Protein clue

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany, have sequenced a protein from a 75,000-year-old Neanderthal from Shanidar Cave, Iraq ? the oldest fossil protein ever sequenced. Its constituent amino acid arrangement will provide clues regarding the genetic relationships among various extinct and living species of humans.

Golden rice

Researchers at the Jealott?s Hill International Research Centre in Berkshire, UK, have developed a strain of genetically engineered ?golden rice? that can help prevent blindness by boosting vitamin A intake by 23 times. The success was achieved by replacing a rice gene originally borrowed from daffodils, which also has a counterpart in maize, reports Nature Biotechnology.

Tiniest weight

The world?s most sensitive scale can now detect a cluster of xenon atoms, weighing 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000 times lighter than a gram, or a zeptogram. When atoms or molecules are placed on a small blade, they are weighed by measuring the change in the vibration frequency of a magnetic field and the voltage generated in an attached wire.