Science & Technology - Briefs
technology
Mediaeval books dated by DNA testing
Timothy Stinson from the North Carolina State University is using modern dna testing to trace the evolution of the book industry during the Middle Ages. Thousands of volumes, handwritten during the mediaeval period on parchments made of animal skin, still exist today. Scholars have long struggled to know the origin of these works. A typical mediaeval parchment book includes the skins of more than 100 animals. Stinson plans to create a genetic baseline using the dna of parchment in the small number of manuscripts that can be reliably dated and localized. Genetic similarities between animals skins used in manuscripts of unknown origin and the baseline manuscripts would indicate the general time and locale where a book was written.Dating of manuscripts now is based on the handwriting and dialect of the scribes who created them, and is not reliable.
life sciences
Works without sugar
A team of researchers from mit, Massachusetts, found that mutant forms of therapeutic antibodies can bind to immune cells without the sugar attachment that was believed vital to the functioning of antibodies. Therapeutic antibodies are laboratory engineered and work by recognizing and binding onto a specific protein or antigen on the target cell
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