General science – Page 7 – Trevor O'Donoghue

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.

Tonight’s penumbral lunar eclipse

11th February 201710th February 2017 by Trevor O'Donoghue

The moon shines by acting like a mirror and reflecting the light from the sun towards earth. As the moon orbits the earth, sometimes the moon will pass into the shadow of the earth cast by the sun, as the sun earth and moon line up in space. When this happens, observers on earth experience a dimming of the moon. This is a lunar eclipse. There are three different types of lunar eclipses. A total lunar eclipse, a partial lunar eclipse and a penumbral lunar eclipse.

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.