Triple Helix — Designing a New Molecule of Life 152
Anti-Globalism sends in this quote from Scientific American about attempts to synthesize molecules that function as well or better than the natural building blocks of life:
"A molecule that some researchers study in pursuit of this vision is peptide nucleic acid (PNA), which mimics the information-storing features of DNA and RNA but is built on a proteinlike backbone that is simpler and sturdier than their sugar-phosphate backbones. ... Many studies have demonstrated PNA's suitability for modifying gene expression, mostly in molecular test-tube experiments and in cell cultures. Studies in animals have begun, as has research on ways to transform PNA into drugs that can readily enter a person's cells from the bloodstream. ... Some scientists have suggested that PNAs or a very similar molecule may have formed the basis of an early kind of life at a time before proteins, DNA and RNA had evolved. Perhaps rather than creating novel life, artificial-life researchers will be re-creating our earliest ancestors."
Sounds like razors (Score:5, Funny)
Soon we will have the "quatro helix DNA" and then 5 helixes and so on.
Triple helix... finally (Score:3, Funny)
This will be how science finally gets us to 6-asses. I am pre-ordering my 6-assed monkey right now.
But will this really be an improvement? I don't even want to think about how many razor blades will be needed to shave all those asses. They'll probably have to come out with a 12-bladed disposable razor or something...
Wasn't this part of a movie plot? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:PNA Too stable? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wasn't this part of a movie plot? (Score:1, Funny)
Threshold protocol activated (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah sugar-phosphate is just too scary. Lets create life based on stuff we aren't made of like lead and mercury.
Way better than fast food? (Score:1, Funny)
So they're using Wendy's Hamburgers for this? Sounds delicious
Re:PNA Too stable? (Score:1, Funny)
"Who wants to live forever?"
Re:Sounds like razors (Score:5, Funny)
Re:PNA Too stable? (Score:3, Funny)
Freddy Mercury?
Re:PNA Too stable? (Score:3, Funny)
Nwabudike Morgan?
(but even 500 years would be nice)
Re:Wasn't this part of a movie plot? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Er. (Score:3, Funny)
So why not dump a whole lot of this newfangled triple helix stuff in the environment and wait a few billion years? Let's see who's the winner then! Will it be DNA or PNA? SMS your prediction to 999-HELIX and win a spaceship!
Re:Sounds like razors (Score:2, Funny)
Re:PNA Too stable? (Score:2, Funny)
Great. (Score:1, Funny)
Just, roaches will never start a nuclear war in the first place.
There, you jinxed it.
Re:Er. (Score:1, Funny)
PNA might function better than DNA/RNA, but its cost (resources, time to create) is higher and couldn't be afforded by the first organisms.
By your logic humans who wouldn't survive a nuclear war are less efficient than roaches that would survive it.
Just, roaches will never start a nuclear war in the first place.
Ah, so they are better in both ways.