Cool genetics stuff

[wladziu]

I respect your opinion Weston.  Didn't mean to offend you.  I do see what you mean about sweeping generalizations, and will try not to make them.  Perhaps I've been jaded by the great Southern Baptists.  No argument from me!



Check your tone, RoadsterGal.  I learned this in two hours.  I'd wipe the floor with you, given the same training. 

I study best by trying to teach someone, and my study partner fell asleep.  And, I was genuinely excited about the material.  This thread was meant as nothing more.  Please don't ruin that with a pissing contest.  

However:
Only an idiot reveals everything he knows upon first meeting.  Isn't that the saying?  Something to that effect.
I was trying to keep someone entertained without going too much into detail, while still relaying enough information to show the excitement of the field.  Of course I know chemo and bone marrow and the inability to obtain full genetic restructing.  I thought I mentioned something to that effect...

But....
Someone with over 20 years of research in the field just told me that previously existing somantic cells will indeed be affected.  However, change will not be apparent until mitosis.  The USDA, AVMA, and a few European research facilities back her up.  I can give you her number, maybe you can argue with her. 
Viruses as vectors aren't as effective RIGHT NOW.  But, I retain my right to get sophomorically excited about it!  Don't be a jerk!  There are other vectors, and they're equally amazing to me.  I do not need someone trying to ruin that.  


I probably do have codons mixed up.  I've been trying to cover alot of material, with recombinent DNA, pleiotropy, replication forks and so on.  You make fun of my undergraduate understanding of the concepts when you have been in the exact situation, with multiple classes, ongoing research, clinical shadowing and community involvement.  





Given your level of involvement in the field, it is understandable that you want to correct misunderstandings of the material.  I don't blame you.  But, don't inhibit someone's initial steps into the field by stamping out sources of confidence.  It makes you sound like an angry nun with a ruler. 

[wladziu]

If I have RoadsterGal's permission....

Gene therapy doesn't work completely, Kaiser.  Only a limited percentage of your cells actually change.  I'd like to go more in detail about it, but I'm sure a certain grad student is gonna point out any mistake I make. 
The examples given were extremely best-case scenario, years from now.  These are things that I, and many others, would like to see and might actually one day be possible.  I was hoping to inspire conversation in a pretty dry topic, using outlandish examples. 








If your kid ever draws you a picture, RoadsterGal, are you gonna tell him how stupid it looks? 

[Roadstergal]

Check your tone, RoadsterGal.  I learned this in two hours.  I'd wipe the floor with you, given the same training. 

Are you talking bio-smack?     How exactly does one 'wipe the floor' with someone biologically?  Go into that a bit.     Come now, I didn't piss in your Wheaties; I corrected some things that jumped out at me.

But....
Someone with over 20 years of research in the field just told me that previously existing somantic cells will indeed be affected.  However, change will not be apparent until mitosis.

Yes; on a cellular level, a single transfected cell will pass the altered genes onto its progeny.  That's not what you said.  You said you could change gross, established phenotypes like height with a retrovirus and a single-gene change.

But....Given your level of involvement in the field, it is understandable that you want to correct misunderstandings of the material.  I don't blame you.  But, don't inhibit someone's initial steps into the field by stamping out sources of confidence.  It makes you sound like an angry nun with a ruler. 

If you want to discuss your excitement about the field, that's dandy.  But a) a message board devoted to motorcycles is a bit of an odd choice, and b) especially considering the audience and your experience, why not do it in a simpler manner, explaining the basic things that excite you, rather than trying to make the information more than it is, and spreading misinformation in the process?

Email me if you want to talk bio.  The field excites me and has excited me for many, many years, and I am always happy to spread the enthusiasm (I used to teach and plan to do that on the side, even though I have left academe for biotech these days).  But I don't like misinformation, because there is (IMO) too much of that around.  Oh, I'm not a graduate student, if that's what you're implying in your previous post.    roadstergal@gmail.com

[wladziu]

You've refuted your own logic three times in a single posting. 

1)  You accuse someone of talking smack.  Unless I've got Alzheimer's, you jumped in with a bad attitude trying compare penises (mine's real). 

2) You state that my explanation of an altered somantic cell is too simple, and request me to explain things simpler.  In as little as 3 sentences, might I point out. 

3) You point out my "odd" choice of forum.  Maybe you should take a gander at the title of this section of the forum....

Must be an internet record....





To be committed to preventing the spread of misinformation, you were nowhere to be found during the entire conversation until I left to take my final.  I'd say that you failed at your task entirely, unless your task is simply to make someone look like an idiot.  You haven't done a very good job of that task either.   I'm admittedly egotistical, and apologize only to random readers that might not understand that I use false courage to gain a semblance of confidence in the face of a difficult challenge. 
However, you've pushed your way into someone's thread, much in the way that pubescent boys push around for social dominance.  Is it the same reason you race motorcycles?  Do you find yourself so constantly unsatisfied, such to the point that you need to humiliate undergrads even though you're well above my level of education?  It's not really your fault that you have pee pee envy.  You're just jealous of your father's attention.  I've met a handful of women much like yourself.  It's always the same. 
I warned you to watch your tone, because such women inevitably make fools of yourselves.  You try to push for dominance using your intelligence, yet you lack the class and tact of an intelligent male adept at controlling hormonal responses or a satisfied female.  I suggest you give in to your pee pee envy so you can further adapt, or simply adopt the female tendencies that you've been shunning.  You're showing tendencies of male bonding, perhaps you should develop a family to impress, instead.  Try washing dishes or doing some laundry. 

I myself have acted childish in simply responding.  So, I'm done. 

Have fun with my thread. 

[yamahonkawazuki]

ive always found genetics to be an interesting field, to me as a study, or to read about, but maybe not as a field of or a career. just a hobby to read about it.

[Kaizer]

DAMN!!!! Wow! you two should be a bit nicer to each other. this thread shouldn't come to such low blows.

[Roadstergal]

Wow! you two should be a bit nicer to each other.

Hey, now, I didn't get into wiping floors or penises, or fatherly attention, or doing laundry.     

I pointed out a few inaccuracies in his thread, and he flew off the handle.

1)  You accuse someone of talking smack.  Unless I've got Alzheimer's, you jumped in with a bad attitude trying compare penises (mine's real). 

Why should I compare penises?  The nastiest thing I said was:

Back off with the undergraduate textbook, my friend.     Methinks you know a little less than you think you do.

Which is the case.  You said, in resposne:

Check your tone, RoadsterGal.  I learned this in two hours.  I'd wipe the floor with you, given the same training. 

Which is, well, overreacting.  I'm still interested in how floor-wiping happens from a biological geek standpoint.

2) You state that my explanation of an altered somantic cell is too simple, and request me to explain things simpler.  In as little as 3 sentences, might I point out.

I didn't say it was too simple.  I said it was incorrect.  I suggested you stick with more basic concepts that you understand fully, and shere your enthusiasm that way.  Genuine enthusiasm for something undestood is always a better path to advanced concepts.  There's a lot to take in.

3) You point out my "odd" choice of forum.  Maybe you should take a gander at the title of this section of the forum....

It is an odd choice.  If you're interested in science, there are many, many places to share that enthusiasm with a good audience who can help you progress.  Talking with people in labs, going to talks, attending journal clubs; I got from your other posts that you're at a university.  If you're interested in science, I highly recommend that you take advantage of these resources; there are a lot of opportunities to learn and interact at any decent university.  It's going to be a lot more productive in the long run than talking on an internet forum and getting into pee pee comparing, which is just not what science is about.

To be committed to preventing the spread of misinformation, you were nowhere to be found during the entire conversation until I left to take my final.

I didn't come across the thread until the point where I posted.  I browse Odds and Ends quite randomly, as I have time.

However, you've pushed your way into someone's thread, much in the way that pubescent boys push around for social dominance.

You're way, way overreacting.  I pointed out a few things I saw that aren't correct.  Is this how you react when you get something wrong on an exam?  You're not five years old; if you go into science, you need to be able to accept corrections with grace, knowing that the end result desired by everyone involved is a greater understanding of life in general.

Seriously, you're free to email me.  Why play around on a forum when there is so much opportunity for misunderstanding?  I love science; I have the most magnificent and satisfying career a human being could have.  I do a job I enjoy, and I do it in order to make therapies for severe unmet medical needs.  I love the interactions that I have with my co-workers and other people in science.  If you're interested in gene therapy, I worked in a gene therapy lab before coming to my current job, and have a lot of background in the field (which, unfortunately, doesn't leave me with a great deal of optimism for its practical application in the foreseeable future, but the science is great).

You're just jealous of your father's attention.  I warned you to watch your tone, because such women inevitably make fools of yourselves.  You try to push for dominance using your intelligence, yet you lack the class and tact of an intelligent male adept at controlling hormonal responses or a satisfied female.  I suggest you give in to your pee pee envy so you can further adapt, or simply adopt the female tendencies that you've been shunning.  You're showing tendencies of male bonding, perhaps you should develop a family to impress, instead.  Try washing dishes or doing some laundry. 

  If I were insecure and unsatisfied, I'd have thrown a tantrum like this.  Take a deep breath, maybe a toke, and come back.

[Kaizer]

I know I know. That was what I was talking about.

[dmanben]

Damn I missed this by not checking in for a few days. 

I work in the field too but in a more technical aspect.  I play with DNA but my training was only to a Masters Degree.  I wanted to know more about population genetics and so forth but it was not offered in or as a class and since I graduated I don't want to go to classes anymore.  So I'm basically teaching myself. 

One of the coolest things I found out at a professors tenure talk was that one researcher found that stressing bacteria by overgrowing them on plates with minimal nutrients lead to a growth on top of the old colonies that learned to live off of the other carbon sources found in the media that the original bacteria could not digest.  Using statistical analysis they found that this could happen randomly just because mutations happen, but in the experiment the chance for the bacteria to begin digesting the other nutrients was something like 1000 fold higher than could happen by pure chance.  So in the case of stress the bacteria seemed to be in a hypermutatable state, they were "trying" to change a specific set of genes so they could survive on a different food source.  Mutations in other parts of thier genome were still at that "pure chance" level. 

Which is a positive arguement for the stress-causes-change theory of evolution that alot of evolution opponents argue saying that mathematically too many new species arose in too short a period of time- it must be GOD.

[jserio]

i play with DNA as well, but don't get paid for it........ 

[jrains89]

i didn't see there was a second page and replied to the last post on the first page lol so what i said makes no sense.
I love this crap, glad somebody's talking about it on here.

[GeeP]

Somebody pass the popcorn, this is starting to get interesting.   

*Hands the 'gal a mop to finish wiping up*   

[wladziu]

Typical.  Wherever there's a girl, there's a guy following her around trying to get attention.  Good job, Geep.




Anybody else wanna chime in and take their shots?


I dare any of you to say something I haven't heard before, and then wonder why I fly off the handle.
Any other disabled combat vets trying to get into med school while holding a job?  Anybody else here have to do clinical shadowing, research, volunteering, rehab, and a ton of other crap, THEN go to work?
Anybody else have to study so much that they only eat once a day? 
Anybody else here trying to make friends, because their best friend got blown to sh.t, but people are more interested in correcting every damn little mistake you make? 
Anybody else been in an IED or seen the wrong end of an RPG, just to pay for college, without even a damn thank you from the piss-ant little kids around him all day that say crap like "You don't know as much as you think you do"? 
Anybody else shoot so many people that they dream about being a doctor, so you won't feel so guilty?

Seriously, try it! 
Keep on messing with the guy that wasn't bothering you in the first place.  And tell yourself that it's in just cause, and it's all my fault if I freak out.  Cause that's funnier, right? 
You think you wouldn't try to fluff your ego after going through what I have, with people acting like sh.t everywhere you go?
I came here because it seemed friendly, and I'm disappointed again.  My bike and this forum was supposed to be therapeutic.  But it's seeming to be another place where people just want to run their mouths. 


The more you make fun, the more I study.  The more I study, the closer I am to my OR.  So, keep doing it.
Cause I really wanna cut somebody. 








And, Roadstergal or whatever you call yourself,
I was actually hoping to get to know you.  You seemed mature in your other posts. 
However, to think that your initial statement wasn't petty is just disappointing coming from somebody with your potential.  Hence, why I was upset.  I was of the impression that anyone with an understanding of the material would also have the cognizance to recognize a student trying to gain confidence, and the potential harm in offhand remarks.  I chose to discuss the topic in an arena to which I once belonged in order to feel proud of my progress, and to bring a higher level of conversation than "yo m0mma" jokes and guns. 

Apparently I expected too much.