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A university professor from New Zealand is planning to put our modern knowledge of genetics to work in solving a decades-old mystery: does the Loch Ness Monster, nicknamed ‘Nessie’, actually exist?

The University of Otago’s Professor Neil Gemmell is proposing that new genomic forensic techniques be used to search for the elusive creature. While Nessie gained widespread popularity via the oft-debunked "surgeon’s photograph" published in 1934, legends of a large creature living in the lake predate the famous picture. Numerous sightings have been reported over the past century, along with the publication of dozens of photographs that allegedly depict Nessie.
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A genetic study of the world’s oldest anatomically-modern human, the body of a boy buried 24,000 years ago near Siberia’s Lake Baikal, has revealed that this individual was of European ancestry. This finding is surprising, in that Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake, is situated north of modern-day Mongolia, a location quite far east on the Eurasian continent. What is even more surprising is that the DNA of this individual is also found in many Native Americans, half a world away.
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Because of the physical limitations of silicon-based circuitry, there is an upper limit to how powerful a modern computer can be made. In response to this, researchers have been looking into other mediums to build faster and more powerful computers from, including using quantum-based processors, and neurological chips based on human brain cells. Another promising idea, based on DNA, plans to utilize the otherwise naturally-occurring computer of genetics.
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While the sheer amount of information that can be stored in genetic code is well known — a single gram of DNA is estimated to be able to hold 700 terabytes of information — it turns out that there is yet another layer of information that is mechanically encoded into our genetic material. A new study has found this extra layer of encoded information in our DNA, in that the way the molecule itself is folded acts as yet another layer of information that can be used by the host organism’s cells. As it is, each cell holds strands of DNA that are approximately six feet long, so each strand needs to be folded extremely tightly to fit into the cell’s microscopic nucleus.
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