links for 2010-09-23

""I started doing it because nobody believed me," says Tom Gilbert, a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen who works with Fordyce. He got the idea to sequence ancient RNA after seeing a paper that described the germination of a 2,000-year-old date seed — a process that requires intact RNA1."

Hm. Plants are doing something interesting to preserve their RNA so well.

"Researchers report in this week's issue of Nature that Thermococcus onnurineus, a single-celled organism known as an archaeon living in deep-sea vents, has another enviable ability. It is the first microbe found to survive on the meagre energy provided by a very simple respiratory pathway: the conversion of formate (HCOO−) and water into hydrogen and bicarbonate1."

"And by looking at signals from GPS satellites in different locations, they were able to map the progress of the ionospheric electron 'wave' as it raced across the sky, about 10 minutes behind the tsunami."

Freaky.

"It may be small-scale and without fanfare, but genomic medicine has clearly arrived in the United States. A handful of physicians have quietly begun using whole-genome sequencing in attempts to diagnose patients whose conditions defy other available tools."

DNA info to personalize treatment is no longer in the future. It's here and doing well.

"Some of the best bits about working at BERG are how everyone, despite having particular specialist skills, gleefully ignores boundaries, disciplines, labels and predefined processes, and allows themselves space to just run with things when they get excited. Deciding to do the music for the first Making Future Magic film ourselves was one of those moments."