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."
Let me guess: One more justification for hanging onto the 5WPM morse requirement, right?
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to my feet in the morning, then QRO to my legs. That will allow me to get QRV and out of bed.
Human cells did it first. I knew that Morse guy was a fraud all along.
My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
...just got a lot more fun
I have freaks! I did something right...
Roland Piquepaille and Slashdot: Is there a connection?
I think most of you are aware of the controversy surrounding regular Slashdot article submitter Roland Piquepaille. For those of you who don't know, please allow me to bring forth all the facts. Roland Piquepaille has an online journal (I refuse to use the word "blog") located at http://www.primidi.com/. It is titled "Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends". It consists almost entirely of content, both text and pictures, taken from reputable news websites and online technical journals. He does give credit to the other websites, but it wasn't always so. Only after many complaints were raised by the Slashdot readership did he start giving credit where credit was due. However, this is not what the controversy is about.
Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends serves online advertisements through a service called Blogads, located at www.blogads.com. Blogads is not your traditional online advertiser; rather than base payments on click-throughs, Blogads pays a flat fee based on the level of traffic your online journal generates. This way Blogads can guarantee that an advertisement on a particular online journal will reach a particular number of users. So advertisements on high traffic online journals are appropriately more expensive to buy, but the advertisement is guaranteed to be seen by a large amount of people. This, in turn, encourages people like Roland Piquepaille to try their best to increase traffic to their journals in order to increase the going rates for advertisements on their web pages. But advertisers do have some flexibility. Blogads serves two classes of advertisements. The premium ad space that is seen at the top of the web page by all viewers is reserved for "Special Advertisers"; it holds only one advertisement. The secondary ad space is located near the bottom half of the page, so that the user must scroll down the window to see it. This space can contain up to four advertisements and is reserved for regular advertisers, or just "Advertisers". Visit Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends (http://www.primidi.com/) to see it for yourself.
Before we talk about money, let's talk about the service that Roland Piquepaille provides in his journal. He goes out and looks for interesting articles about new and emerging technologies. He provides a very brief overview of the articles, then copies a few choice paragraphs and the occasional picture from each article and puts them up on his web page. Finally, he adds a minimal amount of original content between the copied-and-pasted text in an effort to make the journal entry coherent and appear to add value to the original articles. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now let's talk about money. Visit http://www.blogads.com/order_html?adstrip_category =tech&politics= to check the following facts for yourself. As of today, December XX 2004, the going rate for the premium advertisement space on Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends is $375 for one month. One of the four standard advertisements costs $150 for one month. So, the maximum advertising space brings in $375 x 1 + $150 x 4 = $975 for one month. Obviously not all $975 will go directly to Roland Piquepaille, as Blogads gets a portion of that as a service fee, but he will receive the majority of it. According to the FAQ, Blogads takes 20%. So Roland Piquepaille gets 80% of $975, a maximum of $780 each month. www.primidi.com is hosted by clara.net (look it up at http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index. jhtml). Browsing clara.net's hosting solutions, the most expensive hosting service is their Clarahost Advanced (http://www.uk.clara.net/clarahost/advanced.php) priced at £69.99 GBP. This is
So do cancer sells put out: ... --- ...
....we really don't know all that much YET about biology and about how the universe works. We will someday, but as of today, science and medicine is rather "oversold", meaning we have been led to believe that it is more capable than it really is. And this story is a perfect example of that. A major signaling pathway that we were not even aware. Children at play, even still.....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
S.O.C. Save Our Cells...
From IP claims.
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.
--
make install -not war
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.
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.
The Force
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.
It's known that nature uses reaction-diffusion techniques to generate camouflage patterns for animals. This was noted by Alan Turing. It wouldn't be too surprising to see if this occurred inside cells as well. There's an interesting 3D demo to see what reaction-diffusion equations can do in real-time. Perhaps the pharamceutical companies will have to figure out ways of generating such signalling patterns.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
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.
Absolutely.
I once studied genetic algorithms and I thought to myself 'hmm there are so many ways that I could implement a genetic algorithm, endless ways. I wonder how nature does it' and went on to study cell biology and genetics.
Coming from computer science, I can tell you it was a humbling experience. We think we are so clever with our electronics and silicon chips and technology, but any living cell is far more amazingly... actually its hard to quantify in exactly what department they excel in, energy efficiency, massive parallelism, sophisticated encoding systems you name it.
And living cells are so much more than genes and proteins.
If some Mr Smartypants Biologist wants to say that we understand biology and we arn't like naive kids they are welcome to try but there are major problems in our understanding of some very basic mechanics of biology. It looks for all the world like a little machine down there... they talk about 'cargo vesicles'
Like oh I don't know how about a theory on how the right transfer RNA actually finds its way -- how it actually moves through the cytoplasm -- to the right ribosome at the right time to plug the amino acid in (which presumably it picked up and carried here from somewhere else), and *don't* try to tell me its 'brownian motion' because thats no better than a conspiracy theory.
If its supposed to be like a little machine, its got to be explainable in a deterministic way. Otherwise its magic.
I have no problem with magic (see my sig), but its nice if you admit to it rather than pretending its science.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Yeah, but where's the fun in doing only the bare minimum? I remember when 13 wpm was a reasonable expectation. But hey, you're losing out if you don't learn it. You can transmit and receive further and on less power with CW.
Doesn't anyone like a challenge anymore? It is all about buying multi-thousand-dollar Japanese rigs, prefab antennas and high-power amps? Where's the fun in that? You might as well just get a mobile phone.
Fred
"A fool and his freedom are soon parted"
-RMS
Now that we know how to communicate with them...
Could someone convert the following messages to morris code for me?
To my head hair follicles: START GROWING AGAIN!
To my back, ear, and nose hair follicles : STOP GROWING SO MUCH!
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
It DOES refer to a scholarly article, but that's in the fine print. Try Science vol 306, p704 (2004)
All this time it was Morse Code ... and I tried buying girls beer to switch their jeans off.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
The short answer is: No.
The long answer is: People can obviously correctly grasp broad outlines. The problem is that, in mathematics anyway, the broad outline is the mathematics. This is woefully imprecise. Let's see if I can successfully clarify.
Consider Fermat's Last theorem and the introductory exposition here. Notice that to understand, in broad strokes, the content (not even the method!) of the proof, you have to understand elliptic curves, elliptic functions, zeta functions, L-functions, galois groups and their matrix representations over p-adic rings. The properties of objects in each of these topics are essential to the proof, and seeing as the proof is in some sense a description of "how these objects interact," any description that fails to include one of these fields is going to be inadequate even for framing a broad outline. Even if the idea that lead to Wile's final proof was simple, one needs all of this machinery to even comprehend what it means.
The issue in physics is similar, but distinct. Equations are one thing, and anyone can write a story about a physicist staring at a peice of paper and yelling "Eureka!" But giving these equations physical meaning is another. It is becoming more and more common for physical meanings to be given in terms of complex mathematical constructs, and for the expositor, we're back at the trouble above.
That said, magazines like Scientific American and shows like Nova do make people interested in mathematics, if only because they're so incomplete. And they can serve as an introductory guide to the literature. But their value as informative sources is nil.
After all, I am strangely colored.
We also know that statins cause muscle damage, kidney damage, liver damage, heart damage (how ironic - look up statin-induced cardiomyopathy), metabolic damage and brain damage. Leaving people weak, sick, tired, forgetful, confused and dull and sometimes demented or dead.
We know statins interfere with vital steps in producing testosterone, estrogen (good bye sex drive, etc) and other vital hormones, and deplete CoQ10, which is crucial for cellular energy metabolism.
Yet we force these drugs down the throats of many people who either would have never even gotten heart disease from their cholesterol level, or those in which the statin does not prevent the heart disease. In other words, most people would have ended up eith getting heart disease, or not getting it, in spite of the drug. And we ignore inflammation and C-reactive protein levels (though this is changing, just like with ulcers and bacteria, the truth EVENTUALLY comes out) and harp on cholesterol, yet half of heart attack victims have normal levels.
Meanwhile the government is pushng that ridiculous food pyramid, with its over-emphasis on grains and causing carbohydrate overload without being balanced by proteins and fat (the 4 food groups were better - much less diabetes when that was popular - and type 2 was NEVER seen in kids back then, even the fat ones), perhaps THAT is why diabetes and heart disease are killing more people each week than died on September 11, 2001 and maiming countless others. Well, at least the grain industry will be healthy, even if we aren't.
Diabetes, dementia and congestive heart failure are growing extremely fast, much much faster than the Gross National Product.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
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
"If its supposed to be like a little machine, its got to be explainable in a deterministic way. Otherwise its magic. I have no problem with magic (see my sig), but its nice if you admit to it rather than pretending its science."
two things:
- determinism is waaaaaaaaaaaaay outdated.
- magic is just a word to explain things we don't understand. like god, or mother nature, or fate.
science is not about absolutes**. anyone who got that wrong didn't pay attention during philosophy of science courses... read some bertrand russell or something.
**if you want that, get into religion.
Xenocide.
/. is for.
But anyway, as far as all this Roland shit goes, Slashdot sold out a long time ago, people. Fuck it.
Maybe, just maybe the people who ran the site figured out that they could do whatever they wanted, and they'd still be rolling in the page hits.
I mean think about the amount of traffic that pours through this site everyday. This is a site that has a reputation for bringing down servers from mass amount of click-through traffic, and that's just the people who even bother to RTFA. I rarely if ever do, myself seeing as most of the articles don't interest me for shit.
I say we just ignore the articles entirely, and just start talking about whatever the fuck we want to. It's not like we pay to see this site (at least I don't)
Oh wait, everyone is already doing that, barely keeping on-article topic if at all. Good, because theres almost always people here that know more about the topic the article was written on than the authors of said shitty articles.
Don't read the articles, block the ads, and just start talking about whatever comes to your head when you read the article summary. That's what
If you are a paying member of the site...I'm assuming you have the money to throw around. The incentive to pay to be a member(OOH I CAN SEE THE ARTICLES SOONER) is pretty much counter-productive to what I come here for anyhow.
kaens.blogspot.com
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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Morse code is still used for identifying VOR and NDB beacons in aviation. Being able to ident them just by listening, rather than having to look up the dots & dashes cheat sheet on the aviation sectional can really help to reduce the cockpit workload, especially when you're lost, or can easily get lost if you misidentify one.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.