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Post by lois on Jan 18, 2014 13:20:01 GMT -6
Aaron posted this on FB.. How awful. Man has lost its values of human life for sure..
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Post by auntym on Jan 29, 2014 13:34:10 GMT -6
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140126-blue-eye-spain-fossil-human-discovery-gene/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw2014020129news-bluey&utm_campaign=ContentBlue-Eyed Hunter-Gatherers Roamed Prehistoric Europe, Gene Map RevealsDan Vergano National Geographic Published January 26, 2014 Apologies to Frank Sinatra, but the real Ol' Blue Eyes has been found—a 7,000-year-old Spaniard whose fossil genes reveal that early Europeans sported blue eyes and dark skin. Mapping the blue-eyed boy's genes is part of ongoing effort to uncover the DNA of ancient humans. The new study in the journal Nature, led by Inigo Olalde of Spain's Institut de Biología Evolutiva in Barcelona, reports the genetic map of a skeleton found in a Spanish cave. (See also: "Modern Europe's Genetic History Starts in Stone Age.") Why It Matters Scholars had suspected that blue eyes arrived as an import into Europe, brought by late-arriving farmers who invaded the continent more than 5,000 years ago. Contrary to the conventional picture of a blue-eyed, fair-haired northern European, the study suggests that blue eyes were already common among the continent's early hunter-gatherers, along with darker skin. But those aren't the only results that matter from the study. The researchers also discovered that a number of disease-resistance genes seen in modern Europeans were active in the ancient Spaniard's gene map. And the study adds genetic support to archaeological findings that hint that a widespread hunter-gatherer culture cut continuously across Europe in prehistory. CONTINUE READING: news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140126-blue-eye-spain-fossil-human-discovery-gene/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw2014020129news-bluey&utm_campaign=Content
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Post by auntym on Jan 30, 2014 13:40:49 GMT -6
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/29/fifth-neanderthals-genetic-code-lives-on-humans Fifth of Neanderthals' genetic code lives on in modern humansTraces are lasting legacy of sexual encounters between our direct ancestors and Neanderthals from 65,000 years ago Ian Sample, science correspondent theguardian.com, Wednesday 29 January 2014 Many of the Neanderthal genes that live on in people today are involved in making keratin, a protein used in skin, hair and nails. Photograph: Jose A Astor/Alamy The last of the Neanderthals may have died out tens of thousands of years ago, but large stretches of their genetic code live on in people today. Though many of us can claim only a handful of Neanderthal genes, when added together, the human population carries more than a fifth of the archaic human's DNA, researchers found. The finding means that scientists can study about 20% of the Neanderthal genome without having to prise the genetic material from fragile and ancient fossils. The Neanderthal traces in our genetic makeup are the lasting legacy of sexual encounters between our direct ancestors and the Neanderthals they met when they walked out of Africa and into Eurasia about 65,000 years ago. The populations of both groups were likely so small that interbreeding was a rare event, but the benefits of some Neanderthal genes were so great that they spread through the population and linger on in modern non-Africans today. Benjamin Vernot and Joshua Akey at the University of Washington in Seattle sequenced the genomes of more than 600 people from Europe and eastern Asia. They then used a computer analysis to find gene variants that bore all the hallmarks of having come from Neanderthals. To see whether the technique worked, they checked the genes against the official Neanderthal genome, which was sequenced from fossil remnants in 2010 by researchers in Germany. CONTINUE READING: www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/29/fifth-neanderthals-genetic-code-lives-on-humans
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Post by auntym on Nov 11, 2014 13:46:38 GMT -6
www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/ancient-humans-bred-completely-unknown-species-00105924 November, 2013
Ancient Humans Bred with Completely Unknown SpeciesBy April Holloway A new study presented to the Royal Society meeting on ancient DNA in London last week has revealed a dramatic finding – the genome of one of our ancient ancestors, the Denisovans, contains a segment of DNA that seems to have come from another species that is currently unknown to science. The discovery suggests that there was rampant interbreeding between ancient human species in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago. But, far more significant was the finding that they also mated with a mystery species from Asia – one that is neither human nor Neanderthal. Scientists launched into a flurry of discussion and debate upon hearing the study results and immediately began speculating about what this unknown species could be. Some have suggested that a group may have branched off to Asia from the Homo heidelbernensis, who resided in Africa about half a million years ago. They are believed to be the ancestors of Europe's Neanderthals. However others, such as Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the London Natural History Museum, admitted that they “don’t have the faintest idea” what the mystery species could be. Traces of the unknown new genome were detected in two teeth and a finger bone of a Denisovan, which was discovered in a Siberian cave. There is not much data available about the appearance of Denisovans due to lack of their fossils' availability, but the geneticists and researchers succeeded in arranging their entire genome very precisely. "What it begins to suggest is that we're looking at a 'Lord of the Rings'-type world - that there were many hominid populations," Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London. The question is now: who were these mystery people that the Denisovans were breeding with? By April Holloway www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/ancient-humans-bred-completely-unknown-species-001059
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Post by auntym on Nov 21, 2014 12:57:18 GMT -6
ufodigest.com/article/interbreed-mystery-1121 DID ANCIENT MAN INTERBREED WITH A MYSTERY SPECIES? STUDY SAYS YES!By Carolyn Shield November 21, 2014 In the world of archeology, DNA findings are turning our idea of the history of ancient man upside down. Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens and some humans carry Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals in the past were betrayed as stupid and primitive but archeologists are changing their minds. A cave painting in Spain created by Neanderthals and their burial rituals brings to archeologists a different view of the once thought primitive giant. Taller, stronger, and a bigger cranium the Neanderthal is another example of Goliath the giant felled by the small David. The Nephilim were the children of the “sons of God” who interbred with the daughters of Eve. The Bible story may shed some light on man’s history. Nephilim and Neanderthal share some similarities in their stories especially in their large sizes.Many of the Nephilim were red haired and blonds. They died out 30,000 to 40,000 years when an extinction level event occurred on Earth. The Earth turned into a desolate place to live with temperatures dropping and scientists have discovered interbreeding between many species occurred during this time such as the Denisovians another subspecies of Homo sapiens with a mysterious unknown species from Asia. The research findings were presented to the Royal Society last year. The Mysterious Species from Asia is not human or Neanderthal. The Denisovian DNA found in a Siberian cave has scientists stumped at who this mysterious species is and where they came from. "What it begins to suggest is that we're looking at a 'Lord of the Rings'-type world - that there were many hominid populations," Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London.”(1) Orion constellation comes from the story of the giant Orion who was a son of the God Zeus could be a reference to the ancient population of large giant Neanderthal ancestors. The Neanderthal may have known about the Ancient constellation of Orion because on a prehistoric Mammoth ivory carved in it the constellation of Orion. Mankind’s history is changing as more archeology discoveries appear. Who is this mysterious species? Were they referenced in the Bible and called “sons of God”? Stay tuned. MORE INFO: www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/ancient-humans-bred-completely-unknown-species-001059
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Post by auntym on Nov 23, 2014 14:20:13 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/116420/the-origins-of-life-could-indeed-be-interstellar/The Origins of Life Could Indeed Be “Interstellar”by Vanessa Janek November 18, 2014 Star-forming region in interstellar space. Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration Some of science’s most pressing questions involve the origins of life on Earth. How did the first lifeforms emerge from the seemingly hostile conditions that plagued our planet for much of its history? What enabled the leap from simple, unicellular organisms to more complex organisms consisting of many cells working together to metabolize, respire, and reproduce? In such an unfamiliar environment, how does one even separate “life” from non-life in the first place? Now, scientists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa believe that they may have an answer to at least one of those questions. According to the team, a vital cellular building block called glycerol may have first originated via chemical reactions deep in interstellar space. Glycerol is an organic molecule that is present in the cell membranes of all living things. In animal cells this membrane takes the form of a phospholipid bilayer, a dual-layer membrane that sandwiches water-repelling fatty acids between outer and inner sheets of water-soluble molecules. This type of membrane allows the cell’s inner aqueous environment to remain separate and protected from its external, similarly watery world. Glycerol is a vital component of each phospholipid because it forms the backbone between the molecule’s two characteristic parts: a polar, water-soluble head, and a non-polar, fatty tail. Many scientists believe that cell membranes such as these were a necessary prerequisite to the evolution of multicellular life on Earth; however, their complex structure requires a very specific environment – namely, one low in calcium and magnesium salts with a fairly neutral pH and stable temperature. These carefully balanced conditions would have been hard to come by on the prehistoric Earth. Icy bodies born in interstellar space offer an alternative scenario. Scientists have already discovered organic molecules such as amino acids and lipid precursors in the Murchison meteorite that landed in Australia in 1969. Although the idea remains controversial, it is possible that glycerol could have been brought to Earth in a similar manner. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/116420/the-origins-of-life-could-indeed-be-interstellar/
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Post by auntym on Dec 29, 2014 14:06:40 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/117607/how-many-stars-did-it-take-to-make-us/ How Many Stars Did It Take To Make Us?by Fraser Cain December 25, 2014 Published on Dec 25, 2014 You know the quote, we’re made of stardust. Generation after generation of stars created the materials that make us up. How? And how many stars did it take? Carl Sagan once said, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” To an average person, this might sound completely bananas. I feel it could easily be adopted into the same dirty realm as “My grandpappy wasn’t no gorilla”. After all, if my teeth are made of stars, and my toothpaste supplier can be believed, why aren’t they brighter and whiter? If my bones are made of stars, shouldn’t I have this creepy inner glow like the aliens from Cocoon? Does this mean everything I eat is made of stars? And conversely, the waste products of my body then are also made of stars? Shouldn’t all this star business include some cool interstellar powers, like Nova? Also, shouldn’t my face be burning? When the Big Bang happened, 13.8 billion years ago, the entire Universe was briefly the temperature and pressure of a star. And in this stellar furnace, atoms of hydrogen were fused together to make helium and heavier elements like lithium and a little bit of beryllium. This all happened between 100 and 300 seconds after the Big Bang, and then the Universe wasn’t star-like enough for fusion to happen any more. It’s like someone set a microwave timer and cooked the heck of the whole business for 5 minutes. DING! Your Universe is done! All the other elements in the Universe, including the carbon in our bodies to the gold in our jewelry were manufactured inside of stars. But how many stars did it take to make “us”? Main sequence stars, like our own Sun, create elements slowly, but surely within their cores. As we speak, the Sun is relentlessly churning hydrogen into helium. Once when it runs out of hydrogen, it’ll switch to crushing helium into carbon and oxygen. More massive stars keep going up the periodic table, making neon and magnesium, oxygen and silicon. But those elements aren’t in you. Once a regular star gets going, it’ll hang onto its elements forever with its intense gravity. Even after it dies and becomes a white dwarf. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/117607/how-many-stars-did-it-take-to-make-us/
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Post by auntym on Feb 5, 2015 13:27:34 GMT -6
www.space.com/28448-origin-life-code-primitive-cells.html?cmpid=514648_20150204_39933897&adbid=563079655054651393&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856 How Did the Code Of Life Pass Through Primitive Cells?By Elizabeth Howell, Astrobiology Magazine February 04, 2015 Space radiation breaks apart DNA in this artist's conception. Scientists are interested in how information flows between DNA, RNA and proteins. Credit: NASA Life's origins are a mystery, but every year scientists get a little bit closer to understanding what made life possible on Earth, and possibly on other planets or moons. We only have one known case study of life so far, on our own planet, but microbial life is considered possible in many other areas around the solar system, such as on Mars, Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn that hosts water-ice-spewing geysers. While some researchers examine the environmental conditions that lead to life, others are more interested in the evolution of simple cells into more complex ones. One large wish of scientists these days is to create artificial cells that closely mimic what biological ones do so that it would be easy to create laboratory conditions to test out how they evolve. [7 Theories on the Origin of Life] One recent line of research involves protocells, which are a very early form of the cells that are common on Earth today. They don't have a nucleus, or most other elements of the modern eukaryotic cell, but they do contain lipids, which are molecules such as vitamins and fats. In biology, one function of lipids is to help form membranes that hold a cell together. Researchers would love to create an artificial protocell, but that's far from easy. Figuring out how inheritance works — how traits of a parent protocell are passed on to the next generation — is one of the largest problems facing scientists today. A new line of research examined how to create "information string polymers," the instructions that tell cells how to divide and underlie their metabolism. The paper, called "Structure and selection in an autocatalytic binary polymer model," was published in July 2014 in the journal Europhysics Letters. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/28448-origin-life-code-primitive-cells.html?cmpid=514648_20150204_39933897&adbid=563079655054651393&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856
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Post by swamprat on Feb 13, 2015 13:36:08 GMT -6
University of BuckinghamLATEST NEWSProfessor Milton Wainwright and his team have found a microscopic metal globe in dust and particulate matter collected from the stratosphere. Professor Wainwright said the structure is made from the metals titanium and vanadium with a “gooey” biological liquid oozing from its centre. He said there are several theories as to where it came from, the first being it is a complete microorganism programmed to propagate alien life on Earth. “It is a ball about the width of a human hair, which has filamentous life on the outside and a gooey biological material oozing from its centre,” he said.
www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/bcab/news
Read the full article below:Is this picture a 'seed' sent to Earth by aliens? Scientists discover mysterious organismTHIS astonishing picture of an “organism” found in space has baffled scientists who think it is a “seed” sent to Earth by aliens. Published: Sat, January 24, 2015
The never-before seen image shows a microscopic metal globe spewing out biological material feared to be an infectious agent. Though the origin or purpose of the mysterious sphere is uncertain, experts say it could contain genetic material - the precursor to life. They sensationally claim it could have been designed by an intelligent species to “seed” and propagate alien life on Earth. It is the first time anything like this has been seen and points not only to the existence of extra-terrestrial life, but to complex and civilised beings watching our planet. It follows findings that DNA capable of inserting itself into living creatures and replicating can exist in harsh space conditions. A tiny ‘plasmid’, a circular strand of DNA used in genetic engineering, was sent into space from Sweden in 2011 on the exterior of a TEXUS-49 rocket. After enduring 1,000C heat it was found to still be intact and with its biological properties when it returned to Earth.
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham in England, said it is further proof of alien life. However the latest finding, by Professor Milton Wainwright and his team from the University of Sheffield and the University of Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, could reveal a much more sinister purpose. Conjuring images as warned by H.G Wells in his 1898 novel War of the Worlds - it could have been deliberately engineered and sent to Earth to infect the planet. Professor Wainwright said the structure is made from the metals titanium and vanadium with a “gooey” biological liquid oozing from its centre. He said there are several theories as to where it came from, the first being it is a complete microorganism programmed to propagate alien life on Earth. “It is a ball about the width of a human hair, which has filamentous life on the outside and a gooey biological material oozing from its centre,” he said. “We were stunned when X-ray analysis showed that the sphere is made up mainly of titanium, with a trace of vanadium.
“One theory is it was sent to Earth by some unknown civilisation in order to continue seeding the planet with life. “This seeming piece of science fiction, called “directed panspermia” would probably not be taken seriously by any scientist were it not for the fact that it was very seriously suggested by the Nobel Prize winner of DNA fame, Sir Francis Crick. “Unless of course we can find details of the civilisation that is supposed to have sent it in this respect it is probably an unprovable theory.” Professor Wainwright and his team found the object in dust and particulate matter collected from the stratosphere.
He sent balloons 27km into the sky to collect debris from space and isolated several particles he claims are proof of life in space. It comes as the mysterious “ghost particle”, also found by Professor Wainwright was revealed and follows the revelation last year of the astonishing “Dragon Particle” the first of its kind to point towards proof of life in space. Professor Wainwright said the curious orb landed on the sampler balloon it left a tiny impact crater proving it could not have gently fallen from close by. He said: “On hitting the stratosphere sampler the sphere made an impact crater, a minute version of the huge impact crater on Earth caused by the asteroid said to have killed off the dinosaurs. “This impact crater proves that the sphere was incoming to Earth from space, an organism coming from Earth would not be travelling fast enough when it fell back to Earth to cause such damage. “This seems never before to have been found on Earth.”
He said one theory is the object was released deliberately to infect the human race with life-threatening diseases, another is that it travelled millions of miles on a comet. He said: “For the moment, we are content to say that the life-containing titanium sphere came from space, possibly from a comet. “NASA is currently sending a balloon into the stratosphere to look for life.
“Hopefully they will get the same results as we have, whether or not they acknowledge what the team have found, or claim the discovery for themselves remains to be seen.” The findings come as scientists in the UK and Japan launch the ISPA (Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics) which seeks to prove life on Earth originated from Space. Professor Wickramasinghe, director for research at the institute has long-maintained biological material including bacteria and viruses are constantly raining down from the skies.
He said: “Mainstream science and institutions have fought against theories which expound these beliefs but now evidence from meteorites, from samples of bacteria from space and from space observation is making resistance more difficult. “Proving that the Earth is in a constant exchange of matter with the larger cosmos would have implications not only in terms of our identity, but could also give us insight into alien viruses which may be important for our group identity, evolution and survival itself.”
www.express.co.uk/news/weird/554074/Alien-seed-sent-Earth-aliens-Scientists-baffled
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Post by auntym on Mar 24, 2015 12:49:20 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/119541/as-it-turns-out-we-really-are-all-starstuff/As It Turns Out, We Really Are All Starstuffby Jason Major March 23, 2015 “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars,” Carl Sagan famously said in his 1980 series Cosmos. “We are made of starstuff.” And even today, observations with NASA’s airborne SOFIA observatory are supporting this statement. Measurements taken of the dusty leftovers from an ancient supernova located near the center our galaxy – aka SNR Sagittarius A East – show enough “starstuff” to build our entire planet many thousands of times over. “Our observations reveal a particular cloud produced by a supernova explosion 10,000 years ago contains enough dust to make 7,000 Earths,” said research leader Ryan Lau of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York – the same school, by the way, where Carl Sagan taught astronomy and space science. While it’s long been known that supernovae expel enormous amounts of stellar material into space, it wasn’t understood if clouds of large-scale dust could withstand the immense shockwave forces of the explosion. These observations, made with the joint NASA/DLR-developed Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) instrument, provide key “missing-link” evidence that dust clouds do in fact survive intact, spreading outward into interstellar space to seed the formation of new systems. Interstellar dust plays a vital role in the evolution of galaxies and the formation of new stars and protoplanetary discs – the orbiting “pancakes” of material around stars from which planets (and eventually everything on them) form. The findings may also answer the question of why young galaxies observed in the distant universe possess so much dust; it’s likely the result of frequent supernova explosions from massive early-generation stars. READ MORE: www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-s-sofia-finds-missing-link-between-supernovae-and-planet-formation/#.VQyGPVw70qi
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Post by auntym on Apr 7, 2015 13:52:07 GMT -6
www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/white-skin-developed-europe-only-recently-8000-years-020287 7 April, 2015 White Skin Developed in Europe Only As Recently as 8,000 Years Ago Say AnthropologistsBy Liz Leafloor The myriad of skin tones and eye colors that humans express around the world are interesting and wonderful in their variety. Research continues on how humans acquired the traits they now have and when, in order to complete the puzzle that is our ancient human history. Now, a recent analysis by anthropologists suggests that the light skin color and the tallness associated with European genetics are relatively recent traits to the continent. An international team of researchers as headed by Harvard University’s Dr. Iain Mathieson put forth a study at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists recently. Based on 83 human samples from Holocene Europe as analyzed under the 1000 Genomes Project, it is now found that for the majority of the time that humans have lived in Europe, the people had dark skin, and the genes signifying light skin only appear within the past 8,000 years. This recent and relatively quick process of natural selection suggests to researchers that the traits which spread rapidly were advantageous within that environment, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This dramatic evidence suggests modern Europeans do not appear as their long ancient ancestors did. Spreading GeneticsThe samples are derived from a wide range of ancient populations, rather than a few individuals, and they supplied researchers with five specific genes associated with skin color and diet. AAAS reports that the “modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40,000 years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes. And the new data confirm that about 8500 years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: They lacked versions of two genes—SLC24A5 and SLC45A2—that lead to depigmentation and, therefore, pale skin in Europeans today. […] Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. As they interbred with the indigenous hunter-gatherers, one of their light-skin genes swept through Europe, so that central and southern Europeans also began to have lighter skin. The other gene variant, SLC45A2, was at low levels until about 5800 years ago when it swept up to high frequency.” This differed from the situation farther north. Ancient remains from southern Sweden 7,700 years ago were found to have the gene variants indicating light skin and blonde hair, and another gene, HERC2/OCA2, which causes blue eyes. This indicated to researchers that ancient hunter-gatherers of northern Europe were already pale and blue-eyed. This light skin trait would have been advantageous in the regions of less sunlight. CONTINUE READING: www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/white-skin-developed-europe-only-recently-8000-years-020287
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Post by auntym on Apr 27, 2015 13:05:32 GMT -6
www.ancient-code.com/scientists-have-found-an-alien-code-in-our-dna-ancient-engineers/April 27, 2015 Scientists have found an Alien code in our DNA: Ancient EngineersAccording to mainstream scientists: Alien code found in our DNA. Extraterrestrial beings created our species. Researchers who worked for 13 years in the Human Genome Project indicate that they came across an amazing scientific discovery: They believe that the so-called 97% of non-coding sequences in the human DNA is nothing less than the genetic code of extraterrestrial life forms. Originally referred to as “Junk DNA” its functioned remained a mystery for researchers. Now researchers believe that our DNA is extraterrestrial in origin. After extensive analysis with the help of other researchers in diverse fields such as mathematics, chemistry and programming, Maxim A. Makukov of the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute have ventured out and asked if there is a possibility that, what we call “junk DNA” is actually some sort of extraterrestrial code, created by an “Alien” programmer. According to Prof. Chang and his team of researchers “Our hypothesis is that a more advanced extraterrestrial civilization was engaged in creating new life and planting it on various planets. Earth is just one of them.” The researchers indicate that “What we see in our DNA is a program consisting of two versions, a giant structured code and a simple or basic code.” The team of researchers believe for a fact that the first part of our DNA code was not written on Earth and according to them it is verifiable. Secondly and most importantly, genes alone are not enough to explain the evolution/abrupt evolution process and there must be something more in ‘the game’. Professor Chang says that “Sooner or later,” “we have to accept the fact that all life on Earth carries the genetic code of our extraterrestrial cousins and that evolution is not what we think it is.” The implications of these scientific findings reinforce claims by other individuals and observers that claim to have had contact with aliens that look like humans. Human-like aliens could have provided some of the genetic material necessary for human evolution. Quote from News.Discovery: This interpretation leads them to a farfetched conclusion: that the genetic code, “appears that it was invented outside the solar system already several billions years ago.” This statement endorses the idea of panspermia, the hypothesis that Earth was seeded with interstellar life. It’s certainly a novel and bold approach to galaxy conquest if we imagine this was a deliberate Johnny Appleseed endeavor by super-beings CONTINUE READING: www.ancient-code.com/scientists-have-found-an-alien-code-in-our-dna-ancient-engineers/
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Post by auntym on Apr 28, 2015 12:52:48 GMT -6
www.ancient-code.com/researchers-suggest-humans-are-not-from-earth/Researchers suggest: Humans are not from Earthby Ivan Petricevic / www.ancient-code.com/author/ivanpetricevic/April 28, 2015 Many researchers have come to the conclusion that human beings are not from Earth. After a balloon came back from a high altitude flight, it was covered with microscopic life forms that originated from space fueling debate about whether life on earth began here or elsewhere in space. Other scientists have argued that life originated on Mars due to a mineral found in Martian meteorites, a concept that is crucial for the genesis of life. Another experiment showed that amino acids could have arrived with comet impacts, suggesting life could be widespread in our solar system. A new book by American ecologist Dr. Ellis Silver – Humans are not from Earth looks at things differently. The author argues that humans may not be “natives” to Earth – and may have arrived separately from elsewhere. Silver provides arguments based on human physiology, suggesting that we have not evolved along with other life forms on Earth, but that we actually come from elsewhere in the universe, brought here by extraterrestrial beings tens of thousands of years ago. Does this sound crazy or provocative? Does it go against your beliefs? It should actually. We have to start looking at things in a different way if we want to understand our purpose and origin, and that is exactly what Silver, an environmentalist who is currently working in an effort to clean plastic waste in the Pacific ocean, wants to achieve, provoking a discussion among scientists. Silver has argued that his book is based on scientific work approaching the difference between humans and other animals. “The Earth approximately meets our needs as a species, but perhaps not as strongly as whoever brought us here initially thought,” Silver said in an interview with Yahoo news. Silver believes that some of the chronic diseases that affect the human race – such as back pain, could be a very important sign that suggests that humans actually evolved in a world with less gravity. Silver also talks about other unique human traits, like the fact that the heads of babies are relatively large that women have difficulty giving birth, in the past, this was often fatal for the mother, child or both. Silver argues that no other native species on earth has this issue, pointing to the 223 extra genes in humans, genes that are not found in any other species. CONTINUE READING: www.ancient-code.com/researchers-suggest-humans-are-not-from-earth/
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Post by auntym on Jun 13, 2015 12:24:02 GMT -6
ARE WE REALLY 99% CHIMP?
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Post by auntym on Jun 18, 2015 13:06:21 GMT -6
www.ancient-code.com/our-dna-can-be-reprogrammed-by-words-and-certain-frequencies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ancient-code%2Ffeednow+%28Ancient+Code%29June 18, 2015 Our DNA can be reprogrammed by words and certain frequenciesThis article is based on the book “Vernetzte Intelligenz” -Networked Intelligence Russian scientists have shown that our DNA can actually be reprogrammed by words and certain frequencies. According to scientists only 10% of our DNA is being used for building proteins. It is this subset of DNA where researchers are pointing their investigations to, their plan is to review and classify it again and they hope to learn something very interesting in the process. The remaining 90% of the DNA is considered “junk DNA”, I know that many won’t agree with a term such as “Junk DNA” but let us continue. Interestingly couple of years ago, new formulas from Russian scientists, specialized in biophysics and molecular biology showed that 7 percent of our DNA has a higher purpose and is not in any way ‘junk’. According to newer studies, the human DNA is a biological internet far superior than any artificial. Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev and his fellow scientists involved in the research exposed that, directly or indirectly, phoneme such as: clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self-healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more. In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies without cutting out and replacing single genes. There are 6 main research points: 1) Two different branches of science were used and fused together; Linguistics and Genetics to explore the 90% of “Junk DNA”. 2) Their results, findings and conclusions: Our DNA is not only responsible for building our body but also serves as data storage and communication. The Russian linguists found that the genetic code, especially in the apparently useless 90%, follows the same rules as all our human languages. To this end they compared the rules of syntax (the way words are put together to form phrases and sentences), semantics (the study of meaning in language forms) and the basic rules of grammar. Researchers were able to find out that the alkalines of our DNA follow a regular grammar and do have set rules just like our languages. So human languages did not appear coincidentally but are a reflection of our inherent DNA. Researchers also explored the vibrational behavior of DNA. They were able to dine out that living chromosomes function just like solitonic/holographic computers using the endogenous DNA laser radiation.” This means that they managed to modulate certain frequency patterns onto a laser ray and with it influenced the DNA frequency and thus the genetic information itself. The basic structure of DNA-alkaline pairs and language is of the same structure. 3) So how is this one? With the use of words and sentences, since words and sentences give out a vibrational frequency, like mantras or intonation of language. 4) The DNA substance in living tissue and not in vitro will always react to frequency vibration of the language, provided by the laser beams, AKA modulated light, and even radio waves, if of course, appropriate frequencies are used and selected for each substance you want to reschedule. CONTINUE READING: www.ancient-code.com/our-dna-can-be-reprogrammed-by-words-and-certain-frequencies/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ancient-code%2Ffeednow+%28Ancient+Code%29
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Post by auntym on Sept 10, 2015 12:05:28 GMT -6
www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/science/south-africa-fossils-new-species-human-ancestor-homo-naledi.html?WT.mc_id=2015-SEPTEMBER-AOL-SCIENCE_AUD_DEV-0901-0930&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&_r=0&icid=maing-grid7|aol20-g|dl7|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D677234172 Homo Naledi, New Human Species, Is Found in South African CaveBy JOHN NOBLE WILFORD / topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/john_noble_wilford/index.html?action=click&contentCollection=Science&module=Byline®ion=Header&pgtype=articleSEPT. 10, 2015 Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africa discovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star cave: lots and lots of old bones. The remains covered the earthen floor beyond the narrow opening. This was, the scientists concluded, a large, dark chamber for the dead of a previously unidentified species of the early human lineage — Homo naledi. The new hominin species was announced on Thursday by an international team of more than 60 scientists led by Lee R. Berger, an American paleoanthropologist who is a professor of human evolution studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The species name, H. naledi, refers to the cave where the bones lay undisturbed for so long; “naledi” means “star” in the local Sesotho language. In two papers published this week in the open-access journal eLife, the researchers said that the more than 1,550 fossil elements documenting the discovery constituted the largest sample for any hominin species in a single African site, and one of the largest anywhere in the world. Further, the scientists said, that sample is probably a small fraction of the fossils yet to be recovered from the chamber. So far the team has recovered parts of at least 15 individuals. Pieces of a skeleton of Homo naledi, a newly discovered human species. Credit John Hawks/University of Wisconsin-Madison, via European Pressphoto Agency “With almost every bone in the body represented multiple times, Homo naledi is already practically the best-known fossil member of our lineage,” Dr. Berger said. The finding, like so many others in science, was the result of pure luck followed by considerable effort. Two local cavers, Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker, found the narrow entrance to the chamber, measuring no more than seven and a half inches wide. They were skinny enough to squeeze through, and in the light of their headlamps saw the bones all around them. When they showed the fossil pictures to Pedro Boshoff, another caver who is also a geologist, he alerted Dr. Berger, who organized an investigation. Just getting into the chamber and bringing out samples proved to be a huge challenge. The narrow opening was the only way in. Paul Dirks, a geologist at James Cook University in Australia, who was lead author of the journal paper describing the chamber, said the investigators first had a steep climb up a stone block called the Dragon’s Back and then a drop down to the entrance passage — all of this in the total absence of natural light. For the two extended investigations of the chamber in 2013 and 2014, Dr. Berger rounded up the international team of scientists, and then recruited six excavating scientists through notices on social media. One special requirement: they had to be slender enough to crawl through that crack in the wall. WATCH VIDEO & CONTINUE READING: www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/science/south-africa-fossils-new-species-human-ancestor-homo-naledi.html?WT.mc_id=2015-SEPTEMBER-AOL-SCIENCE_AUD_DEV-0901-0930&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=AUDDEVREMARK&_r=0&icid=maing-grid7|aol20-g|dl7|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D677234172See How Scientists Identified Our New Human Ancestor: video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/150910-homo-naledi-analysis-workshop-vin?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20150910video-naledibones&utm_campaign=Content&sf12966033=1 New Species of Human Discovered in "The Cradle of Humankind": www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2015/09/new-species-of-human-discovered-in-the-cradle-of-humankind-bodies-were-deliberately-placed-in-a-cave.html
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Post by lois on Sept 25, 2015 18:08:55 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Sept 25, 2015 21:14:40 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jan 14, 2016 17:40:46 GMT -6
www.bbc.com/future/story/20160113-could-just-two-people-repopulate-earthCOULD JUST 2 PEOPLE REPOPULATE EARTH?The last man on Earth is a common trope in fiction – but what if it actually happened? How many people would it take to save our species? By Zaria Gorvett 13 January 2016 The alien predators arrived by boat. Within two years, everyone was dead. Almost. The tiny islet of Ball’s Pyramid lies 600km east of Australia in the South Pacific, rising out of the sea like a shard of glass. And there they were – halfway up its sheer cliff edge, sheltering under a spindly bush – the last of the species. Two escaped and just nine years later there were 9,000, the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Adam and Eve. No, this isn’t a bizarre take on the story of creation. The lucky couple were tree lobsters Dryococelus australis, stick insects the size of a human hand. They were thought to be extinct soon after black rats invaded their native Lord Howe Island in 1918, but were found clinging on in Ball’s Pyramid 83 years later. The species owes its miraculous recovery to a team of scientists who scaled 500ft of vertical rock to reach their hiding place in 2003. The lobsters were named “Adam” and “Eve” and sent to start a breeding programme at Melbourne Zoo. Bouncing back after insect Armageddon is one thing. Female tree lobsters lay 10 eggs every 10 days and are capable of parthenogenesis; they don’t need a man to reproduce. Repopulating the earth with humans is quite another matter. Could we do it? And how long would it take? The answer is more than a whimsical discussion for the pub. From Nasa’s research on the magic number of pioneers needed for our move to another planet, to decisions about the conservation of endangered species, it’s a matter of increasing international importance and urgency. The average person has between one and two lethal recessive mutations in their genome So let’s fast-forward 100 years. Humanity’s endeavours have gone horribly wrong and a robot uprising has wiped us off the face of the Earth – a fate predicted by Stephen Hawking in 2014. Just two people made it. There’s no way around it: the first generation would all be brothers and sisters. Sigmund Freud believed incest was the only universal human taboo alongside murdering your parents. It’s not just gross, it’s downright dangerous. A study of children born in Czechoslovakia between 1933 and 1970 found that nearly 40% of those whose parents were first-degree relatives were severely handicapped, of which 14% eventually died. Recessive risksTo understand why inbreeding can be so deadly, we need to get to grips with some genetics. We all have two copies of every gene, one from each parent. But some gene variants don’t show up unless you have two exactly the same. Most inherited diseases are caused by these “recessive” variants, which sneak through the evolutionary radar because they are harmless on their own. In fact, the average person has between one and two lethal recessive mutations in their genome. When a couple are related, it doesn’t take long for the mask to slip. Take achromatopsia, a rare recessive disorder which causes total colour blindness. It affects 1 in 33,000 Americans and is carried by one in 100. If one of our post-apocalyptic survivors had the variant, there’s a one in four chance of their child having a copy. So far, so good. After just one generation of incest, the risk skyrockets – with a one in four chance of their child having two copies. That’s a 1 in 16 chance that the original couple’s first grandchild would have the disease. This was the fate of the inhabitants of Pingelap, an isolated atoll in the western Pacific. The entire population is descended from just 20 survivors of a typhoon which swept the island in the 18th Century, including a carrier of achromatopsia. With such a small gene pool, today a 10th of the island’s population is totally colour blind. We could go from a handful to billions in a few short centuries - if we put our minds to it (Credit: Getty Images) Even with these hideous risks in mind, if the survivors had enough children the chances are at least some of them would be healthy. But what happens when inbreeding continues for hundreds of years? It turns out you don’t have to be stuck on an island to find out, because there’s one community that just can’t get enough of their close relatives: European royalty. And with nine generations of strategic marriages between cousins, uncles, and nieces in 200 years, the Spanish Habsburgs are a natural experiment in how it all adds up. Charles II was the family’s most famous victim. Born with a litany of physical and mental disabilities, the king didn’t learn to walk until he was eight years old. As an adult his infertility spelled the extinction of an entire dynasty. Genetic diversity allows species to evolve their way around future challenges In 2009 a team of Spanish scientists revealed why. Charles’ ancestry was so entangled, his “inbreeding coefficient” – a figure reflecting the proportion of inherited genes that would be identical from both parents – was higher than if he had been born to siblings. It’s the same measure used by ecologists to assess the genetic risks faced by endangered species. “With a small population size everyone is going to be related sooner or later, and as relatedness increases inbreeding effects become more important,” explains Dr Bruce Robertson from Otago University. He studies New Zealand’s giant, flightless parrots, called the kakapo, of which there are only 125 left on the planet. Of particular concern are the effects of inbreeding on sperm quality, which has increased the proportion of eggs that will never hatch from 10% to around 40%. It’s an example of inbreeding depression, Robertson says, caused by the exposure of recessive genetic defects in a population. Despite plenty of food and protection from predators, the kakapo might not make it. CONTINUE READING: www.bbc.com/future/story/20160113-could-just-two-people-repopulate-earth
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Post by auntym on Jun 6, 2016 14:34:12 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/06/x-files-dna-mystery-solved-scientists-looking-to-unlock-for-over-20-years.html 'X-Files' DNA Mystery Solved --"Scientists Looking to Unlock for Over 20 Years"by The Daily Galaxy via University of Sheffield June 06, 2016 The new research, conducted by leading scientists at the University of Sheffield, has revealed how branched DNA molecules are removed from the iconic double-helical structure –a process which scientists have been looking to unlock for over 20 years. “Branched DNA features in several episodes of the X-Files as Agent Scully suspects aliens inserted it in her blood," said Jon Sayers, Professor of Functional Genomics at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study. “In reality, far from being of alien origin, branched DNA is formed every day in our bodies. It happens every time our cells divide. These branches are essential intermediates formed during the process of copying our DNA." The interdisciplinary team from the University’s Departments of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, and Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, captured never-before-seen snapshots of the molecular events in incredible detail. They show how Flap EndoNuclease enzymes (FENs) trim branched DNA molecules after cells have divided. The scientists found the FEN threads the free end of the branch through a hole in the enzyme before sliding along to the trunk where it acts like a pair of molecular secateurs, trimming the branch and restoring the iconic double-helix. The team made the discovery using the Diamond Light Source – the UK’s synchrotron which works like a giant microscope harnessing the power of electrons to produce bright X-ray light which scientists can use to study anything from fossils and jet engines to viruses and vaccines. “The FENs analysed in the study are very similar to those used in diagnostic tests for genetic diseases, bacteria and viruses," said Sayers. "Understanding how they work will help to engineer better and more reliable tests and tools for laboratory research and hospital diagnostics labs. DNA“Because DNA replication is essential for all life forms, understanding how it works at a molecular level provides insight into one of the most basic cellular processes common to all life. “The enzymes that carry out this process are sometimes involved in cancer. They have been linked to tumour progression and mutation, so this discovery could pave the way for better diagnostics or new drugs.” He added: “Knowing how these enzymes work could aid development of new antimicrobial drugs that may one day be used to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria." "We can now see the details of how cells have evolved to tidy up after themselves as they copy their DNA, which reduces their risk of harmful mutations," said Dr John Rafferty, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and author on the study. “This sort of information is fundamental in helping us understand and maybe treat those cells where occasionally things do go wrong." Results of the pioneering study were published today (Monday 6 June 2016) in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/06/x-files-dna-mystery-solved-scientists-looking-to-unlock-for-over-20-years.html
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Post by auntym on Sept 29, 2016 13:21:13 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/09/the-rna-and-dna-worlds-evolved-simultaneously-new-theory-of-the-origin-of-life.html "Early Earth: The RNA and DNA Worlds Evolved Simultaneously" --New Theory of the Origin of LifeSeptember 29, 2016 Image credit: Human Sculpture in Swiss Alps by Antony Gormley A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) offers a twist on a popular theory for how life on Earth began about four billion years ago, challenging the "RNA world" hypothesis, a theory for how RNA molecules evolved to create proteins and DNA. Instead, the new research offers evidence for a world where RNA and DNA evolved simultaneously. "Even if you believe in a RNA-only world, you have to believe in something that existed with RNA to help it move forward," said Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, associate professor of chemistry at TSRI and senior author of the new study. "Why not think of RNA and DNA rising together, rather than trying to convert RNA to DNA by means of some fantastic chemistry at a prebiotic stage?" Researchers have explored the RNA world hypothesis for more than 30 years. The idea behind this theory is that a series of chemical reactions led to the formation of self-replicating RNA molecules. RNA then evolved to create proteins and enzymes that resembled early versions of what makes up life today. Eventually, these enzymes helped RNA produce DNA, which led to complex organisms. On the surface, RNA and DNA molecules look similar, with DNA forming a ladder-like structure (with nucleobase pairs as the rungs and sugar molecule backbones as the sides) and RNA forming what looks like just one side of a ladder. If the RNA world theory is accurate, some researchers believe there would have been many cases where RNA nucleotides were mixed with DNA backbones, creating "heterogeneous" strands. If stable, these blended "chimeras" would have been an intermediate step in the transition to DNA. However, the new study shows a significant loss of stability when RNA and DNA share the same backbone. The chimeras do not stay together as well as pure RNA or pure DNA, which would compromise their ability to hold genetic information and replicate. "We were surprised to see a very deep drop in what we would call the 'thermal stability,'" said Krishnamurthy, who in addition to his position at TSRI has joint appointments with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center for Chemical Evolution and the Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life. This instability appeared to be due to a difference in the DNA sugar molecule structure versus the RNA sugar molecule. The finding supported previous research from Nobel laureate and Harvard University Chemistry and Chemical Biology Professor Jack Szostak that showed a loss of stability. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/09/the-rna-and-dna-worlds-evolved-simultaneously-new-theory-of-the-origin-of-life.html
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Post by auntym on Jan 10, 2017 13:57:22 GMT -6
www.space.com/35276-humans-made-of-stardust-galaxy-life-elements.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit Humans Really Are Made of Stardust, and a New Study Proves ItBy Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor / Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or us @spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. January 10, 2017 The six most common elements of life on Earth (including more than 97 percent of the mass of a human body) are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus. Those same elements are abundant at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Credit: Dana Berry/SkyWorks Digital Inc.; SDSS collaboration For decades, science popularizers have said humans are made of stardust, and now, a new survey of 150,000 stars shows just how true the old cliché is: Humans and their galaxy have about 97 percent of the same kind of atoms, and the elements of life appear to be more prevalent toward the galaxy's center, the research found. The crucial elements for life on Earth, often called the building blocks of life, can be abbreviated as CHNOPS: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. For the first time, astronomers have cataloged the abundance of these elements in a huge sample of stars. The astronomers evaluated each element's abundance through a method called spectroscopy; each element emits distinct wavelengths of light from within a star, and they measured the depth of the dark and bright patches in each star's light spectrum to determine what it was made of. [The Milky Way: A Traveler's Guide] www.space.com/16204-milky-way-galaxy-guide-infographic.html The researchers used stellar measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's (SDSS) Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) spectrograph in New Mexico. APOGEE can peer through the dust in the Milky Way because it uses infrared wavelengths, which pass through dust. "This instrument collects light in the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum and disperses it, like a prism, to reveal signatures of different elements in the atmospheres of stars," Sloan representatives said in a statement. "A fraction of the almost 200,000 stars surveyed by APOGEE overlap with the sample of stars targeted by the NASA Kepler mission, which was designed to find potentially Earth-like planets," the statement added. "The work presented today focuses on ninety Kepler stars that show evidence of hosting rocky planets, and which have also been surveyed by APOGEE." Although humans share most elements with the stars, the proportions of those elements differ between humans and stars. For example, humans are about 65 percent oxygen by mass, whereas oxygen makes up less than 1 percent of all elements measured in space (such as in the spectra of stars). The proportion of each element of life differed depending on the region of the galaxy in which it was found. For example, the sun resides on the outskirts of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms. Stars on the outskirts of the galaxy have fewer heavy elements required for life's building blocks, such as oxygen, than those in more central regions of the galaxy. "It's a great human-interest story that we are now able to map the abundance of all of the major elements found in the human body across hundreds of thousands of stars in our Milky Way," Jennifer Johnson, the science team chair of the SDSS-III APOGEE survey and a professor at The Ohio State University, said in the statement. "This allows us to place constraints on when and where in our galaxy life had the required elements to evolve, a sort of 'temporal galactic habitable zone.'" The catalog of chemical abundances is available at www.sdss.org/. WATCH VIDEO: www.space.com/35276-humans-made-of-stardust-galaxy-life-elements.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
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Post by auntym on Jul 7, 2017 11:10:12 GMT -6
alien-ufo-sightings.com/2015/02/blue-eyes-originated-single-ancestor-thousands-years-ago/ Blue Eyes Originated from a Single Ancestor Thousands of Years AgoFebruary 6, 2015, We so often take for granted the color of our eyes. Whether our eyes are brown, blue or green, we see this as a cosmetic difference and nothing more. We just assume that those with blue eyes have always been around and populated the world as densely as those with other eye colors. Basically, we just take it for granted. But have you ever wondered why our eyes have different colors? It may surprise you to know that the human race all started out with the same eye color, brown. The differences in eye color came from variances, and in some extremes, such as the color blue, a single mutation was involved. According to a study published in 2008, everyone with blue eyes has the exact same ancestor from over 7 thousand years ago, who was born somewhere in the black sea region with the mutation. Professor Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen states, “A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch,” which literally “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes.” Professor Eiberg, through exhaustive study from the year 1996, traveled to areas of the world like Turkey, Jordan and Denmark, to study the eye color blue. Through this study of the mitochondrial DNA, the professor discovered the location of the gene for eye color. The OCA2 gene is programmed to produce melanin, which is responsible for hair and skin color, as well as eye color. The “switch” is located adjacent to the OCA2 gene and actually only inhibits the melanin producing abilities to a small extent, thus creating the blue eyes instead of an area completely void of melanin. When melanin is completely absent, the human being experiences albino characteristics. Taking a closer look at this process enables us to understand why the eye color blue is derived from one ancestor. Since this eye color comes from an exact variance in melanin, it is considered to be a marker passed from a single ancestor. In individuals with green or hazel eyes, the color variances are more random in change and cannot be pinned down to a single occurrence. The eye color blue did indeed originate from one genetic mutation. However, there are no indications that the differences in our eye color have anything to do with our health or performance in life. In the past, these genes played no part in our ability to survive, unless it was derived from fear or dislike by others. No matter what our blue-eyed ancestor had to endure, it is clear that the mutation survived and proves just how incredible nature is at shuffling our genes to create something entirely different, and just as beautiful. alien-ufo-sightings.com/2015/02/blue-eyes-originated-single-ancestor-thousands-years-ago/
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Post by auntym on Dec 11, 2017 13:56:39 GMT -6
www.scientificamerican.com/article/dna-has-gone-digital-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/ DNA Has Gone Digital—What Could Possibly Go Wrong?Biologists remain largely unaware of the potential vulnerabilities that come with digitizing biotechnology By Jenna E. Gallegos www.scientificamerican.com/author/jenna-e-gallegos/ Jean Peccoud, The Conversation US www.scientificamerican.com/author/jean-peccoud/ December 11, 2017 Credit: Jesper Klausen Getty Images DNA Has Gone Digital--What Could Possibly Go Wrong?The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.The Conversation Biology is becoming increasingly digitized. Researchers like us use computers to analyze DNA, operate lab equipment and store genetic information. But new capabilities also mean new risks – and biologists remain largely unaware of the potential vulnerabilities that come with digitizing biotechnology. The emerging field of cyberbiosecurity explores the whole new category of risks that come with the increased use of computers in the life sciences. University scientists, industry stakeholders and government agents have begun gathering to discuss these threats. We’ve even hosted FBI agents from the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate here at Colorado State University and previously at Virginia Tech for crash courses on synthetic biology and the associated cyberbiosecurity risks. A year ago, we participated in a U.S. Department of Defense-funded project to assess the security of biotechnology infrastructures. The results are classified, but we disclose some of the lessons learned in our new Trends in Biotechnology paper. Along with co-authors from Virginia Tech and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we discuss two major kinds of threats: sabotaging the machines biologists rely on and creating dangerous biological materials. Computer viruses affecting the physical worldIn 2010, a nuclear plant in Iran experienced mysterious equipment failures. Months later, a security firm was called in to troubleshoot an apparently unrelated problem. They found a malicious computer virus. The virus, called Stuxnet, was telling the equipment to vibrate. The malfunction shut down a third of the plant’s equipment, stunting development of the Iranian nuclear program. Unlike most viruses, Stuxnet didn’t target only computers. It attacked equipment controlled by computers. The marriage of computer science and biology has opened the door for amazing discoveries. With the help of computers, we’re decoding the human genome, creating organisms with new capabilities, automating drug development and revolutionizing food safety. Stuxnet demonstrated that cybersecurity breaches can cause physical damages. What if those damages had biological consequences? Could bioterrorists target government laboratories studying infectious diseases? What about pharmaceutical companies producing lifesaving drugs? As life scientists become more reliant on digital workflows, the chances are likely rising. Messing with DNAThe ease of accessing genetic information online has democratized science, enabling amateur scientists in community laboratories to tackle challenges like developing affordable insulin. But the line between physical DNA sequences and their digital representation is becoming increasingly blurry. Digital information, including malware, can now be stored and transmitted via DNA. The J. Craig Venter Institute even created an entire synthetic genome watermarked with encoded links and hidden messages. Twenty years ago, genetic engineers could only create new DNA molecules by stitching together natural DNA molecules. Today scientists can use chemical processes to produce synthetic DNA. The sequence of these molecules is often generated using software. In the same way that electrical engineers use software to design computer chips and computer engineers use software to write computer programs, genetic engineers use software to design genes. That means that access to specific physical samples is no longer necessary to create new biological samples. To say that all you need to create a dangerous human pathogen is internet access would be an overstatement – but only a slight one. For instance, in 2006, a journalist used publicly available data to order a fragment of smallpox DNA in the mail. The year before, the Centers for Disease Control used published DNA sequences as a blueprint to reconstruct the virus responsible for the Spanish flu, one of the deadliest pandemics of all time. With the help of computers, editing and writing DNA sequences is almost as easy as manipulating text documents. And it can be done with malicious intent. First: Recognize the threatThe conversations around cyberbiosecurity so far have largely focused on doomsday scenarios. The threats are bidirectional. On the one hand, computer viruses like Stuxnet could be used to hack into digitally controlled machinery in biology labs. DNA could even be used to deliver the attack by encoding malware that is unlocked when the DNA sequences are translated into digital files by a sequencing computer. On the other hand, bad actors could use software and digital databases to design or reconstruct pathogens. If nefarious agents hacked into sequence databases or digitally designed novel DNA molecules with the intent to cause harm, the results could be catastrophic. And not all cyberbiosecurity threats are premeditated or criminal. Unintentional errors that occur while translating between a physical DNA molecule and its digital reference are common. These errors might not compromise national security, but they could cause costly delays or product recalls. Despite these risks, it is not unusual for researchers to order samples from a collaborator or a company and never bother to confirm that the physical sample they receive matches the digital sequence they were expecting. Infrastructure changes and new technologies could help increase the security of life science workflows. For instance, voluntary screening guidelines are already in place to help DNA synthesis companies screen orders for known pathogens. Universities could institute similar mandatory guidelines for any outgoing DNA synthesis orders. There is also currently no simple, affordable way to confirm DNA samples by whole genome sequencing. Simplified protocols and user-friendly software could be developed, so that screening by sequencing becomes routine. The ability to manipulate DNA was once the privilege of the select few and very limited in scope and application. Today, life scientists rely on a global supply chain and a network of computers that manipulate DNA in unprecedented ways. The time to start thinking about the security of the digital/DNA interface is now, not after a new Stuxnet-like cyberbiosecurity breach. www.scientificamerican.com/article/dna-has-gone-digital-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article: theconversation.com/dna-has-gone-digital-what-could-possibly-go-wrong-87662
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Post by auntym on Jun 2, 2018 12:25:32 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Nov 18, 2018 13:54:28 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/11/strange-and-confounding-mysteries-of-the-human-body/Strange and Confounding Mysteries of the Human Bodyby Brent Swancer / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/brentswancer/November 17, 2018 Throughout human history we have strove and endeavored to push out past the horizon and the limits of what we can see, to go out into the world and indeed the universe to explore new realms in our innate, insatiable quest for discovery. We have gone out past the hills or mountains in the distance, over the vast sea that sprawls out as far as we can see, into the thickest jungles and down into the deepest, darkest abysses of our oceans. We have gone out past the blue skies above, launching out into space to our moon and the planets beyond, and one day we may go even further still, into the corners of our observable universe and beyond to who knows what. Yet, for all of the mysteries that lie out there in the seas and wildernesses of our planet and beyond our world, it is interesting to think that some of the more baffling frontiers lie not out beyond us, but rather within us, and the human body is in many ways just as unexplored and misunderstood as any far away realm. Some of the puzzling mysteries of the human body are everyday things that we take for granted, and which no one really gives much thought to. Take yawning for instance, you have probably done this countless times today, hopefully not too much while reading this article, whether it be because you are tired, bored, or just because the person next to you did it. But have you ever thought about “why” we yawn? Or why it should be contagious? There are lots of ideas for why we yawn, such as that it regulates the temperature of our brains, or helps us shift from one condition to another, such as from sleep to wakefulness or alertness to boredom, or maybe it just gives us a physiological boost, but the fact is we don’t really know. Making it all more mysterious is the fact that yawning seems to be infectious, as you have no doubt already surmised from your own experiences, but why should this be? The closest we have to an answer for any of this is that it is some ingrained social bonding trait, a subconscious show of empathy, of which neuroscientist and professor of psychology, Robert Provine, has said in a statement to Healthline: Yawning may be a primitive form of empathy that binds tribal members together and coordinates their physiology, such as synchronizing arousal and bedtimes. Diminished contagion, whether from yawning or laughing, may be a novel measure of social disorders as in autism or schizophrenia. That is a rather unromantic and coldly scientific way of saying that yawing brings us together. It is interesting to note that contagious yawning is seen mostly only in social animals such as dogs, lions, chimpanzees, and humans. However, again we just don’t know, and yawning, one of our most common behaviors, remains little understood. Another contagious behavior that we do all of the time is laughing, which if you are lucky you have also done many times today already. Laughter, and its ability to infect others around us with its mirth, is also actually a rather mysterious trait, with no real concrete commonly accepted reason for why we should do it or why it should spread to others. The most widely accepted theory is that, like yawning, it is a sort of social behavior. In this case, it is likely an evolutionary trait designed to specify that we are playing and not engaging in threatening behavior or feeling threatened. In this way, our laughter puts others of our group at ease and they too laugh to show others around them that there is no immediate danger. The social angle helps explain why we laugh far less when we are alone, but the true reason for laughter and its contagious nature remains murky. It doesn’t, however, explain why some people laugh at some things while others don’t, or why in some cultures laughing is actually sometimes a sign of discomfort or even alarm. So we have these behaviors and reactions so far of when we are sleepy, bored, or conversely happy and amused, so what usually happens when you are embarrassed? Do you blush? Well a lot of people do, and if so, there is another mystery we still don’t have an answer to, made all the more intriguing by the fact that humans are the only animals that do it. We know the “how” part of the equation. Blushing is basically caused by blood vessels dilating in reaction to the adrenaline stirred up by stress, and this allows the adrenaline to flow through your system faster and more smoothly. In the face, this results in that redness we call blushing, but this redness shows up nowhere else on the body. This stress can be caused by embarrassment, but it can also be caused by positive emotions such as being thrilled or receiving a compliment. This we know, but more confusing is the “why” of it all. Why should only our faces turn red in these situations? What possible purpose or advantage could our faces turning red have, and why does it happen even in positive situations such as meeting the man or woman of your dreams? It is so baffling that Charles Darwin himself once said of it, “Blushing is the most peculiar and the most human of all expressions.” Again, there are many ideas for why we might blush, but no definitive answers. One of the main theories is that blushing serves as a social nonverbal form of apology, meaning that when you do something you know was a mistake or wrong you subconciously visibly blush to show others that you realize it and are sorry about it, visually representing your regret and remorse for all to see. This has actually been tested, and studies have shown that people who blush are indeed more likely to be forgiven than those who don’t. However, like the others we have looked at so far, nobody really knows for sure. Another thing many of you might take for granted and do every day is write, throw a ball, or use a fork or knife with either your right or left hand. For most people it is just one of those “just because” things, yet the fact that we have a dominant hand at all, as well as why most people should have that be the right hand, have long been a baffling mystery of the human body. Wouldn’t it make more evolutionary sense for us to be able to use both hands equally? Yes, it would, and although a small percentage people are ambidextrous (able to use both hands equally), scientists can’t seem to agree on why this isn’t the case for everyone, or why it should 7 to 9 times out of 10 be the right hand that is favored, no matter the culture or country. One idea is that because of our advanced speech capabilities there are more brain resources dedicated to the complex wiring of the speech producing region of our brains, which is also linked to motor skills and which usually sits on the left hemisphere, but not always. However, many right-handed people have been found to have speech centers on the right hemisphere and many left-handed people have speech centers on the left as well, making this an unreliable indicator at best. There is also the fact that animals without the complex speech wiring and fine motor skills of humans have also been shown to have preferred dominant appendages as well. In the end, it is not fully understood, and it is difficult to study as many societies take naturally left-handed people and force them into right-handedness, making it difficult to get a fix on. The subject of the nature of handedness continues to be debated and discussed, and we are no closer to an answer. Other mysteries of the human body have more to do with our actual anatomy and the make-up of our bodies. Some of these are external and you can see them right now. For instance, look at your hands and you’ll see that not only do you have fingerprints, but you may also know that their particular patterns of whorls and ridges are completely unique to you and you alone. Have you ever thought about why that should be, or indeed why you should have fingerprints in the first place? If you have been paying attention so far you can probably see where this is going. That’s right, we don’t know. “Whoa, whoa, wait!” you might be thinking right about now. “They are for gripping things, right?” you may be asking. Well, here’s the thing about that, while indeed it was long thought that this was the purpose of fingerprints, that the ridges create friction, this has since been seen as more and more doubtful. In the June 12, 2009 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology a report was published by Peter Warman, from the University of Manchester in England, that showed that fingerprints don’t seem to improve grip at all, and actually may even make our grip worse. It was found that considering that our skin behaves almost like rubber when producing friction with an object, we need more of the skin in contact with the object to get a better grip. In our case, those fingerprints of ours actually make sure that we have less of our skin in contact than we would if we didn’t have fingerprints, worsening the grip, although they are still seen as perhaps helping to grasp rougher surfaces. Other theories for why we have fingerprints include that they help drain water from our fingers to keep our grip dry, that they could have a role to play in helping to prevent blisters, or that they somehow increase touch sensitivity, but at the moment those unique prints of yours are an evolutionary mystery. Moving within the body we come to other inscrutable mysteries. Probably the one most people will immediately think of is the appendix, a seemingly pointless organ that is apparently only good for getting infected and having to be removed. Indeed, many of you reading this right now are probably without an appendix and also without any ill effects, and indeed even the word itself “appendix” in common usage denotes something that is sort of tacked on as an afterthought. One would think that after all of these years we would by now have discovered just what it is supposed to do, but actually no. All we have are ideas, such that it is a vestigial remnant of an organ that helped our ancestors digest food, that it helps develop the immune system of fetuses, or even that it plays an important role in attracting and providing a living environment for the “good bacteria” in your gut, but we are basically just as perplexed by this anomaly of the human body as we always have been. The very blood that runs through our veins also holds mysteries. All human beings can be classified into different blood types, which have different enzymes that determine the types of sugars that stick to blood cells, and the main four types are classified as A, B, O, and AB. The differences between these types is such that for blood infusions it is a necessity that donors with compatible types be found. Yet why human beings should have different blood types in the first place has long remained an enigma. The closest we have come to an answer is that certain blood types and their antigens may be more useful for fighting off pathogens found in particular geographical areas of the world or that they have evolved for some other function, but there is no definitive reason and they are a mystery. CONTINUE READING: mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/11/strange-and-confounding-mysteries-of-the-human-body/
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Post by auntym on Jan 12, 2019 14:26:47 GMT -6
blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-our-future-really-written-in-our-genes/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=SciAm_&sf205859205=1 Is Our Future Really Written in Our Genes?A recent book argues your DNA can predict your future from birth with 100 percent reliability. That assertion is not 100 percent reliable By Kevin Mitchell / www.scientificamerican.com/author/kevin-mitchell/ January 7, 2019 Is Our Future Really Written in Our Genes? Credit: Getty Images Is our future written in our genes? Recent developments in genetics give the impression of a rapidly increasing ability to predict our individual traits based on genomic information, and even to manipulate those traits through technologies such as CRISPR-based genome editing. For some physical traits, like eye color, and for genetically simple diseases, like cystic fibrosis or sickle-cell anemia, this impression is pretty accurate—we really can predict those things from a person’s genetic profile and we really could alter them in embryos with one or a couple of judicious edits. But could we do the same for more complex traits, including psychological ones like intelligence? Again, recent stories suggest it is possible, at least in principle. King’s College London geneticist Robert Plomin, in his new book, Blueprint, presents DNA as a “fortune-teller” that is “100 percent reliable” and that can “predict your future from birth.” He also argues that the “only systematic, stable and long-lasting source of who we are is DNA.” A U.S. company, Genomic Prediction, recently said it will offer embryo selection based on polygenic scores for intelligence. And the announcement from China that human babies had been born with CRISPR-edited genomes immediately prompted visions of its use for the creation of “designer babies.” with alterations of genes affecting all kinds of traits, including intelligence. The prospect of either genetic selection or genome editing for intelligence or other traits has led to an outcry over the lack of consideration that has so far been given to the associated ethical concerns, and rightly so. But it is interesting to note that the backdrop to many of these discussions is the implicit assumption that, even if our ability to predict intelligence from our genome is currently imperfect, it is only a matter of time before it becomes much more accurate. Indeed, researchers are finding more and more genetic variants associated with intelligence all the time, as sample sizes in these studies continue to increase. And we are used in more general terms to the application of machine learning in dredging these kinds of high-dimensional data for meaningful patterns that give almost godlike powers of classification and prediction in other areas. It seems reasonable to assume that the power of genetic information will continue to increase, even for complex traits like intelligence, which involves variations in thousands of genes. But these discussions have overlooked a much more fundamental limit in our ability to predict or control our psychological traits. Most such traits are only partly heritable—that is, only a certain proportion of the variation we see in the trait across the population can be attributed to genetic differences between people. For intelligence, the heritability is about 50 percent, at least in developed nations and in samples with relatively uniform socioeconomic status. The rest of the variation is nongenetic. The common inference is that if it’s not genes making us different from each other, it must be something in the environment. If this were true, and we could identify the causal environmental factors, then maybe we could control those too. And we do know of many environmental factors that do affect intelligence, such as maternal and infant health, nutrition and education. But even in situations where the variation in these factors is very low, there is still substantial nongenetic variance in the trait that remains unexplained. That third source of variation may simply be chance. Our psychological traits derive from differences in the physical structure and chemical makeup of our brains. The wiring of the brain is astonishingly complex and its almost miraculous self-assembly relies on a huge number of cellular and developmental processes, involving the actions of thousands of genes. It is variation in precisely those kinds of genes that has been implicated in intelligence. Those genes encode a program of development but they do not encode the precise outcome. All they encode is a set of mindless rules governing the biochemical interactions of millions of protein molecules, determining which genes get turned on and off in each cell of a developing embryo. Complex sets of feedback and feed-forward interactions ensure that different organs develop in the right place, that all the different types of cells differentiate, and, in the brain, that all the nerve cells and brain regions get connected to each other in the right way. However, all those processes are subject to noise or inherent randomness at a molecular level. The genes can set the rules, but the outcome will vary—sometimes substantially—from run to run of the program. This is especially true in the brain, due to the nonlinear, self-organizing nature of development, where small differences at one stage can have cascading consequences and be amplified across subsequent stages of development. newsletter promo Even for genetically identical twins, whose brains are very structurally similar to each other, there is thus still substantial variation between them. This is reflected in differences in their psychological traits like intelligence or personality. The key point is that this variation is not due to environmental factors or anything outside the individual—it is intrinsic to the processes of development themselves. By the time we are born, our brains and minds are already unique—not just due to our genetics, but as the result of a never-to-be-repeated sequence of developmental events. This places a firm limit—in principle, not just in practice—on the level of precision associated with genomic prediction of psychological traits. We can certainly use genetics to look at statistical effects across the population, but this will give at best very fuzzy predictors for individuals. No matter how good our understanding of the genetics of intelligence gets, we will never be able to predict intelligence of individuals with accuracy from genomic information. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-our-future-really-written-in-our-genes/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=SciAm_&sf205859205=1
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Post by auntym on Jan 31, 2019 13:59:23 GMT -6
dailygalaxy.com/2019/01/cave-of-mystery-evidence-of-a-lost-branch-of-human-evolution/ “Cave of Mystery” –Evidence of a Lost Branch of Human EvolutionPosted on Jan 31, 2019 Ancient Human SpeciesIn August 2018, researchers discovered a bone fragment from a girl whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan in a remote cave in Siberia. In the study, researchers estimate that this hybrid child lived between 79,100 and 118,100 years ago. Modern humans, scientists discovered, share a common ancestor with Denisovans and Neanderthals that lived roughly 600,000 years ago. Later — approximately 390,00 years ago — the Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages split. Over the past decade, reports Carl Zimmer in the New York Times, the Denisova Cave “has yielded some of the most fascinating fossils ever found. To the naked eye, they are not much to look at — a few teeth, bits of bone. But the fossils contain DNA dating back tens of thousands of years. That genetic material shows that Denisovans were a distinct branch of human evolution, a lost lineage. At some point in the distant past, the Denisovans disappeared — but not before interbreeding with modern humans. Today, people in places like East Asia and New Guinea still carry fragments of Denisovan DNA.” Denisova CaveThe August finding in the cave in an isolated river valley in Siberia was “sensational” said Johannes Krause, who studies ancient DNA at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. “Now we have the love child of two different hominin groups, found where members of both groups have been found. It’s quite a lot of things happening in one cave through time.” Homo Naledi, Newly Discovered Species –“Maybe We’ve Had the Story of Human Evolution Wrong the Whole Time”“Everyone said, ‘These Denisovans, we have no idea how old they are,’” said Katerina Douka, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. Over the past six years, Dr. Douka and other experts have been creating a history of the cave, dating 103 layers of sediment on the cave floor, as well as 50 items found in them, including bones, pieces of charcoal and tools. The Max Planck scientists unveiled this chronology in a pair of papers published yesterday that shows that humans occupied the cave for perhaps as long as 300,000 years, raising some intriguing hints that Denisovans may have been capable of sophisticated thought, on par with modern humans. The August research findings suggest that the woman may have been just a teenager when she died more than 50,000 years ago, too young to have left much of a mark on her world. But a piece of one of her bones, unearthed in in the cave in 2012, may make her famous. Enough ancient DNA lingered within the 2-centimeter fragment to reveal her startling ancestry: She was the direct offspring of two different species of ancient humans, Neanderthal and the mysterious Denisovan— extinct groups of hominins that separated from each other more than 390,000 years ago. New Research Reveals Early “Ghost Species” That Interbred With Humans dailygalaxy.com/2017/07/new-research-reveals-early-ghost-species-that-interbred-with-humans/An analysis of the woman’s genome, continues Gretchen Vogel in Science, indicates her mother was Neanderthal and her father was Denisovan, the mysterious group of ancient humans discovered in the same Siberian cave in 2011. It is the most direct evidence yet that various ancient humans mated with each other and had offspring. Denisovan Bone FragmentThis bone fragment harbors the most direct evidence yet of ancient interspecies mating. Thomas Higham, University of Oxford Based on other ancient genomes, researchers already had concluded that Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans interbred in ice age Europe and Asia. The genes of both archaic human species are present in many people today. Other fossils found in the Siberian cave have shown that all three species lived there at different times. Viviane Slon, a paleogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who did the ancient DNA analysis, says when she saw the results, her first reaction was disbelief. Only after repeating the experiment several times were she and her Leipzig colleagues—Svante Pääbo, Fabrizio Mafessoni, and Benjamin Vernot—convinced. That a direct offspring of the two ancient humans was found among the first few fossil genomes recovered from the cave suggests, Pääbo says, “that when these groups met, they actually mixed quite freely with each other.” The Daily Galaxy via Science and The New York Times dailygalaxy.com/2019/01/cave-of-mystery-evidence-of-a-lost-branch-of-human-evolution/
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