Slashdot Mirror
Morse Code Used by Human Cells?
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from several universities and drug companies in the U.K. have discovered that our cells are using Morse-like signals to switch genes on and off. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) write that this discovery may have major implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Better and more efficient drugs would only deliver the signals to our cells that will activate a desired behavior. Sounds like science fiction? Read more for other details, references and pictures."
Morse code is considered binary right?
Wrong. Since Morse code does not represent all letters with the same number of dashes and dots (as, for example, ASCII does), it in fact needs three possible values -- dash, dot, and separator (a space). Hence, it is not really binary.
So why does this make the front page of Slashdot?
To promote the "works" of Roland Piquepaille, Slashdot's favorite plagarist and clickbait whore. What you need to realize is that any Slashdot "story" posted by Roland is nothing more than a clickbait submission to Roland's "blog", where he gets revenue for click hits. Roland is a known plagarist and thief, so it doesn't matter what the content really is, as long as people click.
Well, it's been known that they use a pattern in that the arrangement of base units in a line represents a pattern. AFAIK it has not been general knowledge in the biology community that there is a temporal pattern involved with this activation as well. And DNA turning on and off is a little simplistic, there are such things as rate of transcription, how many simultaneous transcriptions occur, etc.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
Actually, there are 4 units in morse code, the dash, the dot, the space between letters, and a longer space between words.
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Is just letting that turd Roland Piquepaille get more publicity for his blog. We need a slashdot boycott of these artciles, somehow. While we can't not reply (if we do, some loser or another will just reply anyway), maybe we can drown it out with comments that are uniform enough to get Taco's attention.
I propose everyone comment (whether at thread root or in reply) with a subject of "Stop the Roland Piquepaille assfest now!" and a body of the same. If out of 150 comments, 80 or 90 of them were these, would they not at least give it some consideration?
Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but...
Various posts have appeared recently concerning the frequent appearance of articles like this one, submitted by Roland Piquepaille, containing links to what appears to be sparsely annotated collection text and images copied from other sources.
It appears that Roland is successfully using Slashdot to generate advertising revenue for this "blog" (which sadly seems to have marginally higher editing standards than Slashdot itself). Perhaps he should be formally added to the Slashdot staff and made an editor instead of paying him informally in this way.
The result might be improved Slashdot editing, and fewer links to a mediocre blog.
For christ's sake, if I read another ad for this asshole's fucking blog _where he doesn't even actually write any of the fucking content_, it'll be too fucking soon. Why the fuck do the editors insist on promoting this no-talent assclown?
Dammit, it took fucking _forever_ for Katz to go away. Not fucking looking forward to doing that again, but looks like we're right back to it.
Diappointingly, none of these links actually included any sort of reference to the scientific literature. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find one: "Oscillations in NF-kappaB signaling control the dynamics of gene expression", Science. 2004 Oct 22;306(5696):704-8. You can find the abstract on pubmed, and if you or your institution happens to have a subscription to Science you can read it online. Looking at the abstract, it seems like the morse code analogy is not very accurate: gene transcription is dependent on oscillation frequency of a transcription factor, but there doesn't seem to be any encoding in the signal in the manner of morse code.
This has nothing to do with Morse code or communication between cells. It's a press release for a paper on an oscillating biochemical reaction within cells.
In case anyone here is wondering, you can get the basic amateur radio license without having any knowledge of Morse code. You need the 5WPM morse code for the more advanced licenses that open up more frequencies and higher power, especially the HF ones.
If you have access to Science it looks like some of this work was published last October. I haven't read through it properley but the abstract looks like it is the same http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/306 /5696/704
rnadom txet for a sngrutaie
It DOES refer to a scholarly article, but that's in the fine print. Try Science vol 306, p704 (2004)
That depends on where you live, actually. In the Netherlands (where I am from), local clubs provide training/courses. If you speak Dutch, check out www.vrza.nl and www.veron.nl. If you are state-side, the ARRL takes care of that; www.arrl.org for more info.
.nl, most stores have changed to internet outlets only. Ebay has a lot of stuff at any time too.
On the other hand, if you already have basic skills in electronics, chances are that you do not need club training, but you can go straight to the exam. However, you say that you are in to the social aspects of it, and that is where local training is strong at. You'll meet all kinds of beer (uhm... people) and you'll be up and running in no-time.
This is what I did in '96, and passed first try. A couple of years later, I did my 12 WPM code requirement and I am now PA5KL (cept class 1).
As far as where to get equipment: again it depends on where you are. Here in
-Kees
The original article (without ads)
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/pressreleases/05_01_1 0_cell_morse_code.html
Media Releases
10 January 2005
A Morse code for human cells
Morse code is a simple, effective and clear method of communication and now scientists believe that cells in our body may also be using patterns of signals to switch genes on and off. The discovery may have major implications for the pharmaceutical industry as the signalling molecules that are targeted by drugs may have more than one purpose. The number of 'dots and dashes' being used by each signal could have different purposes, all of which could be modified by a drug.
The researchers, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and working at the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester and the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, in collaboration with scientists at AstraZeneca and Pfizer, have studied transcription factors, the signalling molecules inside cells that activate or deactivate genes. They found that the strength of the signal is less important than the dynamic frequency pattern that is used.
Professor Michael White of the Centre for Cell Imaging at Liverpool and leader of the research group said, "The timing of the repeating signal is essential for its interpretation. It seems that cells may read the oscillations in level of transcription factors in a similar way to Morse code."
The researchers focused on the response of a transcription factor involved in controlling the crucial processes of cell division and cell death. They found that the dynamics of the signalling molecule resemble the changes in calcium levels that encode other messages in cells. The results suggest how common signalling molecules could convey different messages through different frequencies.
Professor Douglas Kell, who sits on BBSRC Council and is a member of the research team, said, "This raises new challenges for drug designers. It appears that simply aiming to knock down signalling molecules with drugs, as many people are trying to do, may have weak or even undesirable effects as a range of signals could be cancelled out. It is going to be important in the future to decode the Morse-like messages from the molecules to make sure that only the desired effects are blocked."
Professor Julia Goodfellow, BBSRC Chief Executive, said, "This research is an example of a multi-disciplinary approach producing vitally important results. By combining expertise in cell biology, chemistry, mathematical modelling and bio-imaging the research team have discovered this coded signal that is going to inform the development of better, more effective drugs."
ENDS
Contacts
Matt Goode , BBSRC Media Office
Tel: 01793 413299, E-mail: matt.goode@bbsrc.ac.uk
Professor Michael White, University of Liverpool
E-mail: m.white@liv.ac.uk
Professor Douglas Kell, University of Manchester
E-mail: dbk@man.ac.uk
Notes to Editors
This research features in the January 2005 issue of Business, the quarterly magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
The researchers used cultured cells, which had been modified to carry fluorescent proteins or a gene for bioluminescence which enabled them to visualise events in the cell.
The signalling molecule focused on was NF-kappa B which is a transcription factor involved in cell death and cell division.
The collaborative research was conducted by scientists at the Universities of Manchester, Liverpool , The Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital and the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
About BBSRC
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £300 million in a wide ran
Morse requirements are now left up to individual nations to decide for themselves, and many have removed the requirement completely.
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