DNA

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MJ's Credit Score: Pretty Crappy
 MJ's Credit Score: 
 Pretty Crappy 
JACKSON ROUNDUP
Aug 28, 2009 9:03 AM CDT

MJ's Credit Score: Pretty Crappy

Plus: DNA tests and sperm samples and paternity questions, oh my!

(Newser) - If Michael Jackson hadn’t been the King of Pop, he probably would have had trouble getting a loan. His average credit score was a “very low” 563.67, TMZ reports—the average Californian’s is 672. Collections and delinquent accounts contributed to the score, and Barneys even shut...

DNA Testing Snags Fish Imposters
DNA Testing Snags Fish Imposters
Aug 24, 2009 8:38 AM CDT

DNA Testing Snags Fish Imposters

Restaurants often swap cheap fish for pricey ones on menu

(Newser) - If you ordered grouper ($12 per pound) at a restaurant, and the chef slipped you catfish ($2.50 per pound) instead, could you tell the difference? Most diners can’t, which is where Mahmood Shivji comes in. Shivji’s a DNA researcher, who’s developed a method of testing the...

DNA Evidence 'Easy to Fake'
 DNA Evidence 'Easy to Fake' 
Aug 18, 2009 4:57 AM CDT

DNA Evidence 'Easy to Fake'

(Newser) - Think DNA evidence is foolproof? In fact, it's so easy to fabricate that "any biology undergrad" could engineer a crime scene, claim scientists in Israel. Raising troubling implications for a legal system that treats DNA as a gold standard, the scientists have demonstrated that DNA samples are vulnerable to...

National Enquirer: Test Proves Edwards Is Baby's Father

(Newser) - A new DNA test proves John Edwards is the father of ex-mistress Rielle Hunter's daughter, the National Enquirer reports. (Yep, it's the Enquirer, but remember they broke news of the affair before any of the mainstream media and forced Edwards into a televised confession.) And it gets worse: Hunter...

Get Your Genome Sequenced for Just $50K

New technology slashes test cost

(Newser) - Decoding the first full human genome cost billions, but a professor of bioengineering says he has done it for just $50,000 using technology he helped design, reports the San Francisco Business Times. Stephen Quake sequenced his genetic code using a team of just three people. Only last year, decoding...

DNA Screening May Help Beat Ovarian Cancer

55% of women carry variant placing them at a higher risk

(Newser) - An international coalition of geneticists has discovered a DNA variant in women with ovarian cancer that could lead to earlier detection and lower mortality rates, reports the Guardian. More than half of women exhibit the genetic trait, which increases the likelihood of ovarian cancer by up to 40%. The researchers...

Eggs Screen Sperm for DNA Quality: Scientists

(Newser) - Some couples are unable to conceive because the woman's eggs screen his sperm for DNA quality and give it a thumbs down, the Independent reports. Scientists in Britain and the US have spotted this "lock-and-key" mechanism in which eggs "read" sperm's DNA, most of which is...

Ethicists Call Foul on Baseball's DNA Testing

(Newser) - Major League Baseball's DNA testing of Latin American rookies has bioethics experts worried, the New York Times reports. League officials say the genetic tests are necessary after a string of cases in which prospects lied about their age or identity, but experts fear the tests may be used to weed...

Mammals Evolve Faster in Hot Weather: Study

Faster metabolism thought to be why

(Newser) - Evolution happens faster in warmer climates, a new study finds. Researchers found that DNA changes more frequently among mammals in the species-rich tropics than among comparable species elsewhere, the BBC reports. Scientists believe the germ cells that become sperm and eggs divide more often in hotter weather, perhaps because those...

Convicts Don't Have Right to Test DNA: Supreme Court

(Newser) - The Supreme Court said today that convicts have no constitutional right to test DNA evidence in hopes of proving their innocence long after they were found guilty of a crime. The court ruled 5-4, with the conservative justices in the majority, against William Osborne, an Alaska man convicted in a...

Women, 56, Discover They Were Switched at Birth

'Swisters' become friends after Oregon hospital's mix-up revealed

(Newser) - Two women's lives have been turned upside down since they discovered they were switched at birth 56 years ago, the East Oregonian reports. Kay Qualls and DeeAnn Shafer—whose parents are now deceased—decided to go for DNA testing last summer after an elderly former neighbor contacted one of the...

Bird Culture Innate: Study
 Bird Culture Innate: Study 

May 4, 2009 2:46 AM CDT

Bird Culture Innate: Study

Isolated finches develop the same song over time

(Newser) - DNA may carry the blueprint for culture, a study of zebra finches has revealed. When raised in isolation, the birds' complex mating song—usually taught by male elders—develops into a harsh clamor. But as their offspring learn the song, they tweak it slightly and recreate the melody within a...

DNA Tests Solve Man's 26-Year Search for His Dad

Testing helped adopted man discover his birth father through his surname

(Newser) - A Michigan man's decades-long search for his biological father was fulfilled with an assist from DNA-based genealogy tests, the Wall Street Journal reports. Richard Hill—who didn't know he was adopted until his adoptive father revealed the truth from his deathbed—discovered his birth mother's identity fairly easily but hit...

Researchers Find Genetic Clue to Autism

(Newser) - A new batch of studies offers strong evidence that genetics plays a role in autism, the BBC reports. The studies in the journal Nature show that most victims have a variation in their DNA in the area that controls how brain cells interact, notes the LA Times. The results raise...

Deadly Genes Make Euro Jews Smarter: Scientist

Scientists spark furor with controversial DNA theory

(Newser) - The genes that make European Jews susceptible to deadly diseases may also increase their intelligence, two scientists say. Arizona physicist Gregory Cochran stumbled on the theory when pondering why natural selection hasn't removed bad DNA from the gene pool that makes Ashkenazi Jews get so many diseases. His answer: ...

Decoding of Genome Fails to Yield Promised Cures

(Newser) - The promised age of unlocking the mystery of common diseases through DNA appears to have a hit a disappointing roadblock, the New York Times reports. As a result, companies that bill people to provide a personal genomic profile—and theoretically warn them of their risk to illness—are practicing nothing...

Move Over, Police Sketches: DNA's On the Case

Forensic phenotyping works, but is it ethical?

(Newser) - The old-fashioned police sketch could soon be obsolete, the Wall Street Journal reports, thanks to DNA forensic phenotyping, an increasingly popular technique that uses crime-scene DNA to describe a suspect. So far, labs can only determine details such as ethnicity and physical traits, but that alone has helped in some...

Sloppy DNA Work Creates Myth of Phantom Serial Killer

Female 'suspect' now believed to have been employee at DNA swab factory

(Newser) - Embarrassed German cops may soon call off their hunt for a notorious female serial killer, the Times of London reports. DNA from a suspect dubbed "the woman without a face” has been found at dozens of crime scenes across Europe, including stranglings and shootings, but detectives now believe the...

Americans Use DNA Tests to Trace African Roots

Obama's rise could accelerate trend

(Newser) - As a kid, Isaiah Washington only knew Africans as the “natives running around with bones in their noses” on TV, “trying to put Tarzan in a pot.” Now, the former Grey’s Anatomy actor is chieftain of a village in Sierra Leone, thanks to a DNA test...

DNA Tests Can Improve Health&mdash;and Ruin Privacy
DNA Tests Can Improve Health—and Ruin Privacy
ANALYSIS
Feb 17, 2009 6:22 PM CST

DNA Tests Can Improve Health—and Ruin Privacy

Testing labs can sell genomes to Big Pharma

(Newser) - Genetic testing is quickly becoming cheaper and widely available, prompting questions of whether the privacy of this most personal data can be ensured, writes Peter Dizikes for Salon. Companies such as 23andMe and Navigenics can study your genes for $399 or so to determine if you're at risk for a...

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