MetaFilter posts tagged with gene

Thank God There's Not a "George's Journal" ...

WCityMike — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:32:09 -0800

"Hi. My name is Gene and this is my journal." Young Gene Roddenberry meets two Garfield-eyed aliens who proceed to take him everywhere in their exploration of this strange planet Earth. In the process, we see where Gene came up with the idea of a unified borderless, moneyless world that would allow dashing starship captains to seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before. We see where Gene first met tribbles, Orion slave girls, Organians, and the Guardian of Forever, and how Gene came up with phasers, tricorders, the Prime Directive, food replicators (from which he orders gagh), Questor androids, and the Enterprise design. Some perennial Star Trek secrets are finally revealed: why redshirts always die, sometimes in transporter accidents; the secret origin of IDIC; a really good use for warp nacelles; and why there are no bathrooms on the Starship Enterprise. The author even pays attention to the non-Trek areas of Roddenberry's life: young Gene has a major crush on his teacher, Miss Chapel, and would like to maybe be a fighter pilot or policeman when he grows up. There's even one or two references to, ahem, the Distinguished Competition. "You're one weird kid, Gene Roddenberry."

godWEENsatan

Bageena — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:23:17 -0800

Maybe you remember them from their 'hit' single "Push Th' Little Daisies", or from their appearance on MTV's Beavis and Butt-head. Maybe you know them from their appearance in the film "It's Pat" or from their contributions to the "Road Trip" soundtrack or even from their appearance at Chef Aid on South Park. My hope, however, is that you don't know Ween, allowing me the opportunity to let you taste the waste. Ween is often described as an 'Alternative Rock' band, although their music spans nearly every genre you can concieve of. Formed in 1984 in Pennsylvania, Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo (better known as Dean and Gene Ween), have released over a dozen albums, hundreds of songs, and contributed to several other bands. Their music is often ecclectic, strange, and beautiful. Their love of drugs, feces, and music (not necessarily in that order) is legendary. Their music can be and often is hilarious, but they have a serious side too. Nearly breaking up after a 4 year hiatus, Ween returned with a vengence last year with the release of both the "Friends EP" and "La Cucaracha". This holiday season, Ween released the CD/DVD album "At The Cat's Cradle, 1992". Dean Ween has channeled his love of fishing into a new online fishing show called Skunked. Meanwhile, Aaron Freeman is working on his photography. A little something for everyone, maybe Ween can shrug Mefi's nearly-constant mantle of 'Your favorite band sucks'. Maybe not.

"The field of evolution attracts significantly more speculation than the average area of science."

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 29 May 2007 11:05:00 -0800

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." Despite Theodosius Dobzhansky's succint description of natural selection at the core of biological research since Darwin's fateful trip to the Galapagos, evolutionary biologist Michael Lynch respectfully dissents, asking "whether natural selection is a necessary or sufficient force to explain" the complexity of multicellular organisms we see today, where mutation, recombination and genetic drift are often overlooked, but critical factors in evolutionary theory and understanding.

Apparently, we can rebuild him...

chuckdarwin — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:00:04 -0800

Doctors in London have made the world's first attempt to treat a retinal degeneration disorder using gene therapy. "The researchers aim to restore the activity in these cells and therefore restore vision by implanting healthy copies of the key gene into the RPE at the back of the eye. In other optical news, wired.com is leading with a piece about "Luke 's Binoculars" (yes, as in Skywalker) - a gadget that is meant to provide soldiers with a 120-degree field of view and allow him/her to be able to spot moving vehicles as far as 10 kilometers away by integrating EEG electrodes that monitor the wearer's neural signals. CTTWS, I presume?

“There is no free lunch,’’ Dr. Sharpless said. “We are all doomed.”

Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:29:35 -0800

The evolutionary reason behind senescence^ is one of the great mysteries of biology. Now cancer researchers may have discovered the key to why we age.

You get the gay from your mother

NortonDC — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 17:52:26 -0800

You get the gay from your mother.
It turns out that there may not be "gay" genes, just "attracted to men" genes.

I want Life, F****r!

stbalbach — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 18:02:08 -0800

"We have [a substance] that extends the life of every species it's given to. We're 50 years ahead of where I thought we would be 10 years ago." While Harvard Medical School rules prevent David Sinclair from recommending product, "I know a number of scientists who think [it] is their best shot. Others satisfy themselves with a glass of red wine," which contains the compound. Too good to be true?

lucien — Fri, 08 Feb 2002 05:45:35 -0800

Scientists in Australia have discovered a new gene. Called BRCA3, this genetic mutation causes up to 10% of the breast cancer cases which run within families. This breakthrough completes the search for the trilogy of gene mutations. The first two gene mutation markers were discovered in 1994 and 1995 respectively.

zerolucid — Fri, 05 Oct 2001 13:40:23 -0800

"Language Gene" found... (link to arstechnica discussion) "A group of Oxford University researchers presented findings in this week's Nature that they isolated a gene called FOXP2 that appears to be involved in both speech and language development." this is intriguing... that so much can start from so little.

Jairus — Thu, 31 Aug 2000 15:24:55 -0800

Isolating the gene responsible for caffeine is expected to lead to decaffeinated beans, and a higher-quality coffee product, all-around... But are they considering other applications? With a bit of gene splicing, anything is possible. Caffeinated oranges, anyone?