WIKIPEDIA

Genomes are like books of life. But until recently, their covers were locked. Finally we can now open the books and page through them. But we only have a modest understanding of what we’re actually seeing. We are still not sure how much our genome encodes information that is important to our survival, and how much is just garbled padding.

Today is a good day to dip into the debate over what the genome is made of, thanks to the publication of an interesting commentary from Alex Palazzo and Ryan Gregory in PLOS Genetics. It’s called “The Case for Junk DNA.”

Continue reading “The Case for Junk DNA”

LECHUGUILLA CAVE. WIKIPEDIA

“We’re in a medical crisis, as bacteria that can resist antibiotics become more common. But, as I write in my new New York Times column, antibiotic resistance isn’t just limited to the doctor’s office. Bacteria all over the world have genes that make them resistant to our best drugs–bacteria living in caves, in ice, in the ocean floor, and in the dirt outside your door. And they probably had those genes long before doctors started using antibiotics.

Continue reading “Our Planet Seethes With Antibiotic Resistance–And Has For A Long Time”

EBOLA VIRUS. MICROGRAPH FROM CDC/CYNTHIA GOLDSMITH

As viruses go, Ebola has a grim star power. When a new outbreak hits, Ebola kills a high fraction of its victims, causing horrific bleeding along the way. The latest outbreak started in March in Guinea. As of today, the World Health Organization reported 231 cases and 155 deaths.

In order to better treat Ebola, Pardis Sabeti of Harvard and her colleagues have been analyzing the virus’s evolution. It turns out that Ebola is not some freakish new plague, but rather old. If that seems puzzling, a research scientist in Sabeti’s lab, Stephen Gire, has created this animation, which I’ve embedded below, to explain it. Continue reading “Ebola: New or Old?”

Allow me to direct your attention to three stories of mine that have come out in the past few days:

1. In Popular Mechanics, I take a look at the convergence of the old and the new. Paleontologists are using the latest laser-scanning technology and 3D-printing devices to visualize and replicate fossils. When you are faced with a graveyard of forty fossil whales, this kind of thing is a really big help. Continue reading “More Stories! Laser Cowboys, Killer Flu, and the Bloody Fountain of Youth”