Free Republic

Rather than specifically triggering the toxic effects of organisms such as anthrax, the Sunshine project warned that weapons based on a new medical technique called RNA interference could shut down vital genes. If the sequence of the target gene varies between two different populations the technique could be used to interrupt key body functions in one population and not the other. "If as little as 10% or 20% of a target population would be affected, this would wreak havoc among enemy soldiers on a battlefield or in an enemy society as a whole," the group said. Others say the concerns...

An article titled "m6A RNA modification as a new player in R-loop regulation," by the Dynamic Gene Regulation research group led by Arne Klungland at IMB, was published in the January edition of Nature Genetics. Following a new collaboration between UiO and research groups in Nottingham and Oxford, it has now been revealed that RNA has a direct effect on DNA stability, according to Professor Klungland's research. He believes the discovery will provide the health service with an important tool, since many studies have shown that the regulation of modifications to RNA is important for the development of cancer. If...

The Biden administration must take serious steps to ensure China ceases its exploitation of the COVID-19 crisis in ways that threaten our national security.Some two decades ahead of schedule, on Jan. 12, the Trump administration declassified its Indo-Pacific Strategic Framework, a document outlining its national security strategy regarding Asia. The document is critical, and the timing of its declassification was telling.As National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien noted in a statement announcing its release, the framework “has provided overarching strategic guidance for implementing the 2017 National Security Strategy within the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.”By making the document...

EXCLUSIVE – Joe Biden's pick to run the Justice Department's enormously powerful Civil Rights Division is a woman called Kristen Clarke. Clarke says her job is simple: End hate. But like so many in her world, Clarke is actually an enthusiastic purveyor of what she claims to fight. A new investigation by "Tucker Carlson Tonight" has uncovered shocking statements that Clarke made while attending Harvard as an undergraduate. In 1994, Clarke wrote a letter to The Harvard Crimson in her capacity as the president of the Black Students Association to explain her views on race science. "Please use the following...

....Researchers from the GenOMICC consortium compared the 2,700 ICU patients’ genetic information with samples from healthy volunteers from other studies. They discovered key differences in these five genes: IFNAR2, TYK2, OAS1, DPP9, and CCR. They “partially explain why some people become severely sick with Covid-19, while others are not affected.” “Our findings reveal that critical illness in Covid-19 is related to at least two biological mechanisms: innate antiviral defenses, which are known to be important early in disease (IFNAR2 and OAS genes), and host-driven inflammatory lung injury, which is a key mechanism of late, life-threatening COVID-19 (DPP9, TYK2, and CCR2),”...

The economic situation in Africa has improved a lot since the 1990s.  Yet rampant poverty and food insecurity still impact millions of lives there. Currently, there is a huge demand-supply gap in the agricultural sector.  At least three hundred million are malnourished. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization defines food security as "a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." Africa's agricultural sector needs to be strengthened to meet the demand for quality food.  In...

Escaped self-cloning mutant crayfish created in experimental breeding programmes have invaded a Belgian cemetery. Hundreds of the duplicating crustaceans, which can dig down to up to a metre and are always female, pose a deadly threat to local biodiversity after colonising a historic Antwerp graveyard. "It's impossible to round up all of them. It's like trying to empty the ocean with a thimble," said Kevin Scheers, of the Flemish Institute for Nature and Woodland Research. Marbled crayfish, which travel across land and water at night and eat whatever they can, do not occur in nature and are banned by the...

Escaped self-cloning mutant crayfish created in experimental breeding programs have invaded a Belgian cemetery. Hundreds of the duplicating crustaceans, which can dig down to up to a meter and are always female, pose a deadly threat to local biodiversity after colonizing a historic Antwerp graveyard. “It’s impossible to round up all of them. It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a thimble,” said Kevin Scheers of the Flemish Institute for Nature and Woodland Research. Marbled crayfish, which travel across land and water at night and eat whatever they can, do not occur in nature and are banned by the...

[Ghost] DNA from an unknown ancient ancestor of humans that once bred with Denisovans still exists among the genomes of people today, a study has revealed. The different branches of the human family tree have interbred and swapped genes -- a processes known as 'introgression' -- on numerous occasions... Experts from the US found that some three per cent of the Neanderthal genome came from interbreeding with another ancient human group 300,000 years ago... The researchers used the algorithm to look at genomes from two Neanderthals, a Denisovan and two African humans. Alongside finding that a small proportion of the...

The researchers found a Philistine cemetery in Israel – home to 145 human remains dating back to between the 11th and the 8th centuries BC. The discovery, made in 2013 and finally revealed in 2016, may yield answers to an enduring mystery surrounding the origins of the Philistines. It came at the end of a 30-year excavation by the Leon Levy Expedition. The Philistines were an ancient people who lived from the 12th century BC until 604 BC. They are known for their biblical conflict with the Israelites.

One in three women in Europe inherited the receptor for progesterone from Neandertals -- a gene variant associated with increased fertility, fewer bleedings during early pregnancy and fewer miscarriages. This is according to a study published in Molecular Biology and Evolution by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden... Progesterone is a hormone that plays an important role in the menstrual cycle and in pregnancy. Analyses of biobank data from more than 450,000 participants -- among them 244,000 women -- show that almost one in three women in Europe have inherited...

A British man once struck down by coronavirus has described how the horror symptoms of the deadly disease almost killed him. Simon Parker, 47, thought he was suffering from a common cold when he fell ill on Boxing Day in 2016. But he became severely ill over the next few days and by New Year's Eve couldn't even breathe - forcing him to desperately call 999. He was taken from his home in Kingswear, Devon, to a hospital where he was put into an induced coma.

or police officers around the country, the genetic profiles that 20 million people have uploaded to consumer DNA sites represent a tantalizing resource that could be used to solve cases both new and cold. But for years, the vast majority of the data have been off-limits to investigators. The two largest sites, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, have long pledged to keep their users’ genetic information private, and a smaller one, GEDmatch, severely restricted police access to its records this year. Last week, however, a Florida detective announced at a police convention that he had obtained a warrant to penetrate GEDmatch and...

New technology includes a smaller and much faster DNA-reader that troops can haul into combat aboard their helicopters and use while the smoke from combat is still clearing... ... Baghdadi’s head reportedly remained intact following the blast. Using a biometric facial-recognition scanner, the Americans “immediately identified” Baghdadi, Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported...

They might find a particular marker or something that indicates you may have a predisposition or high likelihood of breast cancer or Alzheimer's.... What could go wrong?

Cells that scientists have largely ignored when studying multiple sclerosis are actually key contributors to MS development, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine shows. The discovery suggests new avenues for devising treatments and is a vital step toward finding a cure. Cells that scientists have largely ignored when studying multiple sclerosis are actually key contributors to MS development, new research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine shows. The discovery suggests new avenues for devising treatments and is a vital step toward finding a cure. In MS, the body's immune system begins to attack the...

Last week, a Native American botanist argued that the genetic modification of crops is a form of rape. Perhaps the next step in the #MeToo movement involves returning to the low crop yields before the Green Revolution, which saved billions of lives by making food more available through genetic modification, among other things. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist, member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY-Syracuse, called corn "one of our deepest and oldest relatives." In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio, she humanized corn as the "Corn Mother,"...

Israeli team used DNA to design first Denosivan replica Portrait of a female Denisovan teen. (photo credit: MAAYAN HAREL) ================================================================ Meet “Denise,” the first reconstructed anatomical profile of what, until now, were considered the mysterious Denisovans, a group of archaic humans. She was revealed on Thursday by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The team who managed to recreate her profile say that long-term, their research shows possible strategies that could be taken for forensic applications. Denisovans lived in Siberia and Eastern Asia before going extinct approximately 50,000 years ago, said Hebrew University researcher Prof. Liran Carmel, who led...

FULL TITLE: BUGGED OUT Deadly ‘super mosquitoes that are even tougher’ accidentally created by scientists after bungled experiment ============================================================ GENETICALLY modified mosquitoes that were designed by scientists to help populations decrease are actually thriving. This is according to new research that claims the plan to create gene-hacked mosquitoes that have offspring which die immediately has spectacularly backfired and now scientists don't know what will happen next. he modified mosquitoes were released in Jacobina in Brazil and were supposed to mix with the local population and decrease numbers with their weak offspring genetics. Although the wild population did plummet for a...

There's no such thing as a single "gay gene" that drives a person's sexual behavior, concludes the largest genetic study ever conducted on the issue. Instead, a person's attraction to those of the same sex is shaped by a complex mix of genetic and environmental influences, similar to what's seen in most other human traits, researchers report. "This is a natural and normal part of variation in our species," said researcher Ben Neale, director of genetics with the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "That should also support the position that we shouldn't...