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Daily Archives: February 22, 2017
It’s Been 20 Years Since We Cloned A Sheep. Why Haven’t We … – GOOD Magazine
Posted: February 22, 2017 at 4:17 am
Its been 20 years since scientists in Scotland told the world about Dolly the sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult body cell. What was special about Dolly is that her parents were actually a single cell originating from mammary tissue of an adult ewe. Dolly was an exact genetic copy of that sheepa clone.
Dolly captured peoples imaginations, but those of us in the field had seen her coming through previous research. Ive been working with mammalian embryos for over 40 years, with some work in my lab specifically focusing on various methods of cloning cattle and other livestock species. In fact, one of the coauthors of the paper announcing Dolly worked in our laboratory for three years prior to going to Scotland to help create the famous clone.
Dolly was an important milestone, inspiring scientists to continue improving cloning technology as well as to pursue new concepts in stem cell research. The endgame was never meant to be armies of genetically identical livestock.Rather, researchers continue to refine the techniques and combine them with other methods to turbocharge traditional animal breeding methods as well as gain insights into aging and disease.
Dolly was a perfectly normal sheep who became the mother of numerous normal lambs. She lived to six and a half years, when she was eventually put down after a contagious disease spread through her flock, infecting cloned and normally reproduced sheep alike. Her life wasnt unusual; its her origin that made her unique.
Before the decades of experiments that led to Dolly, it was thought that normal animals could be produced only by fertilization of an egg by a sperm. Thats how things naturally work. These germ cells are the only ones in the body that have their genetic material all jumbled up and in half the quantity of every other kind of cell. That way when these so-called haploid cells come together at fertilization, they produce one cell with the full complement of DNA. Joined together, the cell is termed diploid, for twice, or double. Two halves make a whole.
From that moment forward, nearly all cells in that body have the same genetic makeup. When the one-cell embryo duplicates its genetic material, both cells of the now two-cell embryo are genetically identical. When they in turn duplicate their genetic material, each cell at the four-cell stage is genetically identical. This pattern goes on so that each of the trillions of cells in an adult is genetically exactly the samewhether its in a lung or a bone or the blood.
In contrast, Dolly was produced by whats called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, researchers remove the genetic material from an egg and replace it with the nucleus of some other body cell. The resulting egg becomes a factory to produce an embryo that develops into an offspring. No sperm is in the picture.Instead of half the genetic material coming from a sperm and half from an egg, it all comes from a single cell. Its diploid from the start.
Dolly was the culmination of hundreds of cloning experiments that, for example, showed diploid embryonic and fetal cells could be parents of offspring. But there was no way to easily know all the characteristics of the animal that would result from a cloned embryo or fetus. Researchers could freeze a few of the cells of a 16-cell embryo, while going on to produce clones from the other cells. If a desirable animal was produced, they could thaw the frozen cells and make more copies. But this was impractical because of low success rates.
Dolly demonstrated that adult somatic cells also could be used as parents. Thus, one could know the characteristics of the animal being cloned.
By my calculations, Dolly was the single success from 277 tries at somatic cell nuclear transfer. Sometimes the process of cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer still produces abnormal embryos, most of which die. But the process has greatly improved so success rates now are more like 10 percent; its highly variable, though, depending on the cell type used and the species.
More than 10 different cell types have been used successfully as parents for cloning. These days most cloning is done using cells obtained by biopsying skin.
Genetics is only part of the story. Even while clones are genetically identical, their phenotypesthe characteristics they expresswill be different. Its like naturally occurring identical twins: They share all their genes but theyre not really exactly alike, especially if reared in different settings.
Environment plays a huge role for some characteristics. Food availability can influence weight. Diseases can stunt growth. These kinds of lifestyle, nutrition, or disease effects can influence which genes are turned on or off in an individual; these are called epigenetic effects. Even though all the genetic material may be the same in two identical clones, they might not be expressing all the same genes.
Consider the practice of cloning winning racehorses. Clones of winners sometimes also will be winnersbut most of the time theyre not. This is because winners are outliers. They need to have the right genetics, but also the right epigenetics and the right environment to reach that winning potential. For example, one can never exactly duplicate the uterine conditions a winning racehorse experienced when it was a developing fetus. Thus, cloning champions usually leads to disappointment. On the other hand, cloning a stallion that sires a high proportion of race-winning horses will result very reliably in a clone that similarly sires winners. This is a genetic rather than a phenotypic situation.
Even though the genetics are reliable, there are aspects of the cloning procedure that mean the epigenetics and environment are suboptimal. For example, sperm have elegant ways of activating the eggs they fertilize, which will die unless activated properly. With cloning, activation usually is accomplished by a strong electric shock. Many of the steps of cloning and subsequent embryonic development are done in test tubes in incubators. These conditions are not perfect substitutes for the female reproductive tract where fertilization and early embryonic development normally occur.
Sometimes abnormal fetuses develop to term, resulting in abnormalities at birth. The most striking abnormal phenotype of some clones is termed large offspring syndrome, in which calves or lambs are 30 or 40 percent larger than normal, resulting in difficult birth. The problems stem from an abnormal placenta. At birth, these clones are genetically normal, but are overly large, and tend to be hyperinsulinemic and hypoglycemic. (The conditions normalize over time once the offspring is no longer influenced by the abnormal placenta.)
Recent improvements in cloning procedures have greatly reduced these abnormalities, which also occur with natural reproduction, but at a much lower incidence.
Many thousands of cloned mammals have been produced in nearly two dozen species. Very few of these concern practical applications, such as cloning a famous Angus bull named Final Answer (who recently died at an old age) in order to produce more high-quality cattle via his clones sperm.
But the cloning research landscape is changing fast. The driving force for producing Dolly was not to produce genetically identical animals. Rather, researchers want to combine cloning techniques with other methods in order to efficiently change animals geneticallymuch quicker than traditional animal breeding methods that take decades to make changes in populations of species such as cattle.
One recent example is introducing the polled (no horns) gene into dairy cattle, thus eliminating the need for the painful process of dehorning. An even more striking application has been to produce a strain of pigs that is incapable of being infected by the very contagious and debilitating PRRS virus. Researchers have even made cattle that cannot develop Mad Cow Disease. For each of these procedures, somatic cell nuclear transplantation is an essential part of the process.
To date, the most valuable contribution of these somatic cell nuclear transplantation experiments has been the scientific information and insights gained. Theyve enhanced our understanding of normal and abnormal embryonic development, including aspects of aging, and more. This information is already helping reduce birth defects, improve methods of circumventing infertility, develop tools to fight certain cancers, and even decrease some of the negative consequences of agingin livestock and even in people. Two decades since Dolly, important applications are still evolving.
George Seidel, professor of biomedical sciences, Colorado State University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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Facebook does it again. WhatsApp launches revamped Status, cloning Snapchat – Catch News
Posted: at 4:17 am
First, it was Facebook-owned Instagram. Now it is WhatsApp, another company controlled by Marck Zuckerberg. It's safe to say that Facebook is very fond of Evan Spiegel's soon-to-list unicorn and social media darling, Snapchat. In August, Instagram copied Snapchats popular Stories feature.
Now, WhatsApp has gone ahead and done the same. Stories is essentially a feature wherein one can share photos, videos for up to 24 hours before they disappear altogether. Furthermore, WhatsApp has allowed people to add GIFs into their Stories. The format that Snapchat invented is now becoming universal.
Stories is essentially a feature wherein one can share photos, videos for up to 24 hours before they disappear altogether. Furthermore, WhatsApp has allowed people to add GIFs into their Stories. The format that Snapchat invented is now becoming universal.
WhatsApp on Monday, 20 February, unveiled a new version of its existing plain status update simply calling it WhatsApp Status to its 1.2 billion users. Previously, one could only share a short message like, "out to lunch" or "gone to the doctor's" or maybe even something philosophical. Who knows, at the rate, they are going, Facebook might just be next. In fact, Facebook's Messenger product was revamped in December, to make sending photos a the forefront. At least Facebook hasn't made the camera the first thing that people see when the app opens.
WhatsApp though does stand out from the crowd. It added the abilities to add GIFs to Status'. They've even gone and made sure that all status updates are end-to-end encrypted (disappear means disappear). Unlike Snapchat and Instagram, WhatsApp videos can be as long as 45 seconds - a welcome addition. Also, WhatsApp status' are shared only with those in your address book and not others.
This is a format that is being broadly adopted, and were adopting it as well, product manager at WhatsApp, Randall Sarafa, told Recode. There are some pretty interesting things that weve done to make it unique to WhatsApp. Remember, Facebook had offered Spiegel $3 billion to buy Snapchat back in 2013 but that offer was turned down.
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Facebook does it again. WhatsApp launches revamped Status, cloning Snapchat - Catch News
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Everything you need to know about evolution items in Pokemon Go – CNET
Posted: at 4:16 am
Seadras need a dragon scale to evolve.
One of the new features introduced recently to Pokemon Go are evolution items. These five additions help you evolve some Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon when combined with a certain amount of candy. Here's everything you need to know about these items and where to find them.
Before Gen 2 was released, all you needed to evolve a pocket monster was collect enough candies. Now, for some special Pokemon, you need to collect the candies and an evolution item.
Here are the evolution items and how to identify them:
The taser-like upgrade item you need to evolve Porygon.
Right now, only eight Pokemon evolve using anything other than candy. Here's a list and what you need to evolve them:
To evolve Onix you need a metal coat.
There are two different ways to evolve a Slowpoke.
The only way to get evolution items is by spinning PokeStops. Like with the new berries, though, they don't drop as often as balls and razz berries. After more than fifty spins at various stops, I only got one sun stone. Your mileage may vary, but don't expect to collect them quickly.
There's a rumor that you're more likely to get an evolution item when you get your seven-day streak bonus, but that hasn't been confirmed.
The one sun stone I found after more than 50 spins.
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Water ‘Walls’ Spur Evolution of New Colorful Fish Species – Live Science
Posted: at 4:16 am
Two critically endangered Teleogramma brichardi, cichlids known to exist only in one stretch of rapids in the lower Congo River.
There are more than 300 species of bizarre and beautiful fish living in the lower Congo River. Now, research reveals why: Walls of water keep fish from breeding with one another.
Cut off by rapids and swift currents, fish species end up isolated. Over time, their genes become so different from their neighbors' that they evolve into entirely separate species, researchers reported Feb. 6 in the journal Molecular Ecology.
"What's particularly unique about the lower Congo is that this diversification is happening over extremely small spatial scales, over distances as small as 1.5 kilometers [0.9 miles]," study author Elizabeth Alter, a biologist at the City University of New York's York College, said in a statement. "There is no other river like it." [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]
The lower Congo is the last 200 miles (321 km) of a 2,920-mile-long (4,700 km) waterway that snakes through the Democratic Republic of the Congo and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
The lower Congo is no lazy river; according to a 2008 U.S. Geological Survey report on its hydraulics, the first 80 miles (130 km) below Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are so treacherous that they were not navigated until 2008. Other sections, like a 21-mile (34 km) stretch between the cities of Matadi and Kinganga, aren't navigable at all because of rushing rapids and dizzying waterfalls.
It's these rapids that drive the evolution of fish in the lower reaches of the river, Alter and her colleagues found. The researchers focused on cichlids of the genus Teleogramma, a group that includes the large-finned, rainbow-banded Teleogramma brichardi. An analysis of more than 50 fish from different species in the Teleogramma genus revealed that species were geographically defined. The hydrologic forces of the river, such as its impassible rapids and swift currents, limited fish to particular areas.
"The genetic separation between these fishes shows that the rapids are working as strong barriers, keeping them apart," Alter said.
The barriers, formed by the hydrology of the river, explain how so much diversity could arise in the 3 million to 5 million years that the lower stretches of the river have existed, according to study author Melanie Stiassny, who curates ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
A similar phenomenon occurs on "sky islands." In these areas, species can't traverse steep valleys between mountaintops, so peaks right next to each other host species that never mix.
About 80 of the 300 fish found in the lower Congo are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. T. brichardi is one of these endemic species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies this fish as critically endangered.
The IUCN cites urbanization near the only rapids where the sleek, colorful cichlids are found as the species' major threat. But proposed hydroelectric projects, such as the Grand Inga Dam, would fundamentally alter the fast-flowing river if they were to be built.
"Activity like that would majorly interrupt the evolutionary potential of this system," Stiassny said in a statement.
Original article on Live Science.
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Pokemon Go trick: Another way to make Eevee evolve into Espeon … – BGR
Posted: at 4:16 am
One of the first Easter eggs that players discovered when the new update arrived for Pokemon Go last week was the ability to give an Eevee the nickname Sakura to make evolve it into Espeon or Tamao to make it evolve into Umbreon. Unfortunately, this trick only works once, but the sleuths at Pokemon Go Hub have discovered that theres another way to ensure your Eevee evolves into one of the new forms.
After conducting research over the past several days, Pokemon Go Hub has determined that the following criteria must be met in order to ensure that your Eevee evolves into either Espeon or Umbreon:
In order to test the hypothesis that Niantic had added friendship to the game in the latest update, Go Hub put 27 different Eevees through their paces using a variety of variables to determines whether or not it was possible to make sure that Eevee would evolve into either Espeon or Umbreon.
With the Eevees that walked 10km with a trainer as a Buddy, but werent set as the Buddy at the time of evolution, Go Hub got Flareons, Jolteons and Vaporeons. The same was true when they walked 10km with Eevee as their buddy, but didnt receive 2 piece of candy along the way. No Espeon or Umbreon.
At the moment, it seems that the only way to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon or Umbreon is to either use the nickname trick or follow the guidelines that Pokemon Go Hub has laid out above.
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Pokemon Go trick: Another way to make Eevee evolve into Espeon ... - BGR
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Evolution, religion can co-exist – LancasterOnline
Posted: at 4:16 am
Posthumously, Charles Darwin, possibly as much as any 19th-century scientific figure, has had his lifes work and reputation maligned, and still to this day, ridiculed with undeserved scorn. What Darwin a man who possessed a boundless curiosity and matchless intellect observed and the theory he then explained in On the Origin of Species is considered a classic.
It seems timely and appropriate that a corrective of sorts, debunking a few of the many myths about Darwin, A primer on Darwin Day, appeared in the LNP Faith & Values section Feb. 11.
After reading the Feb. 2 letter Theory of evolution has significant flaws, I think it seems only appropriate and fair that, in addition to reading a nicely illustrated book about The Origin of Species, the writer also read Darwins own work "On The Origin Of Species.
The oft-repeated claim of a lack of transitional forms and missing links ignores the fact that not all creatures inhabited areas near volcanoes or environments where they would leave history a nicely preserved fossil.
Actually fossils are quite rare. A relatively new technique, DNA sequencing, has filled in much that the fossil record does not tell us.
A book that I unreservedly recommend is Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World by Michael Dowd, a United Church Of Christ minister.
Ralph Waldo Emerson stated: The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God. Or as David Sloan Wilson stated: The blessings of religion do not require departures from factual reality.
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Evolution Digital, Conax Connect on Content Protection – Multichannel News
Posted: at 4:16 am
Evolution Digital and Conax announced that Conax will provide its multi-DRM solution for Evolution Digitals eVUE-TV platform, which is being made available on the National Cable Television Cooperatives (NCTC) VU-IT!Platform.
eVUE-TV is a managed IP platform for linear and on-demand video, as well as network DVR and catch-up TV features, that Evolution Digital has been pitching to tier 2/3 U.S. cable operators. Last year, Evolution announced that eVUE-TV is the first offering to be introduced as an option for VU-IT!, a platform that includes a solution for backoffice integration, OTT apps and enhanced services that enable IP-based linear and VOD services.
RELATED: Evolution Digital Notches Another NCTC Deal
Support for Conaxs content security system will enable partners to support multi-DRM technologies that utilize PlayReady, Widevine, FairPlay and Nagra PRM, as well as THE next generation Conax Connected Access security client that combines CA/IPTV/DRM functionalities, they said.
They added that the Conax Contego security back-end has been integrated with the eVUE-TV platform in hosted and on-premises models, and that the platform meets the MovieLabs Enhanced Content protection requirements for 4K/UHD.
We have partnered with Conax to offer a best of breed comprehensive content security solution to our NCTC members with eVUE-TV, Brent Smith, president and chief technology officer of Evolution Digital, said in a statement. As cable operators move to IP distribution and begin offering a wide-range of content that can be viewed anywhere, Evolution Digital is committed to delivering content securely and providing operators with a low cost and hassle-free solution that eliminates complexities of technology integration.
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‘Resurrected’ eggs reveal odd evolution of water fleas – Futurity: Research News
Posted: at 4:16 am
Combiningtechniques from a field calledresurrection ecology with a look atlake sediments reveals surprising evolutionary responses to heavy-metal contamination over the past 75 years.
Mary Rogalski hatched long-dormant eggs of Daphnia, tiny freshwater crustaceans also known as water fleas, that accumulated in the lake sediments over time. After rearing the critters in the lab, she exposed them to various levels of two heavy metals to see how their sensitivity to the environmental contaminants changed over time. Surprisingly, she found that sensitivity to copper and cadmium increased as the levels of those toxic metals rose in the lakes she studied.
These findings are unexpected because evolutionary theory predicts that a population should adapt quickly to a stressor like this and become less sensitive to it, not more sensitive to it. It is difficult to explain the results of this study, says Rogalski, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Michigan department of ecology and evolutionary biology.
In one of the lakes, Daphnia hatched from sediments dating to around 1990when copper contamination was at its peakwere 46 percent more sensitive to copper exposure than individuals from the 1940s, a period with lower levels of copper contamination.
Rogalski reports her finding in the journal The American Naturalist. The study was part of her dissertation research at Yale University and involved fieldwork at three Connecticut lakes.
Rogalski then estimated sediment ages based on the presence of radioactive materials and measured concentrations of copper and cadmium in the layers back to the late 1800s. Copper contamination in the lakes was largely due to yearly applications of copper sulfate to control nuisance algae. The cadmium likely came from industrial and agricultural development in the region over the past century.
In the lab, Rogalski isolated dormant or diapausing Daphnia ambigua eggs from various dated sediment layers, then hatched and raised them. She measured Daphnias changing sensitivity to copper and cadmium by exposing them to various levels of the metals in glass flasks and determining the median lethal concentration.
In one Connecticut lake where copper contamination has declined recently, she found that Daphnia remain sensitive to the metal 30 years after peak exposure.
It is difficult to know what mechanisms are driving this evolutionary pattern, Rogalski says. Even so, this research suggests that we need to do more to uncover both the drivers and implications of maladaptation in nature.
Paleolimnology is the study of ancient lakes from their sediments and fossils. The branch of experimental paleolimnology that Rogalski used in this study has been dubbed resurrection ecology by its practitioners.
Human activities can drive strong and rapid evolutionary changes in wild animal populations. Those evolutionary responses often leave the population better able to cope with the new environmental conditions, a process called adaptation through natural selection.
For example, a newly introduced pesticide may kill the vast majority of the insects it targets, but the survivors can then give rise to a pest population that is resistant to the chemical.
Some populations, however, fail to adapt to changing environments or can wind up worse off than they were beforehand, an occurrence known as maladaptation. Maladaptive outcomes are less common than adaptive ones and are less studied. In many cases, it is impossible to examine a populations response to a stressor over multigenerational timescales without conducting a long-term study that could take decades to complete.
The Daphnia crustacean, with its diapausing eggs, provides a time machine of sorts, allowing researchers to examine long-term evolutionary responses to environmental stressors by reviving and rearing dormant organisms trapped in lake bottoms.
Daphnia offer a system where examining historic evolutionary trajectories is possible, Rogalski writes in the study. Hatching diapausing eggs from dated lake sediments and culturing clonal lineages in the lab allows us to examine how populations change through time and the genetic basis underlying those changes.
The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies supported the work.
Source: University of Michigan
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Scientists explore the evolution of a ‘social supergene’ in the red fire … – Phys.Org
Posted: at 4:16 am
February 20, 2017 A photograph of a Solenopsis invicta fire ant queen (large), five workers (smaller), one larva (whiteish) on a subset of the DNA sequence of their social chromosome. Credit: Romain Libbrecht and Yannick Wurm / QMUL
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have discovered that the chromosome responsible for the social organisation of colonies of the highly invasive fire ant is likely to have evolved via a single event rather than over time.
Red fire ants are found in two different types of colonies: some colonies have a single queen while other colonies contain dozens of queens. The team had previously discovered that colony type is determined by a chromosome that carries one of two variants of a 'supergene' region containing more than 500 genes.
In a new research paper, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, the team from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences sequenced the DNA and compared the genomes of two types of individuals: those carrying the supergene version responsible for colonies with a single queen, and those carrying the supergene variant responsible for colonies with multiple queens.
"We found that the two versions of the chromosome differ homogeneously over the entire length of the supergene. This suggests that a single event, such as a large chromosomal rearrangement, was responsible for the origin of this remarkable system for determining social organisation," said lead author Dr Yannick Wurm from QMUL's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences.
The team also discovered a large number of unfavourable mutations in the version of the supergene responsible for colonies with multiple queens.
Dr Wurm added: "It is likely that only a few genes among the hundreds present in the supergene region are responsible for differences in social organisation. Our finding indicates that the advantages of having several queens in the colony outweigh the costs of the unfavourable mutations in the supergene region."
This finding can help scientists understand how chromosomes evolve over time.
Rodrigo Pracana, a PhD student at QMUL and first author of the study, said: "We know that the Y chromosome in mammals has also been affected by unfavourable mutations. It is exciting to see that the fire ant social chromosome has evolved in a similar way to the human Y chromosome, although it controls social organisation and not sex."
The red fire ant, which is a native species in South America, is infamous for its painful sting, and is known in many other parts of the world where its aggressiveness and high population density have made it an invasive pest. It was accidentally introduced to the southern USA in the 1930s and has since spread to many warm parts of the world including in China and Australia. Efforts at controlling the spread of this species have largely been unsuccessful, as indicated by its Latin name, Solenopsis invicta, meaning "the invincible".
Rodrigo Pracana added: "Our discoveries could help to develop novel pest control strategies. For example, a pesticide that disrupts the social organisation in this species without affecting other species would be beneficial.
"This might be achieved by targeting the genes in the supergene region. We find almost no genetic diversity in the version of the supergene specific to colonies with multiple queens so targeting genes in this region means there would be limited potential for the ants to evolve resistance."
Explore further: Team identifies new 'social' chromosome in the red fire ant
Researchers have discovered a social chromosome in the highly invasive fire ant that helps to explain why some colonies allow for more than one queen ant, and could offer new solutions for dealing with this pest.
Since Charles Darwin, biologists have pondered the mystery of "mimicry butterflies", which survive by copying the wing patterns of other butterflies that taste horrible to their predators, birds.
Invasive animals are often most abundant in habitats impacted by humans, especially man-made habitats, such as roadsides, suburban and urban developments, and areas of intensive agricultural activity. Understanding why this ...
Scientists have identified the cluster of genes responsible for reproductive traits in the Primula flower, first noted as important by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.
Picture an ant colony: up to a million ants, all looking identical, harmoniously going about their busy ant lives. But with so many ants around, how on Earth do they know who's friend and who's foe?
The ruff is a Eurasian shorebird that has a spectacular lekking behaviour where highly ornamented males compete for females. Now two groups report that males with alternative reproductive strategies carry a chromosomal rearrangement ...
Beetles that copulate with the same mate as opposed to different partners will repeat the same behaviour, debunking previous suggestions that one sex exerts control over the other in copulation, new research has found.
They build among the tallest non-human structures (proportionately speaking) in the world and now it's been discovered the termites that live in Australia's remote Top End originated from overseas - rafting vast distances ...
A Rice University study suggests that researchers planning to use the CRISPR genome-editing system to produce designer gut bacteria may need to account for the dynamic evolution of the microbial immune system.
An international collaboration of life scientists, including experts at Van Andel Research Institute, has described in exquisite detail the critical first steps of DNA replication, which allows cells to divide and most advanced ...
For decades, scientists working with genetic material have labored with a few basic rules in mind. To start, DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), and mRNA is translated into proteins, which are essential for almost ...
Researchers have discovered a key gene that influences genetic recombination during sexual reproduction in wild plant populations. Adding extra copies of this gene resulted in a massive boost to recombination and diversity ...
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Scientists explore the evolution of a 'social supergene' in the red fire ... - Phys.Org
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Disregarding Fake News from Darwin Promoters, South Dakota Scientist Applauds Academic Freedom Bill – Discovery Institute
Posted: at 4:16 am
Pierre, SD -- This year, South Dakota has an opportunity to encourage more scientific inquiry in the classroom. The state's legislature is considering an academic freedom bill, SB 55, introduced by Senator Jeff Monroe. As noted here last week, the bill seeks to thwart censorship, yet ironically is opposed by the National Coalition Against Censorship. The group has misrepresented its contents, comparing mainstream exploration of weaknesses in Darwinian theory with Holocaust denial.
The text of SB 55 says just this:
No teacher may be prohibited from helping students understand, analyze, critique, or review in an objective scientific manner the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information presented in courses being taught which are aligned with the content standards established pursuant to 13-3-48.
A prominent South Dakota scientist we heard from gets it, applauding the bill as a means to foster critical thinking. "SB 55, under consideration by the South Dakota legislature, is a promising step forward for South Dakota science education," said William S. Harris, PhD. Dr. Harris is the President of OmegaQuant Analytics, LLC (Sioux Falls, SD), and an NIH-funded biomedical researcher with over 300 scientific publications.
Under this legislation, students would have the opportunity learn more about scientific topics, practice critical thinking, and engage with scientific questions facing researchers today. One of those questions pertains to the origin of biodiversity.
Harris commented:
Scientific controversy over the ability of Darwin's version of evolution (i.e., natural selection acting blindly on random mutations) to explain the expanse of life on this planet continues to grow with each new revelation of the exceeding complexity of even the "simplest" life forms, not to mention humans. In my view, it is very important for today's students to understand the evidence for and against important scientific theories like Darwinism and to honestly consider challenges even to such long-held dogmas.
"South Dakota students can only benefit from such an approach -- and hopefully, legislators will seize this occasion to promote scientific inquiry," added Harris. If the bill is enacted, South Dakota would join Louisiana, Tennessee, and at least five other states with science standards or laws recognizing the role of teaching scientific strengths and weaknesses in the classroom.
The law has been a target for activists and journalists spreading misinformation about what SB 55 would permit. We have addressed false claims from Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Washington Post, which merit being described as fake news, here and here.
Photo: William S. Harris.
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