Category Archives: DNA

Word of the year 2013: Not “selfie” but also starting with S…

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Science the top 1 word of 2013 according to Merriam-Webster dictionaries.

While Oxford Dictionaries have chosen selfie as the word of the year, the Merriam-Webster dictionaries used quite different criteria to establish their 2013 word top and the winner is science. Why so many of us were interested in science during the past year has been a matter of intense discussion in the past couple of days. But one of the major distinguishing traits of science is that it is future-focused above all; so should we have even higher expectations for 2014?

 

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Synthetic DNA fossils

Synthetic DNA fossils have been created but what can we expect from this new tool?

IMG_2354Protocols are for researchers what cookbooks are for Chefs: for some, scratchy notes; for others, the Bible. Just like a Chef who expects to end up with a great desert when following his favorite Creme Brulee recipe, scientists perform protocols with particular aims in mind. Except for… – what can a protocol for making synthetic DNA fossils be used for?

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