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Scientists have created the ultimate GM crop: contraceptive corn. Waiving fields of maize may one day save the world from overpopulation. The pregnancy prevention plants are the handiwork of the San Diego biotechnology company Epicyte, where researchers have discovered a rare class of human antibodies that attack sperm. By isolating the genes that regulate the manufacture of these antibodies, and by putting them in corn plants, the company has created tiny horticultural factories that make contraceptives. 'We have a hothouse filled with corn plants that make anti-sperm antibodies,' said Epicyte president Mitch Hein.

The study, led by scientists at the University of Bath and including collaborators from Bristol, Cambridge and Germany, used fossils and analysed genetic differences between modern snakes to reconstruct snake evolution. The analyses helped to pinpoint the time that modern snakes evolved.Their results show that all living snakes trace back to just a handful of species that survived the asteroid impact 66 million years ago, the same extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.The authors argue that the ability of snakes to shelter underground and go for long periods without food helped them survive the destructive effects of the impact. In...

Without mind, there might as well be nothing. Colin McGinn at the University of Miami, believes that no matter how much scientists study the brain, the mind is fundamentally incapable of comprehending itself. “We’re rather like Neanderthals trying to understand astronomy or Shakespeare,” McGinn observed in Consciousness and Space. Human brains suffer from a “cognitive gap” in understanding their own consciousness.” “Consciousness May Exist by Itself, Even in the Absence of Matter” “Is it possible that consciousness may exist by itself, even in the absence of matter, just like gravitational waves, excitations of space, may exist in the absence of...

“The fact that all organisms are nearly equally fit has profound implications for the evolution and persistence of life on Earth,” said James H. Brown, a physiological ecologist at the University of New Mexico, referring to a “New Evolutionary Law” proposed by evolutionary theorist and palaeobiology pioneer, Leigh Van Valen. Van Valen argued that evidence from fossil record data shows that the probability of extinction within any group remains es­sentially constant through time. Van Valen described this phenomenon as “The Red Queen Hypothesis”. The first hypothesis , which he labeled the law of constant extinction states that the probability of...

I. The Latest DiscoveryNow, in their latest paper, they describe the ability for not just an electronic mesh to be injected into living tissue, but to be fully integrated into a brain for an extended period of time.In this case, the electronic component was implanted into a mouse brain and recorded neurological activity over 8 months, nearly the entire life of the mouse. Extrapolate that into a human’s life and you start to get a sense of the cyborg future we might all be living in.Charles Lieber of Harvard is the leader of this new approach, recognized as the leading...

The mesh-like fossil would push back the oldest known animal on Earth by more than 300 million years. But like many claims of very old life, the study is kicking up lively debate. Relatives of the humble sea sponge have filtered Earth's waters for hundreds of millions of years or more, long before the first plants took to land. Their simplicity has led scientists to suggest sponges were the earliest animals to arise on our planet. But exactly when that happened remains under debate. Now, a study published in the journal Nature suggests that mesh-like structures in an ancient reef...

In a discovery that challenges long-held dogma in biology, researchers show that mammalian cells can convert RNA sequences back into DNA, a feat more common in viruses than eukaryotic cells. Cells contain machinery that duplicates DNA into a new set that goes into a newly formed cell. That same class of machines, called polymerases, also build RNA messages, which are like notes copied from the central DNA repository of recipes, so they can be read more efficiently into proteins. But polymerases were thought to only work in one direction DNA into DNA or RNA. This prevents RNA messages from being...

There is a reason the transgender movement unleashed such immediate and intense pushback for even a mild attempt at highlighting instances of disappointment and regret with hormone therapy.CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired a segment Sunday night interviewing a number of individuals who, after undergoing hormone treatments and sex “reassignment” surgeries, decided to “detransition” back to their natural sex. Despite “60 Minutes” framing the story around transgender health-care access and critiquing a number of recent bills introduced at the state level to protect minors from experimental treatments, LGBTQ activists denounced CBS’s reporting as “ridiculous” “fearmongering.”CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewed individuals who all...

If you know a man is a man and a woman is a woman, then referring to Jenner in the feminine sense violates your moral compass and prescription to the truth.Since announcing a gubernatorial bid in California, Caitlyn Jenner has ignited a conversation about who the qualified Republican candidate to run in the left-wing stronghold is. Jenner sat down with Sean Hannity on Fox News and ridiculed Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom for his “hypocrisy” in handling COVID-19. Jenner also released a campaign video about the “California dream” that displayed clips of the retired athlete competing in the 1976 Olympics decathlon.Jenner...

A Spanish MP was suspended by Twitter for 12 hours, after he responded to a news article and noted that men do not have the biological ability to become pregnant. Francisco José Contreras, an MP for the populist right wing party Vox, posted a news article to Twitter about a Spanish female-to-male transgender individual who was pregnant and recently gave birth to a daughter, with the article in question claiming that this made this individual a father. Contreras in his tweet said that this was a total lie. “A man cannot get pregnant,” he tweeted. “A man does not have...

Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, has opened a formal investigation into 29-year-old student Lisa Keogh, a mother of two, after she dared to utter biological facts in a debate about transgender identity. The university is investigating her “offensive” and “discriminatory” comments. Keogh’s crime? She said, “women have vaginas,” and argued that a biological male who had testosterone in his body for 32 years would be stronger than the average woman, even if he identified as female. Another student accused her of calling women the “weaker sex.” In 2019, a biological man who identifies as a woman set new world records...

In case you haven’t lately counted sexes, a Texas Democrat’s reminding everyone of the tally…Scientifically speaking, at least.State Rep. James Talarico addressed the state’s Public Education Committee last week over legislation that would ban biological males from girls’ K-12 scholastic sports.The former English teacher asked Republican Rep. Cole Hefner — sponsor of HB4042 — how many sexes there are.As reported by The Washington Times, Cole responded with…”two.”“The bill seems to think there are two,” James replied.The representative — who received his M.A. in education policy from Harvard — dropped some science.And awareness:“The one thing I want us to all be...

The same science that explains why men and women respond differently to COVID vaccines also explains why eschewing sex in pursuit of gender fluidity is an exercise in futility.At any given time on The New York Times’ website, a quick search for “gender” will yield an array of articles on the ins and outs of sex personified and the endless ways biology teams up with political adversaries to oppress queer people.One recent so-called gender headline offered “A Guide To Neopronouns,” those nonsensical sounds like “ze” and “zir” that break from the sex binary and thus from reality. “Are you a...

An extended thread topic. Discussion of the different Covid vaccines. Comparisons. Contrasts. Pros. Cons. Firsthand experiences, scientific insights, etc... ** The current vaccines available on the market are: 1) Pfizer/BioNTech (mRNA) 2 doses 2) Moderna (mRNA) 2 doses 3) Johnson & Johnson aka Janssen (DNA adenovirus vector) 1 dose (And for those with any experience or expertise regarding some of the additional ones avail overseas, feel free to contribute as well! Note: none of the below employ mRNA technology.) - AstraZeneca (British/Swede collab) - SinoVac (China-developed) - Sputnik V (Russia-developed)

It's every man's right to have babies, even though they can't do it.

The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments, and has been traditionally linked to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study authored by Mirna Kramar (MPIDS) and Prof. Karen Alim (TUM and MPIDS) challenges this view by uncovering surprising abilities of a highly dynamic, single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment. Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades. Existing at the crossroads between the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, this unique organism provides insight into the early evolutionary history...

HMS Challenger spent three-and-a-half years peering into some of the remotest parts of our world’s oceans. Its groundbreaking voyage still has an impact today. It was once a private house, but now the imposing stone structure on Boswall Road, on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth in Edinburgh, is part of a palliative care hospice. The building shares its name with the one of the deepest parts of the ocean and two Nasa spacecraft. One was the command module for the Apollo 17 Moon mission while the other was part of the Space Shuttle fleet, and the first...

On today’s episode of “Progressive Heads Explode in 3… 2… 1…”, a retired NFL player has suggested the creation of a separate category for transgender athletes, following Biden’s executive order allowing boys who think they’re girls to play on girls’ sports teams.Former defensive end Marcellus Wiley, a father of three girls, also thinks it’s time to have a national discussion on the issue.“As a father of 3 daughters & the husband to a former collegiate athlete, this hits home in a special way🤯It’s time to create a separate transgender category in competition!“Also think it’s time for me to start a...

Bottom Surgery What we are seeing is an effort to deprioritize the facts of biological sex to accommodate an incredibly tiny and unrepresentative number of transgender activists.The New England Journal of Medicine has published a paper that argues since sex designations on birth certificates could emotionally hurt transgender and intersex people, the information should not appear on the document. The premise behind the idea is that “assigned sex” should appear “below the line,” allowing it to be used in vital statistics but not identify the individual on the document itself. The argument is built on claims the Supreme Court has...

Stephen Maciejewski dropped to a knee on a Center City sidewalk Wednesday morning and gently scooped up a yellow-billed cuckoo that had smashed into a skyscraper and died on its way to Central America or the West Indies. “This probably happened yesterday,” said Maciejewski, a 71-year-old retired social worker and volunteer for Audubon Pennsylvania. He labeled a plastic bag with the time, date, and location, tucked the slim migrator into it, and continued his rounds. Maciejewski gets emotional when he speaks about all the birds he finds, but nothing, he says, prepared him for what happened Friday. “So many birds...