Category Archives: DNA

In today's show, we will tell you how the guidelines applied to news channels over news coverage doesn't apply to OTT platforms and digital media, which affects the youth. News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) is an independent nine-member body set up by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) for the self-regulation of 24X7 news channels that are part of NBA. The body issues guidelines for covering sensitive news from time to time, which the news channels have to follow.

For example, channels cannot show an interview of a terrorist, pictures of dead bodies, blood. In serious cases, the victim's identity is not disclosed.

This set of guidelines apply to all news channels, but no such rules are applicable to OTT platforms and digital media and that is why the viewers get to see and hear a lot of violence and abuses in online content. This in turn negatively affects the youth and children.

It has become important to decode this unlimited freedom of OTT platforms. First of all, we will tell you what is meant by the term 'OTT platforms'. OTT means Over The Top. When the content of films and television is made available to viewers through the Internet without any cable network and satellite channel, it is called OTT.

The basis of this analysis is a Web Series released on 15 January 'Tandav'. In this Web Series, there are allegations of humiliating Hindu deities. And the important thing is all this has happened in the name of freedom of expression. Imagine the freedom to express ideas, which is called the right to expression, how it transcends boundaries and justifies the insult of Hindu deities. It is said that this is an art and this art should be valued.

Many people are angry because of this, but a big thing here is that there was no riot in India. It can be said that in our country, it has become very easy to insult Hindu deities and the producer and director of this web series have been accused of similar.

This new web series has presented a very negative image of the country. The character of the country's politician, hospital, school, police, university, administration, government, the prime minister is shown in such a way that you will lose your trust and confidence in the system. It has been shown that nothing good is happening in our country. In the series, a narrative has been portrayed by linking the names of characters to a particular religion which presents the wrong image of the country to the world.

However, a dispute has now arisen and an FIR has also been filed in Lucknow and people are demanding action against the producers and directors of this web series.

The News Broadcasting Standards Authority, or NBSA, is the organisation that regulates the content currently shown on news channels in India. There is the Press Council of India to regulate print media. For films, there is the Central Board of Film Certification which is called censor board. But there is no such organization to control the content on digital media and OTT platforms.

Censorship and regulation are two different things. Censorship is modesty and regulation an arrangement. There should be regulations for OTT platforms and digital media as well, because when the expression in the society gets molded in the form of speaking, writing and showing, then the biggest danger to this expression is democracy itself. It becomes a power over which no one has control.

The films and web series shown in the name of freedom of expression are starting to take the course of abuses and vulgarity. You may have inadvertently submitted a membership fee on many online streaming platforms to do this course. And we are confident that these streaming platforms will be streaming negative thoughts in your mind by misusing your time and money. Therefore, we want you to take a pledge to delete these thoughts from today.

Earlier, the films used to go from shooting to screening in a long reel, which was delivered to theaters in a box. That hundred of feet long reel was mechanically rotated, through which a bright light used to go on the screen and the scenes that were produced from that light were seen in those iconic films of Bollywood.

This journey started with Doordarshan, through which information and many TV serials reached people.

One of the serials was 'Hum Paanch', which was based on the story of India's middle-class families. Similarly, serials like 'Wagle Ki Duniya', 'Malgudi Days', 'Yatra' and 'Mungeri Lal Ke Haseen Sapne' became very popular.

The Zee TV entered the industry after the entry of private satellite channels in India. In 1993, a serial was aired on ZEE TV, titled 'Tara'. It was a clean serial with no vulgarity of any kind. There were no abuses. Then also the serial became quite a hit in India. Apart from this, there came serials like 'Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai', 'Rajni', 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' and 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', which created a different identity among the people.

And now this journey has reached OTT platforms, where vulgarity and abuses are treated as a test of success. Where it is believed that the more abuses, the greater the chance of getting success.

According to a study, while watching movies and web series on OTT platforms, the attention of people changes every 8 seconds. And in such a situation, abuses and obscenity are put into films to keep these people tied with them. This means, by taking money from you, some people decide how much abuses and vulgarity they have to sell.

It is quite easy to trade negative thoughts in India. Negative thoughts are easily valued in our country. And many companies make crores of rupees by selling them. But all this does not happen with the government's money. Trading negative thoughts become a profitable deal with your money.

In the year 1994, a film 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun' was released, in which, weddings with Indian customs and traditions were shown as an event. It is said that due to this film, the mentality of the people also changed and wedding business became a big market in India.

Now a similar hit formula is also being worked on OTT platforms. The formula is to offend religious sentiments, add as much vulgarity to the story, glamorize abuses in the name of dialogues and connect the whole story around a negative character.

However, we feel that OTT Platforms also have some powers which can become a very effective platform if the designer is free of ideas. So today we want to tell you some strong aspects of this as well.

First, OTT platforms have brought a new freshness to stories. A new style of telling and showing films has been born. New artists and writers have got the chance to present on the stage. And most importantly, because of this platform, a 10-hour long web series has been created, which probably no one had even imagined.

There was a time when it was said that the duration of films should be three hours. But in this era of web series, the theory of 'The End' is now over.

In India, it was announced recently that the control of all the OTT platforms will now be with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. The President of the country has also signed this notification and now the government keeps a close watch on whatever content you see online. A few days ago the government also made it clear in the Supreme Court that before controlling the news channels, digital media needs to be controlled.

OTT service providers' accountability regarding content should be fixed. And to do this, the government has to make new laws and regulations. The government will have to ensure that when a complaint is made about any content of the OTT platform, then action should be taken in due time.

However, Ali Abbas has apologized after the controversy on the web series Tandav. He has shared his apology on Twitter. He has written that "the cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs."

See the article here:
DNA Special: Are OTT platforms abusing right to expression? - DNA India

Brothers were surprised to find out they were step brothers.

Brothers were surprised to find out they were step brothers.

Photo: Deepak Sethi/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Brothers were surprised to find out they were step brothers.

Brothers were surprised to find out they were step brothers.

Dear Abby: Results of nephews DNA test change shape of family tree

DEAR ABBY: My nephew Dave recently took a DNA test and discovered that my brother and I have a different father than our other two siblings.

I have lived my entire life with the understanding that my family is my family. Now Dave, who has an obsession with genealogy, has my brother and me listed as half-siblings. I am not a half-anything, and while DNA could be used to prove my father is not my father, I have no intention of testing my own DNA or contesting my parentage.

Maybe Im out of line, but I want the half designation removed from our family profile. Im hoping you can give me a reality check. Am I blowing this out of proportion, or do you think it would be appropriate to ask him to remove the designation?

Whole, Not Half in Indiana

DEAR WHOLE: I understand why you are upset. However, you seem to have interpreted this as a personal insult or a value judgment on Daves part. It isnt. This has nothing to do with the way you and your brother were raised; of course your family is your family. But genetically, you and your brother are different from the other two siblings, which is why I dont think it would be appropriate to ask your nephew to remove the designation.

DEAR ABBY: Im 55, and my sister is 50. She has always been mean and hateful toward me. Even though I have done my best to keep her from going off the deep end, she has always struck back at me even meaner. She is schizophrenic, paranoid and bipolar.

Despite my making her my maid of honor at my wedding (Mom forced me) and making her godmother at my childs baptism, she has continued to be a beyond-evil demon because I didnt do some things right, according to her. She has tried hard to turn my 19-year-old daughter against me and slams me for being a grandma to my grandchild. (She cant have kids.) Family has always let her slide due to her mental illness. Please advise.

Beaten Down in Missouri

DEAR BEATEN DOWN: Your sister is a sick woman. If your daughter doesnt understand that, make it clear to her. I dont know how much input you have in your grandchilds upbringing, but if there is any truth to what has been said, it may be time to use a lighter touch if you are being perceived as heavy-handed.

By letting your sisters behavior slide due to her mental illness, the rest of your family has contributed to the person she has become. However, this does not mean you must be involved with her, and if you are smart, you will start to disengage.

DEAR ABBY: I am surprised I see so many nurses wearing their scrubs in the supermarket. To me, if they are coming from the hospital, their clothes will have germs on them, and if they are going to the hospital, they could bring germs with them. What do you say?

Vinnie In New Jersey

DEAR VINNIE: Many people in the medical field choose to wear scrubs because they are convenient. Whether these individuals are actually nurses is anybodys guess. They could be office staff, technicians, etc. and not necessarily exposing the public or patients to germs they wouldnt otherwise encounter.

For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order How to Have a Lovely Wedding. Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

DearAbby.com

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Dear Abby: Results of nephew's DNA test change shape of family tree - Midland Daily News

Somehow, its the end of December. What is there to say about 2020? This year has felt like a turning point, a cliff, the end of one world and the beginning of another. For us on The Verges science desk (and so many others), its been a year we want to both lock away forever and also never forget.

As 2020 wound down, we decided that we wanted to commemorate this unreal year with a time capsule, so that whatever happens in 2021 and beyond, there will be a small, resilient snippet of 2020 that future historians, scientists, or space aliens can unearth and wonder about. So we took a whack at distilling a years worth of science memories into a handful of digital files. Its far from comprehensive, but it tells some intriguing stories.

The first part of the project was compiling the time capsule assets themselves. We built a file browser here, where you can click through the digital moments and ephemera we included and think about what our descendants might make of them.

The second challenge was figuring out how to preserve the files themselves for hundreds or even thousands of years. Most modern storage media like hard drives or flash memory is built to be cheap, not durable. But theres one up-and-coming storage medium that could keep our files safe for millennia: synthetic DNA. Over the past few weeks, we worked with a team of scientists and engineers to encode our digital mementos into custom strands of DNA. The result has to be seen to be believed... even if its technically too small to actually see.

Check out the video above for the whole story, and heres to a brand-new 2021.

Continue reading here:
We built a 2020 time capsule out of synthetic DNA heres how - The Verge

DEAR ABBY: My nephew "Dave" recently took a DNA test and discovered that my brother and I have a different father than our other two siblings.

I have lived my entire life with the understanding that my family is my family. Now Dave, who has an obsession with genealogy, has my brother and me listed as "half-siblings." I am not a half-anything, and while DNA could be used to prove my father is not my father, I have no intention of testing my own DNA or contesting my parentage.

Maybe I'm out of line, but I want the "half" designation removed from our family profile. I'm hoping you can give me a reality check. Am I blowing this out of proportion, or do you think it would be appropriate to ask him to remove the designation?

WHOLE, NOT HALF IN INDIANA

DEAR WHOLE: I understand why you are upset. However, you seem to have interpreted this as a personal insult or a value judgment on Dave's part. It isn't. This has nothing to do with the way you and your brother were raised; of COURSE your family is your family. But genetically, you and your brother are different from the other two siblings, which is why I don't think it would be appropriate to ask your nephew to remove the designation.

DEAR ABBY: I'm 55, and my sister is 50. She has always been mean and hateful toward me. Even though I have done my best to keep her from going off the deep end, she has always struck back at me even meaner. She is schizophrenic, paranoid and bipolar.

Despite my making her my maid of honor at my wedding (Mom forced me) and making her godmother at my child's baptism, she has continued to be a beyond-evil demon because I didn't do some things right, according to her. She has tried hard to turn my 19-year-old daughter against me and slams me for being a grandma to my grandchild. (She can't have kids.) Family has always let her slide due to her mental illness. Please advise.

BEATEN DOWN IN MISSOURI

DEAR BEATEN DOWN: Your sister is a sick woman. If your daughter doesn't understand that, make it clear to her. I don't know how much input you have in your grandchild's upbringing, but if there is any truth to what has been said, it may be time to use a lighter touch if you are being perceived as heavy-handed.

By letting your sister's behavior "slide due to her mental illness," the rest of your family has contributed to the person she has become. However, this does not mean you must be involved with her, and if you are smart, you will start to disengage.

DEAR ABBY: I am surprised I see so many nurses wearing their scrubs in the supermarket. To me, if they are coming from the hospital, their clothes will have germs on them, and if they are going to the hospital, they could bring germs with them. What do you say?

VINNIE IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR VINNIE: Many people in the medical field choose to wear scrubs because they are convenient. Whether these individuals are actually nurses is anybody's guess. They could be office staff, technicians, etc. and not necessarily exposing the public or patients to germs they wouldn't otherwise encounter.

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Results of DNA test change shape of family tree - theday.com

What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. With that in mind, the ROCE of Dimerco Data System (GTSM:5403) looks great, so lets see what the trend can tell us.

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Dimerco Data System:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.23 = NT$336m (NT$3.1b - NT$1.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

Therefore, Dimerco Data System has an ROCE of 23%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the IT industry average of 15%.

View our latest analysis for Dimerco Data System

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you'd like to look at how Dimerco Data System has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Dimerco Data System has not disappointed with their ROCE growth. Looking at the data, we can see that even though capital employed in the business has remained relatively flat, the ROCE generated has risen by 120% over the last five years. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

In summary, we're delighted to see that Dimerco Data System has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for Dimerco Data System you'll probably want to know about.

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high returns on equity.

PromotedWhen trading Dimerco Data System or any other investment, use the platform considered by many to be the Professional's Gateway to the Worlds Market, Interactive Brokers. You get the lowest-cost* trading on stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds and funds worldwide from a single integrated account.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. *Interactive Brokers Rated Lowest Cost Broker by StockBrokers.com Annual Online Review 2020

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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Does Dimerco Data System (GTSM:5403) Have The DNA Of A Multi-Bagger? - Simply Wall St

Amazon is still discounting the 23andMe Health + Ancestry DNA Test, marking it down by $70. So you can pick it up for just $129.

It's worth noting that this is going to arrive after Christmas, so it won't be under the tree in time for this Friday unfortunately. But this price is likely to go up after Christmas, so now is a good time to pick it up. And find out where you are really from.

Know your genes. Own your health. Learn how genetics can influence your chances of developing certain health conditions. Find out if youre a carrier for certain inherited conditions. Discover what your DNA has to say about your well-being and how it can influence certain lifestyle choices.

Know your personal story in a whole new way. Discover your ancestry composition and where in the world your DNA is from across 2000+ regions. Automatically start your Family Tree using your DNA. See what your DNA might have to say about your taste and smell preferences. Discover how DNA can affect your ability to match a musical pitch or whether you hate the sound of chewing.

Everyone deserves a secure, private place to explore and understand their genetics. Your data is encrypted, protected, and under your control. You decide what you want to learn and what you want to share.

Know youre making a difference. When you opt in to participate in our research, you join forces with millions of people contributing to science. Your participation could help lead to discoveries that may one day make an impact on your own health, the health of your family, and people around the world.

You can pick up the 23andMe Health and Ancestry DNA Test kit from Amazon in this sale by clicking here. But you'd better hurry, as these prices are not going to last very long.

23andMe DNA Test - Amazon

See more here:
Find Your Roots With The 23andMe Health + Ancestry DNA Test For Only $129 - Android Headlines

DEAR ABBY: My nephew Dave recently took a DNA test and discovered that my brother and I have a different father than our other two siblings.

I have lived my entire life with the understanding that my family is my family. Now Dave, who has an obsession with genealogy, has my brother and me listed as half-siblings. I am not a half-anything, and while DNA could be used to prove my father is not my father, I have no intention of testing my own DNA or contesting my parentage. Maybe Im out of line, but I want the half designation removed from our family profile. Im hoping you can give me a reality check. Am I blowing this out of proportion, or do you think it would be appropriate to ask him to remove the designation? -- WHOLE, NOT HALF IN INDIANA

DEAR WHOLE: I understand why you are upset. However, you seem to have interpreted this as a personal insult or a value judgment on Daves part. It isnt. This has nothing to do with the way you and your brother were raised; of COURSE your family is your family. But genetically, you and your brother are different from the other two siblings, which is why I dont think it would be appropriate to ask your nephew to remove the designation.

DEAR ABBY: Im 55, and my sister is 50. She has always been mean and hateful toward me. Even though I have done my best to keep her from going off the deep end, she has always struck back at me even meaner. She is schizophrenic, paranoid and bipolar.

Despite my making her my maid of honor at my wedding (Mom forced me) and making her godmother at my childs baptism, she has continued to be a beyond-evil demon because I didnt do some things right, according to her. She has tried hard to turn my 19-year-old daughter against me and slams me for being a grandma to my grandchild. (She cant have kids.) Family has always let her slide due to her mental illness. Please advise. -- BEATEN DOWN IN MISSOURI

DEAR BEATEN DOWN: Your sister is a sick woman. If your daughter doesnt understand that, make it clear to her. I dont know how much input you have in your grandchilds upbringing, but if there is any truth to what has been said, it may be time to use a lighter touch if you are being perceived as heavy-handed.

By letting your sisters behavior slide due to her mental illness, the rest of your family has contributed to the person she has become. However, this does not mean you must be involved with her, and if you are smart, you will start to disengage.

DEAR ABBY: I am surprised I see so many nurses wearing their scrubs in the supermarket. To me, if they are coming from the hospital, their clothes will have germs on them, and if they are going to the hospital, they could bring germs with them. What do you say? -- VINNIE IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR VINNIE: Many people in the medical field choose to wear scrubs because they are convenient. Whether these individuals are actually nurses is anybodys guess. They could be office staff, technicians, etc. and not necessarily exposing the public or patients to germs they wouldnt otherwise encounter.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at http://www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

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Dear Abby: DNA test changes shape of family tree - OregonLive

It is not yet clear if the body found on Tuesday afternoon is that of 3-year-old Anothando Mhlobo who went missing in August.

CAPE TOWN - The community of Hout Bay in the Western Cape is awaiting DNA results of a decomposed body found in the area.

The body of a child was discovered by a resident in a rocky and sandy area in Imizamo Yethu on Tuesday afternoon.

Due to the state of decomposition of the body, the age, gender and identity could not be determined.

DNA testing will be done to ascertain if the body is that of 3-year-old Anothando Mhlobo who went missing in August.

At the time, the community launched a massive search for the little boy.

The police's Novela Potelwa says an autopsy is expected to be conducted soon to determine the cause of death.

Only DNA results can determine if the body is that of Anothando Mhlobo of Hout Bay.

Download the EWN app to your iOS or Android device.

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DNA tests to determine if body found in Imizamo Yethu is that of missing boy (3) - Eyewitness News

DNA from Viking-era burials around Europelike this one of a woman in Varnhem, Swedenrevealed individual histories and identities.

By Andrew CurrySep. 16, 2020 , 11:00 AM

It was a Viking saga written in genes. In 2008, construction work on an isolated Estonian beach near the town of Salme uncovered the skeletons of more than 40 powerfully built men. They were buried around 750 C.E. in two ships with Viking-style weapons and treasureapparently the aftermath of a raid gone wrong. DNA from the bones has now added a poignant detail: Four of the men, buried shoulder to shoulder holding their swords, were brothers.

The new data come from a massive effort to sequence the DNA of Vikings across Europe. The results, published today in Nature, trace how the Vikings radiated across Europe from their Scandinavian homeland, and how people with roots elsewhere also took up Viking ways. The big story is in line with whats told by archaeologists and historians, says Erika Hagelberg, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Oslo who was not part of the research team. Its the small details of particular sites that are really compelling. The Estonian site, for example, offers powerful evidence that the crew was a tight-knit group from the same village or town. Four brothers buried together is new and unique [and] adds a new dimension, says Cat Jarman, an archaeologist working for the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, who was not part of the research team.

Over the course of almost 10 years, a team led by geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen assembled samples from across Scandinavia dating to the Viking Age, from about 750 C.E. to 1050 C.E., as well as some earlier and later samples. The team also gathered human remains from burials elsewhere in Europe and beyond that had Viking grave goods or burial styles. We approached every place where we could see there should exist somehow an association with Vikings, Willerslev says. Ultimately, the team was able to sequence 442 Viking Age genomes from as far afield as Italy, Ukraine, and the doomed Viking settlements of Greenland.

The results tell dramatic stories of individual mobility, such as a pair of cousins buried in Oxford, U.K., and Denmark, separated in death by hundreds of kilometers of open ocean. The genetic details may also rewrite popular perceptions of Vikings, including their looks: Viking Age Scandinavians were more likely to have black hair than people living there today. And comparing DNA and archaeology at individual sites suggests that for some in the Viking bands, Viking was a job description, not a matter of heredity.

Viking ships sailed forth from Scandinavia, traversing the waterways of Europe and reaching across the Atlantic Ocean. Vikings from different homelands preferred certain destinations; for example, men from Norway settled Greenland, DNA data now show.

MARGARYAN ET AL., NATURE, 10.1038/S41586-020-2688-8, ADAPTED BY V. ALTOUNIAN/SCIENCE

Viking-style graves excavated on the United Kingdoms Orkney islands contained individuals with no Scandinavian DNA, whereas some people buried in Scandinavia had Irish and Scottish parents. And several individuals in Norway were buried as Vikings, but their genes identified them as Saami, an Indigenous group genetically closer to East Asians and Siberians than to Europeans. These identities arent genetic or ethnic, theyre social, Jarman says. To have backup for that from DNA is powerful.

The results also settle a centuries-old argument about the geography of raiding. Sagas written down centuries after the first expeditions suggest Vikings from certain regions favored specific destinations, but other scholars suggested the Viking command of the waves made them equal-opportunity raiders and traders.

DNA in hand, researchers for the first time could conclusively trace the origins of people from the far edges of the Viking diaspora back to their roots in Scandinavia. We can follow the patterns of contact suggested by written sources, but disputed by historians for decades, says co-author Sren Sindbk, an archaeologist at Aarhus University.

They found that Vikings from what is now Sweden moved east to the Baltics, Poland, and the rivers of Russia and Ukraine, whereas Danes were more likely to head west to what is today England. Norwegians were most likely to set sail for the North Atlantic Ocean, colonizing Ireland, Iceland, and eventually Greenland (see map, above). This is detail one couldnt do based just on archaeology, Willerslev says.

To the teams surprise, there was little evidence of genetic mixture within Scandinavia itself. Although a few coastal settlements and island trading hubs were hot spots of genetic diversity, Scandinavian populations farther inland stayed genetically stableand separatefor centuries. We can separate a Norwegian person from a Swedish person from a Danish person, Sindbk says.

The DNA has raised new questions, too. Study co-author and National Museum of Denmark archaeologist Jette Arneborg says DNA recovered from burials in Greenland shows a mix of Scandinavian men from what is now Norway and women from the British Isles. Yet the artifacts and burials look completely Scandinavian. The women have British genes but we cant see them in the archaeology, she says. The DNA is going to make us think more about whats happening here.

Other mysteries remain. Viking settlements in the Americas have not yielded bones for sequencing, leaving the identity of the first European settlers in the Americas a mystery. And to the east, more samples may help illuminate the role of Vikings in the origins of the early Russian state, a topic that remains extremely politically charged, Sindbk says. This data has the potential to resolve some of these debates.

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'Viking' was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows - Science Magazine

Daniel Arlow has spent the last eighteen years studying genomics and synthetic biology. The arc of his career has taken the first-time founder of the new startup Ansa Biotechnologies from MIT to the famous Keasling Lab at the University of California at Berkeley and now to the world of startups.

Now, Arlow is ready to tell the world what hes been working on at Ansa, which is nothing less than the delivery of the next generation of synthetic DNA manufacturing.

His company is bringing to market a new process for making DNA that Arlow said is faster and more accurate than existing technologies.

DNA read, write, and edit are the core pillars of synthetic biology, said Seth Bannon, a founding partner at the frontier investment firm Fifty Years, and an investor in Ansas recent $7.9 million investment round. Currently the ability to write DNA is the main bottleneck in the synthetic biology industry. By enabling faster, longer, and higher quality DNA synthesis with their fully enzymatic process, Ansa will help accelerate the entire synthetic biology industry.

Arlow likens the state of the industry now to the early days of programming. If it took three weeks to compile your code or recompile your code to make a simple change you could never make any progress in developing software for the computer, Arlow said. And thats the state for programmable biology these days.

It took a really long time to test your idea after it was designed. It forces you to plan things out much more carefully and to be less spontaneous and less agile, he said.

Using Ansa, companies can have DNA made based on their specific requirements at a speed and scale that Arlow said other companies in the market cant match.

Currently, DNA molecules are made using a thirty year-old chemical method that has limitations on the length of molecules that can be made. By contrast, Ansas biologically inspired DNA synthesis method means that the company can make long molecules directly, without the risk of errors that can result from patching pieces of genetic material together.

The company has developed an enzyme that basically adds bases to a DNA molecule. The company basically has a cut and paste function that serves to unblock DNA and then allows another base to be attached.

Its also important to note that Arlows company is doing synthesis as a service rather than selling bioprinters that can enable any researcher to make their own DNA.

One of the reasons were developing our business as a DNA synthesis service as opposed to making a printer is because that gives us a much greater ability to vet orders for biosecurity risk before we manufacture them, Arlow said.

Other companies like DNA Script (from France) and Nuclera (a Cambridge, UK-based company) are going to market with bioprinters that theyre selling directly to research labs, according to Arlow.

All of these businesses are the next iteration of companies like Twist Bioscience, that are manufacturing DNA to power the synthetic biology revolution (something that TechCrunch Disrupt attendees have been hearing a lot about).

Ansa hasnt shipped any DNA yet, but the company will soon be taking orders to begin competing in a market that Arlow estimates is over $1 billion today and is growing quite rapidly.

Writing is really the bottleneck, Arlow said. The business were in is selling to R&D.. the faster we can crank out the DNA the better it is. Part of the reason why were still pretty bad at engineering biology is because it takes so long to build a new design. My hope is by building more well get better at designing because well be able to see what works and what doesnt work.

The rest is here:
Ansa Biotechnologies wants to usher in a new era of DNA manufacturing - TechCrunch