cloning, laureates, disparate, “dead on arrival”

 While Senate Republicans and Democrats on Sunday unveiled a $118.3 billion bill that tied $60 billion in security aid for Ukraine to assistance for Israel as well as U.S. border security reforms, Speaker Mike Johnson, who had insisted on linking the disparate issues, has said the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Republican-controlled House.

Do you recognise the physics laureate?

This picture was taken on this day in 1985: laureate Donna Strickland is shown aligning an optical fiber at University of Rochester. Her Nobel Prize-awarded research has led to improvements within the field of laser physics. Strickland was the third woman to be awarded the physics prize.

What does Dolly the sheep have to do with the Nobel Prize? Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. The technique used when cloning followed the same principle that Nobel Prize laureate John Gurdon used in his classic frog experiments, presented in 1962.

Gurdon's frog experiment involved destroying the nucleus of a frog's egg, including the genetic material of a frog’s egg. He then replaced it with the nucleus from an intestinal cell of a tadpole. Gurdon discovered though the genetic material came from a specialised intestinal cell, the altered frog’s egg could still develop into all sorts of mature cells in an adult frog. These tadpoles and frogs were genetically identical to the ones from the sampled intestinal cell.

Gurdon's landmark discovery was initially met with scepticism but became accepted when other scientists confirmed it.

This discovery initiated intense research, and the technique was further developed, eventually leading to the successful cloning of mammals. Scientists are still developing this technique, including potentially regrowing body parts or organs. 

Gurdon was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Learn more about Gurdon: https://bit.ly/3NxD5v8

disparate

/ˈdɪsp(ə)rət/

adjective

1. essentially different in kind; not able to be compared.

   "they inhabit disparate worlds of thought"

   Similar:

   contrasting

   different

   differing

   dissimilar

   unlike

   unalike

   poles apart

   varying

   various

   diverse

   diversified

   heterogeneous

   unrelated

   unconnected

   distinct

   separate

   divergent

   divers

   myriad

   contrastive

   Opposite:

   homogeneous

noun

ARCHAIC

1. things so unlike that there is no basis for comparison.