When I was taking my Genetics class last year, there was one thing constantly beaten into our heads: our (human) DNA is about 95% 'junk' DNA (meaning, it does not code for anything), while only 5% is expressed and makes up who we are.

Now, that may not be so true.

Researchers now estimate the age of more than one million variants, or changes to our DNA code, found across human populations. The vast majority proved to be quite young and may not be "junk" DNA.

Due to the such explosion of the human population in such a short of period of time (a few million to several billion - a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms), there is such an accumulation of genes that natural selection has not had the time to 'catch up' with our expansion and explosion. The result? There is more variation than we can think of.

'The researchers sequenced in exhaustive detail protein-coding genes from 6,515 people, compiling a list of every DNA variation they found — 1,146,401 in all, of which 73 percent were rare" (Keim). Crazy, right? That means there is a pretty big chance that you could carry protein-coding genes that may make you unique - and a rarity.

So, remember when you were told when you were younger how you were a special little snowflake? And then in college, you were told you were just like everyone else and not unique? Well, start believe in your childhood self once again: the current human population carries the highest variable amount of genes that this planet has seen.

Link to Article: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/recent-human-evolution-2/#more-139047

If there is anything that is guarenteed, it is that I love me some furry canine creatures with some big paws. Left, a picture of my dog from this previous Halloween dressed in my brothers work clothes... he's cute and looks very upset, awww.

While checking my morning e-mail this morning, I get a weekly email alert from e! Science News (Not E!, that E is....crappy) with this article in the list of the smorgasbord of science-y updates. This one caught my eye.. It's been about three days since I saw my dog and I already miss him. Plus, it really fascinates me to understand how other animals identify objects.

According to Emilie van der Zee and colleges from the University of Lincoln, UK, dogs learn to associate words with objects in a completely different way that we do. At an early age, we learn how to identify a ball by the size and shape of the object. However, it was concluded in this study that dogs associate textures to objects instead of shape after a period of of exposure to objects of similar size and shape. It is a different perspective of the world... it shows that even though both canines and humans are in the same kingdom, our evolutionary history takes part in many things, including processing and association of information. I wonder if there are animals more closely related to canines that also process information this way...

It also explains perfectly why my dog, Charlie, loved eating the edges of the table when he was a puppy. It possibly had the same texture as rawhide or a toy.  I wonder what he associates meat or ice cream with.

Link to article: http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/11/21/call.a.ball.dogs.learn.associate.words.with.objects.differently.humans.do