Giordano Bruno: neural retrotransposons, sea urchins, Bush Bashing, lystrosaurus

latimes

F W Gage.. 2003, he co-founded Brain Cells Inc. to exploit his discovery that humans generate new brain cells throughout life.
.. "jumping gene.".. a long interspersed nuclear element, or LINE .. .. retrotransposons. .Mice harbored 3,000 different kinds of LINE elements, rats 500. Humans had about 100 types that differed from one person to the next. .. 850,000 copies of such junk DNA in the human..almost half of every cell's heredity.
.. Muotri and Gage wanted to know whether the L1 sequence was actually moving around in developing brain cells.
Normally, the sequence copied itself into reproductive cells in the testes and ovaries, where a randomly remodeled gene might be passed to succeeding generations. The sequence did not seem active in any other type of cell in the body.

But in the brain:..

..the sequence affected only developing brain cells. It also seemed to home in on neural genes, arbitrarily changing their behavior. Every time it affected a gene, it set that neuron apart from its neighbors in the brain and from all other cells in the body.
In the mouse experiment, the sequence jumped into one of every 100 brain cells.
Unpublished data from follow-up experiments by colleagues suggest that in human cells, the sequence jumps into 80 of every 100 neurons.
"Every neuron may have a different genetic profile," Muotri said. "Almost all the cells have at least one L1 insertion."

Evolution in the Brain at a lower level than Edelman's neural darwinism. I am always suspicious when I see suggestions that a biological mechanism is "for" producing variety. After evolving for 3 billion years as a slime cell, and 500 million years as a multicell, I dont want anything to change. However it is just possible that Gage may be onto something here [LATimes may require signon from www.bugmenot.com]
Also checkout LATimes Altered Oceans, the perfect slime in Morteton Bay

I hate sea urchins in my feet, but their embryos taught us much about development
see the nifty blastula movie at:
sciencemag SeaUrchinPoster
Sea Urchins are more closely related to us than fruit flies. They have a lot of immune system proteins.
fly

this is a fly embryo. The Terasaki video on the sciencemag SeaUrchinPoster is better

Nieng Yan essay, "Mechanisms of Programmed Cell Death in Caenorhabditis elegans."

Bush Bashing (an expression used in New Zealand when trampers (aka hikers) move through thick undergrowth where there are no tracks.
washingtonpost

It was only three years ago that Bush took up cycling after a painful knee forced him to cut back on jogging. At 60, he is an exceptionally fit rider who likes to go hard, always at the head of a small pack of other riders.

OK the bloke is a mass-murdering tyrant, but its great that he likes to bike.
I always thought Clinton was way more charming, but WC's indifference to the pirate style theft of Russia's assets in the 90s may contribute more to the demise of USA Empire than GWB's murderous but idiotic attempt to pump Iraq's oil to Haifa.
. Cycling is a great anodyne to depression. Through the 90's I frequently cycled hard from 6 to 8 am on steep streets in Sydneys beach suburbs, before the heat and traffic. I survived the depression, but exercise doesnt do anything for your social skills. In the early 90's I actually had women friends in Sydney, mostly a bunch of very smart Kiwis. However at one dinner party, one young woman made a joke about my age (I was merely 43 or so) saying something about someones mother being suitable for me. I replied that my Philippine girlfriend's mother was that age. That mention slammed shut most doors in Sydney. Asian affairs cannot co-exist with Aus-based.
. I'm not moaning. I recall way back when I was 40, in NZ, a bunch of buddies from the 60's were sitting around saying that sex was getting rare. My appropriate partner now would be aged 50 something. I readily admit, I have an inadequate personality development, and I cant desire 50ish women. I cant even bring myself to computer-date one to the movies. So my solitude is entirely probable. Its just such a contrast to my life in the barrio, where often I must step carefully around sleeping girls crowding the floor if I want to get to the bathroom.
. On my bike this morning, a panel van tried to pass on the inside at a roundabout. Brushed me, didnt knock me over. I caught him at the next lights. Car drivers never realise that a bicycle can often catch them at the next lights. I banged 3 times on the van, he sped off. The thing to do is bang once, so he stops. If I start a fight, with my age and skills, I would most likely get beaten badly, but there is a definite probability that I might knock someone over and get done for serious assault. Neither are welcome results, but I get a bit of a rage up when a motor-vehicle tries to run me down.
YHK 374 white panel van, If I see you again, pray I'm not carrying my hammer.

debka
November 25, 2006, 11:49 PM (GMT+02:00)

The first of 29 Tor-M1 systems in the $700m deal have been delivered to Iran by Moscow despite US opposition to their sale of a weapon widely regarded as the most advanced of its kind in the world. Some Iranian and Russian air defense experts say its full deployment at Iran’s nuclear installations will make them virtually invulnerable to American or Israeli attack in the foreseeable future. Therefore, no more than six months remain, until the Russian Tor-M1 systems are in place, for any attempt to knock out Iran’s nuclear weapons industry.

The Tor-M1 is short range. see 21Jun06 for comments on longer range systems:

1 metre long? -this is the two-tooth that survived the end-Permian MEEvent.
There were a few others, but it was mostly Lystrosaurus.
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creh

27 November 2006

neural retrotransposons, sea urchins, Bush Bashing, lystrosaurus

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