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# 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...
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:05, archived)
# ^ this
Edit: and if you use 4 bases, you can store a byte.
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, 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
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:14, archived)
# There are more than 4 bases....
Just some aren't so common, thing slike Xanthine
(I helped save b3ta! Jsysco is mostly a lurker, mostly, 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
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, 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.
(I helped save b3ta! Jsysco is mostly a lurker, mostly, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:19, archived)
# and the public is less aware of it, so it would probably get less funding
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, 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 :)
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:22, archived)
# I meant 4 instances of some base.
So 4 ^ 4 = 256.
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, 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
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, 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.
(I helped save b3ta! Jsysco is mostly a lurker, mostly, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:12, archived)
# Bring on the superbeings!
We're due an upgrade :)
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:31, archived)
# evolution says each generation is a little bit upgraded....
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 14:38, archived)
# but the human race
is stalling evolution with it's life preserving techniques
(cs192 is sucking on a Koala at, 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
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, 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.
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, 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.
(cs192 is sucking on a Koala at, 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.
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, 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
(I helped save b3ta! wjh31, 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
(cs192 is sucking on a Koala at, 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.
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, Sun 3 Jun 2007, 17:20, archived)