Tag: dna

Could ‘baby in the post’ mystery finally be solved? 60 years after newborn’s rotting corpse was found in package sent across Australia, detectives have made a major move

One of Australia’s most gruesome unsolved cases dating back almost 60 years is a step closer to being solved. 

The body of a baby boy was found wrapped up in a parcel outside of a Darwin post office, in the Northern Territory, on May 11, 1965. 

The package was sent from Melbourne eight days earlier with staff making the grisly find inside the parcel after noticing a putrid smell emanating from it.

Mystery surrounded the identity of the baby with The Missing podcast making a breakthrough in June revealing the parcel had been addressed to a ‘J Anderson’.

Amelia was listening to the audio series when she immediately recognised the recipient was her father – former Aussie Rules player Jimmy Anderson.

She immediately offered to supply DNA samples to help put the case to bed.

In the latest development, the remains of the baby were exhumed from the cemetery in November – with a DNA test of the corpse set to be undertaken within days.

Ms Anderson said was shocked when she first found out the parcel was addressed to her father.

‘I’m 53 years old and to hear a cold case that…and if that’s got a connection to do with our father, well I want closure for that Detective who’s been on the case for so long,’ she said. 

Jim Anderson was a champion footballer who played for the Darwin Buffaloes in the Northern Territory Football League during the 1950’s and 60’s and won three premierships with the club. 

After Ms Anderson came forward, police and council staff began digging up the baby’s unmarked grave at the Darwin Central Cemetery in Jingili on Wednesday. 

The package, which was posted from a post office on Russel Street in Melbourne on May 3, 1965, emanated a putrid smell which alerted staff. 

The decomposed and naked body of the newborn was found wrapped inside a bunch of newspapers. 

The umbilical cord was still attached while a stocking was tightly wrapped around his neck. 

Police were notified of the shocking discovery and have been unable to close the case ever since.  

The return address claimed the parcel had been sent by a JF Barnes from 2 Woodridge Avenue in Mentone, Melbourne’s south-east.

Detectives quickly learned the address was a fake.  

Police were unable to extract fingerprints from the packaging – further delaying the closure of the case. 

Officials are now hoping the DNA test between Ms Anderson and the body of the baby could finally solve the mystery.

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Did A Tribe of Cannibals Interbreed with the Denisovans? 

In the untamed landscapes of Island Southeast Asia, scientists investigating the mysterious a group of hominins called the Denisovans have stumbled upon a revelation that challenges conventional timelines. Deep within the tribal heartland of New Guinea, where traditions of headhunting and elaborate ceremonies once thrived, there are signs that the enigmatic Denisovans may have persisted much later than previously believed. The tale weaves through the narrative of Michael Rockefeller, the adventurous scion whose disappearance in the 1960s fueled legends of encounters with cannibalistic tribes. Yet, beneath the surface of these myths lies a genetic story unveiled by modern research.

The DNA of the indigenous Papuans reveals unexpected complexities in Denisovan ancestry, suggesting multiple populations and interbreeding events, some as recent as 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. This discovery challenges the notion of Denisovans as a homogenous group, portraying them instead as a diverse and enduring lineage that may have mingled with modern humans in the remote mountains of New Guinea. The genetic tapestry hints at adaptability and resilience, echoing the remarkable ability of Homo sapiens to navigate and interweave their existence with even the most secluded corners of our planet.

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YOUR baby’s DNA is being stored for DECADES in government labs and can be used in police investigations without your permission – and New Jersey parents are now suing for rights to their infants’ blood

Nearly every US-born baby has blood drawn to check their risk of about 60 rare diseases within hours of coming into the world.

What many parents may not know is that these DNA samples can be stored in a government lab indefinitely, allowing law enforcement access to blood for investigations into a child’s relative.

A 1996 cold case was solved last year after New Jersey police collected a baby’s DNA without a warrant to investigate the child’s father, grabbing the attention of some parents who are now suing state health officials over its storage practices.

Hannah Lovaglio, a resident of Cranbury and plaintiff, told DailyMail.com: ‘This is a true parent right’s issue. This is their body; this is their property taken from them from five years of being a minor, and the state is not required to give any justification.

New Jersey can store samples for up to 23 years, while others like California, Massachusetts and Maine are indefinite. 

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Scientific breakthrough as China creates the world’s first living ‘chimeric’ monkey that was grown using stem cells

China announced it birthed the world’s first living ‘chimeric’ monkey – an animal created in a lab using special cells.

Researchers took cells from two embryos of the same monkey species – crab-eating macaques – that were genetically different and fused them together.

The team used cells from seven-day embryos, mixed them with those from a five-day-old embryo and implanted the combination into female macaques, resulting in one live glowing green-eyed infant with yellow fingertips. 

While most animals contain mixed cells from their parents, the chimeric monkey was born with several that are genetically distinct – holding distinct DNA from each biological parent, the two embryos.

The baby monkey’s body had many donor cells detected from both embryos in the brain, heart, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract, testes, and the cells that turn into sperm. 

The team in China said the work has vast implications, such as allowing them to increase animal populations that are on the brink of extinction and learning more about IVF.

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Billions Of Copies Of Residual DNA In A Single Dose Of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine: Preprint

A new preprint study up for peer review finds billions of residual DNA fragments in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine vials.

The lead author of the study, molecular virologist David Speicher, who has a doctorate in virology, told The Epoch Times that their study is “the largest study” on residual DNA in COVID-19 vaccines to date.

“In our study, we measured DNA copies of spike, ori (origin of replication), and SV40 enhancer genes,” he told The Epoch Times. “The loads of SV40 enhancer-promoter, ori, and virus spike in Pfizer are up to 186 billion copies per dose.”

The spike he refers to is the DNA sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which can be transcribed to spike mRNA to be used in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to be translated to spike protein. The other two DNAs—SV40 enhancer genes and ori—help facilitate the replication of spike DNA.

However, the final mRNA vaccines should only include RNA and not residual DNA instructions for spike production.

The researchers sequenced the gene material in 27 mRNA vaccine vials from 12 different lots. Nineteen vials were from Moderna, and eight were from Pfizer.

“Further work is needed to investigate if anything in these vaccines is actually integrating into the human genome and what effect that may have,” the lead author wrote.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vindicated – China’s Top Spy Agency Warns of “Gene Weapons’ Able to Target Specific Ethnicity or Race

In July, Robert Kennedy, Jr. took heat from the leftwing media and The New York Post after he alleged that both the U.S. and China had done research into ethnically-targeted bioweapons.

Kennedy added, “History shows that Jews, Africans, and the indigenous have the most to fear from such technologies,” he said, adding, “We must rein in all bioweapons research, whether these weapons are ethnically targeted or not. We saw what COVID did to the world when it was leaked from a laboratory.“

Kennedy made these comments after NY Post reporter Jon Levine wrote a hit piece on Kennedy after sitting next to him at “party filled with farting and beer drinking” and accused him of anti-Semitism for suggesting the COVID Pandemic hit some ethnic groups harder than others and that European Ashkenazi Jews and Asians fared better with the virus.

During the party Robert Kennedy, Jr. spoke about how scientists are now developing viruses as bioweapons. The US is sponsoring these laboratories financially. And scientists are currently working on ethnically targeted microbes. This was all true

On Tuesday, the top Spy Agency in China confirmed that “some countries” have armed themselves with deadly bioweapons targeting human genes. This was the first time a Chinese state body has mentioned such a threat publicly.

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Cure for HIV could be months away as first three patients are injected with new CRISPR therapy that seeks and destroys lingering pieces of virus

After four decades and over 700,000 Americans dead, gene editing experts believe they are on the cusp of curing HIV. 

Three patients in California have just been injected with genetic material along with an enzyme called CAS9 that early studies suggest can splice sections of the virus’ DNA that become lodged in human cells, eliminating it entirely.

Using the gene-editing technology CRISPR, a cure for the AIDS-causing virus could be closer on the horizon than ever thought before. 

The current trial aims to prove the treatment is safe, but data on how well it work is expected next year.

HIV was a near-certain death sentence until the mid-90s, when antiviral medications turned it into a chronic disease that people can live with. 

In total 1.2 million Americans have HIV and, even with access to medicine, have a risk of seeing their dormant infection resurface and potentially progress to AIDS.

Treatment options have evolved considerably since HIV was first identified in the early 80s. The course of treatment went from patients having to take several pills a day that might not even work well to start, to taking just a single daily pill that combines all of the best known therapies into one. 

These are known as antiretroviral therapies, or daily medications that tamp down the amount of virus in the blood to undetectable levels. These medications are effective, they are not a cure. 

A cure for HIV has eluded scientists for decades because of the unique way in which the virus hijacks the body’s own cells.   

HIV hides in immune cells in the body, where they can shield themselves from being destroyed by other immune cells. This makes hunting and killing HIV in the body difficult, because there is a risk of damaging healthy cells as well. 

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Researchers Alarmed to Find DNA Contamination in Pfizer Vaccine

Phillip Buckhaults, a cancer genomics expert, and professor at the University of South Carolina has testified before a South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee saying that Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is contaminated with billions of tiny DNA fragments.

Buckhaults, who has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, said “there is a very real hazard” that these fragments of foreign DNA can insert themselves into a person’s own genome and become a “permanent fixture of the cell.”

He said it’s a plausible mechanism for what might be “causing some of the rare but serious side effects like death from cardiac arrest” in people following mRNA vaccination.

Buckhaults is not an alarmist and has been reluctant to go public with his findings for fear of frightening people.

He himself was vaccinated three times with Pfizer’s covid vaccine and recommended it to family and friends. He described the mRNA platform technology as “revolutionary” and said the vaccine has saved many lives.

“I’m a real fan of this platform,” Buckhaults told the Senate. “I think it has the potential to treat cancers, I really believe that this platform is revolutionary. In your lifetime, there will be mRNA vaccines against antigens in your unique cancer. But they’ve got to get this problem fixed.”

Buckhaults is most concerned about the “very real theoretical risk of future cancer in some people, depending on where this foreign piece of DNA lands in the genome, it can interrupt a tumour suppressor gene or activate an oncogene.”

“I’m kind of alarmed about this DNA being in the vaccine… DNA is a long-lived information storage device. It’s what you were born with, you’re going to die with and pass on to your kids. … So alterations to the DNA…well, they stick around,” he said.

Buckhaults believes the vaccines were deployed in good faith, but given the panic and urgency of the crisis, “there were a lot of shortcuts taken.” He puts it down to incompetence not malice, quoting Hanlon’s razor…

“…. which is never attribute malice to that which can be better explained by incompetence. There could be malice underneath, but I’m trying to see just incompetence to be gracious,” he told the Senate.

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Human-Pig Hybrid Created in the Lab

In a remarkable—if likely controversial—feat, scientists announced that they have created the first successful human-animal hybrids. The project proves that human cells can be introduced into a non-human organism, survive, and even grow inside a host animal, in this case, pigs.

This biomedical advance has long been a dream and a quandary for scientists hoping to address a critical shortage of donor organs.

What if, rather than relying on a generous donor, you could grow a custom organ inside an animal instead?

That’s now one step closer to reality, an international team of researchers led by the Salk Institute reports in the journal Cell. The team created what’s known scientifically as a chimera: an organism that contains cells from two different species.

In the past, human-animal chimeras have been beyond reach. Such experiments are currently ineligible for public funding in the United States (so far, the Salk team has relied on private donors for the chimera project). Public opinion, too, has hampered the creation of organisms that are part human, part animal.

But for lead study author Jun Wu of the Salk Institute, we need only look to mythical chimeras—like the human-bird hybrids we know as angels—for a different perspective.

“In ancient civilisations, chimeras were associated with God,” he says, and our ancestors thought “the chimeric form can guard humans.” In a sense, that’s what the team hopes human-animal hybrids will one day do.

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Scientists Create New Material Five Times Lighter and Four Times Stronger Than Steel

Materials that are both strong and lightweight can improve everything from cars to airplanes to medical equipment. Now, researchers have created an extraordinarily strong material with very low density–using two unlikely building blocks: DNA and glass.

“For the given density, our material is the strongest known,” according to Seok-Woo Lee of the University of Connecticut, who partnered with colleagues from Columbia University and Brookhaven National Lab.

“I am a big fan of Iron Man movies,” mused nanomaterials scientist Oleg Gang. “I have always wondered how to create a better armor for Iron Man. It must be very light for him to fly faster. It must be very strong to protect him from enemies’ attacks.

“Our new material is five times lighter but four times stronger than steel.”

Some metals, such as titanium, are stronger and lighter than iron. Certain alloys are even stronger—allowing for lightweight body armor, better medical devices, and safer, faster cars and airplanes. Metallurgical techniques have reached a limit in recent years, until nano materials unleashed creative opportunities.

The colleagues reported in Cell Reports Physical Science that by building a structure out of DNA and then coating it with glass, they have created a very strong material with very low density. Glass might seem a surprising choice, as it shatters easily. However, glass usually shatters because of a flaw – such as a crack, scratch, or missing atoms – in its structure. A flawless cubic centimeter of glass can withstand 10 tons of pressure, more than three times the pressure that imploded the Oceangate Titan submersible near the Titanic this summer.

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