Griffith University researchers will lead 17 new Discovery Projects across a broad field of knowledge after being awarded over $6.96 million from the Australian Research Council.Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research Professor Sheena Reilly AM sai
Last modified on Wed 9 Jun 2021 16.06 EDT
The skeletons of two Viking age men who were related but died on opposite sides of the North Sea are to be reunited in an exhibition in Copenhagen this month.
DNA tests on the ancient bones suggest the men were either half-brothers or a nephew and an uncle, according to Prof Eske Willerslev, a Danish evolutionary geneticist based at the University of Cambridge. Both of the Norsemen died following violent incidents.
The skeleton of the first man, a farmer in his 50s, was excavated in 2005 near the town of Otterup in central Denmark. Analysis of the bones found that he was 6ft, had arthritis in most of his joints, and signs of inflammation potentially indicative of tuberculosis.
DNA sequencing from soil called ‘moon landings of genomics’
Prof Mikkel Winther Pedersen sampling cave sediments in Mexico. Image: Devlin A Gandy
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen say their DNA sequencing of sediment from a Mexican cave heralds a new frontier for genomics.
Scientists have made a major breakthrough in DNA sequencing that they have described as “the moon landings of genomics” as researchers will no longer have to use fossils to determine genetic ancestry.
The group, which is based in the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen, sequenced ancient DNA from soil for the first time. They claim that the advance could transform how research is carried out in the field.