By Bryony Jones, CNN updated 5:14 PM EST, Tue November 25, 2014 STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- DNA pioneer James Watson is to sell the Nobel Prize he won for his co-discovery of the double helix structure -- the building block of life. The coveted gold medal is expected to go under the hammer for up to $3.5 million in a sale at Christie's in New York on December 4. It will be the first time a Nobel Prize has been sold by a living recipient. Watson, now 85, was awarded the medal, for work in the field of physiology or medicine, alongside fellow scientists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962. Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Read the original here: DNA pioneer to sell Nobel Prize … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- James Watson will become the first living Nobel laureate to sell his prize when the gold medal he was awarded for the discovery of DNA structure is auctioned in New York. The prize could sell for as much as $3.5 million next week at Christie's in New York. Watson plans to use the proceeds to fund scientific research. Watson, a native of Chicago, was a young researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in England when he met his collaborator, Francis Crick. He told CNN in a 2013 interview that Crick was the first person he met who shared his conviction of the importance of DNA. Within a short time, they determined that DNA, the protein that forms genes, has a double helix structure. "All we could say when we got it: It's so beautiful!" Watson said. "DNA was my only gold rush." Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins of King's College in London, who had made important contributions in DNA research, were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine in 1962. Watson's notes for his acceptance speech and the manuscript of the lecture are also to be sold. Crick died in 2004. … Continue reading →

Researchers in human genetics have known that long nucleotide repeats in DNA lead to instability of the genome and ultimately to human hereditary diseases such Freidreich's ataxia and Huntington's disease. Scientists have believed that the lengthening of those repeats occur during DNA replication when cells divide or when the cellular DNA repair machinery gets activated. Recently, however, it became apparent that yet another process called transcription, which is copying the information from DNA into RNA, could also been involved. A Tufts University study published online on November 20 in the journal Cell Reports by a research team lead by Sergei Mirkin, the White Family Professor of Biology at Tufts' School of Arts and Sciences, along with former graduate student Kartick Shah and graduate students Ryan McGuity and Vera Egorova, explores the relationship between transcription and the expansions of DNA repeats. It concludes that the active transcriptional state of a DNA segment containing a DNA repeat predisposes it for expansions. The print version of the study will be published on December 11. "There are a great many simple repetitive motifs in our DNA, such as GAAGAAGAA or CGGCGGCGG," says Mirkin. "They are stable and cause no harm if they stay short. … Continue reading →

STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- DNA pioneer James Watson is to sell the Nobel Prize he won for his co-discovery of the double helix structure -- the building block of life. The coveted gold medal is expected to go under the hammer for up to $3.5 million in a sale at Christie's in New York on December 4. It will be the first time a Nobel Prize has been sold by a living recipient. Watson, now 85, was awarded the medal, for work in the field of physiology or medicine, alongside fellow scientists Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins in 1962. Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Nobel Peace Prize: They didn't win either Continued here: Your chance for a Nobel prize -- at a price … Continue reading →

Mixed breed. Mongrel. Roadside setter. A something-something. Dogs of uncertain provenance get called a lot of things. When the animal arrives at a shelter, staff usually can make only an educated guess about the dogs parentage. Most of the dogs at my local animal control are assessed as pit mixes upon arrival including the three Ive adopted over the past 2 years. But a pit bull isnt a breed: its just a type of dog characterized by a short coat, muscular frame and broad, oversized head. All three of my dogs clearly at least to my eyes showed signs of specific breeds somewhere in their heritage: Tall and snow white Pullo looks like the breed standard for an American Bulldog. Tyches body is svelte like a boxers and inky black like some Labs. And lanky, long-limbed Waldo sometimes bays like a hound, especially when treeing squirrels. Guessing my dogs breeds was a fun parlor game, but I wanted more definitive answers. So I turned to science. And, well, lets just say its a good thing I didnt place any bets on what was in my dogs family trees. Consumer-targeted dog breed identification testing has been around for about a decade, … Continue reading →