Reverse Psychology That's Not In Psychology. Reverse Biology...?

Also, while this is on my mind. In my master’s-level food toxicology class today we discussed various genetically modified crops and watched part of a documentary about them, and as someone with a food science degree I would like to be clear about the following:

The only health risk that has been shown to us throughout twenty plus years of having genetically modified crops as part of the food system is that there is a possibility of introducing proteins that could cause allergic reactions. New strains are required to be tested for this, of course, but that is a practical risk that needs to be closely monitored.

The objection to GM in general should be the patenting of genes and other legal matters; there are a number of crops that have been saved from blight and overall extinction via modification in the past two decades, and much like putting up inaccessibly expensive paywalls to scientific journals, patenting of genes within crops limits our ability within universities, small research companies, etc to make significant breakthroughs to further the scientific progress of humanity. 

Furthermore. People think of organic crops as the environmentally-friendly option. If you believe this, please pay attention to what I’m about to say. Current regulations dictate that to have a crop classified as organic the land on which the crop is grown has to have been pesticide-free for a significant amount of time. There is no interim label available to farmers. So what do they do? Do they use no pesticides and take the losses from disease and insects for a decade, waiting for a time in which they are allowed to reclassify their crops in such a way that they can sell them for more money?

Of course they don’t. It isn’t practical. You can say what you like about how the system is structured; I’d personally like to see an interim classification come into play. But what farmers actually do, and states like Montana are feeling the full effects of this–they clear-cut forests and plant their organic crops on entirely new land.

You want to tell me that clear-cutting forests is environmentally friendly? It’s not. Hell, for all that people make a big deal about saving the environment by limiting how much paper they use, paper production is done in a more sustainable manner (because the paper farms replant their trees in a regular cycle so as to not deplete their sources; they don’t just go out and cut down random trees). 

There are objections to be had in regards to GM crops on a legal basis. On a scientific one, there isn’t much. Call them frankenfoods all you want; look up what most commercially-sold produce truly looks like in the wild with no modification and you will learn very quickly that all foods have been modified in some way over the years through conventional breeding. We just think of that differently. 

Biotechnology is not the enemy. Pseudoscience tells us that this is the case. Pseudoscience also tells us that we should seek out natural supplements instead of medicine, and, well… that’s a rant for another day, but suffice to say it’s an even more dubious proposition.

Don’t buy into it.

positive vibes 

Space For All Species Mural

Charley Harper’s first ever mural ‘Space For All Species’ is located in the John Weld Peck Federal Building at 550 Main St. in downtown Cincinnati. Completed in 1964 the design is comprised of two 18×10½ ft panels that feature over 100 species of North American Animals. The tiles were made by Cambridge Tile Company in Cincinnati, OH. more…

if you give me a task with no deadline i will literally never do it but if you give me a deadline i will get it done exactly 1 hour before the deadline even if the deadline is in six years

if you give me a task with no deadline i will literally never do it but if you give me a deadline i will get it done exactly 1 hour before the deadline even if the deadline is in six years

We were just discussing in class today in the context of ubiquinated H2B. Neat!

Ubiquitin is a regulatory protein found in most tissues of many walled-celled organisms.  Originally known as  ubiquitous immunopoietic polypeptide, ubiquitin was discovered in 1975 and its mechanism identified by a team including  Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, and Irwin Rose of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2004.  Ubiquitins act as traffic control agents within the cell, directing other proteins to various compartments within the cell including tagging proteins for destruction.  

The word ubiquitin was formed in 1975 from the English adjective ubiquitous which dates only from 1837.  Ubiquitous derives from the noun ubiquitary which dates from 1580s from the Latin preposition ubi meaning where and que meaning any, also, ever.  Ubiquitary (meaning everywhere) originally referred to the Luthern doctrine that Christ is omnipresent.  

Representation of ubiquitin protein, highlighting the secondary structure. α-helices are coloured in blue and β-strands in green. The sidechains of the 7 lysine residues are indicated by orange sticks. The two best-characterised attachment points for further ubiquitin molecules in polyubiquitin chain formation (lysines 48 & 63) are labelled.

Image of ubiquitin protein courtesy rogerdodd under a Creative Commons 3.0 license, used with permission.

THE VERGE REVIEW OF ANIMALS, STARRING: TRILOBITES

They were survivors, up until they went extinct. 

Four evenings a year, the setting sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s street grid, creating a breathtaking wash of illumination along the cross streets, and tonight is one of them! In this video, Frederick P. Rose Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson, who first noted the phenomenon more than a decade ago and coined the term “Manhattanhenge,” explains the phenomenon.