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Computational Genomics

Posted by michael on from the throw-more-cpu-at-the-problem dept.

blamanj writes "Scientists at UC Santa Cruz have been using computational techniques to 'reverse engineer' the DNA of extinct species. David Haussler and colleagues created a hypothetical portion of ancestral mammalian DNA and let a computer model simulate the process of evolution. Then they made their algorithm work backward from these descendants, to see if it could recreate the original ancestor."

1 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Reverse enginering by fbjon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fishy, you say? I immediately thought of hollywood science.

    "Detective, we have a new computer program that can predict the path of any bullet...."
    "Yeah, so?"
    "So we tried running it backwards, and we just found out where the suspect bought the ammo!"

    --
    True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.