Yes. It's been known at least since my high school days 8 years ago that phophorus (fertilizer runoff was specifically mentioned) will cause huge algal bloom.
The way this study was summarized in the article it really isn't anything new - and there was certainly no "riddle" to it.
What a shitty article. The reference it links claims there's only one new base that pairs with itself, 3-flourobenzene. "Alpha" and "beta", my ass.
assuming that these bases will self-replicate in the wild,
Since (I think it's safe to assume, based on the use of "unnatural") current organisms do not have a metabolic pathway for synthesizing the artificial base, unless it's bacteria grown in media supplied with some there's no way for a replicating genome to conserve the altered structure.
Two new DNA bases? In terms of potential gene expression - this is like the art world getting two new visible base colors, which can mix with the usual red, green, blue, black and white in new ways to create further complex colors... oh, yes it'll take a very long time to figure out what they mean in all these contexts, but the potential there is absolutely huge.
Colors? No. As other people have mentioned, the article says nothing about what tRNA can read codons containing the novel base. Either they can be read by current tRNAs' sloppy matching and would therefore not change the resulting amino acid structure, or there is no tRNA that can interact with the base so translation would not be able to progress and you'd just be knocking out genes. A better art analogy would be comparing this to a slightly different paintbrush from what everyone's using already.
There isn't even great potential to use this for labeling, since that's already done quite well with modified natural bases or nucleic acid analogues.
Privacy was trumped in the name of going after a pedophile, and I'd say justice was served. Technically, they were going after a sexual predator and murderer. Being attracted to kids - pedophillia - isn't criminal. Subsequently violating them is, yes. But pedophilia != evil sexual predator necessarily.
Yeah, this guy really hates having to define/defend his position on issues when confronted one-on-one, it seems.
You've gotta wonder how he made it as a lawyer to begin with.
Wow. I actually just spoke with this man, at the number above. He asked me who I was, and I made the mistake of saying that I wanted to ask him some questions about his proposal to the (oops) "internet community". He then started raising his voice, saying that he made this proposal to the "gaming industry", not a bunch of modders working out of their basement. I couldn't get a word in edgewise.
He told me to get a dictionary, and hung up.
Ever the cool-headed one, he.
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Yes. It's been known at least since my high school days 8 years ago that phophorus (fertilizer runoff was specifically mentioned) will cause huge algal bloom. The way this study was summarized in the article it really isn't anything new - and there was certainly no "riddle" to it.
assuming that these bases will self-replicate in the wild,
Since (I think it's safe to assume, based on the use of "unnatural") current organisms do not have a metabolic pathway for synthesizing the artificial base, unless it's bacteria grown in media supplied with some there's no way for a replicating genome to conserve the altered structure.
Two new DNA bases? In terms of potential gene expression - this is like the art world getting two new visible base colors, which can mix with the usual red, green, blue, black and white in new ways to create further complex colors... oh, yes it'll take a very long time to figure out what they mean in all these contexts, but the potential there is absolutely huge.
Colors? No. As other people have mentioned, the article says nothing about what tRNA can read codons containing the novel base. Either they can be read by current tRNAs' sloppy matching and would therefore not change the resulting amino acid structure, or there is no tRNA that can interact with the base so translation would not be able to progress and you'd just be knocking out genes. A better art analogy would be comparing this to a slightly different paintbrush from what everyone's using already. There isn't even great potential to use this for labeling, since that's already done quite well with modified natural bases or nucleic acid analogues.
Yeah, this guy really hates having to define/defend his position on issues when confronted one-on-one, it seems. You've gotta wonder how he made it as a lawyer to begin with.
Wow. I actually just spoke with this man, at the number above. He asked me who I was, and I made the mistake of saying that I wanted to ask him some questions about his proposal to the (oops) "internet community". He then started raising his voice, saying that he made this proposal to the "gaming industry", not a bunch of modders working out of their basement. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. He told me to get a dictionary, and hung up. Ever the cool-headed one, he.
I stand slightly corrected. ;D
BSE = Bovine Spongy Encephalopathy, the technical term for Mad Cow Disease.