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"Coffee addicts have an excuse for blaming their genes. According to new research, genetic factors could explain why some people consume large amounts of caffeine. US researchers scanned genetic variations in over 40,000 individuals to search for links with high caffeine intake."

Bill Nye and the Discovery Channel give you the greatest discoveries in science. Bill Nye and the Discovery Channel give you the greatest discoveries in science. It took 150 years to progress from Mendel's experiments with peas to the complete sequencing of the human genome. Host Bill Nye explores why certain traits are passed through families and species. He discusses the process by which scientists came to understand that inherited information is passed according to rules. Featuring discoveries related to DNA and its breakthrough as the chemical basis of genetic information, as well as a set of instructions for making the essential proteins of life. Nye also explains that RNA is the messenger that carries the instructions from living cells to enable protein production. Nye visits FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., where DNA becomes personal. The discovery that DNA sequences are unique to each individual ushered in the era of criminal forensics, playing an important role in courtrooms ever since.

On-line activities related to genetics & natural selection.

"Where do athletic and artistic abilities come from? With phrases like "gifted musician", "natural athlete" and "innate intelligence", we have long assumed that talent is a genetic thing some of us have and others don't. But new science suggests the source of abilities is much more interesting and improvisational"

Bill Nye and the Discovery Channel give you the greatest discoveries in science. Host Bill Nye explores the most significant medical discoveries about the human body, from 1538 until the 1980s. From the first systematic examination of the human body through dissection in the 16th century to the 20th-century discoveries of how vitamins, insulin, and the antibiotics can help overcome deadly disorders and diseases; and modern-day discoveries about genetics and cancer and the causes of AIDS.

Canadian author Watts (Starfish) explores the nature of consciousness in this stimulating hard SF novel, which combines riveting action with a fascinating alien environment. In the late 21st century, when something alien is discovered beyond the edge of the solar system, the spaceship Theseus sets out to make contact. Led by an enigmatic AI and a genetically engineered vampire, the crew includes a biologist who's more machine than human, a linguist with surgically induced multiple personality disorder, a professional soldier who's a pacifist, and Siri Keeton, a man with only half a brain. Keeton is virtually incapable of empathy, but he has a savant's ability to model and predict the actions of others without understanding them. Once the Theseus arrives at the gigantic and hideously dangerous alien artifact (which has tellingly self-named itself Rorschach), the crew must deal with beings who speak English fluently but who may, paradoxically, not even be sentient, at least as we understand the term. Watts puts a terrifying and original spin on the familiar alien contact story. (Oct.)\nCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scientists have shown for the first time that "lifeless" prion proteins, devoid of all genetic material, can evolve just like higher forms of life.

great game for breeding pea plants - progressive levels

"The researchers say they used genetic fingerprinting to identify meat taken from a Los Angeles restaurant as coming from a sei whale sold in Japan."

"Researchers from the University of Michigan discovered that a session of aerobic exercise increases storage of fat in muscle, which actually improves insulin sensitivity. Low insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, is an impaired ability of the body to take up sugar from the blood, which can lead to high blood sugar and diabetes."

"Dr. Levine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at the medical center, decided to focus on one specific health effect of exercise -- the ability of exercise to prevent blood sugar abnormalities in the face of a high-fat diet. Her mouse study provides the first evidence that exercise stimulates autophagy."

"Kent Kiehl is one of the world's leading investigators of psychopathy and a professor at the University of New Mexico."

The criminal brain has always held a fascination for James Fallon. For nearly 20 years, the neuroscientist at the University of California-Irvine has studied the brains of psychopaths. He studies the biological basis for behavior, and one of his specialties is to try to figure out how a killer's brain differs from yours and mine.

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man

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"The BBC's Jeremy Cooke has been to an eco-friendly GM pig farm in Canada to find out more. "