Category Archives: Transhuman News

DNA - coffee house escuela bellas artes (Ensamble Coral La
Cover DNA Little Mix.

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DNA - coffee house escuela bellas artes (Ensamble Coral La - Video

DEMO BATTLES - DNA Vs Mos Prob *FREESTYLE*
DNA_GTFOH Vs @AdamDFelman.

By: DemoBattles

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DEMO BATTLES - DNA Vs Mos Prob *FREESTYLE* - Video

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The lawyer for a Maine man serving two life sentences for the 1999 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend and the toddler she was baby-sitting told Maines highest court Wednesday that DNA tests could show somebody else might have committed the killings.

Richard Hartley asked Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices to overturn a lower court ruling denying his request for DNA testing on clothes worn by another man, David Vantol, who claimed responsibility for the killings but later recanted.

Hartley said the tests could show the victims DNA or blood on the clothes, which would benefit his client, 49-year-old Jeffrey Cookson, and cast a new light on his case. Cookson was convicted of killing 20-year-old Mindy Gould and 21-month-old Treven Cunningham in Dexter.

If the DNA tests produced the victims DNA, Mr. Vantols DNA but not Mr. Cooksons DNA, thats an issue I imagine a fact-finder would be curious about and that would raise some eyebrows, he said.

But Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber said Cookson hadnt met the burden of the law in proving the clothes hadnt been contaminated or altered in the two years they were supposedly buried in the ground. He maintained that Cookson was rightly convicted of the crimes.

The jury found the truth 12 years ago, that Jeffrey Cookson executed these two people, he said.

Cookson was convicted in 2001 of shooting Gould and the young boy in the back of the head while they were lying face down in the bedroom.

Just minutes after the verdict, Vantol confessed to the murders. A short time later, he led police to a gun used in the killings.

Two days later, he gave investigators a trash bag with clothing items, a wig and a hat that he said he had worn during the killings and then buried, two years earlier.

He later changed his story and told investigators Cookson persuaded him to confess to the murders. Cookson in 2004 and 2008 sought to have DNA tests performed on the clothing.

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Convicted Maine killer seeks DNA tests on clothes

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) A suburban New York man released from a life-without-parole sentence last summer after new DNA tests cast doubt on his conviction in his wifes killing two decades ago in Vermont is scheduled to be arraigned again on a murder charge.

John Grega, 50, is scheduled to appear in court Thursday in Brattleboro on a charge of aggravated murder in the September 1994 death of his 31-year-old wife, Christine Grega, who was killed in a Dover condominium where the couple and their young son were vacationing.

The hearing is listed as a pretrial conference and an arraignment, but Gregas attorneys have asked that the charges against him be dismissed. Its unclear if the judge in the case will act on the request or any other motions filed in the case.

Last month, Windham County States Attorney Tracy Kelly Shriver filed an amended charge of aggravated murder against Grega, alleging he killed his wife while sexually assaulting and sodomizing her with an unnamed object.

The original affidavit of probable cause, which was refiled along with the amended charge, described how Christine Grega was found in a bathroom after John Grega and their son returned from an outing.

A 2008 change in Vermont law allowed for the retesting of DNA evidence in certain cases. Testing done after that change found DNA of an unknown male on Christine Gregas body.

Prosecutors pursued a theory that the sample had been accidentally contaminated, said Gregas defense attorney, Ian Carleton. As a result 25 to 30 people who were near the crime scene, such as medical personal and police, were tested to see if their DNA matched the sample found on the body.

All those people were excluded as being the source, which strongly suggests that this is DNA from the perpetrator, Carleton said.

Shriver declined to comment, except to say that Grega is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Grega, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning, was convicted in 1995 of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated murder. The murder conviction was the first time a Vermont defendant was convicted of the charge, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.

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NY man released over DNA tests is due in Vt. court

15 May 2013 Last updated at 10:13 ET

Europe's first advanced civilisation was local in origin and not imported from elsewhere, a study says.

Analysis of DNA from ancient remains on the Greek island of Crete suggests the Minoans were indigenous Europeans, shedding new light on a debate over the provenance of this ancient culture.

Scholars have variously argued the Bronze Age civilisation arrived from Africa, Anatolia or the Middle East.

Details appear in Nature Communications journal.

The concept of the Minoan civilisation was first developed by Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist who unearthed the Bronze Age palace of Knossos on Crete.

Evans named the people who built these cities after the legendary King Minos who, according to tradition, ordered the construction of a labyrinth on Crete to hold the mythical half-man, half-bull creature known as the minotaur.

Evans was of the opinion that the real-life Bronze Age culture on Crete must have its origins elsewhere.

And so, he suggested that the Minoans were refugees from Egypt's Nile delta, fleeing the region's conquest by a southern king some 5,000 years ago.

"He was surprised to find this advanced civilisation on Crete," said co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, from the University of Washington in Seattle, US.

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DNA reveals origin of Minoan culture

May 15, 2013 DNA databases might help identify victims of crime and human trafficking, but how do we safeguard the personal privacy of innocent victims and family members? A new report online May 15 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Genetics identifies a number of key challenges to consider as experts develop such programs.

Identifying victims of human trafficking remains a challenge around the world; between 12 million and 27 million individuals are currently enslaved. "If ever there is a justifiable use of DNA, it is the protection of victims of human rights violations and human trafficking," says coauthor Sara Katsanis, of Duke University. "DNA will not be useful for many types of human trafficking, but if it can be used to identify just a small percentage of victims, then we have made progress in the fight against modern slavery."

Katsanis and her coauthor Joyce Kim, also of Duke University, note that although DNA is a powerful forensic tool that has great potential to identify and protect victims of human trafficking and other human-rights violations, many people fear the use of DNA against them and worry that authorities could use victims' DNA to control private information concerning citizens.

Also, collecting DNA for human-trafficking purposes might be outside of the law-enforcement purview when it involves persons who are neither criminals nor deceased. Some governments already test DNA of immigrants, refugees, adoptive children, and their biological mothers, but the authors note that in some cases collecting DNA to identify the victims of human-rights violations might be better handled by nongovernmental authorities. On the other hand, DNA collected today could serve as court evidence in the future, so authorities must have proper legal control over the handling of samples.

"Combatting human trafficking is going to require creativity and collaboration amongst government authorities, law enforcement, social services, academics, and victim advocates," says Kim. "We envision multiple approaches and solutions and would like to see the perspectives of the participants and victims be considered as approaches develop," she adds.

Related Duke University initiatives include a series of workshops to bring together experts to discuss relevant scientific, policy, and human-rights issues pertaining to the collection of DNA to identify victims of human trafficking.

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Collecting DNA for human rights: How to help while safeguarding privacy

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwired - May 15, 2013) - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTCBB: APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), a provider of DNA-based anti-counterfeiting technology and product authentication solutions, announced today that it has entered into a 2-way exclusive agreement with SmokeCloak, A/S(MSS Professional, or "MSS") of Agerhatten 25, Odense, Denmark, to market a technology combining APDN's SigNature DNA in a rapid-deployment security smoke called DNA Fog.

The agreement calls for mutual exclusivity: MSS will buy DNA only from APDN, while APDN will supply DNA to no other fog manufacturer than SmokeCloak. As part of the relationship, MSS has extended their distribution network for use by APDN, accessing security sales throughout the world and enhancing APDN's internal sales force.

The SmokeCloak anti-intruder device deploys in a crime attempt, filling a room with a fog -- sometimes called a security smoke -- that virtually immobilizes criminals and now also will mark a criminal with APDN's SigNature DNA so it may be used to forensically link the criminal to the crime.The DNA Fog product will be used in the SmokeCloak VALI product range and can be combined with APDN's existing SmartDNA anti-intruder device, currently used in Sweden and the U.S. The combination of SmokeCloak's room-filling smoke generators together with APDN's anti-intruder device, which produces a targeted spray directed at the suspect, will give both companies a strong competitive edge in the crime deterrent market.

Kurt Jensen, CFO of APDN stated: "We are very excited about our collaboration with MSS. The new product can be incorporated into existing SmokeCloak VALI installations without any retrofitting. This greatly reduces time-to-market and gives APDN full access to the well established world-wide MMS distributor channel across 40 countries. This open access will greatly amplify our own sales efforts."

Tony Benson, APDN's European Director stated: "The paired product offering of APDN's Sentry spray and MSS's Fog unit, both empowered by our forensic DNA, makes for a potent crime deterrent."

Nick Bigler, Managing Director of MSS added: "APDN has a global reputation for its forensic DNA, and it is accepted by those in law enforcement.We are gratified to add this strong competitive edge to our product offering."

About Applied DNA Sciences

APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions that can help protect products, brands and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature DNA and smartDNA, our principal anti-counterfeiting and product authentication solutions that essentially cannot be copied, provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.

The statements made by APDN may be forward-looking in nature.Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on December 20, 2012 and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

About SmokeCloak

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Applied DNA Sciences and SmokeCloak, A/S Launch DNA Fog