Tag: DNA

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Life’s Building Blocks are coming from Space

Cosmology, Biology

Date : April, 2021

Source : Science Alert

Analysing carbon-rich meteorites found in Australia (1969), Kentuky (1950) and British Columbia (2000), a team of researchers have identified nucleobases like purines and pyrimidines which were not detected previously in meteorites. These nucleobases participates to the building of the structural backbone of DNA and RNA. Such organics are considered to have play an important rôle in the chemical evolution of the Earth’s primordial stage (4 billion years ago). This is another sign of the Panspermia theory early last century.

Read the Science Alert article

Read the scientific paper on Nature

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XENOBOTS : When Cells decide to Live on their Own

Biology

Date : Mar., 2021

Source : QUANTA Magazine

An experiment in biology is opening up new territories for the understanding of living cells. Embryonic cells separated from their organism (African clawed frogs) seem to self-organize their structure and behavior, like strange living robots.

Why is this interesting? First, it shows that the DNA does not define the form, because the cluster of cells, bearing the same DNA than the original embryo, started to develop very differently. This takes us to the second point: the cells removed from the original embryo were presumably separated from the etheric double of the embryo, which is the one that guides distribution and organization of the different cells, and now had no model to follow. However, the cells showed some intelligence of their own as they developed in a very basic structure able to move around. 

Read more: QUANTA Magazine

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Estonia to give DNA test and advice to citizens

Biology

Health and Medicine

Date: April, 2018

Source: New Scientist

Estonia plans to test the DNA structure of 100,000 residents and give advice regarding their predispositions to certain diseases so that they could adopt healthier lifestyles and take preventive measures.
“We want to invest in preventing or delaying the onset of common chronic diseases by using genetics to identify people at high risk,” says Jevgeni Ossinovski, Estonia’s minister of health and labour.
The country plans to do it eventually for the entire population.
Source: New Scientist, April 7-13, 2018