It's probably pedantic, but the gene was named after the video game character, not the other way around. Some of the other hedgehog genes are named after other hedgehog species, and one was named tiggywinkle hedgehog before the nomenclature was cleared up. This is what happens when you let grad students name things.

A sample size that small is totally insufficient for making this kind of conclusion. Additionally, they don't propose any mechanism for how this would even work, which really doesn't fill me with confidence that this study has determined anything of value. Even if their methods are totally ironclad, the conclusion…

Sure, but that wasn't what Lamarck was talking about. He suggested things like giraffes stretching their necks to reach the highest leaves, and as a result their offspring would have longer necks. Epigenetics doesn't work that way - it's more like causing subtle changes in metabolism if the offspring was conceived…

The XMRV study at least was very odd. The researcher and her sponsors were recommending doses of some pretty hardcore antiviral medications before the ink was even dry on the study, despite having never been able to identify actual live viral particles in any human patient they had examined. A lot of people were…

The XMRV study, at least, was...dubious. The funding sources were strange, the behavior of the PI involved in the work was bizarre, and the attempts at followup work by other researchers were barely even underway before the original researcher was recommending hardcore retrovirals that can cause very serious side…

It's worth noting that "DNA doing something" doesn't necessarily mean "DNA doing something for us." A lot of "junk" DNA is leftover bits of viruses or other self-replicating bits and bobs (transposons, helitrons, etc) that still have some function related to self-replication. It's obvious that this material is doing…

Nitrocellulose! Discovered when a German chemist wiped up a spill of nitric acid with his wife's apron, and then it exploded when he hung it up to dry.

Yeah, the Dread Empire's Fall trilogy did that too, the ships were designed with the engines being the "bottom". They also said that spacemen detested casseroles since they were the only things that could stand up to heavy G, so they ate a lot of them on maneuvers, which I thought was a very entertaining touch.

Kind of pedantic for #2, but you can totally have artificial gravity by accelerating the ship. Whatever direction they are accelerating, there will be "gravity" in the opposite direction.

Hopefully they'll develop a more efficient way of getting the data back out, too. Right now, in addition to having to destroy the DNA samples you are sequencing, you also have to sequence them 10-20 times each to make sure you got it right.

That's a very good point. And how far up the supply chain would people need to go? Would chicken count as GMO if it ate GMO feed? That's a ridiculous concept biologically, but who knows with legislation?

GMO crops don't taint water either. Have you ever even SEEN a GMO crop?

If such simulation were even REMOTELY possible, I assure you that people who do said transformations would jump on it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, it isn't, and won't be for a while.

Water might not be necessary for this, but a huge number of enzymes require water as a source of protons or hydroxyl groups for performing chemical reactions. Myoglobin is just an oxygen carrier, it's not really doing any chemistry there.

Water might not be necessary for this, but a huge number of enzymes require water as a source of protons or hydroxyl groups for performing chemical reactions. Myoglobin is just an oxygen carrier, it's not really doing any chemistry there.

If these guys really can build custom transcription factors, this is a HUGE deal. Right now, a big portion of research is involved in identifying transcription factors that are responsible for changes in things (specific, I know) but if you could design your own, you wouldn't be reliant on finding naturally occurring…

I royally loathe science press releases. BUT ANYWAY. From what I could get from their previous publications, they didn't actually dig up a prehistoric bacteria fossil or something and sequence the DNA to make this protein.

Pretty much every transformation experiment starts with E.coli. The ones used are non-pathenogenic and total wusses compared to normal gut E.coli

Isn't the Kodak one displaying the old company name, Eastman Kodak Corp.?

Actually nature has done a pretty mediocre job. And you are assuming that such changes would be irreversible and germline transmissible, neither of which is assured.