In a paper published this week in Nature, part of a series of insights about ancient peoples, researchers compared thousands of ancient and modern genomes to unearth new information about multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings help scientists make the case that northern Europeans' elevated risk of MS is a 5,000-year-old relic of becoming sheep and cattle herders. Mutations that make some people more vulnerable to the neurological condition once had a useful function, protecting their ancestors from pathogens. In other words, in battling some diseases, we're up against thousands of years of evolution. No wonder finding good medicines is such a slog.
The work is an amazing tech feat, laying out a blueprint for how to use large sets of ancient genomes to probe the origins and spread of disease. And while that won't directly lead to new medicines, insights from ancient ancestors can be of treatment help. What new revelations about human health and disease might lie not in our own individual genomes, but in comparing our DNA to our ancient ancestors' or even to those of other species?
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Denne historien er fra January 17, 2024-utgaven av Mint Mumbai.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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A counterintuitive view on education
A book about Shomie Das, principal of three posh schools, serves as a rich distillation of his thoughts on education
The loss of sound in our noisy lives
Sound memory fades faster than visual memory. In a world as rapidly changing as ours, a museum of endangered sounds makes sense
A whole new League
When Arcane first dropped on Netflix, it didn't just break the mold for animated television—it shattered it into shiny fragments, each as intricate as the show's hand-painted aesthetic.
When pets get cancer
Advances in veterinary sciences have enabled several treatments, but early detection can make all the difference
Reduction of energy costs in the telecom sector
With telecom infrastructure companies looking for newer ways to cut back on energy costs, battery restoration technology provides telecom infrastructure firms with a viable, economical and green solution for uninterrupted power supply
Skip cheese and sip wine in Switzerland
Beyond chocolates and cheese, there's another Swiss gem to discover — vineyards that have been passed down through the generations
Bankers aren't always frank about bank regulation
The 'world's banker' Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, speaks his mind even if it means taking swipes at US regulators.
Baku: A climate breakthrough looks depressingly bleak today
The success of fossil fuel-favouring politics threatens the planet
Global solidarity levies can play a vital role in our climate efforts
Solidarity taxes could support redistributive measures and optimize how we collectively tackle a great challenge of our times
Speak for the Earth: It's the least we should do
This year's Booker prize winner turns our gaze to the planet from orbit and reminds us of the climate disaster that looms. Can odes sung to Earth move the world to act in its defence?
