The Atacama Mummy is Not an Alien

The Atacama Mummy is not an alien, as it was once purported to be, but it's not a fake, either. The tiny skin-covered skeleton is only 6 inches long. It was discovered in a small deserted town in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 2003. Experts who studied the mummy found it to be human, but were confused by test results. The bone density is that of a 6-year-old child, but how could a 6-inch body survive that long? Gene sequencing had now yielded some results.

According to the new analysis, Ata was a human girl of Chilean descent. And indeed, she was very likely still a developing fetus when she died, even though she exhibited the bone composition of a six-year old child. The reason for this, claim the researchers, is that Ata suffered from a rare bone-aging disorder. In total, the researchers identified mutations in at least seven genes that, either separately or in tandem, contributed to Ata’s odd physical characteristics, including facial malformations, bone deformities, and apparent dwarfism (known as skeletal dysplasia). Some of the genes analyzed in the study were already known to cause disease, but this is the first time that some of the mutations were linked to abnormal bone growth or other developmental problems.

Scientists were astonished at how many different genes in the mummy showed mutations. The implications for medicine may mean that health issues could be caused by more than one gene anomaly. Read more about the Atacama Mummy at Gizmodo.

(Image credit: Dr. Emery Smith)


Comments (0)

You think this is neat? You are bloody disturbed. if you all would just learn what vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and fruit were, you wouldn't NEED this disgusting filth. But I understand; you are all too lazy to learn about what your body really needs to thrive. You prefer to think twisted animal technology is "so cool!" because you have crap for brains. You all deserve a week or two in a slaughterhouse. I hope you make it out alive.
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I'm for it, as long as the muscle problem is solved. And as far as growing muscle in a dish, yes there is myoblast which could mean growing a full chicken breast or steak from nothing. But I worry about that for one reason. The marbling.
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First, I am not a member of PETA and I do eat meat. I am not the typical person who protests how animals are treated, although I am somewhat troubled by it. Second, this is horrifying.
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So you're going to do brain surgery and provide life support for a $4 chicken? Yeah, I don't think so....

Gotta laugh when these city boys come up with ideas.
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It's just like the chickienobs from Margaret Atwood's novel Oryx & Crake:

"
"This is the latest," said Crake.
What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin. Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.

"What the hell is it?" said Jimmy.

"Those are chickens," said Crake. "Chicken parts. Just the breasts, on this one. They've got ones that specialize in drumsticks too, twelve to a growth unit.

"But there aren't any heads..."

"That's the head in the middle," said the woman. "There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump nutrients in there. No eyes or beak or anything, they don't need those."
"
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>> "I think people are going to be more disturbed by brainless zombie chickens on their plate than densely packed normal chickens."

Nope. People have no clue where food comes from or in what horrible conditions the animals are bred.

Btw: they are growing meat in petri dishes today; zombie chickens are small potatoes compared to that.
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Yeah... something about brainless chickens is more disturbing than what's happening now.
Plus this sounds REALLY expensive and would probably jack up the prices of meat.
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I... just... yeah.

I think people are going to be more disturbed by brainless zombie chickens on their plate than densely packed normal chickens. Not to mention the complete lack of muscle development this will cause is going to create a different product.

I'd rather see more development on growing muscles from scratch as meat than this.
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