36955491
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Ancient DNA has proven difficult to sequence or clone, because it is fragmentary, and most of it breaks down into single strands after it is extracted from bone.
However, a new technique developed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, sequences single stranded DNA. Scientists just announced they used the technique to fully sequence Denisovan DNA from a bone fragment found in a cave in Siberia. They're going to go back to sequence their library of hundreds of Neanderthal DNA specimens.
How long before they make Dolly Denisovan?
24636240
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Dhanji R. Prasanna was the 25th employee of the Google Wave group in Sydney. He tells how 'even the smartest, most motivated and talented people in the world--with a track record of delivering success--are alone not sufficient to overcome complexity that creeps up on you.'
14158280
submission
wombatmobile writes:
The world's most popular search engine company is a leading supporter of open standards. It pours money and people into initiatives that promote, assist, support and implement web standards. As a core foundation of is mission statement, all web assetts should ideally be of a kind that it can work with.
Strange then, that the world's most popular search engine doesn't index all of the current important web standards formats.
Doug Schepers of W3C blogs about how Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) content is recognised and not recognised by search engines, currently and historically.
327473
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Cypriot-born Australian performance artist Stelios Arcadious has revealed he has had a 3rd ear implanted into his arm.
235951
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Where I live, the law prohibits the use of a hand held mobile phone while driving a car.
In Phoenix, AZ, apparently some people are allowed to fly a helicopter, broadcast news competitively, and control their own airspace simultaneously whilst presenting a story to an audience in real time.
Which got me wondering, what are the neurophysiological limits of multitasking?
Might these limits ever be measured and quantified?
166335
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports that a team led by Prof James Levine, a British scientist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, has invented an apparatus that cures obesity in office workers. The apparatus, a treadmill with a computer stand attached, enables office workers to maintain walking pace while working. The resultant slow steady burn consumes over 100 calories per hour, making it possible for obese office workers to lose 66 lbs per year.
87494
submission
wombatmobile writes:
Windows Vista doesn't allow existing programs to display their help files.
Microsoft said they would provide a download fix "in time for the consumer release of Windows Vista", but they haven't!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607
How can consumers use existing programs on the new Vista if their help files don't work?
How can software publishers help their customers if Microsoft prohibits them from distributing the old help system and provides no alternative?