Biology – Page 4 – Trevor O'Donoghue

The relentless march of science

12th April 201731st March 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

Professor Sergio-Canavero is hoping to carry out the first head transplant. Is he a crackpot or a great innovator and visionary?

It has been a busy few weeks in the science arena. In the shadow of NASA’s announcement on the “Earth-like” planets around other stars, we heard that we no longer need to have our five portions of fruit and veg a day. We should now be aiming for 10 portions a day. The more, the merrier if you want to significantly reduce your chances of getting heart disease, stroke and cancer. In China significant inroads have been taken on the road to clean nuclear fusion, with a major breakthrough in burning hydrogen at a temperature hotter than our sun for well over a minute. This is one of the key requirements for a fusion reactor, which would offer unlimited clean energy and a move away from fossil fuels.

Digital DNA

10th March 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

Last year a team of researchers from Microsoft and the University of Washington announced that they had stored and read back over 200 MB of digital data stored on laboratory synthesized DNA molecules. To put this in context, a typical picture on a smartphone is in the region of 3 – 5 MB. Last week another team reported that they had made further strides and have managed to store more information using DNA than was previously possible.

NASA announces spectacular exoplanet system

22nd February 201722nd February 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

Trappist-1, a remarkable exoplanet system

In a previous post, I discussed Pluto and the existence of planets in orbit around other stars (exoplanets). Since then, NASA has announced and held a press conference on Wednesday announcing further discoveries in this field. In the conference, NASA provided details of an exoplanet system located around a relatively close star. The star, Trappist-1 is an ultra cool red dwarf, much smaller than our Sun and located 39 light years from Earth. The star plays host to a remarkable planetary system.

Synthesising new life

4th February 20173rd February 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

New DNA type — Professor Floyd Romesberg (right) and Graduate Student Yorke Zhang led the new study at The Scripps Research Institute, along with Brian Lamb (not pictured).(Photo by Madeline McCurry-Schmidt.)

At the turn of 2017 a team of scientists led by a professor Romesburg published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US. The paper detailed their achievement of creating a semi synthetic life form. For years, scientists have had the ability to manipulate genes and we see the benefit with improved medicines and disease resistant crops. We even had Dolly the sheep and glow in the dark rabbits. Genetic engineering has become almost commonplace.

An introduction to synthetic biology

30th January 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

Ginkgo Bioworks' state-of-the-art synthetic biology lab — Ginkgo Bioworks’ state-of-the-art synthetic biology lab

DNA is the life code, the blueprint if you like, for designing living organisms. Just like in construction, changing the blueprint will result in a different end product. Biotechnology has traditionally used the same technique, tweaking the blueprint.