24701716
submission
chrb writes:
The DNA of W115 — an anonymous woman who lived to the age of 115 years and left her body to science — has been sequenced. Despite her old age, W115 showed no signs of dementia or heart disease, and tests at the age of 113 showed she had the mental abilities of a woman aged 60-75 years. Dr Henne Holstege, of the Department of Clinical Genetics at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, has suggested W115 had rare genetic changes in her DNA which protected against Alzheimer's and other late-life diseases.
24687932
submission
SustainableJeroen writes:
On Sunday morning 08:30 (local time) — that's less than seven hours away — the World Solar Challenge will start. The first solar racing car and its support fleet will depart Darwin to traverse the 3000+ km to Adelaide through the Australian outback. It will be followed at two-minute intervals by 36 other racing teams, from twenty countries from all over the world..
The qualification round, held on Saturday, saw Solar Team Twente secure the first starting position in the race, closely followed by Nuon Solar Team and Michigan University. The top ten times in the qualification round were within eleven seconds of each other, and while driving one lap around a race track is very different from driving 3000 km on a public motorway, it does show that the top cars are quite close in performance.
With the top cars and teams being very, very close to each other it's sure to be a very exciting race. The fastest teams are expected to reach the official finish line just outside Adelaide late Wednesday or early Thursday (local time) after which the teams will continue on for the traditional dive in the fountain on Victoria square in Adelaide.
