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Genomes, and Abstinence, Oh my
Apr. 14th, 2007 08:33 amI awoke to the delicate percussion of rain outside my window, followed by a round of cat crazies. Towards the end of the cat crazy period, my foot idly shifting under the sheets was The Enemy.
I was perusing some science related blogs over at Seed and noticed a few tidbits of interest.
First, Rhesus Monkeys share 93 percent of human DNA. Oh, and they have published the genome sequence of said monkey. The benefit of all this, knowing the rhesus monkey's genome sequence has impacts in HIV Research and neurology.
In other news, abstinence education appears to not be doing so well in reducing unprotected sex or promiscuity in teens. And it's always fun to read Fox News' coverage on the issue. This study has been going on since 1999, when it followed some 11-12 year olds who were in abstinence only programs for about 3 years. The students were resurveyed in 2005 and 2006. Fox reports that athe Bush Administration officials caution drawing "sweeping" conclusions from this research as the four programs surveyed were some of the very first established back in 1996. I'm not sure why that's such a problem, as one would think the older program might have a chance to evolve and improve their abstinence techniques. The study covers students who were educated between 1999 and 2002 on abstinence programs, not 1996. Apparently, the message they get over 3 years is easily forgotten, whatever it is.
I was perusing some science related blogs over at Seed and noticed a few tidbits of interest.
First, Rhesus Monkeys share 93 percent of human DNA. Oh, and they have published the genome sequence of said monkey. The benefit of all this, knowing the rhesus monkey's genome sequence has impacts in HIV Research and neurology.
In other news, abstinence education appears to not be doing so well in reducing unprotected sex or promiscuity in teens. And it's always fun to read Fox News' coverage on the issue. This study has been going on since 1999, when it followed some 11-12 year olds who were in abstinence only programs for about 3 years. The students were resurveyed in 2005 and 2006. Fox reports that athe Bush Administration officials caution drawing "sweeping" conclusions from this research as the four programs surveyed were some of the very first established back in 1996. I'm not sure why that's such a problem, as one would think the older program might have a chance to evolve and improve their abstinence techniques. The study covers students who were educated between 1999 and 2002 on abstinence programs, not 1996. Apparently, the message they get over 3 years is easily forgotten, whatever it is.
