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genetics

U=(N/T)M*G: Unearthed

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tardigrade - deposit photos

Any time I can talk about Tardigrades, you can bet good money I’m going to do exactly that. These little “bears” have so much potential in science. They do all the things, and it’s my personal belief that trans-human modification will start with enhancements from gene-splicing with Tardigrades. Especially with the problems we’re still trying to solve with deep space exploration. Macrobiotus naginae are a soil type Tardigrade. At this rate, there will be more types of these suckers than Pokemon. The specialty of these ones is the ability to live in arid conditions. Deserts. Cold ones too. If humans … Read more

NATURE: How Vampire Bats Survive on an All-Blood Diet

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vampire bat

Vampire bats have an unusual, blood-only diet that’s high in protein but lacking in other nutrients. Now, a new study hints that “missing” genes may explain how the flying mammals survive on nothing but blood meals, lapped from their victims’ open wounds in the dead of night, The Scientist Magazine reported. In the new study, posted Oct. 19 to the preprint database bioRxiv, researchers compared the genome of the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) with those of 25 other bat species. The analysis revealed that D. rotundus lacks functional copies of 13 genes that appear in the other bats; these … Read more

NATURE: Attack of the (Bee) Clones

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Cape Honeybee - Deposit Photos

When hives of the African lowland honeybee (Apis mellifera scutella) collapse, they do so because of an invisible inner threat: the growing, immortal clone army of a rival bee subspecies. That army is possible because the female workers of the rival subspecies — the South African Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis) — can create perfect copies of themselves, with one individual found to have done so millions of times in the past three decades. With this perpetual-cloning ability, the Cape honeybees sneak into the hives of their lowland honeybee rivals and churn out copy after copy (no need for a … Read more

SCIENCE: Are There Creativity Genes?

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Creativity - Pixabay

Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study. The idea that creativity may have given Homo sapiens a survival edge over Neanderthals has been around a long time, said senior author Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis. But that’s a tricky case to prove, as we still don’t know how creative Neanderthals actually were, he said. “The problem with evaluating creativity in extinct species is, of course, you can’t … Read more

SCIENCE: Is There a Creativity Gene?

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Creativity - Deposit Photos

Creativity could be one of the main reasons Homo sapiens survived and dominated over related species such as Neanderthals and chimpanzees, according to a new study. The idea that creativity may have given Homo sapiens a survival edge over Neanderthals has been around a long time, said senior author Dr. Claude Robert Cloninger, a professor emeritus in the psychiatry and genetics departments at Washington University in St. Louis. But that’s a tricky case to prove, as we still don’t know how creative Neanderthals actually were, he said. “The problem with evaluating creativity in extinct species is, of course, you can’t … Read more

SCIENCE: You Have a Sea Monster Inside of You

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Sea Monster - Pixabay

More than half a billion years ago, headless sea creatures that looked like leaves, teardrops and coils of rope trawled the primeval seas. Although these primordial animals looked nothing like us, some of our most important genes may be 555-million-year-old relics from these long-lost creatures, according to a new study. The study found that Earth’s earliest and most primitive animals may have had genes that code for body symmetry, sensory organs and immune systems that are still around today. Animals of the Ediacaran era were flat, bottom-feeding ocean dwellers that scoured the seafloor. They were truly otherworldly in appearance; some, … Read more

Gene Tweak Extends Life 500% (If You’re This Worm)

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roundworm - deposit photos

By tweaking a few key genes in the DNA of a roundworm, scientists have extended the animal’s life span by about 500%. That’s a huge jump in life: An average roundworm lives for about three to four weeks. But when unencumbered of two specific genes — DAF-2 and RSKS-1 — the creatures can survive for several months. Scientists had linked these genes to longevity years ago, noting an increase in the life span of worms and other creatures when these genes are switched off. However, the exact role of the genes in the aging process remained a mystery. Now, researchers … Read more

Pig-Monkey Chimeras Created in China

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pig-monkey chimera

Two piglets recently born in China look like average swine on the outside, but on the inside, they are (a very small) part monkey. A team of researchers generated the pig-primate creatures by injecting monkey stem cells into fertilized pig embryos and then implanting them into surrogate sows, according to a piece by New Scientist. Two of the resulting piglets developed into interspecies animals known as chimeras, meaning that they contained DNA from two distinct individuals — in this case, a pig and a monkey. “This is the first report of full-term pig-monkey chimeras,” co-author Tang Hai, a researcher at … Read more

Was Same Sex Behavior Hardwired Into Animals Since the Beginning?

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gay lions - pixabay

Evolutionary scientists have been thinking about same-sex sexual behavior all wrong. That’s the implication of a new study on same-sex behavior in animals. Instead of asking why animals engage in same-sex behavior (SSB), researchers should be asking, “Why not?” the authors said. If they’re right, same-sex sex may not have evolved independently in different animals for adpative reasons. Instead, same-sex sex may have emerged very early in time and could persist simply because engaging in it doesn’t cost animals much, evolutionarily speaking. “Usually, when evolutionary biologists see a trait that’s really widespread across evolutionary lineages, we at least consider the … Read more

SCIENCE: It Turns Out Homosexuality is Complicated

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gay couple - deposit photos

No individual gene alone makes a person gay, lesbian or bisexual; instead, thousands of genes likely influence sexual orientation, a massive new study of the genomes of nearly half a million people suggests. Across human societies and in both sexes, between 2% and 10% of people report engaging in sex with a member of the same sex, either exclusively or in addition to sex with a member of the opposite sex, the researchers said. The biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation are largely unknown, but many scientists suspect that genetics plays a role, given that same-sex sexual behavior appears … Read more