Saturday, May 10, 2008
Dim Sum, Astronomy and ScientologyIt's been a long week. Here's an update.
Watched Iron Man on Monday with a few of my uni friends, enjoyed it thoroughly. Spend the next 3 days learning astronomy. Will update the study blog with the data soon. Had dim sum with my usual kakis, minus Tridansh and Jeck but did invite Alicia. Didn't eat as much as I expected, does exercise suppress appetite. Denise was amazing, finished 5 baskets of xiaolongbao. I think Pingting and Denise ate more than the rest of us combined. Haha
Right now as i type, thousands of people around the world are protesting against the pseudopsychology cult known as Scientology. This is already the fourth protest (Operation Fair Game Stop) in 4 months and there's no sign of it abating. More and more of the dirty secrets of the cult is being revealed onto the net and into the streets. It will eventually snowball into an unstoppable force that will change the world.
I have kept tabs on Scientology since 2005 after stumbling onto www.xenu.net . Being in a country that has enjoyed the protection against such cults, it was shocking to see how an innocent personality test could degenerate into financial ruin and insanity. The heartbreaking stories reminds me never to take for granted rationality and critical thinking, because if you were to surrender it to a collective group, it would eventually degenerate into a totalitarian regime.
I would like to state my support to Anonymous and all those who have taken part in the protest today. May their good work continue and may they have the divine support of whoever or whatever they believe. Keep up the good fight, Anons! Epic Lulz! And to the scientology trolls out there, don't bother harassing me, I'm a Singaporean and you have no legal right to attack me. terryeo, stay out of my comments, I already read your ridiculous comments from other sites. To bgodly and those who have left Scientology, good luck and wish you all the best in rebuilding your lives. I hope someone could set up a charity group for you people and help you transit into normal society once more.
For more information, please google scientology, anonymous and chanology. Have a nice weekend. Evileye | 10:05 AM
Thursday, May 1, 2008
How do new genes arise?
Serious Cat: "Get busy, or you are fired!"
I have a very bad habit. Once I go on a school holiday, I end up thinking about studies. Proof that you don't miss some things until it's gone. And since anyway I'm also writing up the seminar/workshop proposal for Tridansh, I get to kill 2 birds with 1 stone (hmmm, violent imagery for a common phrase, time to change it?)
I was lying in the bitter cesspool which is known as my bed, trying to get more sleep than I ever need, when something popped in my head (No, it's not a blood vessel, Ben and Spen, you can be sure I won't be in a body bag that soon). How did new genes come about? We all know that higher organisms have more genes and larger genome sizes than the lower ones, until it reach a certain point (C-value paradox, imagine the maize plant having a bigger genome than us).
I got out the Albert's Molecular Biology of the Cell 4th ed to look for the answers. Quite fascinating. It seems that new genes can only arise from existing genes, which explains the gene families and superfamilies. 4 ways how gene innovation is performed: Intragenic mutation, Gene duplication, DNA segment shuffling and horizontal transfer. I would love to put up the diagrams on the 4 known ways of gene innovation, but i'm afraid of copyright infringements, which would mean the demise of my blog.
1)Intragenic mutations refers to the internal mutation within the DNA sequence of the existing gene.
2)Gene duplication meant exactly what it says: another copy is made. This also explains redundant genes, which can sometimes play a vital role if the original is mutated. This method gives rise to gene families and superfamilies. An example would be Bacillus subtilis, 47% of its genes have 1 or more relatives. There are 3 terms used to describe relationships: Orthologs, paralogs and homologs. orthologs refers to 2 genes that are derive from 1 common ancestor gene of the last common ancestor of the 2 species. Paralogs means that the related genes are result of a gene duplication event within the same genome. Homologs simply are either orthologs or paralogs, it's a general term for both.
3)Segment shuffling means that 2 genes "cross over" one another, creating 2 different gene. I don't really know whether this is translocation and that whether the rejoining of the segments is based on homologous recombination or not. If anyone knows, please tell me.
4) Horizontal transfer is the mixing of genes between 2 organisms, even different species. Think conjugation in bacteria, gene reassortment in intermediate hosts for viruses. Sex is also a type of horizontal transfer within the same species. Vertical transfer just means transfer of gene from parent to progeny, during mitosis.
I leave you with 2 questions. Within a genome, how would one know which gene in the family came first? Secondly, if it is completely true that all genes came from existing genes, how would one know which gene was the original ancestor of all genes?
Going to watch some astronomy show now. Will blog again later. Evileye | 10:40 PM
Updates
Finally! The exam is over. Time for some progress reports.
Evileye | 7:57 AMAs you can see the blog has been revamped. I removed the Bleach background and change to a Naruto one. The picture of cursed seal mode Sasuke and Kyuubi Naruto is pretty cool. I linked some of my blog to some people I know. If you wish for me to link you, please tell me and I will get to it. I added some music, Shayne Ward's Breathless Snowflaker's remix. Enjoy
I have finally started my jogging regime, with zhongyi as my running kaki. Hopefully I can keep to this for the next 3 months.
Spencer has finally returned to poly after a year of recuperation. His left hand has recovered quite well, judging by how hard he punched me the day before school. I went down faster than a roller coaster ride. Hope he don't get into any more trouble. I don't want to have to run all the way to Downtown at 2am in the morning to see if he's alive again.
My study blog is halfway done, once it's up, I'll send the links around. My anime blog is also on its way, so please stay tuned.
Plans for the holidays: read up, clear astronomy, work on tridansh's seminar project, work out, ICT, and more cat and cloud photography. If possible, I hope to organize a chalet on my b'day.Oh well, hope it all works out.