Technology Trends

I guess it was just a matter of time before someone thought about using DNA to identify robbers. According to two short articles from the The Telegraph and The Register, a security company based in Wales, U.K., has designed a spray that can mark the skin and the clothes of intruders. The i-powder contained in the spray carries a “uniquely-traceable DNA code” registered to the owner and can be easily detected for several weeks. And it seems to be efficient, with recent trials by several police forces resulting in 100 per cent conviction rates. But are these sprays safe for their owners if they have to give a verbal warning to the intruders before using them? Read more…

First, let’s look at the Telegraph.

Police are testing a new weapon against burglars — a spray that leaves indelible marks on intruders, making it far simpler to catch and convict them.

Each batch of spray has a durable red dye and a powder containing strands of DNA, in effect a “signature” that can irrefutably link a burglar to the scene of the crime. The stain left by the spray cannot be removed from clothes or skin for several days.

These sprays are being built and sold by Redweb Security and here are some pictures of the devices.

Now, let’s look at the Register article.

Redweb supremo Clive Smith explained: “The key feature of our technology is that it irrefutably identifies a criminal with the scence of the crime. Each device containing i-powder is registered either to its owner or a precise location, and the unique DNA code contained within the substance remains detectable for several weeks. In this way, RedWeb presents law enforcement agencies with a weight of forensic evidence to assist in securing a conviction.”

Before buying or using one of these ‘alarm’ systems, you should read this list of Frequently Asked Questions. Some of the answers are really fun.

Can Guarda be used more than once? No, because the DNA in each alarm is unique, it can only be used once. If Guarda was used in a legitimate emergency, RedWeb Security will replace your Guarda for a small fee.

Can I register it to my business so all my employees can use it? Unfortunately no, because a sole individuals information is registered to the unique code and agrees to it’s proper operation and use.

If it is registered to me can my spouse or friends use it? See above.

What if it gets on my customers? RedWeb Security recommends that Sentry should not be deployed during opening times.

I would really like to know how many systems will be sold annually in the U.K.

Sources: Jessica Berry, The Telegraph, July 24, 2005; Lester Haines, The Register, July 25, 2005; and RedWeb Security web site

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• DNA
  
  
• Forensics
  
  
• Innovation
  
  
• Police
  

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The Barbary Apes who live on Gibraltar’s Rock are the only semi-wild monkeys in Europe. And for decades, nobody knew where they came from. Now, after studying mitochondrial DNA from 280 individual samples, an international group of scientists from Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. has solved the mystery of the origin of Gibraltar’s macaques. Their study reveals that they descended from founders picked in both Morocco and Algeria. Of course, another mystery needs to be solved. You might not know that a local story says that if the monkeys disappear from Gibraltar, so will the British. So when the population of these Barbary Apes was almost reduced to zero sixty years ago, did British Prime Minister Winston Churchill order to capture some of them in nearby Africa? Read more…

Before going further, here is a great photograph of one of these Gibraltar’s Barbary Apes.

Now, let’s return to this news release from the Field Museum in Chicago.

An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from 280 individual samples reveals that the macaques on Gibraltar descended from founders taken from forest fragments in both Morocco and Algeria. The embargoed research will be published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml) .

[Note: this research should have been published online on April 25, 2005 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but is not yet available.]

Now, here are some more scientific details.

In mammals, mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the female, so it can be analyzed to determine matrilineal origins. This is especially relevant with mammals, such as macaques, that practice female philopatry, a social system in which females remain in their birth groups while males migrate between groups.

The research first identified 24 different haplotypes in the Algerian and Moroccan colonies of macaques. Each mitochondrial haplotype is identified by means of a specific DNA sequence.

Since the Algerian and Moroccan haplotypes are clearly distinct, evidence of any given haplotype in the mitochondrial DNA of Gibraltar macaques would indicate that they descended from the geographical population with that haplotype. [...] In fact, both Algerian and Moroccan haplotypes were found among the Gibraltar macaques, indicating that the Gibraltar colony was founded by female macaques from both regions.

The study is still speculating about when these apes were introduced in Gibraltar.

Some scientists believe the Barbary macaques were first brought to Gibraltar by the Moors, who occupied Spain between 711 and 1492. On the other hand, it’s possible that the original Gibraltar macaques were a remnant of populations that had spread throughout Southern Europe during the Pliocene, up to 5.5 million years ago.

So was it 5 million years ago or 60 years ago? A future study will tell.

In the mean time, you might want to read two additional pages from Wikipedia about Gibraltar and the Barbary Ape.

Sources: The Field Museum news release, April 25, 2005; and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Biotechnology
  
  
• DNA
  
  
• Genetics
  
  
• History
  
  
• Nature
  

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) have developed fluorescent and stable nano-probes which can stay inside a cell’s nucleus for hours or even days. According to this LBL news release, this will help biologists to better understand nuclear processes that evolve slowly, such as DNA replication, genomic alterations, and cell cycle control. This research was partially based on previous investigations about quantum dots. Now, the researchers want to tailor their quantum dots, which emit different colors depending on their sizes, to check specific chemical reactions inside nuclei, such as how proteins help repair DNA after irradiation. Read more…

Here is a short description of what the researchers achieved.

“Our work represents the first time a biologist can image long-term phenomena within the nuclei of living cells,” says Fanqing Chen of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division, who developed the technique with Daniele Gerion of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Their success lies in specially prepared crystalline semiconductors composed of a few hundred or thousand atoms that emit different colors of light when illuminated by a laser. Because these fluorescent probes are stable and nontoxic, they have the ability to remain in a cell’s nucleus — without harming the cell or fading out — much longer than conventional fluorescent labels.

This could give biologists a ringside seat to nuclear processes that span several hours or days, such as DNA replication, genomic alterations, and cell cycle control. The long-lived probes may also allow researchers to track the effectiveness of disease-fighting drugs that target these processes.

The two researchers closely collaborated with Paul Alivisatos, director of the Materials Sciences Division at LBNL, who’s working on quantum dots for several years now. Here are two links to previous entries about Alivisatos research, “Nano Tetrapods With Tunable ‘Legs’,” and “Nanotech solar cells: Portable Plastic Power.”

So, Chen and Gerion thought it was possible to introduce these quantum dots inside a cell’s nucleus. And they did it.

First, they had to breach the nuclear membrane, which has pores that are only about 20 nanometers wide. To fit through these tiny slits, Chen and Gerion used an especially compact cadmium selenide/zinc sulfide quantum dot coated with silica. Next, they stole a trick from a virus’s playbook to smuggle this nanocrystal past the highly selective membrane that guards the entrance into the nucleus.

Chen and Gerion obtained a portion of this protein and attached it to the quantum dot. The result is a hybrid quantum dot, part biological molecule and part nano-sized semiconductor, that is small enough to slide through the nuclear membrane’s pores and believable enough to slip past the membrane’s barriers.

And what are they working on now?

In the future, they hope to tailor quantum dots to track specific chemical reactions inside nuclei, such as how proteins help repair DNA after irradiation.

They also hope to target other cellular organelles besides the nucleus, such as mitochondria and Golgi bodies. And because quantum dots emit different colors of light based on their size, they can be used to observe the transfer of material between cells.

However, with their current nano-probes, they’re already able to know if “a drug has arrived where it is supposed to, and if it is having the desired impact.”

The research work has been published by Nano Letters on September 9, 2004 (Volume 4, Issue 10, Pages 1827 -1832). Here is a link to the abstract of this paper named “Fluorescent CdSe/ZnS Nanocrystal-Peptide Conjugates for Long-term, Nontoxic Imaging and Nuclear Targeting in Living Cells.”

Sources: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory news release, March 18, 2005; and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Biotechnology
  
  
• Chemistry
  
  
• DNA
  
  
• Medicine
  
  
• Nanotechnology
  

What is responsible for the evolution of forms and shapes of living organisms? Is this our genes or the DNA mechanisms which control where genes are used in the making of the animal’s body? Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found the answer by studying the various spots on the wings of a common fruit fly. In this article, they explain that molecular switches control where the pigmentation is deployed. Common genes are controlled to produce an endless array of patterns, decoration and body architecture found in animals. And it is almost certain that these molecular switches are at work in other animals, including humans. What is even more fascinating is how it works. According to the researchers, evolution is a combination of chance and ecological necessity, which selects those things that are going to be kept. It means that animals’ features are just accidents, but accidents that are preserved because they confer some kind of advantage. Read more…

By analyzing the genetic origin of a modest spot on a fruit fly wing, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have discovered a molecular mechanism that explains, in part, how new patterns can evolve. The secret appears to be specific segments of DNA that orchestrate where proteins are used in the construction of an insect’s body.

The researchers chose to study the evolution of the wing spot on the fruit fly because it is a simple trait with a well-understood evolutionary history. While ancient fruit fly species lack the spots, said HHMI investigator Sean B. Carroll, some species that evolved later have developed them under the pressure of sexual selection. The wing spots offer a survival advantage to males, who depend on the decorations to “impress” females to choose them in the mating process.

You’ll find other pictures on this page which also contains a link to a short movie where you can see “the male fruit fly showing off his wing spots in an effort to get the attention of the ladies.” (QuickTime format, 35 seconds, 10.1 MB).

The research work has been published by Nature on February 3, 2005 under the name “Chance caught on the wing: cis-regulatory evolution and the origin of pigment patterns in Drosophila” (Vol. 433, No. 7025, Pages 481 - 487). Here is a link to the abstract.

The gain, loss or modification of morphological traits is generally associated with changes in gene regulation during development. However, the molecular bases underlying these evolutionary changes have remained elusive. Here we identify one of the molecular mechanisms that contributes to the evolutionary gain of a male-specific wing pigmentation spot in Drosophila biarmipes, a species closely related to Drosophila melanogaster. We show that the evolution of this spot involved modifications of an ancestral cis-regulatory element of the yellow pigmentation gene. This element has gained multiple binding sites for transcription factors that are deeply conserved components of the regulatory landscape controlling wing development, including the selector protein Engrailed. The evolutionary stability of components of regulatory landscapes, which can be co-opted by chance mutations in cis-regulatory elements, might explain the repeated evolution of similar morphological patterns, such as wing pigmentation patterns in flies.

Here are few more resources if you’re interested by this findings.

• Sean Carroll’s lab
  
  
• Scientists find portal to how animals evolve
  An article from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
  
  
• A news release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
  

Sources: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, February 4, 2005, and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• DNA
  
  
• Genetics
  
  
• Nature
  
  
• Science
  

Happy 2035! Thirty years from now, we’ll use bionic eyes giving us ‘zoom vision’ for faster reactions. Nanobots injected in our bloodstream will complement our immune system. Artificial muscles built with electroactive polymers will help us to be stronger and faster. So you think it’s science fiction? Not at all. Here is my last reading suggestion for 2004, an article from EE Times. You’ll see that some people are so convinced that this kind of human enhancements will happen that they predict than in a few decades, all sporting events ‘will be split up to accommodate enhanced and unenhanced athletes.’ And they will be safer than today’s drugs. Read more and happy 2005!

Here are the opening paragraphs of the EE Times article.

Thirty years from now, the uproar surrounding Barry Bonds’ alleged steroid use might seem quaint by comparison to the human enhancement technologies that could be available then.

In the next few decades, futurists say, athletes and soldiers will call on artificial muscles to lift heavier loads and run faster. Bionic eyes will let them see distant targets, while “nanobots” enhance their cognitive abilities and genetic-engineering techniques boost their performance under pressure.

“The use of anabolic steroids, in retrospect, will seem almost prehistoric — as well as stupid,” said Jerome C. Glenn, executive director of the American Council for the United Nations University (Washington) and co-author of the book 2004 State of the Future. “In the future, we’ll be able to enhance ourselves in other ways that won’t be so dangerous.”

Right now, in 2004, many of these enhancement techniques are already actively being investigated, like artificial muscles or body implants for example.

And of course, the military forces are looking at these new technologies, such as molecular-sized ‘bots,’ put in soldiers’ bloodstream.

Soldiers could use the “bots,” which are molecularly assembled structures that behave much like red blood cells, to combat biological warfare by accelerating the actions of the human immune system, said Glenn. Bots could also be programmed to move to the frontal part of the brain to dispense certain chemicals and hence speed an individual’s anticipation and response time.

At the same time, scientists are said to be examining DNA strings in search of certain behavioral characteristics desirable for elite soldiers. “We’ve heard that researchers have identified a genetic DNA string that makes Navy Seals and other elite soldiers more effective,” said John L. Petersen, founder of the Arlington Institute (Washington). “They’re trying to find a way to take that to the military and make it generally available.”

I guess you can approve such enhancements for a soldier in danger during a war, but what about more ‘pacific’ events, such as the Olympic Games or the World Series?

Because he considers some level of augmentation inevitable, Glenn believes that sporting events will be split up to accommodate enhanced and unenhanced athletes.

“It’s not fair for someone with enhanced vision to compete with someone who doesn’t have that capability,” Glenn said. “You’ll probably need three Olympics — one for those who are enhanced, another for those who are natural and a third for those who are handicapped.”

I might not see 2035 — or even 2005, who knows? — but I would like to know if some of these human enhancements look plausible or desirable for you.

Please post your ideas below and happy new year!

Source: Charles Murray, EE Times, December 17, 2004

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Biotechnology
  
  
• DNA
  
  
• Future
  
  
• Military Applications
  
  
• Nanotechnology