Pericles

Oh ok.

And how would the varied mutation rates in each loci help explain the reduced genetic variation or any variation among fin whale populations for that matter?

Thanks for you help and patience.

EDIT: If it would help and if you want me to, I can put up more of the paper if you'd like.

Thanks for your reply.

One more thing if it isn't too much trouble. There's a sentence - here - which I'm having trouble understanding

These analyses estimated high levels of

divergence between relatively distant sampling areas,

and more so at mitochondrial compared to nuclear

loci.

How can mitochondrial loci diverge more so than nuclear loci if the samples are from the same whale?

Hey there I'm currently studying biology at university (1st year) and we have been given a scientific paper to summarise.

What I need help with is finding out what 'mitochondrial and nuclear loci' are.

Here's the abstract - If you could explain to me what they mean by these two terms and how they are being used in finding the genetic variation of fin whales that would be much appreciated.

Abstract

For many years, researchers have speculated that fin whales are year-round residents in the Sea of Cortez (= Gulf of California). Previous work by Bérubé and co-workers has shown that the degree of genetic diversity among fin whales in the Sea of Cortez at nuclear and mitochondrial loci is highly reduced. However, the relatively unobstructed connection with the North Pacific Ocean argues that Sea of Cortez fin whales are part of a much larger eastern North Pacific population given the extensive migratory ranges observed in fin whales and baleen whales in general. The low degree of genetic variation might thus simply be due to historic fluctuations in the effective population size of an eastern North Pacific population. In order to test if the reduced genetic variation detected among fin whales inthe Sea of Cortez is due to small population size or a past bottleneck in an otherwise large eastern North Pacific population, we analyzed the geographic distribution of genetic variation at a single mitochondrial (control region) and 16 nuclear loci in samples collected from fin whales in the eastern North Pacific (n = 12) as well as the Sea of Cortez (n = 77). Our results showed that fin whales observed in the Sea of Cortez constitute a highly isolated and thus evolutionary unique population, which warrants special conservation measures given the current low estimate of abundance of approximately 400 individuals.

Thanks again.

Thanks Mokele.

I was looking to either study primatology or entomology. Do you know of any good books or links on these?

And I guess anything on evolution for the layman.

I need links to help me understand evolutionary biology and zoology. I'm going to start a university course in biology (I'm yet to decide what I wan't to specialise in) and I have no prior knowledge on these topics, apart from the fact that I am deeply interested in them. I took high school biology for granted and now 4 years after graduating I'm starting back at square one. All I need is basic info for an idiot: links, books, academic papers etc. Nothing too complicated just info to get me started then I will branch out into the difficult stuff.

Any help, comments or support will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Wonderful stuff. This is Gervais at his best. I saw one of his charity gigs on the gogglebox and the material in it was not as good as his FAME shows. In fact, I was disappointed at the weakness of his material in his charity show. He must save the best for his commericially sound gigs because these had the superb timing and genuinely good gags (with a few politically incorrect jokes about cancer patients).

Have you seen his other stand-up acts as well? Both on youtube. One is called "Politics" and the other is called "Animals". Both hilarious.

Haven't seen any charity gigs... I'm sort of glad after reading that.

As for politically incorrect, I'd say about 80% of his show is. My kind of humour.

Prestigious?

I think that is short for best dressed and well paid... BIG DEAL!

To be honest, I find him an annoying little twat, puffed up with his own self importance.

 

Perhaps I just don't get his brand of humour...

Fair call. He is quite up himself but that's what makes it funny... for me at least.

Glad I could provide a laugh

hahaha some fav. quotes from IMBD:

[Andy has come to see Patrick Stewart in his trailer]

Patrick Stewart: I'm writing a screenplay and I find the whole process absolutely exhilarating.

Andy Millman: What's yours about, if you don't mind my asking?

Patrick Stewart: Well, uh - how best to explain it; you've seen me in "X-Men" ...

Andy Millman: Yeah.

Patrick Stewart: The character I am, Professor Charles Xavier, if you remember, he can control things with the power of his mind - can make people do things and see things, so I thought, what if you could do that for real? I mean, not in a comic book world, but in the real world.

Andy Millman: Oh, all right.

Patrick Stewart: So in my film, I play a man who controls the world with his mind.

Andy Millman: Right. Oh, that's interesting.

Patrick Stewart: Yeah. For instance, I'm walking along, and I see this beautiful girl, and I think I'd like to see her naked, and so all her clothes fall off.

Andy Millman: All her - clothes fall off?

Patrick Stewart: Yes, and she's scrabbling around to get them back on again, but even before she can get her knickers on, I've seen everything. Yeah. I've seen it all.

Andy Millman: [pause] Okay. It's a comedy, is it?

Patrick Stewart: No. It's about what would happen, you know, if these things were possible.

Andy Millman: What's the story, though, what's the ...

Patrick Stewart: Well, I do other stuff; like I'm riding my bike in the park, and this policewoman says "Oi! You can't ride your bike on the grass!" and I go "Oh no?" And her uniform falls off, and she goes "Ahh!" and she's trying to cover up, but I've seen everything anyway. And I get on my bike and I ride off. On the grass.

Andy Millman: [increasingly uncomfortable] So it's mainly you sort of go around seeing ladies' tits?

Patrick Stewart: Mainly.

--------------------------------------------------

Patrick Stewart: And I do other stuff, like I go to the World Cup final, and it's Germany versus England, and I wish that I were playing, and suddenly I am, and I score the winning goal, and they carry me into the dressing room and there's Roony and Beckham and then Posh Spice walks in and ...

Andy Millman: Her clothes fall off?

Patrick Stewart: Instantly.

Andy Millman: Sure.

Patrick Stewart: And she doesn't know what's happening, but I've ...

Patrick Stewart, Andy Millman: [in unison] seen everything.

Andy Millman: [pause] Good. Is there a narrative at all, is there like a story in the film, or is it just ...

Patrick Stewart: Well, I'm a sort of a James Bond figure ...

Andy Millman: Right.

Patrick Stewart: And I have to go to Iraq, to rescue these hostages. And I get there and I rescue them, but they're all women and they're naked because their clothes have rotted off. But I get them into the helicopter, and I'm flying the helicopter, but I can still sneak a look in the mirror and I can see everything, you know. One of them's bending over, two of them are kissing ...

Andy Millman: They've turned lesbian.

Patrick Stewart: Yeah, because they've been in the camp for so long.

Andy Millman: Can happen. Well, look, good luck with that. I've just written a sitcom, but I wonder if you could give it to anyone you know, you know, in film or TV ...

Patrick Stewart: Is there any nudity in it?

--------------------------------------------------------------

Also if anyone is interested he makes fun of creationists / christianity.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaEj3g5GOYA

That might work if they get shot in the stomach and it so happened to land exactly inside or something, but how does a bullet get into the intestinal track after being shot in lets say...the leg?

 

The only thing I could think is that there is mechanism within the body that will recognize a bullet or metal or whatever and cause it to either to be incased with some super protective layer of something and have some super strong acid break down the bullet and have the body push it out like a pimple or something.

 

Then they would also need to reroute all important components of the body in such a way that when the body repairs itself there is still the essential path to carry blood and such throughout the body. If not then they need a whole new system that doesn't rely on the circulatory system, which kinda makes lungs and hearts pointless.

 

I am not sure if this is evolutionarily possible. Maybe by genetic eng. You would need an environment where as a species you get shot a lot or someone constantly trying to gun you down, I think the pressures would be so large that you would never get a chance to have the right mutation to come about.

I wasn't really talking scientifically.

But I guess when the bullet enters the body it liquidizes then travels to the stomach to be digested. We're talking about werewolves and vampires here... anything goes.

My only problem at the moment is that the majority of articles I've read say that the benefits of GM foods are vast and that they have the potential to solve hunger problems and create disease and pesticide resistant crops, then they turn around and say that we need to tread lightly as there are potential harms but they stop short of explaining these harms.

I understand that people want to preserve natural food sources but at what cost?

"GM is good for people because it helps feeding the poor"

I know it's not as easy as that. That statement is just a convenient excuse for people who know little about GM foods. Perhaps Greenpeace instead of fighting against GM foods they could petition to bring prices down. Having small GM crops in africa that are drought resistant could help feed many villages. Is preserving a plant more important than saving a life?

Diseases evolve too, and a field of genetically identical plants is a prime target for specialized bugs.

Wouldn't interbreeding with natural plants change that? Also once they interbreed are those immunities that were engineered into the plants passed on?

Not all instances of genetic engineering, that I've read about, were aimed at disease protection.

 

Some modifications were designed for plants/crops to be able to survive frost or grow in very cold conditions, while the original plant would have failed in such circumstances. And then there's the possibly over-ambitious ideas of some geneticists to modify vegetables to taste like chocolate, etc.

I was aware that disease protection wasn't the only instance. I was just talking specifically.

Modifying vegetables to taste like chocolate is a waste of time and money.

Little JOHNNY was sitting on a park bench munching on one candy bar after another.

After the 6th one, a man on the bench across from him said, "Son, you know eating all that candy isn't good for you.

It will give you acne, rot your teeth, and make you fat."

Little JOHNNY replied, "My grandfather lived to be 107 years old."

The man asked, "Did your grandfather eat 6 candy bars at a time?"

Little JOHNNY answered, "No, he minded his own f*****g business.

I think it is important to try and preserve at least some plant diversity in case of disease or some other problem develops with the GE'ed plant. Bananas and potatoes(Ireland) provide some examples with lack of diversity.

I was under the imperssion that crops are genetically engineered to withstand diseases that are proving troublesome.

Are there any examples of GE'ed crops turning bad? I'd like to read about it.

I found an article by greenpeace that condemns the production of genetically engineered rice crops. Their main argument is that not enough is known about the effects of genetically engineered crops and the affects they may have on the environment and human health. I'm no expert but this sounds like propaganda to me. Genetically engineered crops are produced to withstand chemicals sprayed by farmers and harmful pathogens, isn't this proof enough to keep on going with it? Alot of the article goes on about how they're worried about the "GE'ed" plants interbreeding with natural ones, are there any problems with that?

Here's the article:

What's wrong with genetic engineering (GE)?

Genetic engineering enables scientists to create plants, animals and micro-organisms by manipulating genes in a way that does not occurnaturally.

 

These genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non 'GE' environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.

 

Their release is 'genetic pollution' and is a major threat because GMOs cannot be recalled once released into the environment.

 

Because of commercial interests, the public is being denied theright to know about GE ingredients in the food chain, and therefore losing the right to avoid them despite the presence of labelling laws in certain countries.

 

Biological diversity must be protected and respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world's fundamental keys to survival. Governments are attempting to address the threat of GE with international regulations such as the Biosafety Protocol.

 

We believe:

GMOs should not be released into the environment since there is not an adequate scientific understanding of their impact on the environment and human health.

 

We advocate immediate interim measures such as labelling of GE ingredients, and the segregation of genetically engineered crops and seeds from conventional ones.

 

We also oppose all patents on plants, animals and humans, as well as patents on their genes. Life is not an industrial commodity. When we force life forms and our world's food supply to conform to human economic models rather than their natural ones, we do so at our own peril.

Quite possibly the funniest man alive.

His stand-up had me in stitches.

The Office and Extras are brilliant. The Daniel Radcliffe Extras episode is a personal favorite.

Here are some youtube links that I think you guys might enjoy.

His latest stand-up show... FAME:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l1WROWJkZA Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcNjE8fzU8E Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCD-vvlyH4 Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtAe6HCTlBQ Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7rM0X-f3U Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btc4kDMZTZs Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkVdwuzt0qg Part 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhsbaLO44VU Part 8

Extras 'Daniel Radcliffe' clip:

Ricky interveiwing his 'dumb' friend Karl Pilkington (Karl is being himself BTW):

These are some of my favorites so tell me what you think.

I agree with ydoaps, so unbelieveably bad.

this comment pretty much sums it up:

BadKittyinMoscow (8 hours ago)

"This is just filled with all kinds of what-the-****ery"

Here's one I saw recently when watching BRUNO. I thought it was quite good.

District 9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZnpzfcMheA

Only Aussie so far.

Haha... I'm actually familiar with some of his work. I remember him because I thought, "Damn... what a great porn name!"

 

 

 

 

Clye Maxx.

Good to see someone here is representing the porn stars... not enough credit is given.

Have a few personal favs myself, no names that warrant a post though.

My take on it.

The bullets go in then the werewolf or vampire digests them then excetes them via their anus. OUCH! You never see this because they never show vampires or werewolves doing 1's or 2's in movies.

Bush was an idiot??? but you guys got rid of him haha.

I suppose Capitalism is fine for now but a growth economy cannot be maintained with a limited environment.

It might be an inevitablity that capitalism will have to end if we are to survive... one day.

1*2+3*4+56+7+8+9=100

there's one way using two multiplication marks.

Roger Ramjet/Ram-it

Dick Pound

Craven Morehead

Michael J. Cox

Hugh G. Rection

I don't think any scientific organisations would fund the project, probably more of a private investor thing now that I think of it. Which seems wrong to me as the only way they'd get their moneys' worth out of it would be to exploit the clone.

Still I'd love to see one.