As the coronavirus swept across the world, it picked up random alterations to its genetic sequence. Like meaningless typos in a script, most of those mutations made no difference in how the virus behaved. But one mutation near the beginning of the pandemic did make a difference, multiple new findings suggest, helping the virus spread more easily from person to person…
Tag: Genomics
Amazon’s Latest Gimmicks Are Pushing the Limits of Privacy
At the end of September, Amazon debuted two especially futuristic products within five days of each other: a small autonomous surveillance drone, called Ring Always Home Cam, and a palm recognition scanner, called Amazon One. “Both products aim to make security and authentication more convenient — but for privacy-conscious consumers, they also raise red flags,” reports Wired. From the report: Amazon’s…
Oracle Celebrates ‘The 25 Greatest Java Apps Ever Written’
Oracle’s Java magazine is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the programming language with a list of the 25 greatest Java apps ever written:
From space exploration to genomics, from reverse compilers to robotic controllers, Java is at the heart of today’s world. Here are a few of the countless Java apps that stand out from the crowd. The story of Java began…
New York Times Investigates How in America ‘the Virus Won’
“Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs,” writes the New York Times, in a detailed interactive data visualization. “We analyzed travel patterns, hidden infections and genetic data to show how the epidemic spun out of control.” By mid-February, there were only 15 known coronavirus cases in the United States, all with direct links to China… The…
Did early humans in Africa interbreed with a mysterious, extinct species?
New research suggests that early humans in Africa interbred with a ghost population that likely split from the ancestors of humans and Neanderthals between 360,000 and 1.02 million years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/early-humans-africa-interbred-with-extinct-species…
23andMe has sold the rights to develop a drug based on its users’ DNA
Consumer genomics firm 23andMe has signed its first deal to sell the rights to develop a new drug for inflammatory diseases to a pharmaceutical company Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229828-23andme-has-sold-the-rights-to-develop-a-drug-based-on-its-users-dna/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Scientists Store Data in Synthetic DNA Embedded in a Plastic Bunny
A new method for preserving genetically encoded data into common manufacturing materials is reported. From a report: The future of digital memory may be inside a small plastic bunny that contains 3-D printing instructions for replicating itself stored in artificial DNA, said scientists Monday, who announced a method for mixing genetically encoded data into common manufacturing materials. The scientists sealed the…
Ancestry Taps AI To Sift Through Millions of Obituaries
Algorithms identified death notices in old newspaper pages, then another set of algorithms pulled names and other key details into a searchable database. From a report: Ancestry used artificial intelligence to extract obituary details hidden in a half-billion digitized newspaper pages dating back to 1690, data invaluable for customers building their family trees. The family history and consumer-genomics company, based in…