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# .
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:36, archived)
# titanic?
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)
# where can one obtain this internet of which you speak?
woo! to the pic btw /\
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:41, archived)
# if youve a few exabits of data storage
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)
# Using DNA as data storage?
Well, it's just a 4 letter alphabet, innit? Encode as appropriate.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:48, archived)
# yea but has it been done?
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)
# i think they're onto that already
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)
# got a link?
i wouldnt mind finding out more
*wants to store music in mouldy bread*
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:02, archived)
# haha
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:12, archived)
# Well......
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)
# defining it with amino acids would not be most efficient
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)
# ^ this
Edit: and if you use 4 bases, you can store a byte.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:08, archived)
# wouldnt 64 bits be 8 bytes
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)
# There are more than 4 bases....
Just some aren't so common, thing slike Xanthine
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:16, archived)
# *learns*
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)
# There's also RNA
But that generally has the half life of a herd of hedgehogs on an autobahn.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:19, archived)
# and the public is less aware of it, so it would probably get less funding
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:22, archived)
# True, true.
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 meant 4 instances of some base.
So 4 ^ 4 = 256.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:20, archived)
# oh yes
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)
# Very true
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)
# Bring on the superbeings!
We're due an upgrade :)
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:31, archived)
# evolution says each generation is a little bit upgraded....
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:38, archived)
# but the human race
is stalling evolution with it's life preserving techniques
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:41, archived)
# good point
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)
# I'm not sure we're stalling evolution...
... it's more that we've modified the selective pressures.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:59, archived)
# we're no longer physically evolving
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)
# I definitely disagree with that.
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)
# yes
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)
# that'd be
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)
# No, it's not sickle cell.
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)
# Mutation rate varies according to environmental conditions.
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)
# it would be so beautiful if it could be made to work
a sort of back to roots thing
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:09, archived)
# They are trying :)
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)
# from wiki:
"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)
# '1.8E22'?
whoever wrote that article needs to learn to right in standard form:
1.8x1022
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:44, archived)
# it was written like that
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)
# ah reet
fair enough, thought some cunt at wikipaedia had well, been a cunt at wikipaedia.

/hates wikipaedia blog
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:49, archived)
# It's a lot...
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)
# true
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)
# That's bits stored per gram, which might be true.
Carbon and hydrogen atoms are lighter than sodium and lithium respectively....
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:15, archived)
# yes but dna has got lots of them per bit of data
plus the suger phosphate back-bone
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:18, archived)
# True.
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:21, archived)
# My wireless what?

/pedant blog
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:57, archived)
# you made chevron night a challenge entry
top!
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:46, archived)
# chevron night?
what did i miss?
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:48, archived)
# this
www.b3ta.com/board/7250064
and a badge for all those who partook in said chevron
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:50, archived)
# chevrons are fun
was this last night?
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:52, archived)
# yes
very much so
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:53, archived)
# hey look another chevron
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:56, archived)
# yes
oh god yes
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:59, archived)
# ooooh
here
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:00, archived)
# and here
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:00, archived)
# also here
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:01, archived)
# where?
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:59, archived)
# more!
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:59, archived)
# last night/this morning
i had immense fun

had to stop before my cottaged in my grundies
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:53, archived)
# Huzzah!
It seems I left early.
*yoink*
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:56, archived)
# weeee
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:07, archived)
# che vron
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:14, archived)
# and back?
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:19, archived)
# it needs zigzags
if you're to have the badge
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:25, archived)
# we better do it then
i want that badge with child like desire
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:47, archived)
# weeeeeeeeeeeee!
CHEVRON!
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:50, archived)
# how many zigs and zags are needed to count?
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:53, archived)
# I've never been part of one, so I'm not sure
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:58, archived)
# oooh!
a chevron!
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:04, archived)
# hadn't i
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:05, archived)
# well i suppose
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:05, archived)
# i'd better start a zig-zag
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:05, archived)
# its time for a zig-zag
i hope everyone is using the badge now :D
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 15:41, archived)
# WRONG!
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)
# i stand corrected
it was only a quick glance
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:46, archived)
# that defence never works for me
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:48, archived)
# when you have your cock in your hand it's a different matter
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:49, archived)
# I put it to you
that the child was sexy!
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:00, archived)
# pfffft
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:00, archived)
# the under tea world of jacques cousteau



looking for extras for the next space monkey clik here www.b3ta.com/board/7249834
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:47, archived)
# *demands this gets more attention*
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:52, archived)
# that animation
makes me think that jacques cousteau aught to be a type of biscuit
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:53, archived)
# Dip your cousteau in your tea
larverly
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 13:55, archived)
# Cousteau creams
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:02, archived)
# ha ha ha ha ha !
i wish i had thought of that
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:04, archived)
# patent it quickly
as a special version of custard creams, that cope better with being dunked
(, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:08, archived)