#science in the fog

[sounds-in-the-fog]

When I was getting into the field of genetics, I was not expecting how much time laboratory scientists spend just kinda hanging around and waiting for small amounts of liquid in small plastic tubes to thaw after getting it out of the freezer.

[sounds-in-the-fog]

I would also add that there is such thing as synonymous substitution - a type of mutations, that doesn't change the resulting protein. That can happen because the genetic code is redundant - meaning that most amino acids (the basic blocks from which proteins are made) can be encoded in a number of different three letter combos.

The fact that such "silent" mutations occur allows us to identify different species by analysing the sequence of such common proteins you are talking about. Added benefit is - because the proteins are so similar, we can use the same primer (the thingy that basically encodes which part of genome we want to analyse (you can read more on wiki in the linked article, I won't go into detail here) to analyse biological material from a vast number of organisms (as opposed to species specific markers, which, you guessed it, work only on one or several closely related species).

For example, In our latest work we used a fragment of a cytochrome b protein to differentiate between wolves and golden jackals. The fragment analyzed is about 350 bp (base pairs (letters)) long and has several mutations (letter changes) specific to each species. But the protein that both fragments make are identical.

I'm sorry for a bit of a rumble - I slept like 7 hours in past two days. But I hope you now know a bit more about the fascinating subject of genetics:)

this might be a stupid question, but if theres a protein that multiple organisms need, wouldn't the a t g c genetic code for it be the same for different species? or at least closely related species? so theoretically some prompts/sequences should have multiple fitting organisms or closest fitting organisms

(i know it isn't this simple, but im wondering what the exact reason it doesn't work like that is, or what im missing)

not a stupid question, i'll try to answer it to the best of my understanding, but if anyone has anything to add, please do.

put shortly: you're right! if multiple organisms need a certain protein, the code in their DNA is generally the same in that region.

from a genetics perspective, all organisms are actually extremely similar. i'm sure you've heard that we humans share more than half our genetic information with bananas and such.

this is just a factor of how evolution works. every so often, a mutation occurs in an organism's genome, which has a chance to increase the fitness of that organism, which allows it to have more offspring, which changes the mix of alleles in the population. and this is how we get different species of things.

but, because we all share a common ancestor from a long, long, long, long time ago, we do maintain some similarities, especially in regions that code for things essential to life.

those regions where things are *different* is where we're able to tell one species from another, differentiating moths from trees and such. but, overall, all living organisms have a whole lot in common.

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists have developed a bioinspired yarn capable of harvesting water from fog, providing an innovative solution to water scarcity in arid regions. By imitating the alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic patterns seen in desert beetles and the water-transporting abilities of micro/nanoscale one-dimensional spider silk, this double-strand yarn accelerates droplet formation, offering a promising approach to tackling the global water crisis.

Continue Reading.

[redstrawberryyblog]

[sounds-in-the-fog]

Not all of us. We population genetics folks only need a colorful STRUCTURE plot and a simple PCA.

(example pulled from the internet)

-Malachowski et al. (2023) Spatially coordinated heterochromatinization of long synaptic genes in fragile X syndrome

Submitter comment: ““average figure panel has one heatmap” factoid actually just statistical error. average figure panel has 0 heatmaps. Heatmaps Georg, who submits to Cell and draws 10,000 heatmaps a day, is an outlier and should not have been counted.”

[vamptits]

Hi can you please share some of your resources about human brain maturity and when they are fully developed? I'm really curious about it because it's always seemed weird to me

Hi!! so i'm not a scientist, i've read some studies and most of it goes wayyy over my head. what i CAN say is:

most articles claiming that your brain fully matures at 25 either don't link any sources or will cite a study that did not have participants over the age of 25. glaring issue with that being the fact that it doesn't tell you anything about what happens after that age. which is what it purports to measure.

actual science is way less easy to package and spread that pop psychology. 25 is a nice number, it's easy to remember! the idea that brains continue to mature and develop at different rates throughout life, and some parts seem to reach their peak in your mid-twenties is immediately less attractive, and, crucially, harder to weaponize. which brings me to:

who benefits from the idea that you should be considered a child until you're 25? in a political climate where the right is obsessed with the idea of 'protecting children' from gay people and hrt? in 2022 in Missouri they wanted to ban gender affirming care to people under 25 based just on this!! the fucking CASS report wants to consider people up to age 25 the same as under 18s, which would effectively ban them from gender affirming surgery!!

anyway regret rates for gender affirming surgery are <1%, we can't be making policy from fucking pop science, and if this is utterly incomprehensible i'm sorry <3

[kittys-like-a-potato]

Mystery Science Theater 3000, "Pod People"

[internet-goblin]

Shout out to European cartoons/animation

and many many others

[systimming]

Burned + Drowned Grey with white + grayscale stims! @astral-household

- Mod Primarina + Mod Mephiles.

((Sources of gifs: x, x, x | x, x, x | x, x, x )

[a-book-of-creatures]

McDunn fumbled with the switch. But even as he switched it on, the monster was rearing up. I had a glimpse of its gigantic paws, fish skin glittering in webs between the finger-like projections, clawing at the tower. The huge eye on the right side of its anguished head glittered before me like a cauldron into which I might drop, screaming. The tower shook. The Fog Horn cried; the monster cried. It seized the tower and gnashed at the glass, which shattered in upon us.

Illustration by Aleta Jenks for The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury.

[sounds-in-the-fog]

There are three types of talks a scientist can do about their topic:

1. The ones they get paid to do

2. The ones they pay to do

3. The ones that are not assorted with any monetary transactions

Which ones of these feel like work can say a lot about one's personality.

[stimiez]

Floofty stimboard with science and bugs for anon :)!

REQUESTS OPEN

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[ernmark]

As someone who gets cold easily, and whose alertness and ability to focus dissolve into nothing when I'm cold, I want to know: just how much processing power do we actually use staying warm?

Science side of Tumblr, any ideas?

[hellcatazura]

Aperture Laboratories has to secure funding for tests somehow!

Patreon | Onlyfans | Fansly

[technicallyclassyperfection]

Via print:

[fella-lovin-fella]

saw some really cool fog on my walk today