Watch Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Develop Over Time

Watch this powerful time-lapse  video demonstrating the development of antibiotic resistance in E. coli bacteria over time. E. coli starts out at the edges of the petri dish where no antibiotics are present. Over time, mutations develop allowing E. coli to not only resist the antibiotics, but to thrive allowing it to grow towards the center where antibiotics are present at 1000x the concentration of the minimal amount initially required to kill E. coli bacteria. Scared? You should be..…

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Genetic Cause for Stuttering?

It appears that at least in some individuals, their stuttering may be caused by a genetic mutation, specifically a missense mutation in the N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate transferase gene (GNPTAB), which encodes the alpha and beta catalytic subunits of GlcNAc-phosphotransferase protein (part of the lysosomal enzyme–targeting pathway). Other genetic mutations causing stuttering was found in the GNPTAB, GNPTG, and NAGPA genes. These genes encode enzymes that generate the mannose-6-phosphate …

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NYT: Single Gene Mutation Allows Humans to Talk and Not Animals

In the Nov 11, 2009 New York Times Science section, a story has been published titled " Speech Gene Shows Its Bossy Nature " where a single gene known as FOXP2 has been found to be responsible for speech (or lack thereof). All animals have an FOXP2 gene, but the human version’s product differs at just 2 of its 740 units from that of chimpanzees, suggesting that this tiny evolutionary fix may hold the key to why people can speak and chimps cannot. Read more of the story here .

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