Hoxful Monsters

The eye is considered to have developed at rather quick pace during the ‘Cambrian explosion’, 540 million years ago.Charles Drawin always wondered how natural selection could have led to the development of an organ as complex as the eye and with a common origin, in so many different kinds of animals. A group of Scientists led by Detlev Arendt, in EMBL,Germany have found how the primitive sea creature, zooplankton, respond to light that marks an early stage in the development of the eye. Larvae of marine invertebrates – worms, …

The ability of organisms to generate novel characters is one of the long standing puzzle in the theory of evolution.Recent work in the field of Genetics, Evolution and Developmental biology have led to some finds suggesting that organisms have facilitated variation, a design whereby random genetic changes result in novel characteristics (phenotypes) that could be useful.

Biomed central ,the Publisher of 196 peer-reviewed open access journals added a new journal ” Epigenetics and Chromatin to their excellent collection of open access journals.This new journal will provide novel insights into epigenetic inheritance and chromatin-based interactions.
“Epigenetics & Chromatin aims to understand how gene and chromosomal elements are regulated and their activities maintained during cell division, differentiation and environmental alteration. Epigenetic research is concerned with heritable changes that do not change DNA sequence, but rather involve stable modifications of chromatin, DNA or protein conformation. Epigenetics is a …

Sarah palin somehow manages to make to the headlines for various reasons, on 24th October the Republican nominee for Vice President attacked scientific research done on fruit flies ,in a speech about her running mate John McCain’s policies on children with disabilities (you can read here)).Sarah Palin condemned “earmarks”, which are congressional mandates to spend money on specific projects.
“You’ve heard about some of these pet projects, they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do …

Check this video from Helicos BioSciences showing their latest technology for DNA sequencing which promises to be a much cheaper than the conventional system.Many companies are trying to out do each other in terms of cost for sequencing.Applied Biosystems and relative new company Complete genomics might face a tough challenge from Helicos Bio sciences when it comes to Cheap DNA sequencing.

Just seven days remain now for the elections and the promises made by both John McCain and Obama before the economic drop of double funding to basic research looked a distant possibility till today. But speaking at the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing conference in Palo Alto, California, Obama science adviser and Stanford University plant biologist Sharon Long said she would advise that basic funding should survive the budget tightening of either candidate.Science adviser to Obama believes that science funding will not be compromised and will be …

It was absolutely shocking to hear Sarah palin’s views on Drosophila research going on in various parts of world.She is of the opinion that money should not be spent on small fruit flies ,which are of no use to public life and rather divert that money in curing the disabilities of children.
For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information. Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference. […] We’ve got a three trillion dollar budget, and …