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Ask a biologist
#41
RE: Ask a biologist
Starring magic mushrooms Brock Landers and Ashley Starr Smile
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#42
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 21, 2015 at 8:54 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: Okay I guess I'll play, gotta be a good sport and all.

Molecular biologist here ... ask me anything about biology (evolution, cancer research, genetic engineering, whatever)!

Can a DNA molecule partially split and be able to attach to a longer string or another partially split string?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson

God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers

Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders

Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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#43
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 24, 2015 at 12:06 pm)IATIA Wrote:
(May 21, 2015 at 8:54 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: Okay I guess I'll play, gotta be a good sport and all.

Molecular biologist here ... ask me anything about biology (evolution, cancer research, genetic engineering, whatever)!

Can a DNA molecule partially split and be able to attach to a longer string or another partially split string?

Yes absolutely. DNA suffers all sorts of damage, including single or double stranded breaks, and they can attach to other strands (e.g. non-homologous end joining). 

We do have DNA repair mechanisms that can repair breaks, but our DNA repair mechanisms, although incredibly accurate, are not perfect. The repair process itself can lead to mutations, or this type of damage (if not repaired) can lead to cell death. In the rare case where a mutation confers a survival advantage over adjacent cells, it can lead to cancer. 
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#44
RE: Ask a biologist
Then that allows increased complexity of the DNA.  Are there any statistics on the frequency?
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson

God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers

Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders

Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
Reply
#45
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 23, 2015 at 4:32 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: haha ... well, couldn't figure out how to delete a post (although it's easy to edit a post). Maybe I missed something (I am a newbe after all) Smile

Yes, you missed to answer my glorious question, and now I has a sad...
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#46
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 25, 2015 at 10:42 am)Alex K Wrote:
(May 23, 2015 at 4:32 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: haha ... well, couldn't figure out how to delete a post (although it's easy to edit a post). Maybe I missed something (I am a newbe after all) Smile

Yes, you missed to answer my glorious question, and now I has a sad...

Ow, don't cry Alex
look, a pretty equation

[Image: H.R.derivatives.gif]

better now? Consoling
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#47
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 25, 2015 at 1:19 am)IATIA Wrote: Then that allows increased complexity of the DNA.  Are there any statistics on the frequency?



DNA breaks are a bad thing, it doesn't increase complexity except that obviously DNA repair mechanisms had to evolve to deal with strand breaks (but otherwise, strand breaks that are not repaired either lead to cell death, senescence, or even mutations that can lead to cancer). Single strand breaks occur thousands of time per day in all of our cells, whereas double strand breaks are rare (a few dozen at most in each replication cycle). 

What increases genetic variation is sexual reproduction, crossing-over (or recombination) during meiosis, etc. Here's a vid on meiosis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPMp0U0HOA
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#48
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 25, 2015 at 10:42 am)Alex K Wrote:
(May 23, 2015 at 4:32 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: haha ... well, couldn't figure out how to delete a post (although it's easy to edit a post). Maybe I missed something (I am a newbe after all) Smile

Yes, you missed to answer my glorious question, and now I has a sad...

Sorry about that ... so if I remember correctly, you wanted to know about ENCODE?

Well, ENCODE is simply a project that seeks to catalog and understand all non-coding DNA in our genome (the first genome project focused on coding DNA, or our exome e.g. the 20 - 25,000 genes that code for proteins, which only accounts for ~1.5% of our overall genome). 

Non-coding DNA performs many critical functions, including regulation of gene expression (e.g. cis and trans regulatory elements), some noncoding DNA are transcribed into noncoding RNA (e.g. tRNA, regulatory RNA molecules, etc.), some introns have been found to play important roles in regulation, ncDNA has a vital role in epigenetic regulation, and so on. 

If you have more questions or need more detail, please feel free to ask (I only ask that people try and ask specific rather than broad based questions, since there's just no feasible way to teach an entire bio course in the span of an online thread like this). 
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#49
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 25, 2015 at 10:48 am)Neimenovic Wrote:
(May 25, 2015 at 10:42 am)Alex K Wrote: Yes, you missed to answer my glorious question, and now I has a sad...

Ow, don't cry Alex
look, a pretty equation

[Image: H.R.derivatives.gif]

better now? Consoling

Thanks man! 
I was wondering why I couldn't the purity over 80%.
Time to buy a carwash! Cool
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#50
RE: Ask a biologist
(May 22, 2015 at 5:19 pm)francismjenkins Wrote: For many reasons. I view biology as the science with the most powerful near term potential. I've lost many good friends and family members to things like cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, etc. I've seen many people I care about suffer from things like alcoholism. And as a skeptic, I've always believed that science is our only hope to cure disease, live longer and better lives, solve intractable problems like global warming, etc., so I just can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. 

So what is your solution to global warming?
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK

The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK


"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
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