
did they have scuba back then?
edit: wiki says no, 1942 ish it was made by jacques cousteau, i love the internet
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:37,
archived)
edit: wiki says no, 1942 ish it was made by jacques cousteau, i love the internet

woo! to the pic btw /\
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:41,
archived)

you could probably download it through that wire youve got, unless you're wireless, in which case you can download it out of thin air
and having just seen wiki, does anyone know anything about the concept of using DNA as a method of data storage
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:46,
archived)
and having just seen wiki, does anyone know anything about the concept of using DNA as a method of data storage

Well, it's just a 4 letter alphabet, innit? Encode as appropriate.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:48,
archived)

artificially i mean, clearly its done in nature.
also whats the lifetime of a dna molecule, and if it reproduces, what sort of rate would data be corupted at with mutations........
*is feeling curious*
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:51,
archived)
also whats the lifetime of a dna molecule, and if it reproduces, what sort of rate would data be corupted at with mutations........
*is feeling curious*

they've got biocell that has leant binary so far... i've not heard much about that since
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:56,
archived)

i wouldnt mind finding out more
*wants to store music in mouldy bread*
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:02,
archived)
*wants to store music in mouldy bread*

You've got the amino acid triplet code - i.e there are twenty amino acids, each with a single letter abbreviation.
So you could have a 20 letter alphabet.
e.e. three DNA molecules in a row encode 1 protein: ATG = M
And there are 64 3 letter code combos, 3 of which encode "STOP" so really, there are 21 possible letters.
Lifetime of a DNA molecule....depends on conditions and whether there's nasty proteins around that'll gobble it up, but quite a long time generally.
/BSc Genetics blog
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:01,
archived)
So you could have a 20 letter alphabet.
e.e. three DNA molecules in a row encode 1 protein: ATG = M
And there are 64 3 letter code combos, 3 of which encode "STOP" so really, there are 21 possible letters.
Lifetime of a DNA molecule....depends on conditions and whether there's nasty proteins around that'll gobble it up, but quite a long time generally.
/BSc Genetics blog

with 4 bases, 3 thingys could have 64 combinations, much more than the 20 if you restricted urself to amino acids, unless amino acids was significantly easier to read...
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:05,
archived)

not just one, or have i mis-understood you
also it might be better (easier to read/code or something) to stick to two bases, or if not then prehaps to engineer some more bases, and get a higher data density
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:14,
archived)
also it might be better (easier to read/code or something) to stick to two bases, or if not then prehaps to engineer some more bases, and get a higher data density

Just some aren't so common, thing slike Xanthine
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:16,
archived)

im afraid im a physicist rather than having gone down the bio route, so i dont know much of this
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:17,
archived)

But that generally has the half life of a herd of hedgehogs on an autobahn.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:19,
archived)


What's the one beginning with U? (Wiki)... ah yes, uracil, used in RNA instead of thymine. It's been a while since biology :)
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:22,
archived)

i made a mistake, 64 wasnt the number of bits, just the number of unique combinations, i must have been somewhere else
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:24,
archived)

I wasn't thinking outside the box...
In nature, some amino acids have more than one codon, i.e out of the 64 combos, 6 encode Serine...,(linky)
If each of the 64 combos dictacted something unique, you could create a superbeing! 100% fact.
Oooh, both DNA and AA's are easy to sequence, just takes a little while and usually becomes innacurate as length of code increases.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:12,
archived)
In nature, some amino acids have more than one codon, i.e out of the 64 combos, 6 encode Serine...,(linky)
If each of the 64 combos dictacted something unique, you could create a superbeing! 100% fact.
Oooh, both DNA and AA's are easy to sequence, just takes a little while and usually becomes innacurate as length of code increases.

is stalling evolution with it's life preserving techniques
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:41,
archived)

the same thing is also giving many problems with pensions and the like, it appears there is such a thing as too much health care
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:49,
archived)

... it's more that we've modified the selective pressures.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:59,
archived)

other than getting slightly taller and heavier (not obesity, average weights have been rising for the last two hundred years or so as we've lived healthier lifestyles)
there's a hive evolution occuring in that the species is becoming more intelligent, and probably will be able to manage interplanetary travel if it survives a mass extinction event, but mutants are not surviving instead of those not carrying the mutation, nor are they dying instead of carrying on the mutation.
in short, survival of the fittest no longer applies to individuals of the human race, and hasn't done for a good few hundred years.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:03,
archived)
there's a hive evolution occuring in that the species is becoming more intelligent, and probably will be able to manage interplanetary travel if it survives a mass extinction event, but mutants are not surviving instead of those not carrying the mutation, nor are they dying instead of carrying on the mutation.
in short, survival of the fittest no longer applies to individuals of the human race, and hasn't done for a good few hundred years.

For instance, I believe there's an allele which is now very common in Africa, which was unknown a few decades ago, which confers a much greater protection against malaria.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:20,
archived)

in the 'developed' world there are less extreem selection processes, the most prevelant diseases, diabetes, heart attack etc, dont typically prevent reproduction, so more resistant genes cant be selected for
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:30,
archived)

sickle cell
if you're a carrier of the gene then you're protected against malaria, however if you've got two copies of it you've got an incredibly painful (and terminal if i remember correctly) blood disease, it's not a great mutation to have.
although, i get the point that the developing world isn't benefiting from the advancement of the human race, but i'd say that aid agencies and civil wars are still preventing evolution
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:41,
archived)
if you're a carrier of the gene then you're protected against malaria, however if you've got two copies of it you've got an incredibly painful (and terminal if i remember correctly) blood disease, it's not a great mutation to have.
although, i get the point that the developing world isn't benefiting from the advancement of the human race, but i'd say that aid agencies and civil wars are still preventing evolution

That's been around for a long time. There's a new allele that's more effective against malaria and has no known bad side effect.
Edit: oh, and the blood disease you refer to is sickle cell anaemia.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 17:20,
archived)
Edit: oh, and the blood disease you refer to is sickle cell anaemia.

I also believe that in a living cell some bits of DNA have evolved to be more (or less) prone to mutation, according to whether variation in thoses areas helps survival or not.
I think it has been done artificially in an experimental way, but the data rate (encoding / decoding) is terrible because it's pretty much manual.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:07,
archived)
I think it has been done artificially in an experimental way, but the data rate (encoding / decoding) is terrible because it's pretty much manual.

a sort of back to roots thing
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:09,
archived)

I think the main interesting thing is that it would (apparently) give a higher density of data storage than current solid state technologies. That might not be true by the time they make it practical, though....
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:11,
archived)

"1.8E22 bits (2.25 zettaoctets) – amount of information which can be stored in 1 gram of DNA", sounds hard to beat to me
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:16,
archived)

whoever wrote that article needs to learn to right in standard form:
1.8x1022
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:44,
archived)
1.8x1022

but when i pasted it, it lost the formatting, and i couldnt be bothered to add it back in, since most people know what it means anyway
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:46,
archived)

fair enough, thought some cunt at wikipaedia had well, been a cunt at wikipaedia.
/hates wikipaedia blog
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:49,
archived)
/hates wikipaedia blog

But bases are reasonably sized molecules, not to mention the sugar phosphate 'scaffolding'; it's not totally unreasonable to imagine you could build something which handled the same amount of data with fewer atoms; or trim some of the extra stuff away, start substituting other atoms, or use other base modifications (e.g. methylation, glycosylation, I think) to increase data density.
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:29,
archived)

i guess one of the denseist you could get is a lattic of e.g a metal with two atoms, with the atom at the lattice point dictating the 1 or zero.
use Li/Na, one mole~10gms, which would give Nabits (Na= avagadros number)=~10E22B/gm, which is about the same, which makes me suspect that wiki may be lieing
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:37,
archived)
use Li/Na, one mole~10gms, which would give Nabits (Na= avagadros number)=~10E22B/gm, which is about the same, which makes me suspect that wiki may be lieing

Carbon and hydrogen atoms are lighter than sodium and lithium respectively....
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:15,
archived)

plus the suger phosphate back-bone
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:18,
archived)

www.b3ta.com/board/7250064
and a badge for all those who partook in said chevron

( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:50,
archived)
and a badge for all those who partook in said chevron


i had immense fun
had to stop before my cottaged in my grundies
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:53,
archived)
had to stop before my cottaged in my grundies

i hope everyone is using the badge now :D
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:41,
archived)

jacques cousteau invented the diphagm air regulator.
Rebreathers were invented in 1878
Edit - yes, woo to the pic
( ,
Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:42,
archived)
Rebreathers were invented in 1878
Edit - yes, woo to the pic


looking for extras for the next space monkey clik here www.b3ta.com/board/7249834