Sam Kneller's Blog, page 53
November 22, 2016
Blood and Breath – Heart and Lungs maintaining Life for 80 years
Just two small organs, the heart and lungs – blood & oxygen. 3 billion heart beats and 16 million liters of pure oxygen perfectly coordinated to keep life in our body performing for 80 years.
We can see the outlines of the veins, heart, and lungs in the image captured by the MRI. We can also see blood transfusions being given to the car accident victim. We remember our examination of blood cells as well as the emphasis on oxygen in the body.
(chapter 8.2)
Red blood cells transport oxygen to our seventy six organs, such as the heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, eyes, gall bladder, skin, pancreas, and tongue. However, the process is a bit more involved than cells wandering throughout the body!
Through our noses and mouths, we take in oxygen from the room, and the patient undergoing surgery breathes oxygen from a mask or tube. The oxygen goes into our pharynx and all the way down into the windpipe, or the trachea.
The trachea splits into the esophagus on one side, down which food travels, and the voice box or larynx (located in the trachea), which leads to the bronchial tubes and into the lungs, on the other.
It’s here that oxygen meets blood. The heart pumps blood cells into the lungs. On the enhanced scan, we see the heart and the red blood cells, which are pale. This signifies that all the oxygen has been removed.
The red blood cells leave the heart through pulmonary arteries, which are pathways that conduct the blood cells to the lungs to be received by alveoli (tiny air sacs measuring 200 to 300 microns, or about the size of a dust mite) inside the lungs. It is here that the red blood cells receive that oxygen we are breathing.
Meanwhile, the lungs on the monitor fill and expand. Scientists believe that, with their 600 million alveoli laid out flat, these football-sized organs would cover a surface about the size of a tennis court.
Inside the lungs, which are among the largest organs in the body, the cells also transfer carbon dioxide to the alveoli. Veins supply fresh, oxygen-rich blood cells to the heart, from which they circulate throughout the body in the blood vessels.
In adults, these measure 160,000 kilometers when laid end to end. To give us an idea how far that is, when your average car reaches that many kilometers, it’s time to get a new one.
Yet blood travels through our many kilometers of veins every day without our even being aware of it, and (most of the time) we have better longevity than the car! The smooth functioning of blood and oxygen is integral to our bodies. Breath (oxygen) and blood enable the body to function and move.
We ponder that these two systems, circulatory and respiratory, can be so neatly intertwined. The 200,000 to 500,000 platelets contained within each milliliter of blood flowing through our veins need a steady supply of oxygen. They protect our bodies when an injury causes an open wound. The platelets break apart, helping the blood clot and forming a scab to stop the bleeding.
Blood clotting is a good corporal function, it causes a scab to be formed helping to stop…
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The heart beats about sixty to eighty times per minute when at rest and pumps about five liters of blood in that same time period. Our hearts pump about 7,200 liters of blood daily, or enough to fill fifty regular bathtubs. All of this blood pumping and circulation is the key to life, as we’ve observed, and each circulatory system is linked.
Our hearts pump about 7,200 liters of blood daily, or enough to fill fifty regular bathtubs ...…
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The heart pumps blood to the arteries, which conduct the blood to the tissues to provide oxygen and nutrients and keep the tissues healthy. The tissues exchange bodily waste for oxygen and nutrients and transmit the blood into the veins so that the veins can carry it back to the heart.
As one of our group members walks and breathes, Galacti notes that the acts of walking and bike riding increase proper circulation, as does swimming, which boosts oxygen flow to the heart and lungs and helps maintain a blood oxygen level of at least 95 percent (normal in adults).
We need to eat and drink water, but we cannot survive without oxygen. We think of the CO2 cycle and the plants cleansing the air and producing oxygen from carbon dioxide, which we breathe out.
Our bodies are perfectly equipped to breathe the oxygen abundant in our atmosphere as well as…
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As we know from our examination of the water cycle, oxygen is also in our water. We ponder the fact that our bodies are equipped to breathe the oxygen abundant in our atmosphere. We also ponder the other benefit oxygen provides: our voices.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.2 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today I have a couple of videos revealing the intricate balancing act of the four chambers of the heart along with the four valves, the electrical pacemaker… all working in perfect harmony.
The continual exchange of oxygen-rich blood for oxygen-poor blood is what keeps us alive.
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November 15, 2016
The Human Body, composed of Stardust – so Intricate, so Perfect
The human body defies imagination. We take it for granted. Seven billion on the planet all functioning identically yet 3.5 million men and 3.5 million women – 2 totally different but complementary sexes, and each human body is unique. How can that be?
Bodies Alive
We are inside a doctor’s waiting room, passing the time by reading through health and fitness or science magazines, waiting to be called for our appointments. We are here for a check-up, but it will be quite different from any we’ve had in the past.
(chapter 8.1)
The nurse announces our names as a group. We’re taken to an observation room where we watch a medical team examine a patient. They’ll be using an x-ray machine, a blood pressure monitor, an MRI, and the full works as well as some specialized equipment provided by Galacti.
We ponder the workings of our own human body, knowing that our hearts beat sixty to eighty times a minute for a man and that the skin is our largest organ with a surface area of two square meters (the size of a tiny capsule apartment in Beijing).
We learn from minidisplay stations that our eyelashes take three months to grow and that hair is one of the fastest-growing tissues in the human body, second only to bone marrow. However, many of us may not have thought much about our bodies’ inner workings beyond our skin, hair, and heartbeat.
The human body is unique, and each of our bodies is alike in anatomy. For example, when we walk (we’re asked to demonstrate), we use the exact same muscles: calf, thigh, and buttock muscles as well as the connective tissues of ligaments. Our trunk muscles in the core of our torso and abdomen work with our back muscles to maintain our balance and posture.
In addition, our bodies are composed of the same elements. Besides the four major elements (the hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon that make up 96 percent of our bodies as we saw in chapter 7), we’re surprised to learn the number of radioactive elements. There’s thorium, uranium, potassium-40, radium, carbon-14, and tritium, plus as many as sixty others. There’s no real consensus, and I’ve seen figures estimating that there are seventy or more trace elements in our bodies.
We’re surprised to learn the number of radioactive elements in the human body. There’s thorium,…
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It’s said that only twenty-five may actually be active, but if I may say so, I’d take that with a grain of salt considering what was discovered regarding “junk DNA” and its now well-known and important role, which we saw in the previous chapter.
Remember the role oxygen has in the human body: it is vital to strengthen the heart, lessen fatigue to the brain, aid the immune system, and calm the nervous system. We can view the other elements in the MRI thanks to Galacti’s enhncement.
We can see the calcium (1.5 percent) glowing white inside the patient’s bones and teeth. Calcium is vital for their strength and is also thought to help lower blood pressure.
Next, we see phosphorus (1 percent) in green inside the bones. Potassium (0.25 percent) looks orange inside the heart and nerves. It keeps the heart, brain, kidneys, and other organs healthy, maintains the water balance inside the body, acts as an electrolyte, and helps lower blood pressure.
Sulphur (0.25 percent) glows yellow inside a microscopic projection of amino acid chains, as well as inside the brain, nerves, bowels, and liver. This mineral lubricates joints, helps cellular respiration and enzyme functions, boosts muscle health, and increases blood circulation. In addition, it’s a key component in the hormone insulin, which is needed to regulate blood sugar.
Sodium (0.15 percent) shines pink in the nerves and water circulating throughout the body. In proper amounts, sodium works with potassium, aids brain functions, maintains water balance and blood circulation, and protects heart health, among its other roles. Chlorine, (0.15 percent) which is present in the form of the negative ion chloride, shows up as navy blue. It maintains a normal balance of fluids in the human body.
Magnesium (0.05 percent), visible in the skeleton and muscles as well as in various systems throughout the body, is colored silvery white. It plays an important role in the structure of the skeleton and muscles and is necessary in more than 300 essential metabolic reactions. Iron (0.006 percent) is red. Iron is a key element in the metabolism of almost all living organisms.
It is also found in hemoglobin, which is the oxygen carrier in red blood cells. Fluorine (0.0037 percent) adds pale yellow to the teeth and bones on the scan. Outside of preventing tooth decay, it does not appear to have any importance to bodily health.
We see zinc (0.0032 percent), a trace mineral, as bluish gray in all cells of the body. We remember that it is an essential trace element for all forms of life and is important in immune function, DNA, and sexual health, and that’s just for starters. Copper (0.0001 percent), which adds traces of brownish red to the MRI palette, is important as an electron donor in various biological reactions. A sufficient amount of copper in the human body helps iron do its work properly.
Iodine (0.000016 percent), showing as bluish-black traces in the body, is required to make thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolic rate and other cellular functions as well as protecting brain health.
Selenium (0.000019 percent) shows itself as metallic red-gray in the thyroid and immune system (the lymph nodes, leukocytes, and white blood cells). It is essential for certain enzymes, including several antioxidants, and is also important in sexual health.
Chromium III (0.0000024 percent), colored steel gray, helps regulate sugar levels by interacting with insulin in the pancreas, though science does not completely understand the exact mechanism.
Manganese (0.000017 percent), which appears dark red in the bones, liver, and kidneys, is essential for certain enzymes. In particular, it is needed for those that protect mitochondria, our cellular energy factories, from oxidants.
Molybdenum (0.000013 percent), shown as a silvery black color in the liver, kidneys, and many other tissues in the body, is essential to virtually all life forms. In humans, it is important for transforming sulfur into a usable form and for eliminating toxic wastes from the human body.
Lastly, cobalt (0.0000021 percent), which appears violet-red in the red blood cells, kidney, liver, pancreas, and spleen, is an ingredient in vitamin B12. This vitamin is important in protein formation and DNA regulation.
The human body has trace amounts of cobalt. It is an ingredient in vitamin B12, important in…
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The proportion of these minerals in our bodies may be generally the same for each of us, but our need for specific amounts of these minerals in our diet is determined by our biochemical individuality, or our individual genetic makeup, which is coded by DNA.
We think about the unseen makeup of our own bodies, common to all human beings and yet unique to each individual.
The unseen chemical composition of our own bodies, common to all human beings and yet unique to…
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An injured lady from a car accident has just been wheeled in on a gurney. The doctors and several nurses devote their energies to the patient by attaching IV drips, checking the oxygen being pumped through the nose into the lungs, working to stabilize the patient, taking x-rays, and examining and documenting her condition.
All the while, they communicate their observations, knowledge, and decisions to each other.
Galacti tells us that is the reason we are here: to observe doctors and nurses at work with the human body, and especially how it functions, its capabilities, and how it needs to be taken care of if something goes wrong.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 8.1 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today just one video. It is a bit lengthy but, it is a must watch… even just the first 10 minutes about the special systems that ‘kick in’ at birth. Did you know that Mom delivers her antibodies to a baby via her milk until the baby’s immune system gets up to speed? That, to adjust to the drastic drop in heat from the womb to room temperature the baby’s body automatically produces a special ‘brown fat’… that will disappear within months. There are so many ‘miracles’ in the human body.
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November 8, 2016
A Mouse has more Genes than a Human Being – That should Humble Us.
Man has about 21,000 genes, a mouse has about 23,000 and a water flea has 31,000 genes the most of any animal. How can this be considering man has so much more than a flea?
One thing we can say for sure is that genes are certainly not the central focus of heredity. A red flag should’ve gone up with a simple numbers comparison of human genes, chromosomes, and DNA base pairs to those in other living entities.
(chapter 7.15)
How Many Genes, Chromosomes, and DNA Base Pairs Do Other Organisms Have?
The relative importance of numbers of chromosomes, DNA and genes in living organisms.
There’s much more to life than genes, chromosomes, and nucleotides, as we’re going to see. I’m emphasizing this because the essence of peace and prosperity is wrapped up in life, and therefore we need to understand what life really is and that it includes but goes far beyond genes, chromosomes, and nucleotides.
Man has about 21,000 genes, a mouse has about 23,000 and a water flea has 31,000 genes, how do…
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There must be some hidden ingredient that allows humans not only to think about but also to try to attain peace and prosperity.
Stick with me.
You have to stop and do a double take to realize that humans are at the summit of the cognitive thinking chain, yet mice, dogs, water fleas, and even rice have more cellular parts than we do. Why does a rare flowering plant in Japan called Paris japonica have the largest genome of any living organism that we have measured?
Galacti is showing us a chromosome, a long column of base pairs and sequences color coded according to the specific genes. This chromosome, containing fifty million base pairs, is one morsel of the broad human genome and represents the first of twenty-two chromosomes sequenced by scientists, or one section in the human instruction manual.
We wonder why there is such variety in the world and why chromosomes allow the differences we see and my genome to differ from yours at about every twelve hundred to fifteen hundred A-T or C-G base pairs, and yet the basic structure is similar for all humans.
We ponder why the structure of chemical ingredients such as deoxyribose (sugar) in DNA and the small nucleotide molecules are universal.
Why is it that the structure of chemical ingredients such as deoxyribose (sugar) in DNA and the…
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As we consider this, we reflect on animals, which also have DNA and a genome. Everything living on this earth, from wheat to bacteria to humans, possesses, in its cells, combinations of DNA. Our complex cells possess DNA in the same way as single-celled bacteria.
For example, the wheat from chapter 5 contains seventeen billion base pairs, more than five times the size of the human genome. We wonder at this as we examine a stalk of the harvested wheat under a microscope. Surely we are more complex creatures than the wheat! Does a larger genome indicate a more sophisticated organism? This is a question for chapter 10, when we discuss humans compared to animals.
What about the rudimentary, irregularly shaped Amoeba dubia that contains 670 billion base pairs of nucleotides, the blueprint for everything from its irregular one-celled shape to its tentacle-like pseudopodia that help amoebas move?
How can amoebas possibly have a larger genome than we do? We are even eclipsed by the common toad Bufo bufo with more than double our genome and 6.9 billion base pairs. To give us an idea of the scale of these genomes, a lab display shows us the marbled lungfish genome has 132.8 billion base pairs, or forty times the amount of DNA that humans have, per cell.
However, the existence of more base pairs does not necessarily indicate a more complex or smarter organism. While humans have genetic variations among populations, there are multiple combinations of DNA that differentiate us from the earthworm, the yeast, the mouse, or the fruit fly.
Although we can see in Galacti’s display the overlapping of the genes, we can also perceive the differences, and we know that we are dramatically different from an earthworm. What we don’t know is why the genes arrange to create the earthworm rather than a dog or a human.
We realize that in order for the 100 million base pairs and the genes in the six chromosomes of a nematode to combine and produce that specific organism as opposed to another is a singular event, like finding a needle in ten haystacks of DNA.
How do the base pair combinations in the DNA alphabet of a dog, which differ from a worm’s, produce the ears, nose, fur, and wagging tail of a specific dog breed, as well as the blood cells that differ from human cells? Or how do the genes control the specific head and thorax configuration of the fruit fly?
We know that the fruit flies have white eyes or red eyes depending on genetic combinations. Scientists have determined how it works, but we are more interested in the why.
Exactly how and why do the genomes and DNA produce the variations around us? Again, we turn to nitrogen, hydrogen, and the most basic elements of life inherited from the stars, but there’s something we haven’t seen yet or scientists have not discovered yet.
Science has figured out a lot of things but, exactly how and why genomes and DNA produce the…
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I’ll divert from that intriguing hint to life itself. Peace and prosperity in a global sense have to do with human life, not grass or horses; even health, economy, and leadership are only parts of the whole. Peace and prosperity have to do with each individual life. You and I have to acquire them. First we have to know what life is and how it works—hence this Inventory of the Universe.
The realization of complexity, intricacy, organization, and stability coupled with malleability in the whole system of life makes us think that life is strong and fragile at the same time—fragile because of the one cog or even several that could disrupt the processes and create an entirely different picture of life.
We’ve investigated the mechanics of human Life: DNA, proteins, amino acids, and the genome. We examined the major elements at the beginning of this odyssey: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. Add so-called toxic elements to this composition and you have a puzzle of human life.
We have traveled from the four basic elements to the blood contained in my fingers that activate the lab displays. But it is still a mystery how these elements come together in the right sequences to ensure both the variety of existence and existence itself.
As you breathe, as you touch this screen or book, you are aware of your own body and of everything from the twenty two amino acids to the 100 trillion cells assembled in the correct proportions to fashion your body and brain. As you breathe, you move your body around and are curious about your own physical form now that we’ve broken it down into its most basic components.
Save or bookmark the questions we’ve posed in this chapter because they will become relevant later in the book. However, we’re moving on. Don’t stop thinking about the body, because it is our next destination on this journey.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.15 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Today I have a couple of videos for you both from Alex. This first one gives information about this blog post discussing comparative gene sizes of various living organisms.
Nice explanation, a little technical BUT… just listen to Alex at 2 minutes where he talks about ‘4 letters: AT-CG’ that are the basic composition of every living organism. How he’s amazed at the complexity of life based on their organization. The initial image above could’ve expressed this idea as well. As he says ‘ridiculous’… except, that we’re all here! How? Why?
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Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online .
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon
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November 1, 2016
Epigenetics – ‘Junk Genes’ Responsible for Regulating the Genes Themselves.
Epigenetics, the study of ‘junk genes’, has made science realize they actually regulate the genes themselves. They are at the origin of ‘gene expression’, turning genes ‘on’ and ‘off.’ Image credit
We’ve discussed how DNA has a length of three billion base pairs of nucleotides, which until recently included 98.5 percent of what we referred to as junk genes. The study of this enormous extraneous segment of DNA is known as epigenetics, “epi” coming from the Greek meaning “outside of ” or “around.”
(chapter 7.14)
Scientists now realize that these nucleotides outside of the genes actually regulate the genes themselves, via chemical reactions, by turning on or off certain nucleotides in the genes in DNA and RNA.
At least 80% of 'junk genes', these nucleotides outside of the genes, actually regulate the…
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Whereas the traditional view was that genes alone determined heredity, we now realize that the environment affects the 98.5 percent of nucleotides turning on or off certain portions of the genes—hence the term regulation of gene expression.
Simply put, this means that a myriad of internal body processes, as well as environmental factors (e.g., diet, sleep, stress, etc.) have a direct effect on the nucleotides that regulate how the genes express or process proteins that run your body.
Here is one of the most comprehensible definitions of epigenetics I’ve seen from Thomas Jenuwein of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany:
The difference between genetics and epigenetics can probably be
compared to the difference between writing and reading a book.
Once a book is written, the text (the genes or DNA: stored information,
nature) will be the same in all the copies distributed to the interested
audience.
However, each individual reader of a given book may interpret the story slightly differently, with varying emotions and projections as they continue to unfold the chapters.
In a very similar manner, epigenetics would allow different interpretations of a fixed template (the book or genetic code) and result in different read-outs, dependent upon the variable conditions (nurture) under which this template is interrogated.
If there’s one point I’d like you to retain from this definition, it is the relationship between nature and nurture that we spoke about and whether everything is genetically predetermined or whether environmental influences significantly impact who we are. Both nature and nurture—transposable elements and social behavior—shape life and our bodies, brains, and minds.
Both nature and nurture play interwoven roles in shaping our lives, bodies, brains, and minds…
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Both play much more interwoven roles than we ever imagined, and we are only now beginning to unravel them, if they can indeed be unraveled. For now we know that both are in play.
We know that related individuals with the same DNA can be lightly or heavily influenced by environmental factors. In this chapter about life, I am limiting myself solely to physical influences.
All the universal phenomena we’ve elaborated in previous chapters of Inventory are involved. For example, sojourns in space and especially prolonged habitation, such as on the International Space Station, affect the body; weather conditions like too much rain or not enough daylight affect melatonin and vitamin D production; drinking clean water or carbonated sugar products causes fat cells to decline or increase; and eating fresh, seasonal food or fast or processed foods in various proportions provides or deprives the body of vitamins and amino acids.
Expanding this, we can say partaking or not partaking of animal products as well as the animals’ origins and treatment has an effect on our protein and hormone intake and resultant health.
These and many other factors like sedentariness or activity, city or country, coastal or mountain, tropical or desert living, and so on affect our epigenetic makeup. Genetics and environment play critical interactive roles in our lives.
The simple examples of overweight, sedentary people or smokers with breathing difficulties being able to change their lifestyles and thereby, over a period of time, literally change the physical state of their bodies by changing their habits, reveal the impact of nurture in epigenetics.
The term plasticity is made in reference to the brain, and I will discuss this in chapter 9. For now, I submit to you that plasticity is just as appropriate when referring to epigenetics and the makeovers the human body can undergo within a lifetime and even between generations.
Our bodies are malleable; when we step back a little to think about what we put our bodies through, such as diets, pollution, stress, heavy surgery, injury, change of lifestyle, and so forth, we realize that this plasticity is not only a long-term property but a second-by-second and day-by-day attribute of physical life.
A second point to cull from Jenuwein’s definition of epigenetics is that an “individual reader of a given book may interpret the story slightly differently.” This is why fraternal twins with identical DNA end up with different readouts; they have various likes, dislikes, and experiences that give rise to different interpretations of their original DNA.
This is why even within our various races, nations, and ethnic groups with their own physical traits, every person walking the face of the Earth is an individual with his or her specific traits, which are the result of the interaction of nature and nurture.
The concept in the last sentence is as earth-shaking as the idea that
Noncoding regions of DNA play a massive role in the regulation of what we are and will become.
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Galacti is marveling. “Since we now see that there’s plasticity in gene expression, these multitudinous possibilities of the mechanisms to express or suppress these various physical
traits of the body must all be there latently awaiting activation. I wonder how these characteristics, systems, and procedures got there in the first place.”
Multitudinous possibilities to express or suppress these various bodyily traits must all be…
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All I can say for now is that another discovery of science is epigenetic marks. These are markers on various parts of a gene that are comparable to volume control sliders on a music mixer board that move up and down and amplify or silence properties in a gene in conjunction with environmental influences that the body experiences.
For instance, physical activity, whether swimming or working, or nicotine intake can modify these markers over time.
And so genes, or specific sections of DNA, establish our hereditary traits with uncanny accuracy, but they are also under outside nurture influences.
Nucleotide manipulation from the not-so-junk part of our DNA is induced both from within the body and via external signals. Second by second, minute by minute, and day after day, the environmental experiences we are subject to, or put ourselves through, penetrate to these markers and modify gene expression.
Small wonder, then, that epigenetics has opened up whole new areas to investigate. Science now recognizes that the Human Genome Project was only the tip of the double helix.
Epigenetics has caused science to recognize that the Human Genome Project was only the tip of…
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A multinational consortium has been set up, and next in line is the Human Epigenome Project, whose goal, as expressed by their website, is to “identify, catalog, and interpret genomewide DNA methylation patterns of all human genes in all major tissues.”
Methylation is a biochemical process I won’t develop here, but we now know that it plays a determining role in embryonic development. To briefly explain, the embryo is composed of one specific and famous, as well as controversial, type of cell called an embryonic stem cell.
From these cells come all the other branch or daughter cells, as we discussed above: muscle cells, neurons, epithelium, endothelium of blood vessels, and so forth. What we need to know here is that the embryonic stem cells divide and are definitively and stably differentiated by this methylation process that activates or suppresses the expression of certain genes or gene markers.
The result gives rise to each of our specific tissues. Gene expression is modulated by multiple regulatory sites located both near and far and, according to the latest findings, even within the gene itself.
The DNA code and gene and protein regulation are superlatively more multifaceted than we ever imagined. We have more questions the deeper we go and the more answers we obtain.
The DNA code and gene and protein regulation are superlatively more multifaceted than we ever…
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Consider that the FANTOM (Functional Annotation of the Mammalian Genome) project, launched in 2000 to establish a library of information about human genes, has located hundreds of thousands of regulators (e.g., promoters, enhancers, and repressors) that affect the expression of genes.
Research papers published in March 2014 attest to the levels of complexity in the locating, gathering, and assembling of DNA and RNA segments. The combinations that come from various sections of the DNA, including from within what we thought were inviolable genes and the not-junk genes, are meticulously regulated.
“You’re repeating this theme, but there’s a progression to it,” Galacti says. “Everything you’ve just pointed out tells us there’s a highly organized and complex cell and protein maintenance system in which at least 80 percent of the DNA nucleotides participate.
What we tend to call ‘gene expression’ is somewhat of a misnomer in that this expression goes far beyond the 1.5 percent of DNA we considered to be genes!”
Galacti scratches his forehead. “We have the nature-versus nurture piece of the puzzle as well and this top-down coordination, so genes are not the be-all and end-all that we think they are.”
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.14 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Below is a video, it’s clear, funny and enlightening. If you want to be entertained and learn about one on the least understood but key phenomenon in genetic transmission of hereditary characteristics then Nessa Carey is a must watch.
Below is an infographic by a very large food company. As you know, this is not for advertising purposes but because I found this document particularly simple to read and helpful to grasp this rather ethereal subject. You can click here or on the image to download the entire infograpic about epigenetics.
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October 25, 2016
Transposable Elements and Jumping Genes – Genes are Not Immutable but rather Plastic
Transposable elements also known as jumping genes have literally reversed our understanding of the immutable gene. We now know that genes possess the quality of ever-changing plasticity.
I’m going to revisit the 98.5 percent of junk DNA that is anything but. The 20,300 genes found by the Human Genome Project were a surprise because it’s considerably less than some insects, and scientists consider that number not high enough.
(chapter 7.13)
But the next major project, ENCODE, the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (2003 through the present), sent the field of genetics into a tailspin in 2012 when they published findings that consider 80 percent of DNA biologically active, a total flip-flop from the so-called largely junk DNA.
Our extremely active DNA has to do with a concept called transposable elements. As usual, this is a term difficult to comprehend by laypeople and one of the lesser-known facts of genetics. It was something I had to dig deep to find information on.
It is still widely believed by the general public that “once a DNA string, always a DNA string, and once a gene, always a gene.” DNA and genes are inviolable in the sense that there is no change that takes place within these entities and that we inherit the same genes our mother and father inherited from their parents all the way back in time. I thought this, too, until researching this book changed everything.
Since 1945, when Barbara McClintock discovered transposable elements, also known as jumping genes, we have recognized that both DNA and genes are far from written in stone.
Today, following ENCODE, we now realize that the 80 percent of DNA, including nucleotides and other segments in genes, that we once considered to be unmodifiable and immutable genes is in fact plastic and flexible, both with regard to its composition of nucleotides and its position in the double helix DNA strand.
This is also true for RNA, which, contrary to opinion, is not an exact copy of its DNA parent; transposable elements come and go in this intermediary stage for the translation of a partial new strand of DNA.
Transposable elements are both autonomous, initiating their own replication as they see fit, and nonautonomous, needing the stimulus of other transposable elements or proteins in order to enter further stages of their own replication, and they become autonomous and activate with these following stages of development.
Galacti has his own conclusion. “It’s almost as if transposable elements have a mind of their own, like a number of the life processes you’re enumerating, Sam.”
Exactly. On the other side of the coin, there are also transposable element silencers. An example is short interference RNA (siRNA), which is a safeguard that interrupts RNA production when it detects the presence of pathogenic jumping genes. The complexity of their fabrication pathways and interventions is such a new discovery that it’s only now being investigated.
There is hope that it will lead to therapeutic breakthroughs like gene knockdown whereby negative effects can be silenced. My key point here is that the more deeply we investigate life processes, the more complex they get.
Remember, scientists are awakening to the real purpose of the about 80 percent of DNA that was considered junk. “In that case,” adds Galacti, “what surprises might the remaining 20 percent hold for us?”
To add to this complexity, we know that environmental factors, which also include what we refer to as social behavior, like family and school settings, play an important role in this incessant transposition of the hereditary elements within our chromosomes.
“You’ve got something more on your mind.” Galacti can read my behavior by now, and he knows I have something to say. “What is it, Sam?”
“It may be too early to say this, and I should save it for when we’re further along in The Explanation, but frankly the nature-versus-nurture debate is over. I’ll come back to this later in the next section, but it is not one or the other of these two factors that make each of us the individuals that we are.” “Wow, that is a bold statement,” Galacti says, impressed.
“It’s meant to be, because we’re asking bold questions here.”
In our quest to understand physical life, the how and why, the individuality of each of us, the seven billion that inhabit earth, and even that of identical twins, we have to ask fundamental questions.
With such interplay of nature and nurture, how can the species of mankind be so distinct?
Why do transposable elements jump?
How do they know where to insert themselves?
With both addition and suppression of transposable elements, specific human functions and characteristics can be activated, silenced, or diseased. Since 80 percent of our genome is biologically active it could go awry. Why are we in particularly good health?
Back to the subject of this section. I like the term jumping genes. It has something both playful and poetic about it, but it is also a bit of a misnomer because of the concept of genes.
Genes still conjure up the idea of immutability, whereas transposable elements are bits and pieces of DNA taken piecemeal in an incessant scanning of our DNA. Genes, as such, are not as permanent and indelible as we had thought in the past.
Our DNA and RNA are in a constant state of editing and splicing, or one could say grafting and crafting. This notion of plasticity comes into play especially when we take into account our next component.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.13 of Inventory of the Universe.
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This video talks about the discoverer of transposable elements, Barbara McClintock, not always easy to be a scientist, especially a woman… but thankfully, she has been vindicated.
This subject of ‘transposable elements’ cam be rather technical and, unfortunately, a lot of videos reflect this, including the one below. It reveals the mechanism by which the ‘elements move’ from their original to their new location.
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October 18, 2016
Stem Cells and Differentiation: the Core of your Body’s 24/7/365 Regeneration Process
The fertilized ovum divides and produces ‘stem cells’. Each of these stem cells can produce various types of other body cells hence they are pluripotent cells. Together the stem cells produce the 400+ types of unipotent cells which compose our bodies. This amazing process is called ‘differentiation’.
As we discuss stem cells and dissect pieces of the puzzle like DNA, proteins, and apoptosis, let’s remember that the focus is on Life with a capital L. Revisiting the fetus in the womb, let’s think about the fact that just one fertilized ovum cell multiplies into about fifty trillion cells nine months later and into 100 trillion as an adult.
(chapter 7.12)
From that original single cell, toward the end of pregnancy, will come the phenomenal production of 250,000 neuron cells per minute, readying the fetal brain’s synapses for the multitudinous connections it will materialize after birth.
A few days after the original fertilized cell begins to multiply, it is impossible to differentiate a fish embryo from a human embryo, let alone to distinguish which cells will become the bone and which will be the skin.
This latter phenomenon, differentiation, is when a master cell called a stem cell actually produces many different types of cells. Stem cells in the brain can produce skin or muscle cells that are genetically identical but have their different, distinct functions.
Bone marrow stem cells can generate or regenerate liver and nerve cells in cases of injury.
Stem cells were discovered in 1978, but it wasn’t until the turn of the century that scientists realized they could manipulate stem cells by changing their environment to differentiate them into other cells. “This has tremendous implications for health as well as ethics,” Galacti says.
That’s true. But the question we want to ask is this: how can one fertilized cell know how to become which one of the approximate four hundred diverse cell types we have in our bodies?
How can one fertilized cell know how to become which one of the approximate four hundred…
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Stem cells are the body’s in-house physicians, dividing as frequently as needed to repair organs. They can become muscle cells to repair your torn hamstring or brain cells or red blood cells. Furthermore, stem cells have a dual function that no other cells have. Think of them as sleeper cells, neutral without any specific function, waiting until DNA signals them to divide, sometimes after long dormant periods. They also become specialists under certain conditions for example, dividing at a furious rate and as frequently as needed to heal bone marrow or gut tissue.
Alternatively, they can be called into action in extreme cases, like repairing heart tissue. We wonder, as we think about stem cells becoming red blood cells to be pumped throughout the body, why no one understands how stem cells become these various types of body cells.
Moreover, we remember that some cells can’t divide because they don’t possess nuclei. Red blood cells are the prime example. Without the stem cells, and the DNA and genome that code for them, humans would have no capacity to replenish their blood supply.
Without stem cells plus the DNA and genome that code for red blood cells, humans would have no…
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As we look at images of blood, the atmosphere, and stars, we realize once again the vital role of each of these components of the universe; cell division ensures that we are here, living, breathing, and walking. It takes more than blood to make a human, and yet, looking at the red blood cell, we think about human life and life itself.
Move our hands, prick our fingers, or breathe, and we know that cell processes and the elemental atoms in DNA are at work right now, as are the vital elements of life, including the oxygen we breathe. The question is how.
Are genes the answer?
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.12 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Below is an instructive video about stem cells. Each human being composed of trillions of cells starts as just one fertilized cell, the zygote. That cell contains all the information allowing it to split and multiply into the multitude of ‘parts’ of the body.
Sometimes we need to ‘step back’ and have a ‘deep think’ about the incredibly complex processes that turn into you and me and billions of others … each of us from one single cell. We could go on and ask the question: what’s the point of human life? That is the question. Stay tuned for the answer.
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October 11, 2016
Apoptosis – Programmed Cell Death, even before Birth
Apoptosis – chronobiology with just in time cell death allows severing of fruit from stem for easy picking.
Cells don’t live forever in the human body; they have different life spans based on the type and function of the cell, from a few days to a year or more. Certain cells in the digestive tract live just days, while immune system cells can last for six weeks and pancreatic cells up to a year.
chapter 7.11
About 100 million cells die every minute in your body, so death is an integral part of life. This programmed cell death is called apoptosis—from the Greek for “falling off ”—and it’s at work in the body even before we are born.
When we think of newly forming life in the womb, we think of the multiplication of cells. Although there are only a few dozen cells that form the placenta and embryo five days after conception, from there they grow exponentially to form the fetus.
Apoptosis – When cells, in specific locations only, die in order to fashion fingers and toes.
At week nine the torso, head, arms, hands, legs, and feet are clearly visible, and a couple of weeks later, the fingers and toes are perfectly defined. We don’t stop to think that for them to form, the cells at the ridges between the fingers and toes die. Only specific cells in specific places expire, while those directly adjacent are transforming into various skin cells, each with its specific functions. How is all this governed?
Generation, growth, and death go hand in hand. In the nine-month gestation period a human fetus undergoes the death and replacement of millions of cells. Even brain cells that rarely die in adults until we reach a certain age or suffer an accident die in the womb! There is a pruning process among cells as the fetus gets ready for the outside world.
Going deeper, this cell death not only preserves the health of the fetus but also of you and me. Cells can become damaged in various ways (e.g., infection, accidents, inaccurate or interrupted replication) so that they are no longer capable of assuming their role in the body. Such cells have an internal self-destruct mechanism that takes them out of the normal cell circuit.
“Is it too harsh to call that suicide?” Galacti asks. “Or is it more like a machine that shuts down? I guess since you talked about proteins and cells as machines; let’s go with that analogy. In fact, we can think of cells as a car supply chain that has to take vehicles damaged by hail, storms, or rough handling into account. There has to be an organized pathway of atomization and waste removal to handle such mishaps.”
Good point. Macrophage cells are like recyclers as they engulf and ingest debris from a self-destructed cell or repair and regenerate it to rejoin the supply chain.
Even before birth, the processes of life, death, and regeneration are intertwined and taking place simultaneously.
Bones, skin, and the digestive system are always remodeling as apoptosis—the death of cells—works hand in hand with its counterpart, mitosis, to generate, renew, and resculpt the body.
Menstruation is apoptosis at its most intimate and delicate, creating and then destroying the inner lining of the uterus when a woman doesn’t become pregnant and then regenerating the lining of the uterus every month.
There’s finely tuned chronobiology with JIT growth, JIT death, and proper evacuation of the dead remains to cleanse the body and prepare for a new cycle. Programmed cell death is responsible for well-formed bodies as well as general health.
For example, 200 billion red blood cells are formed every day, and thus, to maintain the equilibrium in our bodies, 200 billion red blood cells are also planned to die every day.
Galacti points out that this is true for animals, birds, insects, and plants also. He cites the examples of a tadpole’s tail cells dying as it transforms into a frog or of the programmed death of a larva to promote its growth into a moth or butterfly.
In plants, ripe fruit can easily be picked, hazelnuts separate from their husk, and leaves fall from trees in autumn due to apoptosis—cells dying in specific locations at specific times to allow this severance. This timed death is an integral part of chronobiology that pervades the cyclical rhythms of life.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.11 of Inventory of the Universe.
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This first video is a bit technical, it’s short so it’s an easy watch especially because it emphasizes the multiple ‘pathways’ we’ve discussed. The multitude of processes within processes for an event (like apoptosis) to take place. These are a progressive sequence of highly complex, just in time procedures that must occur for the climactic event (apoptosis) to be accomplished.
This video is a graphic presentation of apoptosis. I don’t understand all the technical terms but it’s fascinating to watch the enormous activity involved–all coordinated–to cause a diseased cell to commit suicide.
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October 4, 2016
Cells … About 100 trillion of them and we have a Human Body
There are 100 trillion atoms in a cell and 100 trillion cells in a Human Body. All working together to make Life.
You have roughly thirty trillion red blood cells that circuit your body about every thirty seconds and renew themselves every 120 days. A simple calculation reveals that about three million red blood cells die every second of your life. That’s barely one cubic millimeter of blood, the volume of one-fiftieth of a drop of water. As Galacti says, “No need to worry.”
7.10 Cell Life Cycle
Thirty trillion red #blood #cells circuit your body about every thirty seconds and renew…
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Rather, these figures tell us about the speed at which activity is taking place in our bodies and that our body activities never quit. For example, we actually lose over thirty thousand skin cells per minute.
These and other organ and tissue cells are replaced by the process of mitosis: a cell dividing into two identical daughter cells. You studied this in biology and can review it if necessary. What I want to do is mention some of the lesser-known cell life processes to make you aware of some of the latest discoveries.
As we noted earlier, junk DNA is anything but, and even the smallest detail has its importance. For instance, in cells that have a nucleus, it’s not just the presence of a nucleus with its organelles and DNA that is vital.
#Junk #DNA is anything but junk, even the smallest detail has its importance. Over 80% of DNA…
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Its shape and size, which are managed by the lamina—the meshwork of filament proteins that support the inner membrane of the nucleus—can tell much about our health. An abormally sized or shaped nucleus is a possible indicator of sickness.
Cell shape and size is overseen by the lamina, filaments that support the inner cellular membrane.
It is also vital to know the anatomy of the cell nucleus. Notice the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with the ribosomes on the diagram below, those factories where DNA reproduction takes place.
the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with the ribosomes, the factories where DNA reproduction takes place. This is the continuity of the outer nuclear membrane that, via the thousands of nuclear pores, is in direct contact with the inner nuclear membrane surrounding the nucleus.
This is the continuity of the outer nuclear membrane that, via the thousands of nuclear pores, is in direct contact with the inner nuclear membrane surrounding the nucleus.
In other words, the nucleus doesn’t just float around the interior of a cell because the ER fully encases it. When we talk about mitosis, the process by which cells reproduce, the ER is especially important in the separation of chromosomes, which is part of dividing the single cell into two identical daughter cells in the mitosis process.
Most explanations indicate that the nuclear envelope disintegrates during mitosis. In fact, it is absorbed by the ER, and both totally transform to become the tubules that join end to end and form the long spindles that attach to the centrioles, the two end-zone points.
At the center of the cell a pair of spindles joins to identical halves of each chromosome that will form the two daughter cells. The point is that the organelles, the innards of the cell, have precise roles to play and these roles change depending on the process.
The image we are generally shown of mitosis is of these spindles and tubules strung between the centrioles. The two end points resemble a rugby ball, and the spindles and tubules get shorter and shorter, pulling the chromosomes apart and each half moving toward each end.
Mitosis with a ‘walking protein’ walking along a spindle carrying the chromosome to the ‘end-zone’ centriole.
The deeper picture is that machine proteins are actually walking and carrying the chromosomes along the tubules to their destination! This is pictured by what I’ll call the “protein walking machine” on the top right spindle in the diagram. Yes, with powerful microscopes we can now witness these protein walking machines.
Machine proteins walking and carrying chromosomes
along the tubules to the centrioles during mitosis, the dividing of a cell in two.
Above is an amazing real-life animated video of this process. As the walking proteins proceed to their end-zone destination, the already-positioned sections of the spindle break apart and ready themselves to reform the nuclear membranes and the ER of the two new nuclei.
Generally, DNA that measures 1.8 meters (5 feet) is unfolded. This is represented by the blue squiggly line in the cellular lamina diagram, the first diagram in this post. DNA is compacted into the familiar twenty-three pairs of tightly packed chromosomes for only a short period during the mitosis process.
We now understand and can record this compacting process. You can see videos on the ‘packaging’ process below as part of The Explanation blog bonus.
Imagine duplicating and verifying the integrity of a DNA strand that contains six billion nucleotides (two strands of three billion) in a confined space of ten microns, (the size of dust or pollen) and then compressing the nucleotides into forty-six identical packages, two by two, separating them into two identical cells.
Imagine duplicating a #DNA strand containing six billion #nucleotides in a confined space the…
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This is equivalent to a strand of 3 billion pairs of beads, 1.8 kilometers long, being duplicated, verified, and compacted inside a soccer ball. Think about trying to do that in sixty minutes without one error and without getting anything entangled.
This information about life at the cellular and DNA level is extremely enlightening, and as we explore it deeper and deeper—or we could say smaller and smaller—it gets even more mysterious. For this reason we’re taking a time-out to remember why we’re broaching this subject of human life.
It’s not just about DNA, genes, organelles, cells, and all those chemical and biological terms that the average person hasn’t really mastered.
Frankly, out of the entire book, this chapter was the most difficult one to write not only because of its complex nature, but also because, as with chapter 9 about the mind, science is abuzz with new discoveries that are turning old ideas on their heads.
Open-minded scientists are beginning to speak out about how much more there is to life than biology. Taking the five basic elements and creating an environment where they can come together to form a molecular ensemble is an infinitesimal part of real life.
The role of The Explanation is to go beyond chemistry and biology and take you both below and above that to reveal how these and other sciences are tools that reveal the bigger picture. In the next sections, we’ll look at apoptosis, stem cells, transposable elements, and epigenetics. These are four areas known by science, but each domain is a science in itself that is only partially understood, each presenting enigmas of its own.
Dictionaries can give a clear, short definition of each discipline so that you can understand what area of life each deals with. But what might appear simple and separate is in reality known to be both complex and at the same time a well-oiled, flawlessly functioning process.
I suggest to you that as we broach these four processes of apoptosis, stem cells, transposable elements, and epigenetics, along with the myriad of other biological body and brain systems, we consider them globally as life. When we do this, the flawless puzzle gets interesting because that’s where we want peace and prosperity.
That’s what The Explanation is all about. It’s not the chemical elements; cells; processes; organs; or even the whole body, brain, and mind; it’s the Inventory of the Universe.
To be candid with you, at the outset of my writing adventure, I had no intention of writing Inventory and its upcoming sister book, Audit of the Universe, in such a challenging way. Rather, I was just going to dive in and directly answer the equally consuming question: “How would you bring peace and prosperity to Earth?”
But you know, you really can’t have peace of mind and body if something is going wrong with apoptosis, stem cells, transposable elements, and epigenetics and other aspects of the universe.
That might sound a bit preposterous, but one bent cog can bring a precision timepiece to a halt. Similarly, a minute mechanical failure can shut down a huge printing press or factory or cause havoc in a large-scale operation.
Apoptosis, stem cells, transposable elements, and epigenetics are important, but they are only the cogs in the largescale operation. I would like you to see them as part of the universe, part of the whole. Each of these is unique, and all we know about them beyond that is what each process does.
They’re totally different, calling on different proteins and using dozens and even hundreds of diverse pathways to perform their functions, but all four are part of the big-picture universe.
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.10 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Below is a video that shows how the DNA strand with the ‘blue’ chromosome (the first diagram in this post) folds up (packaging) in preparation of mitosis, the splitting of the cell to form two daughter cells.
Frankly, this next video is more complicated, going to a deeper level. With regard to The Explanation, it is interesting to watch simply to comprehend the concept of processes within processes. This video discusses DNA packaging and implications of various promoters and enhancers or ‘other parts’ of the DNA chain that influence transcription and packaging. Biological life is not as straightforward and understood as some would have us believe.
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See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon
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September 27, 2016
Blood Cells and All Cells – the Blocks to Build and Maintain Your Body
Cells … all 100 trillion (1 followed by 14 zeros) of them are the building blocks of life. They come in all shapes and sizes and fit together perfectly to form … you and I.
The average human going through his or her humdrum daily routine might think that a blood cell or any other single cell isn’t vital to a human life since we are essentially composed of 100 trillion cells, but we have had eye-opening discoveries so far.
(chapter 7.9)
Cells are the simplest form of life, and we want to explore them further, starting with blood cells. Our adult human bodies have twenty to thirty trillion blood cells that are seven microns in diameter, the width of a strand of spiderweb silk, circulating in our bloodstreams.
These blood cells and our nerve, bone, and skin cells are primarily composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, silver, gold, and many other elements, including radioactive isotopes or variants of elements from our environment, such as thorium, uranium, potassium-40, radium, carbon-14, and tritium.
These ingredients are primordial, radioactive, and toxic elements that originated before the formation of Earth.
We may think of all radioactive elements as dangerous, so it may be a surprise to discover our cells contain them. Potassium, for example, is the main radioactive element in the human body and is not harmful; in fact, it is essential for the function of all cells. This indicates how little we know or think about the elements of life.
We may think of all radioactive elements as dangerous, so it may be a surprise to discover our…
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We learned about molecules, atoms, and electrons in the Big Bang chapter and water in chapter 3. Now we are examining our own relationship with these concepts.
For example, our cells contain 99 percent water molecules containing hydrogen and oxygen atoms and now we can see the hydrogen bonds between the water molecules in the cell, making the water highly cohesive so that it provides a stable environment for the chemical reactions to take place within the cell.
Since water has a high boiling point and low freezing point because of its structure, water keeps the cell’s temperature from changing too rapidly. Water preserves the cell’s health as well as its processes. For example, if the temperature of a cell drops too rapidly, those amino acids we watched at the last lab station will fail to assemble correctly to form the proteins necessary for cell function and life.
The quality and quantity of water in your body maintains temperature and cell life and all the…
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We consider the qualities of water that allow the cell to carry out chemical processes and dissolve most molecules. (The exception is the lipids [fats] that make up the cell membrane.)
The process of osmosis transports water in and out of the cells via specialized motor proteins in order to maintain the balance of the constantly changing red blood cells. Osmosis is one of the many reactions and processes that take place within the red blood cell, which is just one of the four hundred varieties of human cells. We ponder all those processes within your average cell.
The red blood cell is anything but typical, as we’ll see. Inside a skin or bone cell, we see that its brain, called the nucleus, contains chromosomes, or genetic instructions, as well as proteins within the protective membrane of its nuclear envelope.
Although the instructions are similar for each cell in the same way that workers in a factory use similar directions to create products, the DNA contains different sets of instructions for blood cells than for bone cells. Similarly, your brain provides different instructions for reading than it does for operating a microscope. (We’ll explore this further in chapter 9.)
The nucleus stores DNA and transmits the genetic information. In addition, inside a region of the nucleus called the nucleolus, mRNA and tRNA are assembled for the ribosomes. The nucleus is a veritable genetic data processing center.
What else, exactly, goes on inside a cell and specifically a blood cells?
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.9 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Just one video this week… but what a video. An absolutely must watch as you see sperm and ovum multiply over 9 months. Just sit back, listen to the soothing music and let your mind be absorbed by the incredible beauty of life being born. Yes, be amazed because surely it is wondrous … beyond imagination. I dare to ask: How do you explain it?
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September 20, 2016
Protein Folding Machines in Continual Movement Keep Your Body Running Smoothly
A sperm flagellum which propels the cell towards the ovum actually has a a protein machine that acts like a propeller with a continuous revolving motion.
Protein Folding
These proteins, long chains of amino acids, represent 75 percent of the dry weight of our bodies and must go through an additional step to be crafted or folded in a particular way so that they can form different structures. Both synthesis and folding are essential; in fact, folding allows the protein to perform its specific function in the body.
(chapter 7.8)
In the cramped confines of a cell where a protein chain of thousands of amino acids is assembled in seconds, thousands of proteins are being constructed simultaneously. On leaving the ribosome factory, a protein is escorted by chaperone molecules to prevent it from entangling with other molecules.
Then the folding pattern is defined by the innumerable attractive forces of atoms within the polypeptide chain; think of these atoms as making up a mechanism like that of a 3-D printer. Some chains of one hundred amino acids can fold in one ten-millionth of a second (a microsecond), with others able to fold in the thousandths of seconds (milliseconds) to configure their final complex structure.
By comparison, to simulate just fifty milliseconds of folding would take even the most powerful computer about thirty thousand years. There are many fascinating aspects of protein synthesis, but this practically instantaneous folding into thousands of elegant 3-D geometric figures is something I find mystifyingly intriguing.
Here’s an article about Anton a supercomputer that set a speed record for protein folding. Worth a read to understand the gulf between man-made ‘machines’ and what billions and billions of machine proteins in your body accomplish second by second for your entire lifespan.
To simulate just fifty milliseconds of folding a #protein would take even the most powerful…
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I suggest you watch a video that I provide a link to in the references at the end of the book and. The phenomenon of protein folding:
Why these specific shapes? These three-dimensional structures can be compared to machines that are the workhorses of our bodies. For instance we talk about osmosis or semipermeability of a cell membrane, which allows certain amino acids to enter.
There’s a protein that is actually shaped like a pump with its attachment to the cell wall that controls such comings and goings.
Interestingly this pump is one of twenty thousand similar protein machines, and it’s the continual modification of the shape that actually makes each machine perform its action.
The #protein pump is one of twenty thousand similar protein machines that maintain all the…
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In other words, the amino acid really moves like a pump. Today we can watch these “machine proteins” in motion. In this post you’ll see a couple of links to protein folding videos.
Galacti adds an analogy that puts proteins in a new light. “Compare how proteins labor in our bodies to the multitude of machines it takes to run an international airport smoothly: escalators and signs for channeling passengers, passport and security controls, baggage transfers, verified stickers for each flight, freight loaded into containers and aboard planes, and flight controls are all automatically triggered and perfectly coordinated.
Think about plane arrivals and departures, use of runways depending on wind, handling delays, lost children, and schedules. Even such mundane but essential items like airport washrooms need to have their plumbing, faucets, and other parts repaired and maintained. The list goes on and on.
The millions of parallel protein machines constantly modify their shapes in a very precise way to power your body, each turning on and off and performing its action on command when your brain consciously or subconsciously sends a signal.”
The variety of possible proteins and the billions of JIT combinations of amino acids and folding configurations that serve as enzymes, hormones, and cell and body machinery is something we’ve never considered—and this is just in one cell providing DNA instructions!
The variety of possible #proteins and the billions of #JIT combinations of #amino acids and…
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We ponder each cell replicating this process every second and the additional realization that each gene can produce multiple proteins within the cell. However, one cell can’t be important to human life—or can it?
This post is an excerpt from chapter 7.8 of Inventory of the Universe.
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Below is a video that is a must watch. Ken Dill skillfully illustrates and explains the concept of protein folding. As I’ve said there are many ‘processes in processus’ that are synchronized and inter-related to make our universe run smoothly. But, protein folding, to me, is one of the most fascinating process of all. To understand how your body works and functions, the continuous factory that it is, watch this 16 minute video:
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Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inentory of vthe Universe at Amazon Purchase the Kindle version – Barnes@Nobles (Paperback and Nook) – Google Play – Kobo – iBooks app on Apple devices.
Was “Protein Folding Machines in Continual Movement Keep Your Body Running Smoothly” worthwhile for you?
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