March 2, 2017 Computer engineers have created some amazingly small devices, capable of storing entire libraries of music and movies in the palm of your hand. But geneticists say Mother Nature can do even better. DNA, where all of biology's information is stored, is incredibly dense. The whole genome of an organism fits into a cell that is invisible to the naked eye. That's why computer scientists are turning to molecular biology to design the next best way to store humanity's ever-increasing collection of digital data. With every new app, selfie, blog post, or cat video, the hardware to store the world's vast archive of digital information is filling up. But, theoretically, DNA could store up to 455 exabytes per gram. In other words, you could have 44 billion copies of the extended versions of all three of The Lord of the Rings movies on the tip of your finger. (For reference, watching all those movies would take more than 164 million years.) George Church, a geneticist at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, first used DNA as storage for digital informationin 2012, which he reportedin a paper published in the journal Science. At the time, he revealed … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Structural Biology & Molecular Modeling Techniques Market Analysis By Tools, By Application And Segment Forecasts 2014 - 2025" report to their offering. The structural biology & molecular modeling techniques market is expected to reach USD 13.1 billion by 2025 An unprecedented rise in the adoption of unhealthy lifestyles has led to an upsurge in the prevalence of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, which is presumed to propel the structural biology & molecular modeling techniques market during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing drug resistance coupled with the high drug attrition rate is engendering the requirement for extensive R&D activities, which is presumed to boost the adoption of structural biology & molecular modeling techniques in the drug discovery and development process. This is expected to serve as an efficient approach in fast tracking the development of drugs with high potency. The heightening demand for molecular modeling techniques is predominantly attributable to the significant cost reduction enabled. This is due to the fact that prediction software identifies possible adverse reactions and determines drug efficacy and toxicity in the pre-clinical stages, thereby reducing the probability of drug failure at the later stages. … Continue reading →

Research from a creek bed teaches E-town Biology students about invasives March 2, 2017 // By: E.A. Harvey // Achievements, Research and Academics Orconectes rusticus is not welcome here. Its aggressive, overproduces and upsets the balance of Lancaster County aquaculture. Native to the Ohio River basin and Kentucky, this invasive crayfish species, known for its larger claws and red body dot, wreaks havoc with native populations along the East Coast and in Europe. Rusty likely arrived in the 1960s, sloshing around in bait buckets. When they jumped the hook or unused bait was dumped, they set about reproducing. One female can carry 100 fertilized eggs. Rusty now inhabits the locales in Europe, the Great Lakes Region, areas in New England and spots along the U.S. eastern coast including the nearby Conewago Creek, where Elizabethtown College students, armed with nets and quick hands scoop them up as study subjects. In Pennsylvania, everyone seems to have picked up a crayfish, said Anya Goldina, visiting assistant professor of biology. The students actually taught me how to find them and pick them up. Goldinas students study these freshwater crustaceans for several reasons, not least of which is to track their use of pheromoneschemicals that … Continue reading →

Over the weekend, headlines out of Texas told of a transgender boy, Mack Beggs, who won a high-school state championship in the girls wrestling division. To clarify the opening sentence, let me rewrite it: A biological female taking testosterone injections to transition from female to male overpowered competitors to rack up a 560 season record and then went on to win a state championship against other girls who were not taking strength-enhancing hormones. Texas law rightfully requires individuals to compete in divisions based on the gender indicated on their birth certificate. In normal times, such a regulation would be uncontroversial. But we are not living in normal times. We are living in an era when political correctness demands that society accept, wholesale, the patent falsehood that men or boys who declare themselves to be women or girls (and vice versa) can actually be members of the opposite sex, simply based on how they interpret their own gender. Several aspects of this story raise questions. What would happen, for instance, were Beggs to face off against biological males? In that scenario, Beggs would be fighting opponents who, based on biology alone, were likely to be stronger than virtually any girl, and … Continue reading →

Fossils have plenty of stories to tell about the deep past, providing a picture of life on Earth thousands, millions and even billions of years ago. Edward Davis of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History will tell you that fossils are key to understanding the future particularly for managing wildlands. Davis, along with Stanford Universitys Anthony Barnosky and an international team of researchers, suggested in a review paper published in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science that effective conservation strategies must look to the fossil record to maintain vibrant ecosystems in the present and future. The more scientists consider past changes, the authors argued, the better they can forecast how species will respond to coming changes and how people can foster their survival. In our current context of rapid climate change, conservation efforts need to focus on enhancing the resiliency of ecosystems something we can do most effectively by preserving the processes that govern wild spaces, Davis said. The fossil record provides an important guide to those processes, which in many cases have characterized ecosystems for millions of years, regardless of the species involved. The Science paper grew out of a 2015 meeting hosted by the … Continue reading →