The genetic code of most of organism is same. I believe that nature doesn’t do anything for random. Then why is the genetic code the way it is? There has to be some purpose behind it. I mean why there are 3 stop codons (UAA, UAG, UGA) and just one start codon (AUG)?? Is nature more inclined towards limiting proteins than exploring new ones??

Furthermore, why are there 6 codons for Leucine while just 1 for trytophan? I guess it has something to do the functionality of amino acid. More the flexibility of amino acid, more the no. of codons encoding it. More the specific the amino acid, lesser the no. of codons encoding it.

For the past 3-4 days I was very busy with the wrapping up the inaugural issue of Jeev. It is an online life sciences magazine launched by me and my batch mates at college. I feel so happy and satisfied now.

It is really very inspiring for oneself when one taken an initiative without someone telling him to do so. This entrepreneurial spirit proves to be useful in life if developed earlier. I am so lucky to have developed it.

Now, back to the magazine. I am the Founding Member, Managing Editor and Chief Designer of the magazine. The first issue of magazine contains:

Articles:

* Metaevolution: Evolution of Evolution

* Stem Cell Technology

* Fitness Genetics

* Hacking Evolution for living Indefinitely

* Microbial Forensics

* X Men: Fascinating Dreams or Imminent Reality

Columns:

* Interview of Prof. Sriram Kosuri of MIT

* Company Profile: Biocon

* A Different Perspective

* Endnotes

Extras:

* The Biology Quiz

* Web Resources for Biology

The magazine can be read at: http://www.dce.edu/jeev. Your feedback is appreciated. We also invite articles for the next issue.

Please, please, please be honest with your feedback as this is the only way I can improve

See Nature’s Special issue on Future of Computing. I will read it soon and make sure you read it too. Stay updated with the future.

This year, recently, the classic and einsteinian book turned thirty. The book which I am talking about is ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins. The reason why I call the book einsteinian is because it redefined not just the evolutionary biology but brought a paradigm shift in the field of biology. Now, postulating hypotheses and thinking widely were not only restricted to physics or philosophy. The book pulled biology from being purely factual to being greatly philosophical.

I have read the book and I must say that it is one of my favorites. Excitement and anticipation fills every page of the book. So radical are the ideas of Dawkins that people still now object certain parts of the book. And the best thing, the can’t explain their reason for objection; it doesn’t just feels right for them.

The book proudly proved that there is no meaning in life. I knew that, but I particularly liked the point in the book that life is just because it is. DNA replicates because if it weren’t it won’t replicate. Evolution is because it is. I can’t write this in words, it has to be felt. If something X happens because it has to happen then you can’t give a reason why X happened.

The X here is evolution. The book tells that the basic unit of evolution and the gene is not just a piece of DNA. It is that entity which is chosen as a unit of evolution. Sort of self-sustaing definition, isn’t it?

I still don’t comprehend how people can deny Evolution. It just is.

The Selfish Gene truly explains the most beautiful facts of life in a simple yet impactful language. If you haven’t read it, you have missed a lot in life.

Read the transcript of the meet which was held to celebrate 30th B’Day of the book.

First of all check out the news story onnature.

Do you smell something fishy here? Well, I certainly do. The NASA people are planning to let the rovers decide which images are interesting and correspondingly transmit those images ONLY to earth base station. They are literally handing over the total control of selecting images to a robot. And mind you, this robot is no ordinary one. First of all, the robot is more than 78 million miles away from nearest human. Secondly, it generates its own power through solar panels.

The reason I am little bit shocked by this news is because in my view adding any form of Artificial Intelligence into objects which we cannot manipulate/observe physically is not a good thing. How can you let a mechanical thing to decide which pictures are interesting and which are not.

Then we, humans, will only receive images which rover thinks is interesting. We will never be able to see those images which aren’t interesting (from rover’s viewpoint).

Let us imagine a hypothetical situation. The rover’s AI is programmer to select images of cyclones, clouds, etc. Now, imagine if rover clicks a picture of little-green-man of Mars, its AI says that the picture isn’t a cloud nor is it a cyclone so the image is pretty uninteresting. It, sadly, does not send the picture to Earth base station. And we miss the biggest story of all time.

The sadder part is that we will [b]never[/b] know such kinds of things exist because we presume that they don’t exist. We won’t discover new things on Mars because they will be un-interesting to the AI.

This is one of the few harms of AI. It isn’t smart yet. Human intervention should always be there with AI. You never no which bug in software makes the AI self-aware

Imagine the rovers Spirit and Oppurtunity become self-aware.. Scary.. Well, this though deserves a whole thread of its own..

A study is being conducted to define various areas and aspects in the new field of “synthetic biology”. According to the report, “Synthetic biology is the engineering of biological components and systems that do not exist in nature and the re-engineering of existing biological elements; it is determined on the intentional design of artificial biological systems, rather than on the understanding of natural biology.”

I particularly do not like the phrase “rather than on the understanding of the natural biology”. Why shouldn’t we understand nature via tinkering and synthesizing it. As some wise man as said, “I listen, I forget. I write, I remember. I do, I understand.” How are we expected to learn biology, if we can predict or invent or make things.

Another point which the article highlights is this: “Biologists have identified three critical principles that must be present in any living system: They must be self-creating, self-organizing and self-sustaining.” The article/report also contrasts computer fields such as genetic algorithms,autonomous agents, neural networks and artificial intelligence with living systems, which I think is quite insane. They are essentially comparing information with matter. It is like saying if number system can ever be found (physically) in universe.

Click here to read the article.

We really hate exams. We don’t understand the purpose of exams. Why don’t those guys believe that we relish knowledge. So testing us for that is an assault on our pride.

Exams test for knowledge. But what are they exactly testing for: generalizations or facts. I believe memorizing facts is waste of resources and time. So the exams should not test particular knowledge, rather it should be a test of whether a person is sufficiently intelligent to generalize the knowledge. I believe exams should employ some practical means to achieve this. Give us a project and let us work on that. But please don’t assign grades on the projects. We are the best judges of our work and know its worth.

Appeal: Ban the exams

On Behalf of all people like me,
Paras Chopra

:icon_cool:

The story starts with: “A strain of bacteria that releases electrons as a waste product could become the secret ingredient for developing fuel cells for spy drones and other small robots.”

It continues:

“”Researchers at Rice University and the University of Southern California have embarked on a project to harness the power of Shewanella oneidensis, a microorganism that essentially spits lightning. Rather than consume oxygen to turn food into energy, Shewanella consumes metals.

The waste product of its metabolic process comes in the form of excess electrons stripped from the metals but not recombined in subsequent chemical reactions. The bacteria lives in soil, water and other environments and can extract its necessary nutrients from a variety of materials.”"

The news demonstrates yet another (mis)use of biohacking. The robots can become self-aware and then with the help of their never ending bacterial power they will colonialize earth and enslave humans. We are giving a potentially endless source of power to robots which they could have never self-realized.

I always thought that our best defense against self-aware robots could be simply to take their power plug off. But now what do we do when they don’t even have a power plug?

Click here for the story.

Researchers have successfully hacked the spherical property of the mosaic virus to their advantage. They have used the readily available spherical surface of the virus to anchor iron atoms to make a nanoparticle. The iron atoms on the surface can store electrical charge, hence the hybrid of virus-iron can act as capacitor.

All these developments in the arena of biohacking are redefining the limits of biology. Now would you credit the novelty of new device to the scientists who made it or to the nature who provided spherical surface essential for the device. This question is more fundamental than it seems. With the fusion of biology as nature wants it with the technology as we want it, new hopes plus fears will arise. These issues will be totally unknown until they actually pop into existence. And that is because our mind is not conditioned to realize biology sans carbon.

Click here to read the story.

P.S: The new age of biology is going to be quite un-obvious and will completely surprise sci-fi writers.

Researches are planning to pit “good” bacteria against “bad” bacteria salmonella. I must admit, this is also one of the biohacks which can save lives (of chickens). The good bacteria essentially fights by not fighting. Well, this means they get into the intestinal track of the bird and set up shop, leaving no room for the bad bacteria. Effective strategy, huh?

Click here to read full story.