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With the dwindling population of a species comes the risk that the gene pool will lose its robust genetic divergence. Recently, in a multi-million dollar project, scientists have used the permafrost frozen hair of mammoths to sequence this extinct animal that used to wander in large numbers around the arid cold tundra of the last ice-age. This new technique of DNA extraction using hair has exciting possibilities for endangered species such as the monkeywhale.
Inuit tribes in North America used the hairy skin of monkeywhales to insulate their huts in the winter and these hides could provide the DNA necessary to reintroduce genetic diversity into the population. All the techniques required for a successful experiment may be ten to twenty years away, but the news is very encouraging.
In other news, a team of Marine Biologists are testing a new sampling method on Sperm Whales that may help determine the overall health of the monkeywhale population should the project expand.
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Here’s something I’ve been looking forward to for months. Thanks in large part to our neighbor Heather and the kind staff of the Weatherspoon Art Museum we gained access to the inner workings of the art installation process and were able to interview Leo in our kitchen.
This was a collaborative effort as part of our [...]
Two songs just aren’t enough. They came to our kitchen, braved the cold and the drizzle in the back yard and ate Indian food with us before returning to Brooklyn, NY. Fear not, they’ll be returning to Greensboro on March 13th as part of our Monkeywhale presents series …
Many thanks to Jocelyn, Emily and Jeremy [...]
For the past 2 years monkeywhale and our kind neighbors have thrown a Halloween party. Nothing fancy. A couple of gazebos, a keg, strings of lights across the lawn and a few lanterns. We also project films on the barn that have fallen into the public domain … like, Nosferatu for instance. Creepy and a [...]
An Apache Relay is the pre-colonial version of a courier system. Chiefs would compete against each other to see who could have a message delivered in the shortest amount of time. A Relay of 8 scouts could hand a message over a quarter of a mile in 3 minutes. Apparently. Just imagine if they [...]
Lyndsay, a neighbor to our fellow monkeywhalers in Asheville, NC came to our attention due to the insistence of Dulci, Shane and Jason of Now You See Them (a prior visitor to the kitchen). Dulci and Shane actually accompany Lyndsay on this song along with the very talented Matt Williams.
Who is this Lyndsay Wojcik? (pronounced [...]
Here’s another song from a very special evening that began with a lovely set by Bruce Piephoff (a longtime friend who inaugurated the Harvey’s Kitchen series). Jim Avett is father to Scott and Seth Avett, of the Avett Brothers who were recently signed to Columbia Records.
The dotmatrix project is a monthly concert series which is [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
the sampling method is a good start, but there’s still a lot of work to do.