dagblog - Comments for "Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role"

Thanks for the link, Lulu.

EmmaZahn — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 23:52:08 +0000

Thanks for the link, Lulu. It was informative even though my eyes glazed over a few times and Johnson's penchant for smacking his lips was distracting. My takeaway was that word choice matters a lot to science writers. Johnson agreed that most of the 'junk' is probably biochemically active but not necessarily functional as defined in the science papers. Po-ta-to/Pa-tah-to, I guess.

I don't know.

bloggingheadtv is not my favorite internet format. I always feel I could read one or two long posts and learn more in the same time it takes to watch one. bloggingheadstv is to me as Twitter is to Johnson. Good writers reveal more of themselves there than I care to know about them.

Arta, Emma, you might be

A Guy Called LULU — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:08:26 +0000

In reply to Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role

Arta, Emma, you might be interested in this conversation between John Horgan (Stevens Center for Science Writings, Cross-check) and George Johnson (The Cancer Chronicles, The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments). The topics include: Everything you know about "junk DNA" is wrong , Should journalists be more skeptical of scientists?, It depends on what your definition of "junk" is.
The two science writers critique the subject of junk DNA. George Johnson believes there is a lot of junk DNA [That is my great over-simplification] and points out, among a great deal of other things, that an onion has five times the DNA in its genome as does a human. Interesting listen.

http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/10563

Surprise? It never made sense

EmmaZahn — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:05:29 +0000

In reply to Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role

Surprise?

It never made sense to dismiss as 'junk' such a big part of DNA.

Along the same lines, this story about the tremendous data storage capacity of DNA is interesting. Makes me wonder what all may be stashed away in mine.

Book written in DNA code | Science | The Guardian