№ 11 (2020)

About a quarter of a century ago, molecular genetic methods relieved the forensic science, as they help to understand a lot about a person via his or hers DNA, exploiting just a few cells of any biological material (blood, saliva, sperm, etc.). First of all, it is possible to prove the guilt of a person by comparing his biological material with a sample taken at the crime scene. Moreover, it is not at all necessary to carry out such an analysis immediately: DNA retains its identification properties not for days, but for millennia. But what if the suspected person is unknown or unavailable? DNA can help also in this situation. It is possible to significantly close in on a suspected person, determining by close (if there are relatives) or by distant (in the case when nothing is known at all) relations, to which population group the wanted criminal belongs. What methods are used in determining DNA profiles? Now, for identification, we do not need to know the complete genome; it is enough to compare only a few regions, short tandem repeats (STR loci). To assess the probability of identification, databases on the frequency of occurrence of STR variants in different population groups are created. In forensic science, two types of databases are used: one of them contains the DNA profiles of individuals identified during the investigation of crimes; the other, are for persons, typical for the population of different geographic regions. These approaches helped, for example, to quickly identify the suicide bomber of the Domodedovo International Airport bombing and to identify the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York.

We revealed the reasons that prevent the Eastern European amphibian, Pallas’s spadefoot toad (Pelobates vespertinus), to move into Asia beyond the Tobol River valley. It dig itself into a burrow in the fall and thus avoids the negative wintering temperatures. There are no known meridional geographical boundaries on the eastern border of its range. The average soil temperatures for January at depths of 80, 120, 160, and 240 cm from 390 meteorological stations have been plotted on the map, as well as isotherms, to compare the outline of the P.vespertinus range borders. The depth of the soil 0°C isotherm increases from 80 cm in Europe to more than 160 cm in the southwest of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan, and the eastern border of the Pallas’s spadefoot toad range clearly coincides with it. The subsequent depth-determined increase of temperatures is small and by 240 cm approaches only 2°C, while for the Pallas’s spadefoot toad activity it is believed to be 3–4°C. The cumulative effect is expressed in the form of a “buried frontier” of this amphibian distribution. The described phenomenon can be useful as an example of the formation of habitat boundaries when conditions change not on the surface, but deep in the ground.

The article discusses a model of the geochemical cycle of barium in the ocean, based on a few original and published data. Barium ion reacts with sulfate ion of various fluids resulting in formation of poorly soluble baryte. Through the distribution of barium in the water column, one can judge the value of primary production in the modern and ancient ocean. Analysis of gas-liquid inclusions in barytes allows to determine the salinity and temperature of primary solutions, i.e. to restore the physicochemical conditions of mineral formation.

The article tells about the impressive work of Agniya Alexandrovna Maisky, a representative of the USSR Red Cross Society in the Soviet embassy during the first two years of the war. Unique historical documents and photographs from the personal archive of the USSR Ambassador to the United Kindom, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences I.M.Maisky, which is stored in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences.