1. category
  2. Transhuman News

Page 1,549«..1020..1,5481,5491,5501,551..1,5601,570..»

Category Archives: Transhuman News

New NASA Visualization Shows Where This Month’s Solar Eclipse Will Be Visible – Futurism

Posted: August 10, 2017 at 5:40 am

In BriefA new visualization from NASA shows how the moon's irregularshape will influence where the upcoming solar eclipse will bevisible. Simulating Shadows

On August 21, a swatch of Earth residents will witness the rare side effect of our planets long dance with its oldest partner: a total solar eclipse, caused by the perfect alignment of the Moon in front of the sun.

A new visualization from NASA shows in extraordinary detail where the total eclipse will be visible; primarily along an approximately 112 km (70 mile) stretch, cutting across the United Statesdiagonally from Oregon to South Carolina. This diagonal lies in the path of the umbra, the part of the Moons shadow where the sun is entirely blocked by the Moon.

The visualization shows that the umbra is shaped like an irregular, slightly curved polygon, rather than the circle you might expect. The same dips and bumps that shade faces and imaginary seas into the Moons surface also affect how light passes around it.

With this new visualization, we can represent the umbral shadow with more accuracy by accounting for the influence of elevation at different points on Earth, as well as the way light rays stream through lunar valleys along the moons ragged edge, said NASA visualizer Ernie Wright of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

This new level of detail comes from pairing 3-D maps of the Moons surface, created by NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, with elevation data for the places its shadow will hit.

Because the umbral shadow is relatively small, a solar eclipse is only visible somewhere on Earth roughly every 18 months.

So, if you find your area in the path of totality one year, youve hit the jackpot, NASA officials explain in the video above.Because on average, that same spot on Earth will only get to see a solar eclipse every 375 years.

However, this already rare phenomenon is getting evenmore so:the Moon exerts a pull on the earth that creates ocean tides, and subsequentlyslows our planets rotation.This also transfers energy into the Moons orbit that pushes it away from Earth.

As a result, our Moon recedes by about 1.48 inches every year roughly the same speed at which your fingernails grow. Someday, it will be too far to block the sun fully.

Over time, the number and frequency of total solar eclipses will decrease, explains Richard Vondrak, a lunar scientist at NASAs Goddard, in the statement. About 600 million years from now, Earth will experience the beauty and drama of a total solar eclipse for the last time.

More:
New NASA Visualization Shows Where This Month's Solar Eclipse Will Be Visible - Futurism

Posted in Futurism | Comments Off on New NASA Visualization Shows Where This Month’s Solar Eclipse Will Be Visible – Futurism

Space Station Robot Installs Neutron Star Explorer: Watch the Time-Lapse Video – Space.com

Posted: August 9, 2017 at 4:48 am

By Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor | August 8, 2017 08:14am ET

NASA'sNeutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) was installed on the International Space Station in June 2017. This time-lapse video was created using cameras on the orbital lab and shows the orbital outpost's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), aka Dextre, transporting NICER.

NICER launched to the space station on June 3 aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. The experiment is designed to studyneutron stars, the densest observable objects in the universe, NASA officials have said. NICER officially began science operations in July.

"No instrument like this has ever been built for the space station," NICER principal investigator Keith Gendreau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement. "As we transition from an instrument development project to a science investigation, it is important to recognize the fantastic engineering and instrument team who built a payload that delivers on all the promises made."

Note: Space.com senior producerSteve Spaletacontributed to this report.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him@tariqjmalik.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

Tariq joined Purch's Space.com team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, covering human spaceflight, exploration and space science. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq onGoogle+,Twitterand onFacebook.

More:
Space Station Robot Installs Neutron Star Explorer: Watch the Time-Lapse Video - Space.com

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on Space Station Robot Installs Neutron Star Explorer: Watch the Time-Lapse Video – Space.com

Reading man to chat to astronaut live from the International Space Station – getreading

Posted: at 4:48 am

A Caversham man will be talking to an astronaut while he orbits the earth as part of an international radio challenge.

Jonathan Sawyer, of Waller Court, is one of three young radio amateurs representing the UK at the Youngsters on the Air event.

He joins 80 other young people aged 15 to 25 at the event, held between Saturday, August 5 to Saturday, August 12.

And on Tuesday, August 8 at 7.30pm the 24-year-old will talk with astronaut Paulo Nespoli who is currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Mr Sawyer said: "I am excited to be part of this prestigious youth event and know that the amateur radio contact with the ISS will be something special to remember."

Attendees will also be able to see Mr Nespoli live in the station via Amateur TV.

Mr Sawyer went to the Highdown Sixth Form in Emmer Green , and currently works for Martin Lynch & Sons in Staines, which is one of the biggest suppliers of radio equipment in the UK.

He said: "It's very exciting. This type of event [Youngsters on the Air] is completely unique in the world.

"I know it's been running for the last six years and its great for the UK to be the hosts this year.

"I got a letter through last year inviting me to apply to be a representative for the UK so I went ahead and applied.

"Then this February I got a letter saying I was one of three people who were successful!

"The programme from last year looked pretty exciting so I was really excited to attend this year!"

Other young radio amateurs have come from a diverse range of countries including Croatia, Tunisia, South Africa and Japan. The event is being held at Gilwell Park, near London.

Amateur radio is a popular technical hobby and volunteer public service that was first used in space shuttle missions in 1983 to develop, build and launch satellites.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station is working with NASA to facilitate the ISS contact and a live web cast of the contact will be streamed by the British Amateur Television Club .

See the original post:
Reading man to chat to astronaut live from the International Space Station - getreading

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on Reading man to chat to astronaut live from the International Space Station – getreading

Found in Space: Zero Robotics Kids compete – The Suburban Times

Posted: at 4:48 am

TACOMA, Wash. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer will be in the hot seat on the International Space Station on Friday, Aug. 11. He will be under the scrutiny of dozens of American and Russian middle school children watching from Earth, as he referees a microgravity game of program your robot to grab the most floating objects in the finals of the international Zero Robotics tournament.

Among the faces watching the livestream at the Museum of Flight: 18 schoolchildren from Tacoma and Gig Harbor whose team beat out three regional rivals to face off on the big day against 12 other finalist teams from the United States and Russia.

The local group of seventh- and eighth-grade students are participants in University of Puget Sounds Summer Academic Challenge, a science and math-based enrichment program run by the colleges Access Programs for underrepresented students from Tacoma Public Schools.

Astronaut Scott Kelley plays with the SPHERES on the International Space Station (Photo credit: NASA/ISS)

The annual Zero Robotics game on the space station is led by NASA and MIT Space Systems Laboratory, with Schools Out Washington coordinating the Washington state competition. The game challenges schoolchildren from across the country and overseas to design a robotics program to solve a problem of genuine interest to NASA and MIT.

The Puget Sounders team from University of Puget Sound came first in the state by designing the best program to control NASAs colorful sphere-shaped robots or SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Their program, in a real-life scenario, potentially could pick up spacecraft spare parts or broken satellite items that are floating in space and bring them to the space station.

The 13 finalist student teams will be watching their robots in action, via a livestream feed, in venues from Massachusetts to Alabama to California. The Puget Sounders team will view the tournament at 8:20 a.m. on August 11 from the Space Gallery of the Museum of Flight in Tukwila, just south of Seattle. You can watch it live on University of Puget Sound Access Programs Facebook page.

The kids got five weeks to train and experiment with a graphical simulator, which has on-screen elements that look rather like a puzzle, and that have their movements translated into computer code, said Joseph Coln 10, Puget Sound Access Programs coordinator. They had to come up with a strategy for collecting high-value objects floating in the station that would also give them the scope to defend their own bin of objects or to try to grab competitors objects.

On the big day, each teams computer code will be loaded on to computers on the space station. The team that scores the most points for collecting objects will win. All teams participating in the program receive trophies to recognize their work.

Amy Gerdes, the Access Programs teacher guiding the Puget Sounders, said the Zero Robotics experience in coding and its real-world application help prepare the students for studies and careers in the sciences, math, computer technology, and engineering.

Win or lose, the code will be archived by Zero Robotics and potentially used in the future by space agencies on missions to Mars or for ongoing cleanup of Earths atmosphere, she said. Thats pretty special.

WHAT: The Zero Robotics competition finals, involving 13 student teams (12 in the U.S.; one in Russia) will be held on the International Space Station. There will be four Washington state teams, including the state winner, the Puget Sounders, watching the contest via a livestream feed. The media are invited.

WHEN: Friday, August 11, 8 a.m.11 a.m. Tournament starts at 8:20 a.m.

WHERE: Museum of Flight (Space Gallery), 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98108

The Puget Sounders team members: Adrianna Pettway, Aunya Crow, Gabriela Lizarraga, Gabrielle Mullen, Jasmine Chhang, Jasmine Jackson, Jenica Truong, Joseph Irish, Lavina Polk, Micah Long, Miguel Angel Davila, Mikyla Fowler, Monee Dubose, Nicholas Yeun, Quienten Miller, Quinton Pettison, Tyler Budd, and Yahbi Kaposi.

The Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program provides students with a five-week curriculum introducing them to computer programming, robotics, and space engineering. It is provided through a partnership between the MIT Space Systems Lab, Innovation Learning Center, and Aurora Flight Sciences. It is sponsored by NASA, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and the Northrup Grumman Foundation.

University of Puget Sounds Summer Academic Challengeis run by the colleges Access Programs, which promote academic excellence for middle and high school students, in partnership with Tacoma Public Schools. The Summer Academic Challenge is a tuition-free summer math and science enrichment program that helps underrepresented students prepare for their next academic year. The program is an integral component of University of Puget Sounds commitment to diversity and its strategic goal to increase the enrollment of individuals from underrepresented minoritized groups, to improve structural diversity, and to promote students retention and success.

Schools Out Washingtonsmission is to ensure all young people have safe places to learn and grow when not in school. The nonprofit group is dedicated to building community systems to support quality afterschool, youth development, and summer programs for Washingtons children and youth ages five through young adulthood.

Read the original here:
Found in Space: Zero Robotics Kids compete - The Suburban Times

Posted in Space Station | Comments Off on Found in Space: Zero Robotics Kids compete – The Suburban Times

How Space-Based Design Will Keep Martians and Moon-Dwellers Sane – Motherboard

Posted: at 4:48 am

Imagine trying to take a leak, say, in the inhospitable environment of a Martian winter. Or getting your crops to grow when the temperature outside your moon colony is a crisp -153C. The environment in which you work and live obviously has to stand up to the severity of the alien environment outside your habitat. Architects and designers have been contemplating how we will live in alien environments for a while now; but the new push to send astronauts to Mars has lent this question new urgency.

The bare-bones infrastructure needed to keep people alive in space is not enough. Humans are social animals; we need to stay tethered to our home and our culture in some way to keep us sane while we push the boundaries of space travel.

From the cramped quarters of the Nostromo in Alien to the ill-fated Icarus II of Danny Boyle's Sunshine, fiction is littered with accounts of extraterrestrial spaces that work against the crew. The challenge for designers of new off-world habitats is to avoid these pitfalls and design a harmonious environment for those that will live there.

Image: NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin proposed a solution at the 2013 edition of the Humans to Mars Summit for colonizing the Red Planet: deploy a fleet of robots to Mars orbit and have them assemble the components of a living structure. Then guide it down to the surface in segments, assemble it, and prestoinstant Mars habitat.

However, it seems reasonable that the first wave of settlers to set up shop in a Mars colony, for example, are going to need a glimpse of the familiar every now and again to prevent their Earth-bound psyches from going completely off the rails. According to Jessie Andjelic, a guest lecturer at the University of Calgary and an architect at the Spectacle Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism, that requires three things: the use of building materials from home, some kind of a view of the familiar, and a way to preserve and maintain privacy.

Image: Brian Boigon

"The research is pretty varied," said Andjelic in a phone interview, "but what we heard from other experts and people who've spent time in space is there's a lot of pressures when you're involved in a mission like that. Physically it's exhausting, but mentally it's really exhausting as well. You have people who have high expectations for your mission where you're testing out certain technologies or certain scientific experiments and their work is really resting on your performance."

One of the best ways to clear your mind on the ISS, for example, is to gaze out the window to a glorious view of Earth. On Mars the situation is not so simple. "On the ISS you have this amazing panorama of Earth where you can see quite a bit of detail, you can see that there's no borders, it kind of changes your worldview," said Andjelic. "When you're on Mars, Earth is a star, so the connection is much more tenuous."

The next step is to design a culturean established way of doing things that can transmit the "values" of the new settlement from one wave of colonizers to the next. That tactic is on full display in Matt Damon's portrayal of a Mars-bound survivalist in The Martian, wherein the protagonist goes toe-to-toe with the harsh landscape to grow crops. He rigorously attempts to replicate a small corner of the Earth in his botanical facility.

But this "colonization" of the new world could eventually lead to problems that the first wave of settlers could never anticipate. Adopting an "imperial" attitude of imposing the laws of Earth on Mars, for example, could dull the creative impulses of settlers, leaving them unable to improvise effectively on the native terrain of their brave new world.

Image: Credit: Brian Boigon

Brian Boigon, a professor in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, has been working on the philosophical underpinnings of alien habitats for many years. His latest project, a multimedia extravaganza called Interopera, is described as a portal into a hypothetical civilization that exists 5,000 years from now, based on the narrative structure of The Canterbury Tales.

He says the key to successfully adapting to an environment that has no connection with Earth is to avoid adopting a "colonial" attitude, in an attempt to "civilize" the alien environment. Instead, Boigon suggests we "reinterpret our lives there in a new way." He says we should re-think our environment rather than attempt to reproduce what we already know. "My idea would be that if you're going to go to another place that has nothing that's familiar, that you try to learn from that environment and generate new portals of experience."

Like a well-designed habitat here on Earth, a successful, productive colony on Mars, the Moon, or possibly a far-flung exoplanet will have to not only withstand the rigours of an extreme environment, but must also provide succor for the lonely souls who will be living there alone for years at a time. Spiritual and emotional wellness will be key considerationsnot just knowing how to irrigate crops in a place where it could rain liquid methane.

Go here to read the rest:
How Space-Based Design Will Keep Martians and Moon-Dwellers Sane - Motherboard

Posted in Moon Colonization | Comments Off on How Space-Based Design Will Keep Martians and Moon-Dwellers Sane – Motherboard

Genetic Engineering with Strict Guidelines? Ha! – Discovery Institute

Posted: at 4:47 am

Human genetic engineering is moving forward exponentially and there is still no meaningful societal, regulatory, or legislative conversation about whether, how, and to what extent we should permit the human genome to be altered in ways that flow down the generations.

But dont worry. The Scientists assure us, when that can be done, there will (somehow) be STRICT OVERSIGHT. From the AP story:

And lots more research is needed to tell if its really safe, added Britains [Robin] Lovell-Badge. He and [Johns Hopkins University bioethicist Jeffrey] Kahn were part of a National Academy of Sciences report earlier this year that said if germline editing ever were allowed, it should be only for serious diseases with no good alternatives and done with strict oversight.

Please!No more! When I laugh this hard it makes mystomach hurt.

Heres the problem: Strict guidelines rarely are strict and they almost never offer permanent protection. Theyare ignored, unenforced, or stretched over time until they, essentially, cease to exist.

Thats awful with actions such as euthanasia. But wecant let that kind of pretense rule the day withtechnologies that could prove to be among themost powerful and potentially destructive inventions in human history. Indeed, other than nuclear weapons, I cant think of a technology with more destructive potential.

Strict oversight will have to include legal limitations and clear boundaries, enforced bystiff criminalpenalties, civil remedies, and international protocols.

They wont be easy to craft and it will take significant time to work through all of the scientific and ethical conundrums.But we havent yet made a beginning. If we wait until what may be able to be done actually can be done, it will be too late.

Photo: Genetically engineering mice, via Wikicommons.

Cross-posted at The Corner.

Read the original here:
Genetic Engineering with Strict Guidelines? Ha! - Discovery Institute

Posted in Genetic Engineering | Comments Off on Genetic Engineering with Strict Guidelines? Ha! – Discovery Institute

Genetic Arms Race: A Threat to Human Dignity And National Security? – CNSNews.com

Posted: at 4:47 am


CNSNews.com
Genetic Arms Race: A Threat to Human Dignity And National Security?
CNSNews.com
A new genetic technology is being called a weapon of mass destruction. I'll tell you why that may not be hyperbole. In late July, the MIT Technology Review published news many of us have been dreading: A team of scientists at Oregon Health and Sciences ...

and more »

Read more from the original source:
Genetic Arms Race: A Threat to Human Dignity And National Security? - CNSNews.com

Posted in Human Genetics | Comments Off on Genetic Arms Race: A Threat to Human Dignity And National Security? – CNSNews.com

Grant to compare large-scale genomic sequencing, standard clinical tests for childhood cancer patients – Baylor College of Medicine News (press…

Posted: at 4:47 am

Baylor College of Medicine is one of six U.S. institutions to receive a grant through the National Human Genome Research Institutes Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research Consortium, or CSER2. The four-year grant, including $2.8 million for fiscal year 2017, co-funded by the National Cancer Institute, will support Baylors new KidsCanSeq program that will compare the results of large-scale genomic testing, such as whole exome sequencing, to targeted clinical tests in childhood cancer patients at five sites across the state that serve a highly diverse patient population, including Texas Childrens Cancer Center.

In addition to Texas Childrens Cancer Center, pediatric patients will be enrolled in KidsCanSeq at the Vannie E. Cook Childrens Cancer Clinic in McAllen, the Childrens Hospital of San Antonio, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Cook Childrens Health Care System in Fort Worth.

KidsCanSeq follows the Baylor Advancing Sequencing in Childhood Cancer Care(BASIC3) study at Baylor and Texas Childrens Cancer Center, which developed the initial protocols for performing clinical genomic testing of pediatric cancer patients, reporting results and communicating those results to families and oncologists. BASIC3 was part of the NHGRI Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research program, a precursor to CSER2.

Through BASIC3 we explored broad questions, such as whether we could conduct large-scale genomic testing in a clinical setting, what kind of results it would generate, and how to communicate the results to families and physicians. KidsCanSeq is focused more on generating specific data on what tests are better or worse than standard tests in pediatric cancer patients, said the studys principal investigator Dr. Sharon Plon, professor of pediatrics and of molecular and human genetics at Baylor and director of the Cancer Genetics Clinical and Research Programs at Texas Childrens Hospital.

BASIC3 was essentially a pilot study, and now that we have a better idea of how to implement broad-scale genetic testing in the clinic, we can focus this study more specifically on determining which patients would be most likely to benefit from it or for whom it would be most likely to impact care, said Dr. Will Parsons, co-principal investigator and associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor and Texas Childrens Cancer Center. For example, tumor sequencing of cancer types for which kids are almost always cured at the time of diagnosis is not likely to be as useful as for high-risk and relapsed cancers.

KidsCanSeq will strive to answer questions such as how effective is a germline and tumor panel of approximately 150 to 200 genes at picking up hereditary genetic factors and tumor-specific actionable information compared with larger scale tests, like whole exome sequencing, which evaluates thousands of genes. Specifically, the study will compare the targeted cancer panel to whole exome sequencing of a blood sample of all enrolled childhood cancer patients to find hereditary factors and to whole exome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing and copy number array of tumor samples for the subset of patients with high-risk or relapsed tumors to find mutations that might guide treatment. This comprehensive set of genomic tests will be performed by a unique collaboration between multiple diagnostic facilities with the involvement of Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center, Drs. Christine Eng and Shashikant Kulkarni, professors of molecular and human genetics, all of Baylor, and Dr. Angshumoy Roy, assistant professor of pathology & immunology at Baylor and Texas Childrens Hospital.

The program, in which about 900 patients are expected to be enrolled over four years, also will include parent and doctor surveys to determine what they found most useful from the testing as well as the development of video and other educational materials in both English and Spanish. Understanding differences among families from different ethnic or racial backgrounds as well as in different healthcare settings, including large academic medical centers versus smaller clinical settings, also is a goal of KidsCanSeq.

Dr. Amy McGuire, Leon Jaworski Professor of Biomedical Ethics and director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor, also is co-principal investigator of the study. She will investigate the ethics and utility of genomic testing for pediatric cancer patients.

It is important to study the clinical and psychosocial risks and benefits of any new technology in order to plan for its responsible use, McGuire said. We also want to make sure the infrastructure is in place so that oncologists in non-academic settings can understand, effectively communicate and appropriately manage the results of germline and tumor whole exome sequencing.

Specific aims of the KidsCanSeq study include:

Assess the clinical utility of large-scale genomic testing by measuring the frequency of diagnostic and/or actionable germline (blood) and tumor findings and the effect on treatment decisions Compare uptake by first-degree relatives for familial genetic testing and recommended cancer surveillance by race, ethnicity and clinical settings. Describe perceived utility of large scale testing by surveying and interviewing parents and participating pediatric oncologists. Work with pediatric cancer stakeholders, including advocates, BASIC3 study parents and national organizations, to create and evaluate the use of culturally sensitive educational materials, including videos in English and Spanish, improved integrated genomic test reports and counseling materials, and compare in-person versus telemedicine exome results disclosure. Provide data to guide future application of clinical genomics through three innovative pilot projects focused on health economics, decision support for cancer surveillance and whole genome sequencing.

Drs. Plon, Parsons and McGuire all are members of the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

Go here to see the original:
Grant to compare large-scale genomic sequencing, standard clinical tests for childhood cancer patients - Baylor College of Medicine News (press...

Posted in Human Genetics | Comments Off on Grant to compare large-scale genomic sequencing, standard clinical tests for childhood cancer patients – Baylor College of Medicine News (press…

Sampling DNA From a 1000-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript – The Atlantic

Posted: at 4:47 am

The York Gospels were assembled more than a thousand years ago. Bound in leather, illustrated, and illuminated, the book contains the four gospels of the Bible as well as land records and oaths taken by clergymen who read, rubbed, and kissed its pages over centuries. The Archbishops of York still swear their oaths on this book.

The York Gospels are also, quite literally, a bunch of old cow and sheep skins. Skin has DNA, and DNA has its own story to tell.

A group of archaeologists and geneticists in the United Kingdom have now analyzed the remarkably rich DNA reservoir of the York Gospels. They found DNA from humans who swore oaths on its pages and from bacteria likely originating on the hands and mouths of those humans. Best of all though, they found 1,000-year-old DNA from the cows and sheep whose skin became the parchment on which the book is written.

Remarkably, the authors say they extracted all this DNA without destroying even a tiny piece of parchment. All they needed were the crumbs from rubbing the book with erasers, which conservationists routinely use to clean manuscripts. The authors report their findings in a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, though they plan to submit it to a scientific journal.

If their technique works, it could revolutionize the use of parchment to study history. Every one of these books is a herd of animals. Using DNA, researchers might track how a disease changed the makeup of a herd or how the skin of sheep from one region moved to another medieval trade routes. Its part of a growing movement to bring together scholars in the sciences and humanities to study medieval manuscripts.

Scientists have extracted DNA from parchment before, but this non-destructive technique expands the potential pool of research material. Archivists are loathe to allow researchers to cut off a piece of, say, the York Gospels, but some eraser crumbs? Sure. Thats why its such an exciting breakthrough. It allows a lot of different manuscripts from a lot of different areas to be analyzed together, says Bruce Holsinger, an English professor at the University of Virginia who is writing a book about parchment.

The idea to study parchment came to Matthew Collins, an archaeologist at the University of York, after a failed study in bones. A few years ago, he had a graduate student trying to extract ancient DNA from animal bones at an old Viking settlement. There were thousands of bones on the site, but only six that they tested yielded DNAtoo few for any statistically significant results. You can imagine the frustration, says Collins.

So Collins got to thinking about archives full of old manuscripts. You look at these shelves, and every one of them has a skin of an animal with a date written on it, he says. Suddenly you have thousands of animals. And you didnt even need to go out into the field and dig. When Collins and postdoctoral researcher Sarah Fiddyment first approached archives to collaborate though, they made the mistake of thinking like archaeologists used to routinely pulverizing bone for DNA analysis. They told us we would not be allowed to sample the parchments. Matthew and I didnt think of it, says Fiddyment. She ended up shadowing conservationists for several weeks and learned about their eraser technique. White plastic erasers made by Staedtler turned out to be perfect for cleaning manuscripts and for collecting DNA.

Collins and Fiddyment had previously collaborated with Holsinger to use the eraser technique to study proteins from uterine vellumso named because it is so thin that people thought that they were made from the skin of unborn livestock. Others, however suggested the skin came from different animals entirely, like squirrel or rabbit. The team published a study in 2015 analyzing proteins rubbed off of uterine vellum. They found that uterine vellum is indeed from calves, sheep, and goats, though not necessarily unborn ones.

With the York Gospels, Collins and Fiddyment went one step further to look for DNA with the eraser technique. They analyzed eraser dust from eight pages. Three of the samples yielded enough DNA to compare to modern cattle genomes, and the single most complete parchment genome was similar to modern Norwegian reds and Holsteins.

They also looked at the sex of the calves. Four of the five whose sex they could determine from DNA were female, which they found highly unusual if representative. Females are more valuable if you want to grow your herds, so why would you kill so many females to make parchment? Collins and Fiddyment consulted with Annelise Binois-Roman, a zooarchaeologist, who noted that a cattle plague swept through England in the years before the York Gospels were created. Perhaps those dead calves were salvaged to make parchment. Another colleague who specialized in the Anglo-Saxon era suggested maybe precious female calves were deliberately used because it is such an important book.

The First Book of Selfies

Collins and Fiddyment recognize that scientists alone cant make sense of the DNA from parchment. They need historians and literary scholars and curators to interpret their findings. Since then, Collins has reached out to scholars and archivists far and wide to collect more DNA samples.

Timothy Stinson, an English professor at North Carolina State University, first wrote about studying DNA from parchment seven years ago. I felt like the voice in the wilderness, says Stinson. Thats changed now with the efforts of Collins and others. Stinson is interested in using DNA to study how the production of books changed over time. Early on, he says, manuscripts were likely made up of related animals from the same herd. But as cities like London and Paris grew, guilds sprung up to make books, bringing in parchment from all over.

Collins points out that medievalists studying copying errors in manuscripts have long used the same phylogenetic programs that evolutionary biologists use to study how DNA mutations appear over time. DNA analysis is simply a new way to read the hidden messages in parchment.

View original post here:
Sampling DNA From a 1000-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript - The Atlantic

Posted in DNA | Comments Off on Sampling DNA From a 1000-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript – The Atlantic

Police: Man left DNA in toilet during burglary – USA TODAY

Posted: at 4:47 am

7

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

Try Another

Audio CAPTCHA

Image CAPTCHA

Help

CancelSend

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

This undated booking photo provided by the Ventura County Sheriff shows Andrew David Jensen, 42, of Ventura, Calif., who was arrested on July 28, 2017 on suspicion of committing a burglary.(Photo: Ventura County Sheriff via AP)

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

A California man accused of burglary left DNA evidence in the toilet of the home he robbed last October, Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Andrew David Jensen, 42, "did his business and didn't flush it,"Detective Tim Lohman of the Ventura County Sheriffs Office told the Associated Press.

When police initially responded to the break-in last year, they "were able to locate items that potentially contained the suspects DNA," according to a statement from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. Forensic analysts were then able to match the samples from the scene with DNA already in their system.

Lohman told the Associated Press that this is the first case he knows of where fecal evidence collected from a toilet after a burglary had a successful DNA match.

"When people think of DNA evidence, they usually think of hair samples or saliva," Lohman told the Associated Press.

Jensen was arrested July 28 and remains in pre-trial custody, according to the police statement.

Contributing: Associated Press

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wGoa7r

Read the original post:
Police: Man left DNA in toilet during burglary - USA TODAY

Posted in DNA | Comments Off on Police: Man left DNA in toilet during burglary – USA TODAY

Page 1,549«..1020..1,5481,5491,5501,551..1,5601,570..»

  1. category
  2. Transhuman News