New genetic code. Really. Brand new.

Many of my friends' pet peeve is the misuse the genetic code term by newspapers. Whenever a new organisms genome is sequenced they say a genetic code was discovered which is, of course, nonsense. Genetic code has been known for decades now and it's common to all Earth organisms we just learn how the genetic sequence looks like in any given organism. At least till now. The new genetic code was just created and used to create new proteins with some unusual aminoacids. And thhis is why living on other planets will be close to imposible - the biochemistry there most likely totally different then ours. I expect aliens to look more similar to us then actually be on biochemical levels. After phenotype depends on the environmental necessities (that's why birds and bats, sharks and dolphins look similar and both we and insects have joints).

The length of telomeres is not only connected to the length of the life but also to onset of age related diseases. Heart diseases, ostheoporosis and non-Alzheimer related dementia come later to those who have longer telomeres.

The new estimations past of whale population numbers show that once there might've been much more whales in oceans then we thought. Ten times more. This new data comes from estimating genetic diversity among whale populations and revealing records about the massive illegal hunting back in the middle of 20th century. It seems that the even before the industrial hunting humans started the extinction. As the song said Chłop żywemu nie przepuści (Man won't let the living things live).

Not just man. The assassin bugs stalk, lure and kill: