GENETICS: Chicken Genome--Science Nuggets to Come Soon

Toxigenic penicillia spoiling frozen chicken nuggets

The genetics of loneliness: linking evolutionary theory to genome-wide genetics, epigenetics, and social science.

As a complex trait, loneliness is likely to be influenced by the interplay of numerous genetic and environmental factors. Studies in behavioral genetics indicate that loneliness has a sizable degree of heritability. Candidate-gene and gene-expression studies have pointed to several genes related to neurotransmitters and the immune system. The notion that these genes are related to loneliness is...

How to Change Coins, M&m’s, or Chicken Nuggets: the Linear Diophantine Problem of Frobenius

Let’s imagine that we introduce a new coin system. Instead of using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, let’s say we agree on using 4-cent, 7-cent, 9-cent, and 34-cent coins. The reader might point out the following flaw of this new system: certain amounts cannot be exchanged, for example, 1, 2, or 5 cents. On the other hand, this deficiency makes our new coin system more interesting than th...

Chicken Genome PROPOSAL TO ENHANCE THE SEQUENCE OF THE CHICKEN GENOME

The chicken genome (~1.2 Gb) was sequenced with NIH support in response to a White Paper (see http://genome.wustl.edu/genomes/view/gallus_gallus/ ) by the Washington U. Genome Sequencing Center (WUGSC) with the first draft sequence announced in March 2004. That draft was based on 6.6X WGS (Sanger) coverage, assembled and aligned to chromosomes using BAC end sequences and a comprehensive BAC phy...

Wet disc contraction to galactic blue nuggets and quenching to red nuggets

We study the origin of high-redshift, compact, quenched spheroids (red nuggets) through the dissipative shrinkage of gaseous discs into compact star-forming systems (blue nuggets). The discs, fed by cold streams, undergo violent disc instability that drives gas into the centre (along with mergers). The inflow is dissipative when its time-scale is shorter than the star formation time-scale. This...