Tag: DNA

Chip-based DNA testing wrong more than right for very rare variants

The chips used in some consumer DNA tests are very poor at accurately detecting rare genetic variants linked to cancer compared with full genome sequencing, but are good at detecting more common ones Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267826-chip-based-dna-testing-wrong-more-than-right-for-very-rare-variants/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Pfizer Is Doubling Its Output of Covid-19 Vaccines

31.9 million Americans have already received one or both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine — including more than 9.3 million people who have been fully vaccinated. And now USA Today reports: Pfizer expects to nearly cut in half the amount of time it takes to produce a batch of COVID-19 vaccine from 110 days to an average of 60 as it…

Accused Murderer Wins Right To Check Source Code of DNA Testing Kit

“A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that a man accused of murder is entitled to review proprietary genetic testing software to challenge evidence presented against him,” reports The Register. Long-time Slashdot reader couchslug shared their report: The maker of the software, Cybergenetics, has insisted in lower court proceedings that the program’s source code is a trade secret. The co-founder of…

‘Ghost particle’ ML model permits full quantum description of the solvated electron

The behavior of the solvated electron e-aq has fundamental implications for electrochemistry, photochemistry, high-energy chemistry, as well as for biology—its nonequilibrium precursor is responsible for radiation damage to DNA—and it has understandably been the topic of experimental and theoretical investigation for more than 50 years. …

US Intelligence Officials Say Chinese Government Is Collecting Americans’ DNA

schwit1 shares a report from CBS News: The largest biotech firm in the world wasted no time in offering to build and run COVID testing labs in Washington, contacting its governor right after the first major COVID outbreak in the U.S. occurred there. The Chinese company, the BGI Group, made the same offer to at least five other states, including New…

Australian lungfish has largest genome of any animal sequenced so far

The Australian lungfish’s genome is around 14 times larger than the human one, and its DNA confirms it is closely related to land-based animals with a backbone Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2265127-australian-lungfish-has-largest-genome-of-any-animal-sequenced-so-far/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

41% of IT Leaders Believe AI Will Take Their Jobs By 2030

Dallas, TX-based cloud security firm Trend Micro interviewed 500 IT directors and managers, CIOs and CTOs — and discovered that over two-fifths of them believe they’ll be replaced by AI by 2030. ZDNet reports:
Only 9% of respondents were confident that AI would definitely not replace their job within the next decade. In fact, nearly a third (32%) said they thought the…

Why Cancer Cells Waste So Much Energy

MIT News: In the 1920s, German chemist Otto Warburg discovered that cancer cells don’t metabolize sugar the same way that healthy cells usually do. Since then, scientists have tried to figure out why cancer cells use this alternative pathway, which is much less efficient. MIT biologists have now found a possible answer to this longstanding question. In a study appearing in…