DNA has a 521-year half-life

Nature ^ | Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | Matt Kaplan

[SunkenCiv]

By comparing the specimens' ages and degrees of DNA degradation, the researchers calculated that DNA has a half-life of 521 years. That means that after 521 years, half of the bonds between nucleotides in the backbone of a sample would have broken; after another 521 years half of the remaining bonds would have gone; and so on.

The team predicts that even in a bone at an ideal preservation temperature of -5 °C, effectively every bond would be destroyed after a maximum of 6.8 million years. The DNA would cease to be readable much earlier -- perhaps after roughly 1.5 million years, when the remaining strands would be too short to give meaningful information.

"This confirms the widely held suspicion that claims of DNA from dinosaurs and ancient insects trapped in amber are incorrect," says Simon Ho, a computational evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney in Australia. However, although 6.8 million years is nowhere near the age of a dinosaur bone -- which would be at least 65 million years old -- "We might be able to break the record for the oldest authentic DNA sequence, which currently stands at about half a million years," says Ho...

"I am very interested to see if these findings can be reproduced in very different environments such as permafrost and caves," says Michael Knapp, a palaeogeneticist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Moreover, the researchers found that age differences accounted for only 38.6% of the variation in DNA degradation between moa-bone samples. "Other factors that impact on DNA preservation are clearly at work," says Bunce. "Storage following excavation, soil chemistry and even the time of year when the animal died are all likely contributing factors that will need looking into."

[Blogger]

Jesus is God.

[Blogger]

Yes - they were the one’s who didn’t believe what Jesus said.

[Blogger]

First, that’s just a stupid argument. God commanded Adam to till the ground. There is no evidence He intended things to be left to grow wild and unpruned.

Second, Death is a punishment. We will all die one day. Some once, some twice. Those who die once will only die a physical death. Those who die twice will die both a physical and spiritual death. Death is described in Scripture as something that had a sting and was defeated by Christ. It is so detestable that in Revelation 20 it states it will be thrown into the lake of fire along with Hell. It is NOT a cool thing.

[BrandtMichaels]

Horse hockey. Sci Fi is science fiction

-the same as long ages evolution IMO.

NO credible explanation exists for the origins of the moon,

AND applying the evolutionary uniform reverse [where the continents move at a couple of inches/year rather than what science observed with the Japanese and Sumatra earthquakes] on the recession of the moon results in tides that swamp the highest mountain ranges in considerably less than 1 million years,

THEN go back even further and the moon has to be part of the Earth! IOW something catastrophic surely must have caused the moon to begin recessing as well as for the poles to shift and the Earth to wobble. But mainstream science is more obsessed with all their godless scientific naturalism, long ages, and amoeba-to-me evolution.

Problems with the evolution and long ages are laughable and the paradigm will either have to shift drastically,

OR the end times may come first. I pray that God gives mankind another series of wake-up calls before the sheeple enmasse and run off the cliff together. Hint: Never take a mark or chip in your hand or forehead that ‘secures’ all your worldly possessions by controlling all buying and selling NEVER!

BTW maybe you’ve not heard, but it isn’t Christians that as a majority percentage reject the cherished long ages evolution - it’s mathmeticians! The odds make it simply impossible.

[Also No, I did not get up in the middle of the night to check for your response. Rather I got up to check for trouble-making racoons, got online to check the VP debate results b/c I can’t hardly stand to listen to more than 30 minutes of neither Biden nor Obama lie repeatedly and then saw your reply.]

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Is he now? Who was he talking to in Gethsemane?

Into whose hands did he commend his spirit on the cross?

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OR the end times may come first. I pray that God gives mankind another series of wake-up calls before the sheeple enmasse and run off the cliff together.

That would be a good thing. Our species' track record militates against any series of wake-up calls actually working though. *sigh*

Hint: Never take a mark or chip in your hand or forehead that ‘secures’ all your worldly possessions by controlling all buying and selling NEVER!

Agreed.

BTW maybe you’ve not heard, but it isn’t Christians that as a majority percentage reject the cherished long ages evolution - it’s mathmeticians! The odds make it simply impossible.

Mathematics when not anchored in observation can lead to some of the most ungodly results...

[Also No, I did not get up in the middle of the night to check for your response. Rather I got up to check for trouble-making racoons, got online to check the VP debate results b/c I can’t hardly stand to listen to more than 30 minutes of neither Biden nor Obama lie repeatedly and then saw your reply.]

Awww, I'm crushed that you didn't do all this just for me. *sniff*

[null and void]

Second, Death is a punishment.

Without death all of your fingers and toes would be webbed together. The cells that form the scaffolding necessary for them to develop property die and slough away when their job is done.

The first death is not a punishment. It is simply a condition of existence.

[Blogger]

You uniformitarians are all alike. Assumptions assumptions.

[null and void]

I'm not a uniformitarian.

Name-calling doesn't become you.

And this is not an assumption.

[SAR]

Tell me how a sane person would interpret the “findings” in this story?

[SAR]

If God thought we should rely on the impulses of our brains he would not have sent his Son to guide us. Jesus came to ratify the OT, and he did, with Glory. Did he tell us how to post on FR? No. Did he tell us how to post, speak, write, witness, anywhere and everywhere? Yes, He did! Marantha!! I pray for you, brother.

[Blogger]

Then why would you assume that Adam and Eve’s bodies behaved the same way as ours today?

[null and void]

How did you manage to drag Adam and Eve into this?

Unless you think you are Adam or Eve, you means you.

[Blogger]

As part of your argument, you postulate that death is good because if we didn’t have death we’d have webbed limbs or something like that. You make the uniformitarian assumption that things were always this way. God created mankind without death. Death was a punishment. If man had not sinned, there would have been no death - no dead skin cells either and no webbing. You are a uniformitarian if you buy into the nonsense of Evolution.

[null and void]

Ah. I see what you're doing.

Next you'll tell me that God you worship changed all the rules the moment he kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden.

Very nicely played.

You can claim anything for the time before that moment. A day lasted millions of years. Death didn't exist. All animals were vegan. Plants didn't die when they were eaten. No wait, eating hadn't been invented yet. Umm, I mean Adam and Eve couldn't eat the Malus, errrr they did. But that was after God both forbid them from doing so and created eating so they could. Tricky guy...

Nice.

Anything and everything can be explained by God done did it. Any attempt to understand anything is heretical, because it implies God is bound by rules.

Must be interesting living in a world where you can't be certain that a rock will fall if you drop it.

He can always change the rules to suit his whim.

Back to the world the rest of us live in:

How deep would the flies be if none of them ever died?

[Blogger]

You can claim anything for the time before that moment.
I don't claim it. The God before whom You will one day bow does. I will take His Word over the pontifications of mad scientists any day.

[BrandtMichaels]

Don’t know what your background is, but you are all over the map with that last post. First, God is way more than any box man attempts to confine him too. He spoke time and matter into existence - even physics agrees that reversing time brings one back to a singularity - for me that has to be God simply b/c of the order not just in all DNA but throughout the Universe. Simply put explosions, i.e the big bang, do not create order they increase disorder.

Second, yes, death and destruction entered His creation with the eating of the forbidden fruit. When He declares it is all good on the 6th day the implication is all is perfect - not a spot nor blemish. With the fall He had to basically rewire all living things - and even this was for the benefit of mankind [getting ahead of myself, but it will all make complete sense when we get to Heaven].

Adam named the animals, indicating He endowed us with language [something that still confounds evolution for any reasonable explanation], but He also said He gave us every seed-bearing plant for us to enjoy. So yes, the fruits and vegetables they produced did ‘die’ so to speak [even that is debatable since the entire plant was not killed nor consumed]. Regardless, God does indicate all the plants were food for man and the animal kingdom at the end of Genesis 1:28-31.

Fourth God is not bound by rules we are and He did intend for us to subdue creation and master it - meaning, yes, investigate what works and what does not.

Attempting to understand it is not heretical but He does warn later on that when we increase knowledge we also increase suffering. IOW most of our new discoveries get used for evil, usually first, but I challenge you to find one new scientific discovery that has not been used at sometime for evil. I’m still trying to find what it is some folks think is good and useful regarding macro-evolution. Wasn’t natural adaptation first discovered by Mendel btw not Darwin?!

BTW every discipline of study ending with ‘logy’ is b/c we have discovered the logic embodied within it. Apparently everything you have learned about God came from deists, agnostics, and atheists - sheesh. Try studying what Lee Strobel found out - that which converted him from atheism to christianity.

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Don’t know what your background is, but you are all over the map with that last post.

Yes, I am. Trying to splict the inexplicable does that to me.

God is way more than any box man attempts to confine him to.

Yet we all try to fit Him into our minds and hearts. Even an agnostic such as myself.

He spoke time and matter into existence - even physics agrees that reversing time brings one back to a singularity - for me that has to be God simply b/c of the order not just in all DNA but throughout the Universe.

One aches for an Ordering Principle in a random universe.

Second, yes, death and destruction entered His creation with the eating of the forbidden fruit.

We have a disagreement in degree, not in kind here. PHYSICAL death is implicit in life. I cannot accept it as a "Punishment".

He also said He gave us every seed-bearing plant for us to enjoy. So yes, the fruits and vegetables they produced did ‘die’ so to speak [even that is debatable since the entire plant was not killed nor consumed].

Yes, the cells in those fruits died. Yes, the plant lived.

With the fall He had to basically rewire all living things

I can accept the rule change being Man's fault.

- and even this was for the benefit of mankind [getting ahead of myself, but it will all make complete sense when we get to Heaven]

I hope so, to both halves.

Adam named the animals, indicating He endowed us with language [something that still confounds evolution for any reasonable explanation]

*gentle cough* Having different chirps for different predators improves survival, the finer the meaning the chirps can convey, the better the odds of passing on an improved linguistic skill, that and the same brain regions used for tool manipulation work the tongue and lips. Watch a kid thread a needle. He can scarce do it without sticking out his tongue!

Fourth God is not bound by rules

OK...

we are and He did intend for us to subdue creation and master it - meaning, yes, investigate what works and what does not.

A task made impossible if he arbitrarily changes the rules.

Attempting to understand it is not heretical but He does warn later on that when we increase knowledge we also increase suffering.

Yep. With enough foreknowledge we can suffer things that haven't happened yet!

IOW most of our new discoveries get used for evil, usually first, but I challenge you to find one new scientific discovery that has not been used at sometime for evil.

Not eeeeven gonna try!

I’m still trying to find what it is some folks think is good and useful regarding macro-evolution.

It's a bit early in the process for humans to create a useful and novel species. A clawless, hornless fangless friendly, cold blooded (ectothermic, doesn't need to constantly eat like a mammal just to stay warm) critter that makes milk, lays eggs and provides juicy steaks might be handy.

Wasn’t natural adaptation first discovered by Mendel btw not Darwin?!

No. Mendel figured out genetics. People were breeding better cattle sheep, wheat and whatnot for thousands of years. Mendel gave us the first glimpse of how to do it predictably. A remarkable leap of genius before DNA and chromosomes.

Old Erasmus Darwin beat him by 70 years or so in Zoonomia:

Would it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time, since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind, would it be too bold to imagine, that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!

Where his more famous grandson and Mendel really out shown Old Erasmus was the vast amounts of carefully evaluated and organized data they brought to bear on the subject.

What took Charles thousands of miles, scores of stops on multiple continents and isles, tens of thousands specimens, living, dead, fossilized and bare rock, plus decades of meticulous study and theorizing, Mendel did in a monastery garden.

Apparently everything you have learned about God came from deists, agnostics, and atheists - sheesh.

Not even close.

I am laboring under a handicap though. I simply seem to lack the capacity to feel faith. I liken it to the phenomena called "blind sight". There are people who have no conscious perception of anything in their visual field. They can comfortably navigate a crowded room and avoid every obstacle, yet the see none of them.

I feel like a blind man trying to understand optics and appreciate the colors of a sunset.

Try studying what Lee Strobel found out - that which converted him from atheism to Christianity.

I'll check it out.

Please bear with me if that was all a bit rambling, a few hours ago, I found out one of my dearest and longest term friends was found dead this morning. I just talked to her a couple days ago. It's all still unreal to me. Talking about death, God and the universe is a bit more surreal than I can do coherently right now, but it does seem to help.

[BrandtMichaels]

So sorry to hear the news of losing a long time dear friend. My sympathies and prayers up for you.

Re: Lee Strobel I recommend any of his books on tape in his own voice and carries far deeper understanding of the breadth and depth of his research and sincerity. Please don’t be put off by the titles though.

The Case for Faith
The Case for Christ
The Case for Creation

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Thanks.