Logan Mason

The South American Lungfish, Lepidosiren Paradoxa, Has The Largest Animal Genome At 30x A Human’s. A Living Fossil & Closest Relative To Early Land Vertebrates, It Breaths Air Through Lung-Like Organs.Its Genome Offers Insights Into Tetrapod Evolution. A Plant, Tmesipteris Oblanceolata, Holds The Largest Genome Overall At 50x A Human’s.

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Moderna Is Optimistic About The Development Of Vaccines For Heart Disease, Cancer, And Other Previously Untreatable Conditions By 2030, Based On Promising Studies. Advances In Messenger RNA Technology, Used In The Covid-19 Vaccine, Are Driving This Progress By Instructing Human Cells To Trigger An Immune Response Against Specific Diseases.

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~100 Scientists, From The Telomere-To-Telomere (T2T) Consortium, Have Completely Sequenced The Human Genome By 100% Since It Was 92% Sequenced ~20 Years Ago . This Complete 100% Sequencing Will Provide Information That Will Aid Us To Better Understand How We Form As Individual Organism, And How We Vary Btw Other Humans, And Other Species.

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Researchers Have Discovered A New Strain Of Coronavirus That Has About 50 Mutations, Compared To The Fewer Than 20 Mutations In The Delta Variant. The New Strain, Called Omicron, Is Said To Pose Very High Risk, And Is Probably The Most Contagious Strain. Omicron Has Been Found In More Than A Dozen Countries Across At Least Five Continents.

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Researchers Are Developing A No Pain Injection, Called Bubble Gum, Which Uses Laser To Push Tiny Droplets Into The Outer Layer Of The Skin In A Process That Is Quicker Than A Mosquito Bite. The Injection, Which May Be Available To The Public In 1-3 Years, Could Help Speed-Up Vaccination As It Eliminates Injection Phobia.

Researchers May Have Discovered, From Fossil Bones Found In A Sinkhole In Isreal, A New Human Ancestor Named Nesher Ramla Homo (NRH). NRH Is Said To Have Lived, Alongside Humans, Btw 140,000 And 120,000 Years Ago In Arabia And Israel. And That The Chinless And Possibly More Ancient NRH Interbreded With Humans And Neanderthals.

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The US Gov. Has Launched A Couple Of Tools To Make It Easier To Find The Closest COVID-19 Vaccination Sites. One Of The Tools, An Improved Version Of VaccineFinder, Is Located On Vaccine.gov. The Other Tool Is A Zipcode Text Hotlines—GETVAX Or VACUNA (Spanish Speakers). 1-800 Hotline, In Dozens Of Languages, Is Still In The Pipeline.

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US CDC Is Stating That Covid-19 Fully Vaccinated People Can Unmask At Small Outdoor Gatherings Like When Dining Outside With Friends From Multiple Households. But They Should Mask-Up In Large Indoor Gatherings Or Crowded Outdoor Events. Vaccinated And Unvaccinated Folks Are Advised To Wear Masks In Indoor Public Spaces, Like Malls.

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Researchers Have Developed A New Device For Administering Vaccines. The Device Utilizes Electrically Ignited Gun Powder To Generate Pressure That Pushes The Device To Relatively Painlessly, Compared To Needles, Penetrate A Person’s Skin, Sending The Vaccine Through Tiny Apertures. The Device Would Also Be Safer For Health Care Workers.

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Nature Conservationists In Australia Are Planning To Build The World’s First Duck-Billed Platypus Refuge, As The Animal Hinges On The Verge Of Extinction Due To Bushfires and Drought. The Refuge Is Expected To Accommodate About 65 Platypus, Especially In Times Of Crisis. The Refuge Would Also Help To Better Understand The Animal, To Ensure Its Future.

The FDA, On 2/27/2021, Issued An Emergency Authorization For The Johnson & Johnson (JJ) 66.1% Efficacy Covid-19 Vaccine For Adults Aged 18 And Older. This Will Be The Third Vaccine Approved In The USA And The First Single-Shot Vaccine. The JJ Vaccine Also Does Not Have Tedious Cold Requirements Like Those Of Moderna And Pfizer/BioNTech.

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4 Persons, In Oregon, USA, Who Received The Complete COVID-19 Vaccine Dose, Tested Positive For COVID-19. This Makes Oregon One Of The First States To Identify “Breakthrough Cases,” In Which Folks Considered Immune Are Now Sickened With Mild Cases Of COVID-19. But Health Officials Are Not Surprised By This Given The Vaccines ~95% Efficacy.

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The First Complete Platypus Genome Map, Indicating Platypus Is A Blend Of Vertebrate Animals Like Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals, May Explain Platypus Weirdness, As They Are Venomous And Lay Eggs Like Reptiles. But Feed Their Young With Milk And Have Furry Coats Like Mammals. The Map May Improve Our Understanding Of Other Mammals Evolution.

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Scientists May Have Built The World’s First Mobile Genome Sequence Analyzer App Called iGenomics. The App Combines With A Handheld DNA Sequencer To Enable Users Create A Mobile Lab To Determine The Kind Of Genetic Information Carried In A Particular DNA Segment. “iGenomics Makes Genome Studies More Portable, Accessible, And Affordable.”

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AstraZeneca And The University Of Oxford Have Stated, In A Relatively Unclear Report, That Their COVID-19 Vaccine Is, On Average, 70% Effective Against Covid-19, Less Than Those From Moderna, And Pfizer And BioNTech. But AstraZeneca Vaccine, Compared To Others, Seem Easiest To Mass Produce And Store, And It’s Also The Cheapest, At $3 To $4 Per Dose.

Mordena Just Announced That Their Vaccine, mRNA-1273, Is Effective Against COVID-19 As It Was Able To Reduce The Risk Of The Virus Infection By 94.5%. This News Comes A week After Pfizer And BioNTech Announced The Result From Their Study. Regardless, Experts Urge More Study To Better Understand The Efficacy Of The Vaccines.

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Two New Studies Seem To Indicate A Relationship Between The Degree Of Vulnerability To COVID-19 And Blood Types. According To The Study, People With Blood Type O Seem Less Vulnerable Relative To Those With Blood Types A, B, Or AB. And Also, People With Blood Types A Or AB Seem To Show The Greatest COVID-19 Disease Severity. Hmm!

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Gene Set Linked To Higher Risk Of Severe Illness From COVID-19 Is Said To Have Been Passed On To Humans By Neanderthals Who Existed 60,000 YA. Modern Asians And Europeans Genomes Comprise 2–3% Neanderthal DNA Due To Inter-Breeding Thousands Of Years Ago. But This Gene Set, Which Is Common In Bangladesh, Is Said To Be Absent In Africans.

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Researchers May Have Found The World’s Oldest Piece Of String Ever Strung In A Cave In France. The String Is Said To Have Been Constructed And Used By Neanderthals At Least 41-Thousand Years Ago. The String, Which Dates Between 41 And 52 ka, Opens Up Questions To Possibilities Associated With Neanderthals.

Researchers found the…

Although Neanderthal Skeletons, With Bones Still Arranged In Original Position (Articulated), Have Been Excavated In South-East Spain In Years 2006-7 And 2010, Researchers Are Indicating That The Newly And First Discovered Neanderthal Skeleton, In A Decade, From Iraq, Called Shanidar Z, Is More Completely Articulated Than Previous Finds.

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