tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post7809162789418480038..comments2013-03-09T17:48:41.440-08:00Comments on Texan99: Who Taught Genes to Speak "Genish"?Texan99http://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-59517122034390695922010-08-05T17:11:32.902-07:002010-08-05T17:11:32.902-07:00I'd like to check up on what you thought of th...I'd like to check up on what you thought of the DVDs, Texan.<br /><br />you can also contact me at ymarsakar at yahoo comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-56961118527288444832010-07-10T06:29:51.106-07:002010-07-10T06:29:51.106-07:00Thanks - that's interesting, since I've be...Thanks - that's interesting, since I've been reading about protein folding lately. There's a post at grimbeorn.blogspot.com about it, starting with a kind of electronic self-folding origami gizmo that does a very simple form of the enormously complicated thing proteins pull off using only their shapes and valences.<br /><br />It does appear to me from recent reading that the communication between ATCG code and amino acids is pretty straightforward. There's no direct relationship between each amino acid and its triplet code, but there's an intermediary molecule that's amino-acid-shaped on one end and triplet-code-shaped on the other.<br /><br />The harder question is how that kind of translation system could have developed to start with, since when it began the evolutionary national selection pressure weren't yet up and running. Nick Lane, among others, has interesting and reasonably plausible ideas about how that could have gotten going. At least he's curious about it, which I'm finding is a little unusual.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-69062275361896087062010-07-09T15:45:11.181-07:002010-07-09T15:45:11.181-07:00There is a scientific game called Fold-It http://f...There is a scientific game called Fold-It http://fold.it/portal/ where you "fold" proteins. Folding is when you sort a protein from its current state to its preferred state, or something. As you progress, you will delve into the ACTG thing. It is rather random instead of algorithmic. It got too hard for me, but based on your post, you may enjoy it.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18116121761413049785noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-74754250497785080272010-07-09T14:55:39.063-07:002010-07-09T14:55:39.063-07:00That is interesting. I guess it's not that mu...That is interesting. I guess it's not that much different from me, but for me the thing I couldn't get past was the general orderliness of things, like the inverse square law. Of course that only gets you to a kind of vague Deism, so it's not the whole road.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-14083242415055421582010-06-28T16:02:20.961-07:002010-06-28T16:02:20.961-07:00"Evolutionary biology answers most questions ...<i>"Evolutionary biology answers most questions with the all-purpose mechanism of selective pressure. However powerful an explanation this provides for the adaptation and preferential survival of living organisms that already possess DNA, it lacks force in the question of how DNA, or even the more primitive RNA that may have been DNA’s prototype, could have begun to employ abstract codes to begin with."</i><br /><br />Interestingly, it is this basic premise that caused the (former) atheist in charge of the Human Genome Project to question his (former) assumptions and become convinced that <b>there must indeed be a Creator</b>, A.K.A. God.camojackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07636605293846764764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-77492939705907180662010-06-22T22:15:28.752-07:002010-06-22T22:15:28.752-07:00Since Grim has been kind enough to let me post at ...Since Grim has been kind enough to let me post at grimbeorn.blogspot.com, I really was just using this space to practice formatting, and anything new is over there! Thanks for asking, though!Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-73711123010525805382010-06-21T11:50:14.115-07:002010-06-21T11:50:14.115-07:00Looks like a potentially interesting blog (found y...Looks like a potentially interesting blog (found you via Cassandra)...how about some more posts?David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7400455619765560570.post-23267966099825326322010-06-15T14:51:01.165-07:002010-06-15T14:51:01.165-07:00I see from later reading that I was way off base o...I see from later reading that I was way off base on half of this, but not on the other half. The mechanisms for the cell factories (ribosomes) to "read" the RNA codons are reasonably well understand and consist of traditional chemical messengers (tRNA molecules with a codon-shaped piece on one end and an amino-acid-shaped piece on the other). But the question of how the code could have developed in the first place is as mysterious as I imagined it was. The evidence for a stereochemical origin is weak so far.<br /><br />So I'll have to completely re-write this once I've read some more things and vanquished more ignorance.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.com