Get more from your iPad with these simple tips and tricks. Many of these work for your iPhone, too. From Time magazine tech editor:
Comments from Twitter:
JillofAllTrades,MD @JillAllTradesMD: Super neat!
Showing posts with label Tax 12. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tax 12. Show all posts
"Wonder drug" dogs are the only animals that look at right side of human face where emotions are expressed
Dogs are the most diverse mammal species on the planet (http://buff.ly/1pxxt0k). People who have dogs as pets are much less likely to have a heart attack. If they do have a heart attack, they are 2-3 times more likely to survive it.Mitochondrial genetics studies have shown conclusively that dogs have descended from wolves. Dogs' genes are 99.8% the same as the wolf genes, yet dogs behave in a fundamentally different way.
Over more than 100,000 years dogs have evolved to recognize human emotions. It has been a collaborative process all along. Humans are able to recognize 6 types of dog barks expressing emotions and "intentions" such as fear, excitement, aggression and so on. Dogs are the only animals that specifically look at the right side of the human face where emotions are expressed (see the NOVA video and website below).
Dogs follow directions while chimpanzees, the apes evolutionary closest to humans, do not. The smartest dog can learn 300 different words which is the vocabulary size of a 2-year-old child.
The "400 mnemonic":
400 million dogs worldwide
400 breeds of dogs have been developed by humans
According to a Cleveland Clinic psychologist, "dogs could be called wonder drugs":
"Dogs can provide people with many things. Protection, friendship, and unconditional love top the list, but they may also provide health benefits, too." How smart are dogs, and what makes them such ideal companions? Dogs Decoded: Nova. Netflix. Comments from Twitter: Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: I want one! References: Dogs Decoded transcript and more. NOVA. Image source: Yellow Labrador Retriever, Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.
The Third Component of Genetic Blueprint - Writing in Pen (DNA) vs. Pencil (Epigenetics)
The term epigenetics refers to changes in phenotype (appearance) or gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence, hence the name epi- (Greek: over; above) -genetics. There is no change in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism; the phenotype is expressed by activating some genes while inhibiting others. Epigenetics includes changes in gene function that occur without a change in the sequence of DNA. These changes occur as a result of the interaction of the environment with the genome. Epigenetic determinants activate or silence fetal genes through alterations in DNA, histone methylation and acetylation.
DNA associates with histone proteins to form chromatin. Image source: Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.
From the National Geographic magazine:
"Mother Nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen. Things written in pen you can't change. That's DNA. But things written in pencil you can. That's epigenetics. Now that we're actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it's sort of a whole new world."
If you think of our DNA as a piano keyboard and our genes as keys - each key symbolizing a segment of DNA responsible for a particular note, or trait, and all the keys combining to make us who we are - then epigenetic processes determine when and how each key can be struck, changing the tune being played.
Recent studis focuses on a particular epigenetic process called DNA methylation, which is known to make the expression of genes weaker or stronger.
The good news is that some of these processes, unlike our DNA sequences, can be altered. Genes muted by methylation, for example, sometimes can be switched back on again relatively easily. And though it may not happen soon, the hope is that someday epigenetic mistakes will be as simple to repair as a piano that's out of tune. "
Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.
References:
Twins. National Geographic magazine, 01/2012.
Portrait of twins: series one and series two from National Geographic.
Twins Data Reshaping Nature Versus Nurture Debate. NPR.
Epigenetics, Wikipedia.
Feedback of DNA based risk assessments does not motivate behaviour change - BMJ, 2012 http://goo.gl/3HaRy
DNA associates with histone proteins to form chromatin. Image source: Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.
From the National Geographic magazine:
"Mother Nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen. Things written in pen you can't change. That's DNA. But things written in pencil you can. That's epigenetics. Now that we're actually able to look at the DNA and see where the pencil writings are, it's sort of a whole new world."
If you think of our DNA as a piano keyboard and our genes as keys - each key symbolizing a segment of DNA responsible for a particular note, or trait, and all the keys combining to make us who we are - then epigenetic processes determine when and how each key can be struck, changing the tune being played.
Recent studis focuses on a particular epigenetic process called DNA methylation, which is known to make the expression of genes weaker or stronger.
The good news is that some of these processes, unlike our DNA sequences, can be altered. Genes muted by methylation, for example, sometimes can be switched back on again relatively easily. And though it may not happen soon, the hope is that someday epigenetic mistakes will be as simple to repair as a piano that's out of tune. "
Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.
References:
Twins. National Geographic magazine, 01/2012.
Portrait of twins: series one and series two from National Geographic.
Twins Data Reshaping Nature Versus Nurture Debate. NPR.
Epigenetics, Wikipedia.
Feedback of DNA based risk assessments does not motivate behaviour change - BMJ, 2012 http://goo.gl/3HaRy
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