Science and Inquiry discussion
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New Letters Added to DNA
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Woman, don't go scaring us...lemme read it.
Sheesh, I don't know what to think about this.
Wow! I think I dimly heard a swooshing sound as this went over my head, but it sure read impressively. The idea that we can improve on the basic building block seems very weird at first blush, but it actually makes sense. Evolution doesn't do what's best, just what works well enough. It's a scary idea, though.
I wish it would give more information on how it'll affect humans.
Dariana wrote: "I wish it would give more information on how it'll affect humans."I think the conversation is more in the "if" rather than "how" topics now.
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I suspect they don't have any idea, which is why it's scary.
I'm with Betsy.
It's scary if they "really" think they can put new nucleotids in our dna. So many things to say about this article, but I need my laptop to write something more decent.
Betsy wrote: "I don't know about this. Seems a little scarey to me.https://www.quantamagazine.org/201507..."
It's a great advance in science. With more letters available for DNA, scientists can add new amino acids(for example,some man-made amino acids) into proteins, making many new medicines. Scientists have been working on adding new letters into DNA for a long time. Actually, Steven Benner, the scientist mentioned in the article, have successfully added new letters into DNA in 1989.
This is old but I'm still gonna throw in my two cents. The addition of synthetic of additional amino acids hasn't been at the DNA level. Peter Schultz at Scripps has demonstrated before you can use triplets that code for stop codons and turn them into synthetic amino acids. The rate limiting step here has always been the tRNA and tRNA-synthetases and generating synthetases that specifically charged only the tRNA of interest. It is fascinating stuff though
I don't understand how on earth he could hope to create a system( I'm assuming an organism) where proteins are null... They provide so many other tasks besides just catalyze. They quite literally make up an astronomical amount of molecules in our body. Everything from channel proteins to hemoglobin l. Plus, how does it help with cancer? How would an organisms get "more" of the P and Z building blocks? Also, I don't think nature hasn't evolved another system just because there is no reason to. as far as we know 5 or more nucleotides may not provide any extra benefit other than room for even more diversity.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/201507...