বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Finger (mal)formation reveals surprise function of desert DNA

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Scientists from the EPFL and the University of Geneva have discovered a genetic mechanism that defines the shape of our members in which, surprisingly, genes play only a secondary role. The research published in Cell, online the 23rd of November, shows the mechanism is found in a DNA sequence that was thought, incorrectly, to play no role. This long string has seven enhancers which, when combined with one another, modulate the activity of the genes responsible for the formation of the fingers ? an important fundamental discovery for the field of genetics. The discovery could notably help better understand anomalies that are transmitted from generation to generation such as welded fingers or extra or abnormally short fingers (Kantaputra syndrome) even if the genes appear perfectly normal.

Turbos on the genome

DNA is composed of only about 2% genes. But it has other types of sequences, such as enhancers that increase the activity of certain genes at key moments. "The discovery we have made is that the group of genes involved in finger growth is modulated by seven enhancers, not just one, and they combine through contact," says Thomas Montavon, lead author of the article and researcher at the EPFL.

When the fingers in the embryo begin to take shape, the string of DNA folds and the enhancers, located on different parts of the string, come into contact. They then bring together various proteins that stimulate the activity of the genes, and the fingers start to grow. If one of these seven enhancers is missing, the fingers will be shorter, or abnormally shaped. When two are missing, the defects are even more pronounced. Without enhancers, the genes work slowly, and generate only the beginnings of fingers.

How does the DNA fold in exactly the right way so that the enhancers will correctly do their job? The recently discovered process remains largely unexplained. "In other tissues, such as the brain, the string of DNA folds differently," says Denis Duboule, director of the study and researcher at both the EPFL and the University of Geneva. "To our knowledge, it is only in the fingers that it adopts this shape."

An explanation for evolutionary diversity

Statistically, the seven enhancers involved in finger growth create seven opportunities for a mutation to occur. The flexibility of this mechanism, with no known equivalent to date, causes not only hereditary malformations, but also the many variations in the hands, legs and other appendages in nature. "Just think of some ungulates, which walk on a single finger, or the ostrich, which has only two, and the human hand, of course" explains Denis Duboule.

Other genetic processes may also function on the basis of a similar principle. This could explain the diversity of the products of evolution, in areas other than the fingers, according to Denis Duboule. "When a mutation occurs on a gene, for instance in cystic fibrosis, it is often binary. This amounts to an 'all or nothing' situation. With the mechanism we have discovered, it is a 'more or less' situation. It is combined, it is modulated."

###

Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne: http://www.epfl.ch/index.en.html

Thanks to Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115447/Finger__mal_formation_reveals_surprise_function_of_desert_DNA

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বুধবার, ২৩ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Stocks plunge as debt talks near collapse (AP)

NEW YORK ? Stocks are plunging at midday after Congress' latest bid to resolve the federal budget gridlock appeared to fail.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 327 points, or 2.8 percent, at 11,469 shortly before noon Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 31, or 2.5 percent, at 1,185. The Nasdaq composite index is down 67, or 2.6 percent, at 2,506.

A 12-member bipartisan panel was assigned to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit by Wednesday. The panel appeared ready to admit failure on Monday. That could lead to broad, automatic cuts from military and social spending.

Uncertainty about government spending drags on the economy because the private sector is growing so slowly. Traders also fear that Europe's debt crisis might spill over, disrupting the fragile U.S. recovery.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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মঙ্গলবার, ২২ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Obama asserts growing US stake in Asia (Providence Journal)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/164640316?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Gingrich's Growth and Innovation (TIME)

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will.i.am And Jennifer Lopez Glow In The Dark At AMAs

Mick Jagger also appeared via video screen for debut performance of 'T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever.)'
By James Dinh


will.i.am performs at the 2011 AMAs
Photo: Getty Images

Sunday night's (November 20) 2011 American Music Awards were full of onstage collaborations, and one of the most entertaining was will.i.am, Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger's debut performance of "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)."

In between two life-size stereos, Jenny from the Block kicked off the bass-heavy number with the song's chorus line: "You can go hard or you can go home." Shortly into the performance, you could tell this hitmaking crew clearly went hard. Utilizing the pitch-black Nokia Theatre and performance group Fighting Gravity's lit-up ensembles, will.i.am delivered a complete glow-in-the-dark performance that included floating dancers, a headless will and even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it disappearing act.

Lopez played up her part as featured guest, and even though Jagger was missing from the action, the Rolling Stones frontman did appear via video for his portion of the dance tune. To conclude the number, glowing confetti filled the air.

"T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)" is the lead single from will's forthcoming solo album, #willpower, which is expected to drop next year. Produced by Audiobot, Dallas Austin and will himself, "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)" was released on iTunes immediately after the AMA performance. Rich Lee directed the video for the song, which was shot in Los Angeles and London; it is expected to premiere later this month.

What did you think of will.i.am's glow-in-the-dark performance? Share your thoughts below!

Related Videos Related Photos Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674729/will-i-am-jennifer-lopez-amas.jhtml

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Pogoplug lets Drobo into its Cloud, offers 10GB of 'public' storage to sweeten the deal

Do you use a Drobo for your RAID storage needs? Wish you could access that data from wherever your travels take you? Well then, wish no more! Today the company has a announced a partnership with Pogoplug aimed at getting your Drobo hooked up to the cloud. So long as you've got an internet connection, you'll now be able to use Pogoplug software to privately access your data and multimedia from wherever you may be. Better yet, Cloud Engines is also throwing in 10GB of free off-site storage on its recently minted -- and Dropbox-like -- Pogoplug Cloud service. Curious for info on getting started? You'll find details in the press release after the break along with a cringe-inducing "demo" video reminiscent of The Office to further explain it all.

Continue reading Pogoplug lets Drobo into its Cloud, offers 10GB of 'public' storage to sweeten the deal

Pogoplug lets Drobo into its Cloud, offers 10GB of 'public' storage to sweeten the deal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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সোমবার, ২১ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Scientists and the Media, at ScienceOnline2012

Several sessions this year focus on the strategies for scientists and the media how to talk to each other better:

Pimp your elevator pitch (workshop) ? Karen James

For practising scientists: can you describe your research, clearly and accessibly, in two minutes? We plan to video about five volunteers doing their ?elevator pitch?, then ask for feedback from the floor. Then the same five people do it again, and we compare the two (times five) videos. Hopefully this will be a worthwhile and engaging experiment for everybody who wants to engage with their family, the wider population, the departmental head, rich philanthropists?

Why Scientists Hate & Fear the Media; or, Science training for journalists. (discussion) ? Miriam Goldstein and Craig McClain

During last year?s Death to Obfuscation workshop, tips & tricks came up for getting scientists to talk to journalists. But why do scientists have to be cajoled, lured, and begged to talk to journalists? And how can you as a journalist/writer avoid being a source of fear & loathing, and develop a positive relationship with scientists? Practicing scientists who?ve spent time in the communication trenches (Miriam on the ?Great Pacific Garbage Patch?, Craig on ?Isopocalypse?, and others in the room) will give the inside scoop about what scientists complain about behind closed doors, and how you as a journalist/writer can get beyond the apathy and hostility to amazing science stories.

Do press officers/public information officers need journalists any more (discussion) ? David Harris

With the plethora of tools available to press officers/public information officers for direct-to-audience communication, how much is the intermediary of the mainstream press required? What kinds of formats and players are taking the place of mainstream press? How are press officers/PIOs using these tools effectively to both communicate messages and engage in substantive dialog with their stakeholders and audiences? The session is intended to not only assess where we are now but to futurecast the direction of this kind of work.

On the record ? a media-skills workshop for scientists. (workshop) ? Ed Yong and Charles Duhigg

This practical workshop will cover why media work is important, how to gain confidence, how to defend yourself against misquoting, and how to deal with interviews in a variety of media ? phone, TV and radio; live and pre-recorded. It will be run by a massive raft of seasoned spokespeople and journalists. We will hope to give delegates practice by matching them up in pairs or small groups with journalists for mock interviews. The journalists may or may not be pretending to be evil.

What to do when you?re the go-to online outreach person at your institution: guidelines from the Science Online group (Working Group ? commit to develop a written document) ? Miriam Goldstein and Jai Ranganathan

When someone comes to you and says, ?So I want to get into this internets things,? what do you tell them? Best practices? Lessons learned? This information is scattered over the blogosphere to some degree, so this working group will gather it up, incorporate new suggestions, and create a document for newcomers to online science communication. In addition to best practices, it would be useful to provide scientists with a ?layman?s guide to social media? ? what outlets are good for what kind of information, the most popular (and informative) tools, how to make your life easy in managing them all (programs like tweetdeck, linking posts, etc)

Next generation scientific society and conference ? (discussion) ? Scicurious and Donna Krupa

The most interesting scientific meetings for the participants are small, with lots of time for informal interactions and discussion of not-yet-published results. They sometimes happen in remote or unusual locations and are often funded by foundations or agencies rather than scientific societies. Such meetings have many drawbacks that go against the principles of open science ? they encourage cliques, exclude many people who may be interested, and may fail to make a broad impact outside the participants. The documents that come out of such meetings, often edited volumes running hundreds of dollars, look good on a shelf but have little urgency or value. Journalists and the public may not even know that an interesting meeting is happening! This session will explore ways to create hybrid conferences, that combine the focus of a small meeting with a broader communication and publication strategy. The questions include: When is streaming media useful? How best to integrate remote participants? What kind of video product after the conference is most useful? How can a small meeting accomplish open access publication? What kind of advance timeline is necessary to catalyze the participants? How can such meetings be leveraged for outreach opportunities? Discussing how scientific societies and other scientific non-profits can work with science bloggers to increase the outreach potential of both. More organizations are becoming interested in recruiting bloggers, and many scientist bloggers are interested in blogging meetings related to their interests. We are interested in bringing the two together, and sharing our experiences as bloggers who blog meetings, and as organizers for societies that have worked with bloggers. How are bloggers different from mainstream reporters? Why should an organization work with one? How should organizations work with bloggers in terms of registration, setup, and facilitating their work? From the blogger?s end, what are organizations looking for in science bloggers, and what should we expect from the organization? What are best practices of blogging conferences? How do you approach an organization about blogging for one of their meetings?

Why the resistance to science blogging? (discussion) ? Pascale Lane and Holly Bik

Many scientists and journal editors actively dismiss and denigrate all scientists who blog. They argue that bloggers are anonymous, untrustworthy, engage in ad hominem attacks, have no authority, and cannot (indeed, should not) be considered to be part of the scientific record. This session could examine ways to change the culture within peer-reviewed journals in particular that accepts ? maybe even encourages! ? the usefulness of blogging and other online discussion. How can bloggers change the attitude of journal editors, editorial boards, and reviewers? Can blogging, post-publication peer review, and other online activities be brought into the fold as part of the scientific record?

Learn more:

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See who?s registered
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Previous conferences
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Previously in this series:

What is: ScienceOnline2012 ? and it?s coming soon!
ScienceOnline participants? interviews
Some updates on #scio12, #NYCscitweetup, Story Collider and more.
Updates: ScienceOnline2012, Science blogging, Open Laboratory, and #NYCSciTweetup
ScienceOnline2012 ? we have the Keynote Speaker!
Mathematics ? Algebra and Statistics and more ? at ScienceOnline2012
Information, data and technology at ScienceOnline2012
Health and Medicine at ScienceOnline2012
Education at ScienceOnline2012
Movies and Video at ScienceOnline2011
Sound and Music at ScienceOnline2012
Visual Communication at ScienceOnline2012
Submissions for the Cyberscreen Science Film Festival are now OPEN!

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=6571994cfdbb6fbc98230bc31a7518cf

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