan's Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com which risks and uncertainties are incorporated by reference in this press release. A number of important factors could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Magellan Aerospace Corporation
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Magellan Aerospace Acquires John Huddleston Engineering Limited
CHICAGOThe longevity gap between two Americas has widened since 1990, says a new study. One America is mostly white and well educated, and the other is ethnic or undereducated and dying about decade sooner than their more affluent counterparts.
The gap between college-educated whites and African Americans who did not complete high school is simply unbelievable, stated S. Jay Olshansky, lead author of the extensive new analysis published in the August issue of the prestigious health policy journal Health Affairs.
The researchers, who crunched mortality numbers in key databases from 1990-2008, found that white men in the United States with 16 years or more of schooling had life expectancy at birth 14.2 years longer than African American males with fewer than 12 years of education. The gulf between well-educated white women and black women with low educational levels was 10.3 years.
The research study is published with the stark title, Differences in Life Expectancy Due to Race and Educational Differences Are Widening, and Many May Not Catch Up. It is the latest publication by a the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society, a roster of 15 leading academic experts in aging and longevity.
Low Education Shortens Life for All Groups
The report shows that lower educational levels marked declining life expectancy within every demographic group examined.
The gap between black women of high versus low educational levels was 6.5 years, and for Latinas the difference was 2.9 years. For males the longevity gaps were 12.9 years among whites, 9.7 years among blacks and 5.5 years for Hispanics.
Whats more, the picture for those with fewer than 12 years of education has grown notably worse for whites, says the study. In terms of educational status whites at the bottom are losing ground at a faster pace than those at the top.
The gulf between white women is especially wide, says the report. Those with 12 years or less of education were living just over a decade (10.4 years) less than white American females with at least 16 years of schooling.
The two Americasthose with very high versus very low educationare in a longevity time warp, Olshansky asserted.
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Lost Decades—Longevity Gains Decline for Blacks, Latinos and Less Educated
31 August 2012 Last updated at 02:17 ET By Helen Briggs BBC News
The DNA of a cave girl who lived about 80,000 years ago has been analysed in remarkable detail.
The picture of her genome is as accurate as that of modern day human genomes, and shows she had brown eyes, hair and skin.
The research in Science also sheds new light on the genetic differences between modern humans and their closest extinct relatives.
The cave dweller, a Denisovan, was a cousin of the Neanderthals.
Both groups of ancient humans died out about 30,000 years ago, but have left their mark in the gene pool of modern people.
The Denisovans have mysterious origins. They appear to have left little behind for palaeontologists save a tiny finger bone and a wisdom tooth found in Siberia's Denisova cave in 2010. Though some researchers have proposed a possible link between the Denisovans and human fossils from China that have previously been difficult to classify.
A Russian scientist sent a fragment of the bone from Siberia to a team led by Svante Paabo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
He thought it might belong to an early modern human, but the results came as a surprise.
DNA analysis revealed a human who was neither a Neanderthal nor a modern human but the first of a new group of ancient humans.
31 August 2012 Last updated at 03:45 ET By Hannah Barnes BBC Radio 4's The Report
Scientists, lawyers and politicians have raised new concerns over the quality of forensic evidence testing - so is the criminal justice system too reliant on lab tests without realising their limitations?
"There was a knock at the door, in the early hours of the morning, saying I was being arrested for murder. I asked, 'what evidence have you got?' and they said they thought it was my DNA.
"I thought 'I'll prove I'm not a suspect' but it didn't pan out that way. DNA has become the magic bullet for the police... they thought it was my DNA, ergo it must be me."
David Butler has every right to be cynical about the use of DNA evidence by the police. He spent eight months in prison, on remand, facing murder charges after his DNA was allegedly found on the victim.
I think in the current climate [DNA] has made police lazy
"That was when Alice fell down the hole. Everything went upside down. My whole life changed overnight," he told Radio 4's The Report.
"It was hard. The loneliness was the worst, not speaking to your family. I've led a good life, I've been a good man, and this to me was an absolute horror story."
The police had accused Mr Butler of murdering a woman, Anne Marie Foy, in 2005 - his DNA sample was on record after he had willingly given it to them as part of an investigation into a burglary at his mother's home some years earlier.
The DNA sample was only a partial match, of poor quality, and experts at the time said they could neither say that he was guilty nor rule him out.
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DNA test jailed innocent man for murder
Sangeeta Tohani, 19, of Longwood Gardens, Barkingside performed a special dance routine in front of 80,000 people in the Olympic Stadium alongside fellow dancers from Sakthi Fine Arts, The Crescent, Gants Hill.
The Queen Mary University student auditioned back in February and she was soon told she had been selected after learning Indian classical dancing since she was about five years old.
She said: From the very beginning the whole experience has been incredible. We saw people auditioning with disabilities, who were all catered for, which was really inspiring.
I was determined to get involved in the Paralymics after missing out on the Olympics, which I watched constantly. And knowing that Id be performing just around the corner from where I live was amazing.
Miss Tohani, who also performed during the Torch Relay in Redbridge, was part of the Navigation segment of the ceremony representing the sea.
She said: Despite the steps being fairly simple I forgot them in the dress rehearsal because everything was so overwhelming and to see everything come together in the stadium left me gobsmacked.
Miss Tohani, who described the experience as surreal had been practising with the large group of dancers for ten hours a day for the past three weeks in preparation for the performance.
She added: It started to rain during our section, which was quite late on, leaving the floor really wet; but we didnt even think about it.
Once our part was almost over everyone got really emotional because we didnt want it to end. I have met so many people who I wouldnt normally get a chance to meet.
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Local Weather
Published: Aug. 30, 2012 at 3:33 PM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Danish researchers report they can monitor marine biodiversity and fish stocks by using DNA traces in seawater samples to keep track of fish and whales.
The DNA method is superior to traditional methods that use selective and invasive techniques mostly limited to commercial species and restricted to areas with favorable conditions, they said.
"The new DNA-method means that we can keep better track of life beneath the surface of the oceans around the world, and better monitor and protect ocean biodiversity and resources," researcher Philip Francis Thomsen at the University of Copenhagen said.
Seawater contains DNA from animals such as fish and whales that can reveal their presence in the ocean based on water samples of just half a quart, he said.
"We analyzed seawater samples specifically for fish DNA and we were very surprised when the results started to show up on the screen," he said.
"We found DNA from both small and large fish, as well as both common species and rare guests. Cod, herring, eel, plaice, pilchard and many more have all left a DNA trace in the seawater."
The DNA method has an advantage over tradition data collection in that it can be performed virtually anywhere without impacting the local habitat, researchers said. It just requires a sample of water.
The research has been published in the open access international scientific journal PLOS ONE.
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DNA in seawater can track fish and whales
Scientists have produced a digital image of a genome tens of thousands of years old with the resolution of a typical living persons, enabling them to describe the life and history of the ancient humans in great detail, they reported in Thursdays issue of Science magazine.
Led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, the scientists have created the highest quality genome sequence of ancient humans yet.
Therefore, the Denisovans as the group has been called, after the Siberian cave harboring its fossils: a finger bone and two teeth are much better known genetically than Neanderthals, although there are hundreds of specimens from them.
There is no difference in what we can learn genetically about a person that lived 50,000 years ago and from a person today, Paabo said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.
The international team of researchers used only genetic material from a tiny finger bone from a girl that lived in Siberia tens of thousands of years ago. The specimen was found in a cave in 2008 and, based on preliminary genetical analyses by the team in 2010, was attributed to a novel group of humans closely related to Neanderthals.
The Denisovan genome is particularly close to my heart, because it was the first time that a new group of humans were discovered and defined just from DNA, Paabo said.
The scientists owe their insights mainly to new technological advances in sequencing of prehistoric DNA. All forensics on ancient DNA were originally developed for modern DNA, said Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute, lead author of the article. He was responsible for developing approaches that take into account challenges typical for ancient genetic material, such as its scarcity and degraded state.
The breakthrough came partly through starting the sequencing with single strands of DNA, as opposed to the usual approach of using double strands. Earlier this year, the researchers made the raw genome sequence available to the public by publishing it online.
Using the DNA alone, the scientists reconstructed the appearance of the Siberian girl: She had brown eyes and dark hair and skin. Also from genetic information, the scientists pieced together the girls pedigree and compared it with modern humans and Neanderthals. The Denisovans contributed genetic material only to present Australian Aborigines and some people in Melanesia, whereas Neanderthals left their mark on everyone outside Africa, Paabo said.
The scientists analyzed the differences between the DNA of the Denisovan and that of modern humans around the world, allowing them to come up with an estimate of the specimens age. Based on the mutation rate in modern humans, the team approximated the age of the Siberian girl at about 80,000 years. That conflicts with archeological data that assign the geological layer of the fossil to an age of 30,000 to 50,000 years. Carbon dating, a standard procedure to determine the age of fossils, would provide a more definitive answer, but the specimen is too small for that.
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DNA offers sharp image of ancient humans
Genetic data of unprecedented completeness have been pulled from the fossil remains of a young Stone Age woman. The DNA helps illuminate the relationships among her group ancient Siberians known as Denisovans Neandertals, and humans.
The Denisovans genetic library suggest that she came from a small population that expanded rapidly as it moved south through Asia, says a team led by Matthias Meyer and Svante Pbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Denisovans passed genes to Papua New Guineans but not to Asians, Europeans or South Americans, the researchers report online August 30 in Science. Thats in line with previous evidence that Denisovans contributed to the ancestry of present-day Australian aborigines and Melanesians.
The new investigation also finds that Asians and South Americans possess more Neandertal genes than Europeans do. Although Neandertals inhabited Europe and West Asia, they may have interbred most frequently with Homo sapiens in East Asia, or, possibly, had their genetic contributions to Europeans diluted as increasing numbers of Stone Age humans reached that continent.
We can now start to catalog essential genetic changes that occurred after we separated from our closest extinct relatives, Pbo says. Preliminary DNA comparisons between people today and the young female Denisovan have identified eight human-specific genes involved in brain functions, including one linked to language and speech development.
Despite the new advance in retrieving ancient DNA, Denisovans evolutionary identity, and the full extent of Denisovan flings with human groups, is far from settled. Denisovan fossils, which date to at least 44,000 years old, consist of only a finger bone and two teeth unearthed at Siberias Denisova Cave.
Previous work partly reconstructed DNA from the finger fossil and unveiled a close genetic link between Neandertals and Denisovans (SN: 1/15/11, p. 10).
Think of the new achievement as Denisovan DNA 2.0. Meyer and Pbos group devised a method to separate the paired chromosomes, the coiled packages in which DNA is stored and inherited, in ancient samples. DNA inevitably degrades over the millennia, but preserved stretches on one chromosome often compensate for damaged patches on a corresponding chromosome. This allowed scientists to read the DNA letters of nondegraded sections of the complete genetic file. Going over each stretch of DNA 30 times, the researchers were able to assemble a version of Denisovan DNA thats about as complete and accurate as what can be obtained from a living person.
Producing a full genome of such high quality from such an old specimen illustrates how far we have come in just a few years in the field of ancient DNA sequencing, says evolutionary geneticist Rasmus Nielsen of the University of California, Berkeley.
Comparisons of premium-grade Denisovan DNA to large samples of DNA from people today should begin to clarify where and when ancient interbreeding took place, Nielsen says.
Meyer and Pbos team compared its new-and-improved Denisovan material to genetic samples from 11 living people, including five Africans from different tribes or ethnic groups; two Europeans, one from France and one from Sardinia; two Chinese, one from a northern ethnic group and one from a southern ethnic group; a Papua New Guinean; and a villager from Brazils Amazon forest.
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DNA unveils enigmatic Denisovans
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
A replica of the pinky bone fragment found in a Siberian cave. Researchers used the bone bit to extract and sequence the genome of a girl who lived tens of thousands of years ago.
Scientists in Germany have been able to get enough DNA from a fossilized pinky to produce a high-quality DNA sequence of the pinky's owner.
"It's a really amazing-quality genome," says David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston. "It's as good as modern human genome sequences, from a lot of ways of measuring it."
The pinky belonged to a girl who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Scientists aren't sure about the exact age. She is a member of an extinct group of humans called Denisovans. The name comes from Denisova cave in Siberia, where the pinky was found.
Two years ago, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig reported that they had been able to get just enough DNA from the fossil to make a rough sequence of her DNA. But Matthias Meyer developed a far more efficient way of recovering ancient DNA, so he went back to the tiny amount of DNA left over from the first effort, and reanalyzed it.
"And from this little leftover, we were able to determine the sequence of the Denisova genome 30-fold over," says Meyer.
What that means is they were able to look at every single location along all of this girl's chromosomes 30 times to be absolutely certain that they had the right DNA letter in the right spot. The new results appear in the online edition of the journal Science.
The high-quality sequence gives scientists valuable new data for studying ancient humans. Researchers have begun, for example, to explore which modern human populations may have inherited genes from Denisovans.
The entrance to the Denisova cave in southern Siberia.
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Pinky DNA Points To Clues About Ancient Humans
By John Lauerman - 2012-08-30T18:00:00Z
DNA analysis of an extinct human ancestor that lived 80,000 years ago has pinpointed fundamental genes tied to the brains evolution, showing how genome testing is changing anthropology and archaeology along with medicine.
At least eight genes that rose to prominence in human DNA since the time of the ancient relatives, called Denisovans, affect nerve growth and language, an international team of researchers said today in the journal Science. The cognitive power conferred by these genes may have keyed the development of complex thinking skills, culture and civilization said Svante Paabo, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
This is perhaps in the long term, to me, the most fascinating part about this; what it will tell us in the future about what makes us special in the world, he said yesterday on a conference call.
New DNA techniques are reshaping knowledge of human evolution just as quickly as theyre sparking the development of medical tests and treatments. Using a tiny amount of material from an ancient finger bone, scientists were able to analyze the ancient ancestors genes as closely as those of anyone who walked into a lab today, said David Reich, a Harvard Medical School genetics professor who contributed to the study.
Almost every cell in an organism holds a complete copy its genome, the chemical code for making proteins and tissues. The Denisovan genome analyzed in the study gives a broad visual picture of the individual it came from, holding genes that predict brown hair, brown eyes and dark skin in humans.
Denisovans, who lived in Asia, were closely related to Neanderthals, a group of human ancestors that existed at about the same time.
The structure of the bone the DNA came from suggests it was that of a young girl, about 7 or 8 years old, the scientists said. Paleontologists excavated the fragment, along with two teeth, at Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia in 2008.
In some ways, this ancient genome is even higher quality than the modern-day genomes weve produced, Reich said in a telephone interview. This means that very degraded ancient DNA samples that werent possible to study before can now be studied.
As part of the investigation, the researchers sequenced 11 new genomes from people in representative populations in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Among modern human populations, the Denisovan genome is most similar to the DNA of Papua New Guinea natives, the study said.
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Ancient Human Kin’s DNA Code Illuminates Rise of Brains
SAN DIEGO Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their sloppy and promiscuous ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego, who reported in the journal Science what a few enzymologists have suspected for years: Many enzymes are still pretty sloppy and promiscuous, catalyzing multiple chemical reactions in living cells, for reasons that were previously not well understood.
In this study, the research team, led by Bernhard Palsson, Galetti Professor of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, brought together decades of work on the behavior of individual enzymes to produce a genome-scale model of E. coli metabolism and report that at least 37 percent of its enzymes catalyze multiple metabolic reactions that occur in an actively growing cell.
Weve been able to stitch all of the enzymes together into one giant model, giving us a holistic view of what has been driving the evolution of enzymes and found that it isnt quite what weve thought it to be, said Palsson.
When organisms evolve, it is the genes or proteins that change. Therefore, gene and protein evolution has classically been studied one gene at a time. However in this work, Palsson and his colleagues, introduce an important paradigm shift by demonstrating that the evolution of individual proteins and enzymes is influenced by the function of all of the other enzymes in an organism, and how they all work together to support the growth rate of the cell.
Using a whole-cell model of metabolism, the research team found that the more essential an enzyme is to the growth of the cell, the more efficient it needs to be; meanwhile, enzymes that only weakly contribute to cell growth can remain sloppy. The study found three major reasons why some enzymes have evolved to be so efficient, while others have not:
Our study found that the functions of promiscuous enzymes are still used in growing cells, but the sloppiness of these enzymes is not detrimental to growth. They are much less sensitive to changes in the environment and not as necessary for efficient cell growth, said Nathan Lewis, who earned a Ph.D. in bioengineering at the Jacobs School in March and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.
This study is also a triumph in the emerging field of systems biology, which leverages the power of high-performance computing and an enormous amount of available data from the life sciences to simulate activities such as the rates of reactions that break down nutrients to make energy and new cell parts. This study sheds light on the vast number of promiscuous enzymes in living organisms and shifts the paradigm of research in biochemistry to a holistic level, said Lewis. The insights found in our work also clearly show that fine-grained knowledge can be obtained about individual proteins while using large-scale models. This concept will yield immediate and more distant results.
Our teams findings could also inform other research efforts into which enzymes require further study for overlooked promiscuous activities, said Hojung Nam, a postdoctoral researcher in Palssons lab. Besides testing and characterizing more enzymes for potential promiscuous activities, enzyme promiscuity could have far-reaching impacts as scientists try to understand how unexpected promiscuous activities of enzymes contribute to diseases such as leukemia and brain tumors, said Nam.
Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health (DE-SC0004917, DE-FG02-09ER25917, and 2R01GM057089-13) and a fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF GK-12 742551).
See the article here:
‘Promiscuous’ enzymes still common in metabolism
Newswise Svetlana Kilina, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at North Dakota State University, Fargo, has received a $750,000 five-year award from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research Program. Funding will be used to conduct research outlined in Dr. Kilinas proposal titled Modeling of Photoexcited Process at Interfaces of Functionalized Quantum Dots.
Dr. Kilinas research occurs at the intersection of renewable energy, high-performance computing, nanotechnology and chemistry. Only 68 awardees were selected from a pool of about 850 university- and national laboratory-based applicants, based on peer review by outside scientific experts.
Quantum dots are nanocrystals discovered by scientists in the 1980s. Ranging in size from two to 10 nanometers, billions of them could fit on the head of a pin. Their tiny sizes belie the Herculean impact they could make in semiconductors and energy. Dr. Kilinas work centers on new generation solar cells and fuel cells using quantum-dot-based materials.
Materials at the nanoscale level behave differently than at larger scales. Energized quantum dots absorb and emit light. The color of the light depends on the size of the dot. In addition, one quant of light can generate more than two carriers of electric current (two electrons-hole pairs instead of one) in quantum dots. As a result, quantum dots could convert energy to light or vice versa more efficiently than conventional energy materials based on bulk semiconductors such as silicon. That makes quantum dots very promising materials for solar cells and other energy applications.
One of the main obstacles in the synthesis of quantum dots is the controllable chemistry of the quantum dot surface, said Dr. Kilina. Due to their nanosize, the dots are extremely chemically reactive, and different organic molecules from solvent/air environment interact with the surface of the quantum dot during and after synthesis. These molecules cover the surface of the quantum dot like a shell, influencing its optical and electronic properties.
Dr. Kilina uses supercomputers to conduct computer-simulated experiments, investigate and advance her research in this field. Her goal is to generate theoretical insights to the surface chemistry of quantum dots, which are critical to design efficient quantum-dot-based materials for solar energy conversion and lighting applications.
To apply her model and algorithmic methods, Dr. Kilinas research group uses supercomputers at the NDSU Center for Computationally Assisted Science and Technology, in addition to Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Laboratory leadership-class, high-performance computing facilities. The combination of NDSU supercomputing and government facilities substantially reduces the amount of time needed for the massive calculations used in this research.
Dr. Kilinas research aims to gain fundamental understanding of nanomaterials at the molecular and electronic level, said Dr. Greg Cook, chair of NDSUs Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Insights gained from this research will enable the progression of solar energy technology to help solve the worlds energy challenges. The Department of Energy award recognizes Dr. Kilinas unique expertise in the area of theoretical modeling of these materials critical for the future, said Cook.
Dr. Kilinas research addresses fundamental questions of modern materials science that affect the design and manufacture of new-generation energy conversion devices. To design and manufacture such devices requires developing new multi-functional materials with controllable properties. As part of Dr. Kilinas work centered around new generation solar cells and fuel cells, she develops and applies a new generation non-adiabatic photoinduced dynamics methodology that simultaneously includes electron-hole coupling response for excitonic effects and exciton-phonon coupling critical in photoexcitation and couplings between electronics and crystal-lattice vibrations responsible for energy-to-heat losses.
It is anticipated that the acquired theoretical knowledge gained from the research at NDSU will help better explain and interpret experimental data and could facilitate rational design of new nanostructures with desired optical, transport, and light harvesting properties that are fundamental to a myriad of clean energy technologies.
Original post:
NDSU Research Connects the Dots to Renewable Energy Future
Newswise Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their sloppy and promiscuous ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego, who reported in the journal Science what a few enzymologists have suspected for years: many enzymes are still pretty sloppy and promiscuous, catalyzing multiple chemical reactions in living cells, for reasons that were previously not well understood.
In this study, the research team, led by Bernhard Palsson, Galetti Professor of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, brought together decades of work on the behavior of individual enzymes to produce a genome-scale model of E. coli metabolism and report that at least 37 percent of its enzymes catalyze multiple metabolic reactions that occur in an actively growing cell.
Weve been able to stitch all of the enzymes together into one giant model, giving us a holistic view of what has been driving the evolution of enzymes and found that it isnt quite what weve thought it to be, said Palsson.
When organisms evolve, it is the genes or proteins that change. Therefore, gene and protein evolution has classically been studied one gene at a time. However in this work, Palsson and his colleagues, introduce an important paradigm shift by demonstrating that the evolution of individual proteins and enzymes is influenced by the function of all of the other enzymes in an organism, and how they all work together to support the growth rate of the cell.
Using a whole-cell model of metabolism, the research team found that the more essential an enzyme is to the growth of the cell, the more efficient it needs to be; meanwhile, enzymes that only weakly contribute to cell growth can remain sloppy. The study found three major reasons why some enzymes have evolved to be so efficient, while others have not:
Enzymes that are used more extensively by the organism need to be more efficient to avoid waste. To increase efficiency, they evolve to catalyze one specific metabolic reaction. When enzymes are responsible for catalyzing reactions that are necessary for cell growth and survival, they are specific in order to avoid interference from molecules that are not needed for cell growth and survival.
Since organisms have to adapt to dynamic and noisy environments, they sometimes need to have careful control of certain enzyme activities in order to avoid wasting energy and prepare for anticipated nutrient changes. Evolving higher specificity makes these enzymes easier to control.
Our study found that the functions of promiscuous enzymes are still used in growing cells, but the sloppiness of these enzymes is not detrimental to growth. They are much less sensitive to changes in the environment and not as necessary for efficient cell growth, said Nathan Lewis, who earned a Ph.D. in bioengineering at the Jacobs School in March and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.
This study is also a triumph in the emerging field of systems biology, which leverages the power of high-performance computing and an enormous amount of available data from the life sciences to simulate activities such as the rates of reactions that break down nutrients to make energy and new cell parts. This study sheds light on the vast number of promiscuous enzymes in living organisms and shifts the paradigm of research in biochemistry to a holistic level, said Lewis. The insights found in our work also clearly show that fine-grained knowledge can be obtained about individual proteins while using large-scale models. This concept will yield immediate and more distant results.
Our teams findings could also inform other research efforts into which enzymes require further study for overlooked promiscuous activities, said Hojung Nam, a postdoctoral researcher in Palssons lab. Besides testing and characterizing more enzymes for potential promiscuous activities, enzyme promiscuity could have far-reaching impacts as scientists try to understand how unexpected promiscuous activities of enzymes contribute to diseases such as leukemia and brain tumors, said Nam.
Continued here:
Science Study Shows 'Promiscuous' Enzymes Still Prevalent in Metabolism