All Posts Tagged as 'DNA'

We knew the long quarantine was making us all crabby, but this is extreme: People now feel fully betrayed by the long history of crabification (technically, “carcinization”) of different species over time. That means groups of crustaceans have evolved into crabs in five completely different contexts, giving rise to a meme that the long arc of history truly bends toward the crab.

So how does carcinization happen? Well, that part is pretty simple. Animals that live in similar habitats face obstacles that can shuttle them all toward the same evolutionary advantages. Britannica cites the marsupials as a key example, where despite having one critical difference from their “placental” counterparts in other parts of the world, the marsupials often correspond very closely to these other animals.

Animals can evolve separately but end up evolving toward other species, too, or even spontaneously evolve the same characteristics in totally separate groups. Birds and bats can both fly using mechanical wings. Birds and mammals are both warmblooded, but both evolved from groups that were not.

My wife and I, both women, have one child, who is now 5. We used a sperm donor from a federally licensed bank, to ensure our legal parental rights. I conceived and carried the baby, and both our names are on the birth certificate. Here’s the thing: A couple of months ago, I brought up with my wife the prospect of finding our kid’s donor siblings. She told me she wasn’t crazy about the idea but that I should go ahead and do what I want (obviously, this was said without enthusiasm). I brought it up to her several times after that, and her response was the same fatalistic, “Do what you want, obviously my wishes don’t matter here.” I took my spouse at her word, and started looking. In a secure, vetted fashion (through the sperm bank itself), I was able to find a group of other families who used the same donor. And there are a bunch of kids—over a dozen!

I am overjoyed. I’m excited about the prospect of meeting these families, of our children having close relationships with their half-siblings as they grow up. Seeing pictures, hearing family stories, and learning about medical histories are all great outcomes of this. And as a lesbian, I am excited to connect with a lot of other families, many of them LGBTQ, and have a sense of community with them. My wife is threatened by all of this. She says it feels like I am saying, “Here’s our kid’s real family.” I feel that her stance is emotionally immature and centers herself, not our child’s needs. My wife was really upset over my findings. She has asked me to not tell our child (yet?), and told me she felt hurt because deciding to contact donor siblings was something she wanted us to do together. Which is clearly not true!

Back in 2021, Kodak Black came under fire for a similar gesture . In a video from his brother’s birthday party in Miami, the rapper was filmed grabbing his mother’s rear and trying to kiss her on the mouth.

The guidance comes as childhood obesity rates have continued to rise over the past decade and a half, increasing from 17% to 20%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since the 1980s, obesity rates have tripled in children and quadrupled in adolescents.

A study published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Advances In Nutrition concluded that 'fast carbs' are no more likely than 'slow carbs' to lead to weight gain.

Fast carbs such as white bread are also known as high-GI foods because of their high glycemic index.

'High-glycemic index foods have been hypothesized to promote fat storage and increase risk of obesity,' the study said.

For example, the study noted a database from the University of Sydney that lists 27 values for brown rice ranging from 48 to 87. The GI values for white rice ranged from 17 to 94.

When parents eat low-protein or high-fat diets it can lead to metabolic disorders in their adult offspring. Now, an international team led by researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) have identified a key player and the molecular events underlying this phenomenon in mice.

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease is a school of thought that focuses on how prenatal factors such as stress and diet impact the development of diseases when children reach adulthood. Experimental evidence indicates that environmental factors that affect parents do play a role in reprogramming the health of their offspring throughout their lifespan. In particular, parental low-protein diets are known to be related to metabolic disorders in their children, such as diabetes.

For the first time ever, scientists edited the DNA inside a living human being. Doctors at Harvard edited the unruly cellular material of a live patient — who has a rare genetic disorder that causes blindness — inside the patient’s body, reported NPR. CRISPR, the technology used to edit the cellular sequence, isn’t brand new. But usually in order to use it for DNA editing, doctors first remove cells from a patient’s body, edit the genes inside them, and then put the edited genes back into the patient. Not anymore, though, apparently. CRISPR has now been used to modify DNA without first removing the cells, according to NPR.

In order to achieve this groundbreaking medical feat, doctors injected the patient’s eye with a combination of viruses and a set of CRISPR-created instructions for editing the gene, NPR reported. The viruses themselves are harmless. They are used as messengers to deliver the gene edits to the cells. The tool sent by the viruses is intended to cut out the defect that causes blindness in the patient. According to NPR, scientists hope that by cutting out the malfunctioning part of the cell, the patient’s body will respond by producing necessary proteins that prevent the death of cells in the retina and will also revitalize other cells, thus restoring vision.