Templeton Foundation funds a grant on transposons

The John Templeton Foundation supports "interdisciplinary research and catalyze conversations that enable people to pursue lives of meaning and purpose." Many of these projects have religious themes or religious implications. The foundation is well-known for its support of projects that promote the compatibility of science and religion. You can see a list of recent grants here.

Templeton recently awarded a grant of $607,686 (US) to study the role of transposons in the human genome. The project leader is Stefan Linquist, a philosopher from the University of Guelph (Guelph, Ontario, Canada). Stefan has published a number of papers on junk DNA and he promotes the definition of functional DNA as DNA that is subject to purifying selection [The function wars are over]. Other members of the team include Ryan Gregory and Ford Doolittle who are prominent supporters of junk DNA.

Structure of the mitochondrial respirasome (electron transport complexes)

The membranes of bacterial cells and mitochondria contain a series of complexes that catalyze the oxidation of NADH. A lengthy electron transport chain leads eventually to the reduction of oxygen to water. Electrons lose energy as they pass down the chain and this is coupled to the transport of protons (H⁺) from one side of the membrane to the other. This proton gradient is used to drive ATP synthesis by the ATP synthase complex. The mechanism of making ATP is chemiosmosis but the pathway is often called oxidative phosphorylation or respiration.

The discovery of chemiosmosis (Chemiosmotic Theory) is one the few examples of a genuine paradigm shift. It is largely due to the work of Peter Mitchell [Ode to Peter Mitchell].