GEN-ERIC News

A carpenter caught hammering nails and sawing wood in the nude has been found by a judge to be not guilty of indecent exposure. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Julie Conger ruled Thursday that although Percy Honniball of Oakland was naked, he was not acting lewdly or seeking sexual gratification. Honniball, 51, was arrested last year after he was spotted building cabinets naked at a home where he had been hired to work. The carpenter has said he likes to work in the nude because it is more comfortable and it helps him keep his clothes clean.

Scientists have developed a computerised face-recognition system that can diagnose autism and other genetically inherited diseases from telltale differences in facial features. The shape of the face and the size and position of the eyes, the ears, the nose and the lips can point to a wide range of genetic illnesses - from rare disorders of the heart and brain to more common conditions such as autism. The differences in the features of normal and abnormal children are often so subtle even very experienced medical specialists can often only diagnose them with expensive and time-consuming DNA tests. But now researchers at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children have developed a computer programme that can analyse and interpret the tiniest variations in face shape and features.

If you were a pre-historic human, would you prefer to able to sprint very fast for short distances? Or to jog comfortably for miles? That’s one of the questions thrown up by the so-called “gene for speed,” known as ACTN3. One of the most intriguing genes discovered, ACTN3 encodes a protein that governs metabolism in “fast twitch” muscle fibers, which generate force at high speed. Around 18 per cent of the world’s population has a truncated variant of the gene which blocks this protein. The stubby variant, called R577X, is common among successful endurance athletes, previous research has found. On the other hand, elite sprinters, who need explosive speed, are likelier to have the reverse, a functioning variant of ACTN3.

Could DNA be the next nano when it comes to marketing? Maybe so, after seeing this ridiculous site, My DNA Fragrance! Yes, it’s as bad as it sounds. For just $99 you can purchase a standard DNA swab kit, swab your cheek, and get your DNA code, send it to a lab and in no time you will receive 4 oz. of personalized, “biologically seductive” cologne or perfume only costs from $59 to $99 a bottle. There are few details about how the process actually works on the Web site, however, except to say the product is delivered in a “clinically approved 4 oz. aluminum bottle.”

A brain scan might one day predict your voting patterns. That is the implication of a study that found different brain activity among liberals and conservatives asked to carry out a simple button-pushing test. The study implies that our political diversity may be the result of neurological differences. Researchers have long known that conservatives and liberals score differently in psychological profiling tests. Now they are beginning to gather evidence about why this might be. David Amodio of New York University, US, and his colleagues recruited 43 subjects for their test. Brain recordings taken using electroencephalogram (EEG) technology showed that liberals had twice as much activity in a deep region called the anterior cingulate cortex. This area of the brain is thought to act as a mental brake by helping the mind recognize “no-go” situations where it must refrain from the usual course of action. The new findings are “interesting and provocative” because they could perhaps help enable researchers to predict a person’s voting behaviour based on brain scans, says Jordan Grafman, chief of the cognitive neuroscience section at National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, US.

1776: The Second Continental Congress changed the name of the nation to the United States of America, from the United Colonies.

1850: California became the 31st state.

1893: President Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Esther Cleveland, became the first president’s child to be born in the White House.

1926: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was created by the Radio Corporation of America.

1948: The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was created.

1956: Elvis Presley appeared on television for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Sexual attractiveness is much more than a look. Even if 80 % of the information we receive about our partner is visual, there is more. Researches have shown that women who look more attractive also smell better. At least at certain periods of the month, while symmetrical men, found very attractive by women, do smell better. Evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico put female subjects to rate their impressions of the scents of male pitarms. The scent of a symmetrical man was more attractive, especially if the woman was during the menstruation. Of course, this was subconscious. Women did not report smelling anything sometimes, yet they were attracted to that shirt or scent. Research discovered that women choose the scent of men with closer genes to theirs than of genetically dissimilar men. This could be linked to pheromones, molecules signaling the reproductive quality of the individual.