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Genetic Clues to Cause of Death?
An anonymous reader writes "Nature is reporting that a certain 'telltale genetic fingerprint' may help scientists to more accurately determine a cause of death. From the article: 'Now a team at Nagasaki University has shown that a person's own genes might help to reveal how they met their end. Kazuya Ikematsu and his colleagues anesthetized and then killed two small groups of mice, by either strangulation with a string, or by decapitation. They dissected skin samples from the animals' necks and compared the activity of a broad spectrum of genes inside the skin cells, by looking at the amount of RNA pumped out by those genes. The researchers found four genes that were more active in the strangled animals than those that had died suddenly.'"
Cue the Monty Python references.
"Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
I understand that the researchers are trying to determine if a subject died by "strangulation or other means" , but here's an easy way to tell if a subject died by decapitation or strangulation without having to resort to costly genetic tests. Measure the distance between the head and neck. If d > 0 , the subject was probably decapitated. I guess this test would be useful in determining if the subject was strangulated before decapitated, but how often are the investigators wondering that.
quis custodiet ipsos custodes
My computer frequently send out genetic samples to some researcher somewhere in the world, everytime it dies... no one seems to have a clue yet!
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Maybe daddy loved him too much....
"Kazuya Ikematsu and his colleagues anesthetized and then killed two small groups of mice, by either strangulation with a string, or by decapitation."
Well, if his experiments don't work out, I'm sure Mr. Ikematsu could always make a few surgical alterations to himself and find gainful employment as a dominatrix for small rodents.
Isn't progress wonderful?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
I can now announce, after years of research and thousands of mice, that it is possible to differentiate between them having being killed by a blender, a hacksaw or just plain deep-frying. I am now working on staple guns, sulfuric acid and gamma rays but as yet do not have a statistically significant sample because the pet shop has run out of mice and I have had to switch to fluffy bunnies.
Not to mention funny:
http://plif.andkon.com/archive/wc123.gif
"And then I visited Wikipedia
For mice you have to use mdb, since gdb is only the gnu debugger.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
So if he had a V8 engine running at 6000 rpm, he could make nearly $2.9m/hr? Sign me up!
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Kazuya Ikematsu and his colleagues anaesthetized and then killed two small groups of mice, by either strangulation with a string, or by decapitation.
This story will be 'ripped from the headlines' on the next episode of 'Law & Order: Small Victims Unit.'
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
They are killing mouse. I feel a small disturbance in the force.
(anyone up for any THHTTG quotes?)
What an apposite turn of phrase.
Not after these guys get through with them.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
Personally I am against the killing of animals in a way that causes pain and/or fear. Even for scientific purposes.
You'd prefer these tests be run on humans instead?
Come back when you are actually willing to die in their stead. Then we'll talk.
Until then....squeeeEEEAAAK!
I don't think we can fit the entire mouse genome into an Access mbd.
I dunno, has your PC ever accidentally shot rat blood in your eye?
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
I have a long list.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!