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"Discovery Files" Features from the National Science Foundation
"Mutation Generation"
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EVOLUTION--UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. THE "DISCOVERY FILES": NEW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. SOME OF THE MOST-SIGNIFICANT DISCOVERIES ARE MADE IN VERY SMALL PLACES: MEET "G- STEAROTHERMOPHILUS"--A POPULATION OF BACTERIA. RESEARCHERS HAVE ESSENTIALLY BEEN PLAYING A MICROBIAL VERSION OF "SURVIVOR" WITH THESE GUYS--AND HAVE FOUND THAT, UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, THE GENETIC OUTCOME OF TWO GAMES WILL ALWAYS COME OUT THE SAME: THE SAME DOMINANCE, THE SAME MUTATIONS, THE SAME PLAYERS GETTING "VOTED OUT" OF THE GENE POOL. IN TWO SEPARATE, CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS, THE MICROBES' GENETIC ADAPTATION TO INCREASES IN HEAT OVER A SPAN OF 15-HUNDRED GENERATIONS WAS STUDIED. THE TWO EXPERIMENTS EACH PRODUCED THE SAME MUTATIONS. SCIENTISTS HOPE THAT THIS WILL OPEN THE DOOR TO BEING ABLE TO PREDICT--AND RESPOND TO--OTHER GENETIC MUTATIONS AND PATTERNS. FOR EXAMPLE, AN ANTIBIOTIC'S RESISTANT STRAIN COULD BE ANTICIPATED AND FOILED. PREDICTING HOW GENES WILL ACT--AND HAVING THE ABILITY TO RESPOND; IT SOUNDS LIKE A "DAR-WIN-WIN" SITUATION. THE "DISCOVERY FILES" COVERS PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOU! LEARN MORE AT "N-S-F"-DOT-GOV.
For additional "Discovery Files" features from the National Science Foundation, click here.
