- Catherine Zentile
Scientists have brought the world one step closer to the creation of the first artificial organism with the recent announcement of the creation of an artificial genome for the bacterium mycoplasma genitalium. The breakthrough is a major landmark in history, the switch "from reading the genetic code to writing it" but this new synthetic biology could be dangerous: is the world ready for this new technology and will it ever be?
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- Chris Smith
Chris Smith describes how cloning, occuring naturally in your body continuously, will have produced literally metres of new - cloned - DNA, by the time you
finish this article, as cells divide to replace themselves, repair injury or help us grow.
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- Helen Pickersgill
Genes make you what you are. All living things have them (humans have about 25,000) and they're like blueprints. Dr Helen Pickersgill looks at the science, use and abuse of Genetically modified (GM) foods.
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- Jamil Bacha
Transposons are pieces of DNA that have jumped their way around our genome throughout evolution. What are transposons, how have they shaped us,
and how much of our DNA do we actually use ?
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- Dalya Rosner
What is a DNA fingerprint and how can it help you to solve crimes, identify a baby's father and suss out the best grapes for wine making?
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- Kat Arney
In this article Kat Arney describes the history of cloning and the techniques that were used to clone Dolly the Sheep, and how embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are made and used.
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- Dalya Rosner
Dalya Rosner asks whether microchimerism (literally an animal with parts made from lots of animals) causes female autoimmune diseases which occur in relation to pregnancy, including diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, SLE and primary sclerosing cholangitis?
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- Kat Arney
Imagine if you could turn your muscles into blood cells, or turning your bone marrow into muscle. How about changing your blood to brain cells, then back again, or making a spare liver from your bone marrow?
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- Kat Arney
Hold the front page! Some white-coated genius somewhere has found a gene for violence: suddenly our streets will be a safer place. Or how about genes for obesity and ageing, so we can look forward to becoming a nation of pert young things?
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- Kat Arney
Cloning and genetic modification (GM) of organisms, including plants and animals, has enormous therapeutic potential. But what are embryonic stem cells, how are stem cells made (extracted) and how can stem cells be used to treat diseases ?
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