Michael Le Page

@mjflepage.bsky.social

2780 Followers 1383 Following

Award-winning reporter at New Scientist who clings to the belief that good journalism mattters. I write about life on Earth, inc climate ☀️, food 🍱, CRISPR 🧬 and biomed 💊 My bio & stories: https://www.newscientist.com/author/michael-le-page

Confusingly, there is a pill form of semaglutide called Rybelsus, which is approved for type 2 diabetes, and the maker of semaglutide – Novo Nordisk – has applied for approval for a pill form for weight loss.

However, Rybelsus is not an ordinary pill. It contains semaglutide in combination with a substance called salcaprozate sodium, which neutralises stomach acid and “fluidises” cell membranes, allowing semaglutide to pass through the cells lining the gut and enter the bloodstream. You don’t want this happening with partially digested food, so Rybelsus has to be taken at least 8 hours after eating, and people cannot eat or drink for half an hour after taking it.

There is a famous set of multiple fossils of Deinonychus, a close relative of Velociraptor, found in association with a large herbivore called Tenontosaurus. That was inferred to be a group of them hunting Tenontosaurus. But lions don’t normally keel over when five of them bring down a buffalo. Reanalyses have questioned that interpretation, although I do still think it’s at least plausible.

But then, how do you transfer that? Lions hunt in groups. If you apply the same logic people apply to dinosaurs, that would mean all the other big cats hunt in groups. None of them do. So, you’ve got to be incredibly careful.

Sulston also rejects the claim that Celera won the race to sequence the genome. “Now that the papers from the two teams can be inspected, we can for the first time judge the relative strengths of the two versions,” he says. “They relied very heavily on the work we put in to get their sequence. Despite this, Celera’s assembly is comparable with that of the HGP. Far from ‘winning the race’, as they have claimed, their methodology has been found wanting.”

The HGP’s method is based on mapping the genome, and then sequencing specific pieces. Venter claimed in 1998 that the HGP was a waste of money, and that the pure shotgun method, in which the genome is randomly cut into pieces, sequenced and then assembled by computers, was much faster and more efficient.

MOVES by a private company to secure patents on 6500 human genes have been
condemned by the alliance of government and charity-funded labs leading the
Human Genome Project.

Celera Genomics of Rockville, Maryland, was formed last year by veteran DNA
sequencer Craig Venter. The company claims it has sequenced 1.2 billion DNA
bases—one-third of the human genome—within the past month alone. And
last week it announced that it is seeking patents on a wide range of genes,
including those for hitherto unknown cell receptor molecules, ion channels and
signalling molecules.

Shadows of trees falling across bluebells on the forest floor

Thanks for noticing and asking.

It started as an answer to questions arising from my lectures :
#1 Are all rare alleles deleterious?
#2 Isn't evolution based on helpful mutations ?
#3 Should we recruit volunteers to PGP who have exceptional protection from otherwise harmful environmental or genetic backgrounds?
#4 When people worry about (or seek out) "enhancements", what might these be? (Surely something harder to achieve than say blond hair?

Recently the list seems to be inspiring newcos aiming for enhanced sleep, peace, hygiene, blood, deaging, space adaptations, etc

--George Church

For instance, Ellis points out that there will be trade-offs, such as immune-calming variants decreasing the risk of autoimmune diseases but simultaneously reducing protection against infections. This means the team’s assumption that deaths from infection are unrelated to lifespan isn’t necessarily correct, he says.

Screenshot of text reading: "For decades non-coding DNA, which makes up most of the human genome, was dismissed as junk. However, studies now confirm it exerts powerful control over gene expression, with over 90 per cent of disease-associated variants residing in these non-coding regions. Understanding these is key to personalised medicine but has remained a significant computational hurdle."

virtual dire wolf from Prehistoric Planets: Ice Age and the gene-edited grey wolves Romulus and Remus

Now, if the plants were genetically engineered to make their own persistent phosphors that are fully biodegradable, it would be a different story. In fact, giving plants this ability might even boost the efficiency of photosynthesis. Being able to temporarily “store” light could help even out fluctuations in light levels, convert unusable wavelengths into useable ones and allow photosynthesis to continue into the night. One day, perhaps entire fields will glow in the dark.

The chemical formula for formation of calcium carbonate from bicarbonate ions

Chart of August mean temps at Svalbard

HOMO SAPIENS ASCORBICUS
'Ihe long term, daily full correction of the ancient primate mutation
resulting in Homo sapiens' genetic defect for GLO, by the spaced ingestion
of the required levels of ascorbate would have so many salutary effects
(3, 12, 13) on so many different human physiological and pathological
713
processes that it would be tantamount to creating a new human sub-species, a
sort of biochemical "Superman", who would be more robust, tougher and more
resistant to diseases and stresses and have a much longer life span, 'Ihe
effects of the biochemical reversal of this mutation have been reviewed from
the scant data available up to 1971 (3).
To this biochemically induced "sub-species" I have given the name,
"Homo sapiens ascorbicus" to distinguish them from the rest of the scorbutic
population of Homo sapiens, in which this genetic defect for GLO is still in
full bloom (5).

Pic of tree with clumps of both yellow and pink flowers

An oddly shaped citrus fruit

Map of Antarctic region showing spread of H5N1

Quote from Colossal website

Screenshot of paragraph saying 92% of conventer farmers who use regenerative ag use glyphosate

Abstract of linked paper

Graph showing how global warming can affect the probability of temperature extreme

Canal boats and sky at sunset reflected in the water

Cherry tomatoes in bowls

User count 14,240,527

Lizard underwater blowing out and rebreathing bubble

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