Daily Archives: September 29, 2012

Burn victim identified by DNA in maggots

Posted: September 29, 2012 at 4:13 am

It isn't pretty, but it's a first for science. A dead body, burned beyond recognition, was discovered in the woods by Mexican police. Investigators had a lead on the identity of the victim, but the body was too damaged to provide DNA for analysis. That is, until scientists stepped in with an innovative and unorthodox solution: extracting DNA from maggots found on the corpse.

Pathologists from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, in San Nicolas, Mexico, dissected three maggot larvae found on the corpse and extracted the contents of their gastrointestinal tracts. They were then able to isolate the human DNA found within and find a match.

Police believed the victim to be a young woman who had been reported missing ten weeks earlier. The DNA from the maggots was compared to samples taken from the woman's father and found to be a 99.68 percent match.

The pathology team, led by Maria de Lourdes Chavez-Briones and Marta Ortega-Martinez, reported their work in the Journal of Forensic Science. The idea of extracting human DNA from insects has been studied for several years. But this was the first time the theory was put to practice in a criminal case.

The team hopes that their work will encourage law enforcement officials to pay more mind to insects found at crime scenes.

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DNA Clears Death Row Inmate

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NEW ORLEANS

Damon Thibodeaux received the ovation you'd expect of a man who's just been exonerated of a crime he didn't commit.

WGNO News Reporter Darian Trotter asked, "How do you feel now? Free, Thibodeaux replied."

Damon Thibodeaux has been on death row in Louisiana since October, 1997.

He was convicted of the murder and rape of his 14-year old step-cousin, Crystal Champagne.

It was a crime for which he had been coerced into falsely confessing.

But DNA and other evidence have proven his innocence.

It took seven years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of DNA testing for the Innocence Project and Jefferson Parish prosecutors to exonerate Thibodeaux.

"When you think you have an innocent man and people on both sides can get together and really share evidence and conduct an investigation into the search for the truth that's what's important. So we are tremendously indebted to Paul Connick and his team for the cooperation and the integrity with which they went about this process," Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck said.

Thibodeaux makes the 300th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence in the U.S. And the 18th who served time on death row.

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Analysing The Evidence On DNA

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Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, I'm Ira Flatow. We're here in Boise, Idaho, talking, broadcasting from the campus of Boise State University, and we're going to talk about the use and abuse of DNA evidence, excuse me. Forensic techniques to investigate crime scenes have been coming under increasing scrutiny.

Questions have been raised about fingerprint interpretation, blood-spatter analysis, bite-mark and fiber analysis, but DNA, DNA has been held up as a gold standard in forensics. DNA found at the crime scene matches the suspects? Case closed most of the time.

But my first guest says we should be taking a closer look at how we use DNA. Not all DNA evidence is created equal. Sampling techniques are changing, so the standards for using DNA evidence should be changing, too, he says.

Greg Hampikian is director of the Idaho Innocence Project and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Criminal Justice here at Boise State University. Welcome to the program.

GREG HAMPIKIAN: Thanks very much.

FLATOW: Walk us how through DNA evidence is collected at the scene of a crime.

HAMPIKIAN: Well, that's changing, but, you know, in a lot of our rural communities, it hasn't changed much at all in 20 years, probably. So you don't always have a CSI team and booties and...

FLATOW: It's not like on television, in other words.

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Holy Bat Virus! Genome Hints At Origin Of SARS-Like Virus

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Enlarge iStockphoto.com

Bats harbor many types of coronaviruses and were probably the original source of the new coronavirus that appeared in the Middle East.

Bats harbor many types of coronaviruses and were probably the original source of the new coronavirus that appeared in the Middle East.

On the surface, the new coronavirus detected in the Middle East this month looks quite similar to SARS. It apparently causes severe respiratory problems, and can be lethal.

But with viruses, the devil is in their details the genetic details.

Dutch virologists have just published the whole genome of the new coronavirus all 30,118 letters of its code. And, the sequence reveals that the mystery virus is most closely related to coronaviruses that infect bats in Southeast Asia.

In fact, the pathogen is more similar to two bat viruses than it is to the human SARS virus that sent the world into a panic when it infected nearly 8,000 people in 2003.

Virologist Ron Fouchier, who has done controversial work on bird flu viruses, led the sequencing effort of the SARS-like virus. He tells Shots the results suggest that the new coronavirus virus came from bats. "Bats harbor many coronaviruses, so it's logical to assume that bats are the natural reservoir" of the new pathogen, he says.

"But this doesn't mean the Saudi man contracted the virus from bats," says Fouchier.

When viruses jump from animals to humans, there's usually a second animal that connects the natural carrier with humans. This species is called the amplifier because it increases the number of viral particles that can hop over into people.

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Politically incorrect

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To some, they stand for everything thats wrong with the automotive world. Others covet such excess. A lucky few can afford them. Politically incorrect cars are the ones that some people love to hate. But really, what is a politically correct car?

Some believe it to be and marketers like to tell us a car thats kind to the environment and/or an efficient use of Mother Natures precious resources.

But the only true PC car if we follow this logic to extremes is a bicycle or a pair of walking shoes.

So, having attempted to make us all feel some level of guilt, hopefully we can now feel a little less shameful about our secret desires for what the haves drive in our have-not world.

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We all know Mercedes-Benz makes luxury cars and that theyre a little more expensive than run-of-the-mill runabouts.

But some models make even Mercedes customers raise an eyebrow. The CL coupe is as big and heavy as the companys flagship S-Class sedan (they share underpinnings) but has only two doors and four seats (although the back two, in practice, rarely carry more than a briefcase or overnight bag).

So it could be argued, then, that a twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12 under the nose of a five-metreplus length of metal, rubber and glass might be a touch of overkill to move one or two people around. Even Mercedes-Benz seems to think so: the CL65 AMG is an order-only vehicle. Just two have been sold locally in the past 12 months. The $519,250 price-tag (plus on-road costs) might have a bit to do with that.

The official fuel economy figure for this vehicle is 14.5 litres per 100 kilometres. But if youre looking at the ratings before you place an order, youre probably in the wrong showroom.

More popular is the slightly more affordable (and only marginally less powerful and less thirsty) twinturbo 5.5-litre V8-powered CL63 AMG a relative snip at $423,300. In the past year or so, only six of these have been sold.

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Global censorship of Internet on the rise

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Published: Sept. 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM

WAHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Internet censorship is increasing as authoritarian regimes attempt to impose more restrictions on online activism, a U.S. watchdog organization reports.

Free speech group Freedom House said repressive laws, violent attacks on bloggers and government surveillance are among the biggest emerging threats to Internet freedom, CNN reported Friday.

Freedom house analyzed restriction of access, content censorship and violations of users' civil rights in 47 countries.

Iran, Cuba and China were the most repressive in terms of restricting Internet usage and freedoms, the group said.

Authorities in China conduct the most sophisticated censorship efforts, Freedom House said, because major Web portals and social networking sites, even though not state-owned, must obey with strict government censorship rules or risk being shut down.

Beijing's influence as an "incubator for sophisticated restrictions" has not gone unnoticed, the group said, with governments including Belarus, Uzbekistan and Iran following China's model for their own Internet crackdowns.

"The findings clearly show that threats to Internet freedom are becoming more diverse," Sanja Kelly, a project director at Freedom House, said.

"As authoritarian rulers see that blocked websites and high-profile arrests draw local and international condemnation, they are turning to murkier -- but no less dangerous -- methods for controlling online conversations."

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