That isn't funny, that is the point! Bacteria from graveyards are specially adapted to breaking down animal compounds, some of which may be useful in creating anti-aging therapies.
Disclaimer, I am not a member of this research group, but they are in the same building.
I'm not sure what you do in the domain, but you certainly can analyze samples in short periods of time and without millions of dollars... it depends on what you are trying to do. I believe they are doing some variant of restriction plating, which is a fairly quick and inexpensive screen for bacteria which digest specific media.
I met the researcher at a seminar, as he works at my university, and they are analzying all of the donated samples. In fact, they have already isolated one target enzyme from a donated soil sample, one that degrades 7-ketocholesterol.
Moving information to new media is relatively easy, the real trouble will come with obsolete file formats. The best way around this is to archive your images in formats that are likely to be supported for the rest of time. Got images? Jpeg's are going to be around forever. Got a novel? Straight text or HTML will be around forever.
Dont save things in proprietary formats, especially from small companies. I would even hesitate saving important images as PSD's, or at the very least, save a couple versions of important files.
Depending on what you are doing, there are easy way to batch convert files.
I am going through similar problems right now. I have about 30 floppies containing drafts of my mother's first novel. She wrote it in the early nineties on an IBM, using some early version of wordperfect.
I decided to recover them and save the data on a CD, and I realized I didnt have a floppy drive installed on any of my machines! Somewhere in storage I had a USB floppy drive, but I cant get any software to read her files.
Despite my faith in technology, I recognize cutting-edge tech does not operate well in uncontrolled environments. Technology did not fail these soldiers, thier leadership did. Clearly some buzzword spouting contractor dazzled the military leadership, and the military leaders failed to cut through the bullshit.
War is the harshest of all conditions, this has been known for thousands of years. Anything that can go wrong, will. Go back to Sun Tzu. Go back to Militaides. The basic principles of war will not change, regardless of your technology. I dont care it it is recurve bows, steel, cannons, or satellite imagery.
Don't blame technology, blame those who blindly relied on it.
An often unknown fact is that a single gene can code for thousands of different proteins. Protein regulation can occur in a variety of way, one of which is through "junk" DNA.
Currently little is known on the exact mechanism, which is a huge impediment to proteomics. As the phenomenon is elucidated, expect to see a lot more useful information coming out of genome projects.
Computationally predicting the 3-D structure and function of a gene is far more important than you probably realize. Reaching this point will revolutionize almost every aspect of your life, from pharmaceuticals, to nutrition, to silico-neural interfaces.
If you understand genetics, and RTFA's, there is a reason the article does not mention the cancer causing possibilities of genetic therapies.
It just isn't relevant.
What was announced was another revision of the Human Genome Project. Several years ago a rough draft was released, but there were many known errors and incomplete areas. The latest revision has only 341 gaps, down from 150,000. Gene therapy has hardly anything to do with the development.
The shift from 100,000 to 20,000 predicted genes is important because it signals a fundamental change in the way genomics are viewed. Scientists have to consider non-obvious explanations for genetic phenomenon. Why do we have a small number of genes, but a high level of complexity?
The genome is ~2% gene, the rest is largely unknown. Traditionally, this has been referred to as junk DNA, good for spacing, but not much else. Growing consensus believes there is more to these regions, and efforts are underway to explain them. One of the more significant points to consider is the amount of RNA made which never codes for protiens. Biology generally does away with useless actions, but non coding RNA is rampant.
The number of genes influences how hard scientists look at other explanations for phenomenon.
When the articles talk of "estimate" numbers of genes, they are not referring to the known numbers of genes. Instead, they are referring to computational predictions, based on certain patterns found in the genome.
A gene is predicted if it has traits such as known start and stop codons, promoter regions, G-C content, and so on. These patterns are quite complex, and current algorithms are about 50-60% correct.
The actual number of experimentally confirmed sequences is in the low thousands, IIRC.
Gauging the complexity is difficult, given there are a number of factors not currently understood, particularly the importance of non-coding RNA, which accounts for 98% of the genome. In the past, the information content of these regions was thought to be low, but this attitude is changing. As knowledge of the genome increases, the estimated number of genes drops, and more information emphasis is put on non-coding portions of the genome.
Evaluating the function of ncRNA is difficult because as of yet there are no statistically significant markers for them. Given the release today, and trends of late, more and more attention will be put on trying to decipher the utility of "junk" DNA.
I was just down there and saw the car! It is on Mill near Hippie Gypsie. Although I think you need an account with the company to use it. I have tried thier network before and not gotten in. If you are a student of ASU, thier network covers some parts of Mill, because of the Comp Sci building over there. On the end of Mill there is a network called wpublic, and the password is "merci", it belongs to one of the coffee shops down there.
Slashdot Mirror
That isn't funny, that is the point! Bacteria from graveyards are specially adapted to breaking down animal compounds, some of which may be useful in creating anti-aging therapies.
Disclaimer, I am not a member of this research group, but they are in the same building.
I'm not sure what you do in the domain, but you certainly can analyze samples in short periods of time and without millions of dollars... it depends on what you are trying to do. I believe they are doing some variant of restriction plating, which is a fairly quick and inexpensive screen for bacteria which digest specific media.
I met the researcher at a seminar, as he works at my university, and they are analzying all of the donated samples. In fact, they have already isolated one target enzyme from a donated soil sample, one that degrades 7-ketocholesterol.
Moving information to new media is relatively easy, the real trouble will come with obsolete file formats. The best way around this is to archive your images in formats that are likely to be supported for the rest of time. Got images? Jpeg's are going to be around forever. Got a novel? Straight text or HTML will be around forever.
Dont save things in proprietary formats, especially from small companies. I would even hesitate saving important images as PSD's, or at the very least, save a couple versions of important files.
Depending on what you are doing, there are easy way to batch convert files.
I am going through similar problems right now. I have about 30 floppies containing drafts of my mother's first novel. She wrote it in the early nineties on an IBM, using some early version of wordperfect.
I decided to recover them and save the data on a CD, and I realized I didnt have a floppy drive installed on any of my machines! Somewhere in storage I had a USB floppy drive, but I cant get any software to read her files.
My solution: buy antiquated hardware.
Despite my faith in technology, I recognize cutting-edge tech does not operate well in uncontrolled environments. Technology did not fail these soldiers, thier leadership did. Clearly some buzzword spouting contractor dazzled the military leadership, and the military leaders failed to cut through the bullshit.
War is the harshest of all conditions, this has been known for thousands of years. Anything that can go wrong, will. Go back to Sun Tzu. Go back to Militaides. The basic principles of war will not change, regardless of your technology. I dont care it it is recurve bows, steel, cannons, or satellite imagery.
Don't blame technology, blame those who blindly relied on it.
An often unknown fact is that a single gene can code for thousands of different proteins. Protein regulation can occur in a variety of way, one of which is through "junk" DNA.
Currently little is known on the exact mechanism, which is a huge impediment to proteomics. As the phenomenon is elucidated, expect to see a lot more useful information coming out of genome projects.
Computationally predicting the 3-D structure and function of a gene is far more important than you probably realize. Reaching this point will revolutionize almost every aspect of your life, from pharmaceuticals, to nutrition, to silico-neural interfaces.
If you understand genetics, and RTFA's, there is a reason the article does not mention the cancer causing possibilities of genetic therapies.
It just isn't relevant.
What was announced was another revision of the Human Genome Project. Several years ago a rough draft was released, but there were many known errors and incomplete areas. The latest revision has only 341 gaps, down from 150,000. Gene therapy has hardly anything to do with the development.
The shift from 100,000 to 20,000 predicted genes is important because it signals a fundamental change in the way genomics are viewed. Scientists have to consider non-obvious explanations for genetic phenomenon. Why do we have a small number of genes, but a high level of complexity?
The genome is ~2% gene, the rest is largely unknown. Traditionally, this has been referred to as junk DNA, good for spacing, but not much else. Growing consensus believes there is more to these regions, and efforts are underway to explain them. One of the more significant points to consider is the amount of RNA made which never codes for protiens. Biology generally does away with useless actions, but non coding RNA is rampant.
The number of genes influences how hard scientists look at other explanations for phenomenon.
When the articles talk of "estimate" numbers of genes, they are not referring to the known numbers of genes. Instead, they are referring to computational predictions, based on certain patterns found in the genome.
A gene is predicted if it has traits such as known start and stop codons, promoter regions, G-C content, and so on. These patterns are quite complex, and current algorithms are about 50-60% correct.
The actual number of experimentally confirmed sequences is in the low thousands, IIRC.
Gauging the complexity is difficult, given there are a number of factors not currently understood, particularly the importance of non-coding RNA, which accounts for 98% of the genome. In the past, the information content of these regions was thought to be low, but this attitude is changing. As knowledge of the genome increases, the estimated number of genes drops, and more information emphasis is put on non-coding portions of the genome.
Evaluating the function of ncRNA is difficult because as of yet there are no statistically significant markers for them. Given the release today, and trends of late, more and more attention will be put on trying to decipher the utility of "junk" DNA.
I was just down there and saw the car! It is on Mill near Hippie Gypsie. Although I think you need an account with the company to use it. I have tried thier network before and not gotten in. If you are a student of ASU, thier network covers some parts of Mill, because of the Comp Sci building over there. On the end of Mill there is a network called wpublic, and the password is "merci", it belongs to one of the coffee shops down there.
Those exact links were posted just a few days ago.
0 22 2&tid=137&tid=216
Sorry kids, I ain't footing the bill for your cyber girlie girlie, no matter how many times you ask.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/16/203
Those exact links were posted just a few days ago.
Sorry kids, I ain't footing the bill for you cyber girlie girlie, no matter how many times you ask.
Orkut helped make it, it was named after him, and now he is a member (presumably). Kinda smacks of recursion, or incest.
Oh, and someone invite me.
2Lame2BeInvitedByGoogle.20.odd1@spamgourmet.com
Thanks kids