In a do-over after their 2006 failure, Neanderthal genome was finally sequenced (60% of it) and confirmed that it wasn’t all war when modern humans left Africa, there was some interbreeding going on too, which made us all 1% – 4% Neanderthal. Although the important implications were the identification of the 78 genes that separate us – most of them already known as genes that deal with human brain because mutations in them cause everything from Down’s (DYRK1A) to Autism disorders (CADPS2 and AUTS2). Too bad we’re not allowed to mod a human germ cell and grow up a Neanderthal child in a test tube.

In another example of prehistoric genetics, a wooly mammoth gene was inserted in E.coli to express mammoth hemoglobin and to study how does it work at low temperatures. I just love how the first sentence of the article’s abstract says “We have successfully resurrected …”

To the joy of quacks everywhere, acupuncture was meticulously studied and proven to relieve pain in mice (as long as the mice don’t have the mutation that removes their adenosine receptors). Of course you don’t have to know anything about magical energies, it’s the tissue damage that releases the pain-killing chemical.

Speaking of researching the antiscientific, a three year long study showed that both lab and wild birds prefer conventionally-grown grain to “organic” grain because of its higher nutritional content (but it takes them a while to learn the difference). Not a surprise to me, I never buy “organic” food myself anyway, but the authors just had to say they are overturning a “dogma”.

Oh and while I’m on quakery subject, Wakefield’s old papers about his made-up vaccination-autism connection were retracted from public record by The Lancet and American Journal of Gastroenterology — about time!

Since it’s all about biology today, a couple biologists from New Hampshire played God Nature by changing whole-island populations of predators and lizards on six tiny Caribbean islands and evolved some tough anole lizards in a field experiment on natural selection.

Also, apparently we can now reprogram the poor abused E.coli to seek and destroy specific chemicals, in this case, a herbicide.

And for a quick round-up of the bizarre, Monkeys pay for porn, 2-toed sloths hide in outhouses to eat our poop, and there’s a new gaping hole in the middle of Guatemala city.

That’s it for May. Enjoy the World’s Best Visual Illusion of 2010!

Fig. 1A of the PLoS ONE article, published under the Creative Commons Attribution License

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution … Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

What the researchers actually say:

Morphological characteristics preserved in Darwinius masillae enable a rigorous comparison with the two principal subdivisions of living primates: Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini. Defining characters of Darwinius ally it with early haplorhines rather than strepsirrhines. We do not interpret Darwinius as anthropoid, but the adapoid primates it represents deserve more careful comparison with higher primates than they have received in the past.

upd: looks like the researchers may have hyped it up themselves, off-paper. Way to lose face.
Crossposted from Livejournal

And yet I live in the only non-islamic country in the world where the nutcases who think that all of the modern biology is wrong are not a ridiculous minority, but comprise nearly 40-60% of general population (Miller et al. (2006) Science 313:765-766 say 40-45%, Pew Research Center says 63%). Their leaders and spokesmen not just make stuff up and pass it as some sort of secret truth, they publish books, make movies, built museums, and continually attempt to force the schools to teach their lies. Major league politicians and celebrities openly confess their ignorance. If you run into a creationist, an IDer, or one of their ilk online, make sure to have http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/ open in your browser, because their claims are almost never original, and have been debunked before.

As for some cool recent discoveries, check out the early and later whale ancestors or the turtle ancestor, or the new work on the evolution of hair.

Crossposted from LiveJournal