Are featherless chickens really GMO/genetically-engineered?
Genetic modification or just conventional breeding?
Pictures of these creepy new chickens are going around the web, claiming these are genetically modified organisms (GMO), however, it is reported that these chickens were created through conventional breeding by an Israeli scientist. They were bred using a bare-neck breed of chicken (likely what’s called the “turken“) that’s been around for decades, that was also conventionally bred. In other words, barring any newer mutations, these naked chickens theoretically could have been bred 3000 years ago with an intensive breeding program with no modern technologies.
Sure they look creepy, but so do naked mole rats and manatees, yet they are totally natural, and in the wild, not bred by humans at all.
The scientist does have some good points – this could be a good hot weather chicken and could do a little bit to impact the environment less.
Story on New Scientist: Featherless chicken creates a flap
| Tagged: Tags: Front Page News | CommentsSolid State Drives
Want to learn more about solid state drives (SSD’s)? These can plug into existing computers as if they were a conventional hard drive, but without the failure-prone mechanical movements of conventional hard drives.
Solid state drives are faster and more resistant to failure, but they are more expensive. If it fits into your budget, get one – otherwise use your conventional hard drive and make those backups!
Solid state drives are tougher than conventional hard drives.
SanDisk SSD (Solid State Drive) Videos
| Tagged: Tags: Computing, Front Page News, Technology | CommentsAncient Greenlander’s DNA a surprise
Artist’s rendition of
ancient Greenlander
An analysis of an ancient Greenlander’s DNA (from a hair sample) yielded a surprise – that he was unrelated to modern, native Greenlanders and apparently was from a group that migrated from Siberia more recently than known ancestors of Native Americans. Researchers believe the group came from Siberia about 5,500 years ago and the man whose DNA was analyzed lived about 4,000 years ago.
This obviously blows up some previous assumptions about ancient migrations, etc., and I believe there will be many more surprises to be found in human DNA over the next couple of decades, revealing unexpected ancestries, migrations and more. Sure, 90% of archaeology, prehistory will remain the same, but 10% might need totally rewritten. Do South American natives have a small amount of Polynesian ancestry? Do Europeans carry any Neanderthal DNA at all? Mitochondrial DNA studies say something, but they don’t reveal the whole picture. Genetic contributors may leave no trace of mitochondrial DNA, though they contributed nuclear DNA. In fact, male-only contributors would leave no mitochondrial DNA trace at all, since mitochondrial DNA is only inherited through the mother. And simple genetic drift could easily wipe out maternal mitochondrial DNA contribution from female contributors, while the untested nuclear DNA contribution persists.
On a related note, who were the Clovis people? This finding with the ancient Greenlander DNA certainly lends credibility to the theories of the Clovis people being a genetically separate group who found the Americas on their own and died out or were assimilated into later migrations of the ancestors of modern Native Americans.
Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo (Nature)
Ancient Greenland gene map reveals surprise (TimesofMalta.com)
| Tagged: Tags: Front Page News | Comments