Journal article: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v66/e066304

7) A minimal model for genome evolution and growth
L.-C. Hsieh, L. Luo, F. Li, H. C. Lee
Physical Review Letters (Print issue: January 10, 2003)

When a genome is viewed as a series of letters A, G, T, and C, it seems quite random. However, the organization of the letters has a complex statistical structure very different from a random sequence. One characteristic is that a typical real genome has similar statistical properties to DNA sequences of much shorter length. This is essentially due to the repetitive nature of DNA, especially in the "junk" sections of the genome. But why so much repetition and how did it come about? In this paper, physicists have developed a minimal model of genome evolution and growth that matches the statistics of real DNA quite well. In their model, either single letter mutations are allowed, or a random length of DNA can be copied from somewhere in the string and inserted somewhere else at random. By repeating this process many times from a short DNA strand, long DNA strands that resemble real genomes are created.

Journal article: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v90/e018101

8) Deducing neutrino recipes on the desktop
M. Trinczek, et al.
Physical Review Letters (Print issue: January 10, 2003)

Recent experimental results show conclusively that different types of neutrinos mix together. However, the details of the mixing are still uncertain. A new technique using tabletop equipment has put some of the best direct bounds on how neutrinos mix for certain energy ranges. This paper describes how a radioactiv
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Contact: David Harris
harris@aps.org
301-209-3238
American Physical Society
9-Jan-2003