For the first time ever, scientists successfully sequenced the genome of a spider. They used two species of spiders: the velvet spider and the tarantula. The scientists said that these two species had a common ancestor 300 million years ago, so they don't have a ton of genetic information in common. But what they found surprised even them. They found that the spiders shared some genetic information with humans. They said that even though this is a crazy discovery, it is more important for future research of spiders.
Themes of Nature of Science:
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Science is collaborative: Scientists at Aarhus University and scientists at Beijing Genomics Institute worked together on this.
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Role of Chance: The scientists did not know that they would find similarities with humans.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140507105031.htm
Great article! It finally proves my theory that spiderman is or was a reality! I did some research of my own and it turns out that humans and camel spiders have the common ancestor of a monkey. Cool, right?
ReplyDeleteYes I believe this is definitely proof spiderman can happen. And I find it crazy to think of there being genomes we still haven't sequenced. On TV and in the media they make out things like that to be easy at this point. Like that science has been perfected. You throw stuff in a big machine and it pops out an answer all perfect and easy. It really isn't that easy though. There's still a whole world of things for us to learn.
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