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."
The number of 'dots and dashes' being used by each signal could have different purposes, all of which could be modified by a drug.
Alright, I work in a chemical biology lab, and I don't know wtf this is supposed to mean. It's common for proteins to have their localization controlled by phosphorylation (i.e., a transcription factor, which is a protein that turns a gene on when bound to DNA, can only get into the nucleus to do its job depending on whether it's been phosphorylated or not). But what does "signal" mean in this context? The press release doesn't offer any scientific details.
This is really just all hype until they can make a claim beyond vague analogies. So why does this make the front page of Slashdot?
So a geneticist's lame metaphor for any "pattern of signals", Morse code, goes over a journalist's head, and makes it to the Slashdot homepage. If only we cell megacolonies were smart enough to decipher these patterns of signals, we might actually get meaningful insights into the infomechanics of DNA.
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make install -not war
What you call "distilling" others would call "blatent plagarism". Roland is a repeated lying plagarist, and you are aparently an unknowning tool of his. Too bad the Slashdot masters don't have the balls to honestly admit what the real relationship between them and Roland really is.
There's nothing in that press release to convince me that a "major signaling pathway" has been discovered. There was just an overblown analogy; no science was explained.
And maybe you think biology is "oversold" because you don't know anything about it. Does anybody in your family take a statin (for lowering cholesterol levels)? If so, you should know that amazingly little details have been worked out about why those drugs work, down to the proteins that sit on the endoplasmic reticulum that are involved in cholesterol metabolism regulation, and the enzymes that interact with them. We know how that regulatory pathway eventually trickles down to interaction with DNA via transcription factors.
Maybe you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you out of ignorance.
you know how much he is making?
using a hour per day for 1000$ doesn't sound too bad.
the thing is, the guy makes no content of his own, offers no visions of his own, offers no insight of his own. offers no clever linking of information to other types of same kind of information. does stories(CUTS AND PASTES) in 'bulk', submits them to slashdot in bulk. writes boringly. doesn't even focus on any particular area of science, technology or society.
karma be damned, fuck roland - IF THE FUCKING BLOG WOULD BE INTRESTING AS WHOLE ___OTHER___ PEOPLE WOULD FUCKING SUBMIT THE STORIES - JUST MAKE IT INTRESTING, NO NEED TO WHORE YOURSELF.
he could at least have courtesy to submit the stories under fake aliases.
and slashdot: if you pass his stories without blinking - Make him a fucking editor or add custom filtering.
and people with mod points.. mod the grandparent up just for kicks. or me down(it's not like i'd drop from excellent anyways).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.