Slashdot Mirror
One Species' Genome Discovered Inside Another's
slyyy writes "The Universtiy of Rochester has discovered the complete genome of a bacterial parasite inside the genome of the host species. This opens the possibility of exchanging DNA between unrelated species and changing our understanding of the evolutionary process. From the article: 'Before this study, geneticists knew of examples where genes from a parasite had crossed into the host, but such an event was considered a rare anomaly except in very simple organisms. Bacterial DNA is very conspicuous in its structure, so if scientists sequencing a nematode genome, for example, come across bacterial DNA, they would likely discard it, reasonably assuming that it was merely contamination--perhaps a bit of bacteria in the gut of the animal, or on its skin. But those genes may not be contamination. They may very well be in the host's own genome. This is exactly what happened with the original sequencing of the genome of the anannassae fruitfly--the huge Wolbachia insert was discarded from the final assembly, despite the fact that it is part of the fly's genome.'"
Why do we put so much stock in people so often surprised?
We don't know it all. We don't control it all; it's an illusion.
What's THE most exercized part of your body- your mouth and toungue? It's been going before you 'knew' you were alive. You use it tens-of-thousands of times a day- everyone (not in a coma) does. But STILL there are 80yo's that bite their lip.
Science follows the Bible, not the other way around. The Bible brings up key points about how to live a happier (not thrilling, not rampaging, not miserable) life, but doesn't say why. Later, science comes along and shows why. Ask yourself; how did the Jews have germ-avoiding techniques during the plagues? Why were they not so ticked-off to be put in ghettos in those ages? [Because there, in the places no one wanted to go, they could keep things clean- no peeing in the streets, which the French still do.]
Long, long ago the Bible talks of the Earth being suspended from nothing, and the north pole pointing to the center of the universe (in so many words). It's the only ancient book that gets it right. SURE, the Roman Catholic church imprisoned geniuses for crossing what the Pope thought, but that's not a religion-thing- that's a people-thing. Just like when Christians blow up abortion clinics. They know it's wrong to kill this way...but they should also know it's not the Christian's job to make such decisions. [The parable of the tares].
So sure, being able to float a frog with magnetisim is cool; very cool, in fact, but understand our place...we're occupants of a very rich and complex environment in which we live. Go with humility and non-judgement into science; soak it all in. To ignore the Bible when searching the heavens is kinda like splitting atoms while ignoring Einstein.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not die of cancer.
You should have looked that up before you said it. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen, the discoverer of X-rays, died of carcinoma of the colon in 1923.
Also you're wrong about the bees thing. There's been no established connection between GM crops and bee populations. Indeed, it would be somewhat surprising if there were - bees eat pollen, and GM crops express nearly none of the GM proteins (usually one or another of the Bt complex proteins) in their pollen.
I never have frustrations, the reason is, to wit:
If at first I don't succeed, I quit!