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--> --> Today’s Newscripts post was written by C&EN intern and genomics fiend Puneet Kollipara. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Human Genome Project’s completion—when scientists successfully sequenced nearly all the base pairs of human DNA. It’s also the 60th anniversary of James Watson and Francis Crick’s discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. What better way to commemorate those milestones than with a museum exhibition devoted to genomics? VIPs browse “Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code,” which seeks to educate the public on genomics and its societal implications, following a reception honoring the exhibit’s launch. Credit: Puneet Kollipara That’s exactly what the Smithsonian Institution and the National Institutes of Health have done in a new partnership. Last week they opened “Genomics: Unlocking Life’s Code” to educate the public on the science of genomics and its societal implications. A website accompanying the exhibit provides additional educational resources. The 4,400-sq-ft exhibit runs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C., through September 2014, after which it will travel to other museums around the country. The exhibit’s architects faced a number of challenges when dreaming up the installation. For starters, translating such a large, hard-to-visualize scientific field into a story that a general audience can understand was no easy task, says Vence Bonham, a researcher with NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). To aid in communicating the concepts, the exhibit features a number of high-resolution screens that play videos or animated graphics explaining key concepts in genetics and genomics. The exhibit also emphasizes the use of activities to teach complicated subjects; for example, an interactive puzzle teaches visitors about how genomics could improve medicine by having them use genetic information to find the best drug for a disease. Another display asks visitors’ opinions of controversial issues in genomics, such as whether people are obligated to participate in genomic research. Other activities within the exhibit are just plain cool: One lets you build a necklace that has a vial containing a visible sample of your own DNA — a way to remind you that nearly all your cells contain the code of life. To make the DNA visible, visitors take a sample of their cheek cells and place them into a detergent- and alcohol-containing solution that breaks down cell membranes and causes the genetic material to clump together. Another more unique challenge during the creation of “Genomics” was the ever-changing nature of the scientific field: Just as genomics is continually evolving, so too must the exhibit. To address this challenge, the designers made the exhibit flexible enough that individual elements can be swapped or edited easily, says NHGRI Director Eric Green. The exhibit architects don’t just expect to have to make changes — in a way they welcome them, because new discoveries will likely benefit society. The exhibit features a variety of activities, including a polling station where users can sound off on their opinions about controversial issues in genomics. Credit: Donald E. Hurlbert and James Di Loreto / Smithsonian Visitors won’t just be able to learn about genomics. Another interactive activity will let them participate in studying it, too — sort of. NIH researchers plan to set up a station where visitors can volunteer to participate in a series of surveys on their perceptions of genetics and genomics. They’ll also be asked to share how their perceptions of social norms and constructs change as they’re exposed to genomic information. The surveys aren’t ready to go public yet. Once the surveys are ready, though, the reports that follow from them, says Barbara Biesecker, also a researcher with NHGRI, will serve as a “first foray” into how the general public perceives and is influenced by genomics. The findings could help scientists impr

Santorini on a map looks like a dragon embryo, and Oia is the village at the head. It is photographer heaven. I have never been somewhere so small that packs so much punch. It is overwhelming at times, and I had to be mindful of my obsession so that I could actually stop to enjoy its beauty. There are no bad angles or dull walks, only beauty.If you visit Santorini, then be sure to stay in Oia. Its splendor is best savored over several days of careful inspection and and exploration. Like a movie that needs to be seen again and again with new points seen each time, Oia has a sort of charm that seems infinite.And here is a big Oia photo dump. I have to move on to our next stop - Meteora. We stayed right behind this church, as you probably already know The church bells at dusk looking over the deep caldera. The Caldera is so deep that a cruise ship sank in over 400 feet of water and lays at the bottom. Doors window and a quality that makes everything looks as though it was just handmade and left to bake A windmill at dusk Just another walkway with unique characteristics A pink church behind a door The snaking road is a donkey trail, used to lug bags up on the beasts of burden from the port The caldera never gets old Sunset the sun falls over the Aegean Some nice handblown glass Our room the first night was the room at right with the balcony and curved roof The gates shadows A rare piece of unmanicured Oia Blue gates are everywhere - they have to paint these like twice a year probably Here is a cat for rent at a funkster little book store Another random shop Walking through Oia Hard to find a bad angle - I tried Studded dome with bells Can you think of a cooler place to buy skin care products yea yea, us again Oh look here, someone forgot to paint What on earth Grand Oia At the sunset spot Oia clinging to the rock Every morning I look down at this and wanted to jump in, but it was several hundred feet down hey a furmonster More white washed buildnigs The stairs down to our cave house the iconic view Through the fence A large church in an Oia square Sunset from sunset point in Oia Sunset A Greek flag flows That windmill at left is looking broke More sunset Yawn Another shot of our room I walked by this about 100 times, don't know why it was there Like a Greek flag I was eating lunch and looked down and caught this guy in a sun beam me and my Kiwi buddy One last furmonster before we hit the road to the mainland Later Santorini

Over the next few months, countless Americans will take to the road or the sky for summer vacations. For most, the cost of a flight or hotel is of primary concern, but there other important travel costs that travelers may not take into consideration: bank fees. Making a withdrawal at an out of network ATM (one that’s not owned by the bank) often results in a fee, on top of whatever the machine itself might charge. For globetrotting Americans, the fee can be even higher at international ATMs. Even swiping a card to make a purchase in a foreign country typically results in a debit card foreign transaction fee up to 3% of the amount. Not all checking accounts are equally fee-laden. To help consumers determine which banks might charge the most on their trip, NerdWallet compiled data on 4 different factors for personal checking accounts at 20 of the largest U.S. banks. These factors include: Fees: NerdWallet analyzed out of network ATM fees, international ATM fees, and foreign transaction fees at each bank Access: NerdWallet analyzed the number of branches that each bank operates in the top 10 U.S. states by domestic travel expenditures (CA, FL, TX, NY, IL, NV, PA, VA, GA, NJ) Which banks have the highest fees for summer travelers? While these banks are not necessarily poor options in general, some of their fees and branch availability may make it difficult for travelers to avoid extra costs. 1. M&T Bank As a Buffalo, NY headquartered bank, M&T primarily serves customers across New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and other east coast states. The bank’s out of network ATM fee is the highest NerdWallet measured, at $3.00 (which rises to $5.00 for international ATMs). M&T also charges a 3% foreign exchange fee. Finally, vacationers might find it difficult to find a branch at their destination, since there are a total of just 514 branches across the most traveled states. M&T does offer a checking account “add-on” that waives out of network ATM fees, but it will cost you an extra $4.95 per month. 2. Regions Bank Regions is headquartered in Birmingham, AL and operates branches throughout the southeastern United States. The bank’s out of network ATM fee is above average for both domestic ($2.50) and international ($5.00) withdrawals. Like many of the other banks studied, they also levy a 3% foreign exchange fee on international travelers. Finally, with just 670 branches across top U.S. destinations, a Regions Bank location could be difficult to track down while on the road. 3. Citizens Bank Citizens Bank, owned by British bank the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is headquartered in Providence, RI and operates throughout most northeastern states as well as the Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland metro areas. Like M&T Bank, Citizens charges the most among the banks we measured for domestic out of network withdrawals ($3.00), but does not increase that fee for international withdrawals. They also charge the nearly ubiquitous 3% foreign transaction fee for transactions in a foreign currency. Finally, the bank had one of the lowest numbers of branches available in popular travel destination states, with just 230. 4. BB&T BB&T serves customers in many parts of the southeastern United States and is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC. Their $2.50 fee for using another bank’s ATM rises to $5.00 when outside the country, in which case travelers also face a 3% foreign exchange fee. Though BB&T’s branch network is slightly stronger in popular travel destinations (Florida, for example), their 930 locations still places below average among the 20 banks measured. 5. PNC Bank PNC is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA and operates branches across much of the eastern United States. The bank charges $2.50 for domestic out of network ATM withdrawals, $5.00 for those in international locations and a 3% foreign transaction fee, all of which are above average. However, PNC does best the other banks highlighted here by

Today we went to Windsor Castle Bath and Stonehenge. We went in a big bus with lots of other people. First we went to Windsor Castle. The Queen was there and Dad thought he saw her There were heaps of people and we had to wait for nearly an hour to get into the castle then we had to go around quickly so we made it back to our bus on time. We saw Queen Mary39s Dolls House which is huge it ha

You win some, you lose some. In changing its drastic Xbox One DRM policies today, Microsoft will actually be cutting some of the cooler features announced from the console. Everything's got a price, folks. "There’s a few things we won’t be able to deliver as a result of this change," Marc Whitten, v.p. of Xbox Live told Kotaku, "One of the things we were very exicted about was 'wherever we go my games are always with me.' Now, of course, your physical games won’t show up that way. The content you bought digitally will. But you’ll have to bring your discs with you to have your games with you. Similarly, the sharing library [is something] we won’t be able to deliver at launch." That means that two features are being cut, at least for now, from Microsoft's Xbox One plans. Microsoft's concept of having your full game library travel with you is gone. Microsoft's offer to let you share Xbox One games with up to nine other "family" members is gone, too. The play-your-games-from-anywhere feature had been tied to the idea that all Xbox One games must be installed to the system's 500GB harddrive in order to run. In theory, if you had registered the game online—a requirement that's also been dropped for disc games for the Xbox One—you'd then be able to play those games from any other console you were logged into. Now, with disc games not needing to be registered, you'd have to bring the disc with you to prove you had the rights to play the game on it. Those sacrifices are the cost of the new DRM policy that, Whitten says, will give people an Xbox One experience with disc-based games that matches what they had on the Xbox 360. Games won't have to be registered online, and players won't have to connect to the Internet in a 24-hour period to play offline disc-based games. "The way to think about it is that it works the way it does with the Xbox 360," Whitten said. "You can give them, loan them, trade them, play them. They will work exactly as they do today." It's clear that Microsoft was not planning to make these changes. Even though it's June and the console doesn't launch until November, Whitten said that Xbox One consumers will have to download a day-one patch to enable the Xbox One's offline mode. Presumably, without it, the console will still think it's living in the Xbox One era of E3 2013. Microsoft also announced today a loosening of the Xbox One's regional restrictions. "You could buy a console in any country and use it any country," Whitten said. "You can use any disc in that console." How did Microsoft get their initial plans for the Xbox One so wrong? "We believe a lot in this digital future," Whitten said. "We believe it builds an amazing experience—the ability to have a broader sharing platform and my content coming with me, [but] what we heard is people still wanted more choice… they wanted the familiarity of the physical disc."

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Tomorrow over at Food GPS, my altar ego talks about where he went after leaving the Firestone Walker Invitational… More details on the beer will be there, but for now, the travelogue…. STOP # 1 Barrelhouse Brewing in Paso Robles STOP # 2 Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. in Buellton Oh, and one stop that I missed that you will just have to read about tomorrow.

When one has the likes of Sir Tom Jones, the dapper Don Juan of the 70’s music scene, as a star-judge on ones television show, it’s expected that expenses may get a little pricey. That’s what the BBC has learned as they pay ?695 ($1,076) a night for Jones to stay at London’s luxurious Savoy Hotel while he’s in the city filming the British version of The Voice television show. Jones has been in town (he normally lives in L.A.) for 21 days, which as of today brings his bill to $22,596! And he hasn't even left yet as filming wraps up this Saturday. Plus, his rate is room only, so goodness knows if he's ordering