Comments | sunson: cool DNA replication illustration

sunson

cool DNA replication illustration

Jan 29, 2007 22:06

Meet our mother, The DNA. Firstly, this is a very cool video illustrating how the copying happens. I've been watching it continuously (its about 7 times now :) ). Secondly, to me this put a lot of things in place about how various protein chains come into being to 'supply' the chemicals needed for replication. Also note the beauty of the machinery ( Read more... )

science, video, genetics, molecular biology, dna, replicator, physics

Comments 5

umang January 30 2007, 05:39:24 UTC

That's almost like watching the Windows 98 Defragmenter!!

Erroneous rgiri February 2 2007, 11:02:29 UTC

>> dna, genetics, molecular biology, physics, replicator, science, video

Shouldn't you add one more tag , hmm , buggy-system ?

Re: Erroneous sunson February 2 2007, 11:50:26 UTC

What do you mean? If you are referring to mutations, I agree, that the DNA isn't doing a 'perfect' job but you see... those who did the 'perfect' job never evolved and those with the 'errors'... the error could turn to its advantage and they ate up the ones who couldn't 'mutate' :)

I don't have the numbers of how many 'errors' the Histone gene H3 and H4 (which is responsible for the actual copying) produce. It varies and it is a function of the gene in question. However, note that the DNA 'knows' about likelihood of errors and hence it does error checking as well :) and even the largest computer software corporation produces software with tonnes of bugs. the DNA is much better off!

Have you read this one? Its so beautiful and simple in a way that we guys can understand!

Re: Erroneous rgiri February 2 2007, 22:57:06 UTC

I meant that, without the 'first error' , we , 'the buggy-system' may not have cleared the test and would not be heating our seats to write buggy software.

That's why we make the same mistake our granny-gene did.

Thanks for the link ;but I managed to understand this direct from ,'Selfish Gene'- Richard Dawkins,source!

Re: Erroneous sunson February 3 2007, 09:40:02 UTC

Ah, that's great! I didn't know you've read 'Selfish Gene' :) Its a great book that changed my life. I highly recommend "Planet Earth" series available for download from various torrent sites. Or if possible I would burn a set of CDs and give the stuff to you.