Word: dna
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Approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1996, so-called Bt corn has become enormously popular with farmers, and now accounts for up to 25% of the U.S. corn crop, or about 20 million acres. By splicing DNA from the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into the corn's genes, scientists have created a plant that turns out the same toxin as the bug. While the toxin is deadly to the corn borer, which costs U.S. growers more than $1 billion annually, it is harmless to humans--as well as to such beneficial insects as ladybugs and honeybees. Indeed, organic...
...Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens. Archaeologists merely uncovered a single skeleton of a child with a mixture of modern and Neanderthal features. To deduce that this indicates a peaceful coexistence or gradual immersion of Neanderthals into the Homo sapiens gene pool is groundless and inconsistent in the face of DNA testing recently conducted. The Neanderthals, like other hominids, are no more. Perhaps mankind's evolution was a more violent affair than we would like to believe. Yet even today the killing continues. KEVIN M. KIRBY Sydney...
...certain that farm animals were the source of the problem, the scientists performed an experiment that mixed molecular genetics with shoe-leather detective work. First they decoded a unique stretch of the resistant bug's DNA, and then they went shopping. They bought 91 chickens in local markets and, by matching DNA, found that 14% were contaminated with exactly the same bug. Tracking the infections to the source, the scientists discovered that the birds originated not from any single chicken farm but from farms across Minnesota and surrounding states--suggesting that the problem was widespread in the industry. Their conclusion...
...year-old Finn Dorset ewe, it turns out, may be susceptible to premature aging. Researchers have determined that chromosome tips, known as telomeres, which regulate the lifespan of cells by preventing their genetic code from fraying, are shorter than expected in Dolly. Researchers are not sure whether the "older DNA" is the result of the age of the animal from which Dolly was cloned or the result of the amount of time the Dolly embryo spent in culture before being implanted...
...Intriguingly, a pair of sun goggles found in a pocket suggest that he was trying to descend in fading light. There was, however, no sign of Irvine. With the Mallory family's permission, the team took a snippet of tissue from the forearm in order to compare any surviving DNA with samples from his descendants, including perhaps his grandson George, who reached the summit in 1995. Then they covered the body with rocks and read the Anglican service of committal before descending 10,000 ft. for a few days' rest at their base camp...