Procrastination station

your average human comes pre-installed with instincts to:

Befriend

Tell story

Make Thing

Investigate

Share knowledge

Laugh

Sing

Dance

Empathize with

Create

we are chalk full of survival instincts that revolve around connecting to others (dog-shaped others, robot-shaped, sometimes even plant-shaped) and making things with our hands

Imagine fibrous plants that grow super-strong spider silk. Plants that grow as fast as bamboo but as strong as steel

Imagine medicine coming in fruit instead of pills. Oh you want to transition? Here, take this HRT shrub. Put it on your windowsill, water it daily and throw some compost at it every once in a while, and eat one berry per day

Imagine crops that are more nutritious, disease- and pest-resistant, and grow in harsher climates and soil conditions, helping to provide more reliable food to impoverished peoples with no downside whatsoever oh wait we already have those don’t we

So here’s an interesting little bit of biotech that’s being worked on to help combat food insecurity… 

Errr, first off, a little background? Plants have three different types of photosynthesis, based on the biochemical pathways the plant uses to capture CO₂ and make sugars for energy. The most common one is C3 photosynthesis, and it’s used in because it’s very old. This kind of photosynthesis probably evolved sometime in the mesozoic era, back when there were still dinosaurs wandering around.

Another type is C4 photosynthesis, which is a more recently evolved pathway. C4 carbon fixation is a lot more efficient, provides plants with more energy, and captures more CO₂. It evolved in environments with lots of light, so it’s common in warm parts of the world. In fact, C4 photosynthesis is so efficient that even though only about 5% of plants use it, they account for about 23% of the carbon fixation of all terrestrial plants!

C4 also the pathway used by sugarcane, which is what gives sugarcane one of the highest photosynthetic efficiencies of any plant. It’s also the pathway used by maize (corn) and sorghum (a popular grain in parts of Africa).

Anyway, that brings me to the genetic modification part.

After corn, the second most widely eaten food crop in the world is rice, but rice evolved to use the older C3 pathway. Some researchers are trying to change this by genetically modifying rice so it uses the more efficient C4 pathway instead.

The modified rice would theoretically be able to give higher crop yields, and do so using fewer nutrients and resources. As an added bonus, it would also help remove excess CO₂ from the atmosphere. The efforts are being coordinated by the International Rice Research Institute, who’ve received millions of dollars in donations towards the project – they’re the same organisation behind the golden rice project which was about making rice more nutritious for people affected by food scarcity.

Anyway tl;dr science is cool, genetic modification is a good thing, and it can be used to help end world hunger.

Links for scientists:

Hibberd et al (2008)

-the parts of dna that just casually detach on a physical level from the main strand, do some sick skateboard tricks in the cytoplasm, and land somewhere else with 43552342 copies

-the parts that would do A Thing if they wern’t physically spooled up so tightly that the Make Thing Happen machinery couldnt get to them

-the dna thats in ur mitochondria bc the mitochondria used to be a bacteria that our bigger, buffer cellular ancestors just vored in the primordial ooze 

-the dna that’s in chloroplasts in plants for the same reason

-rna….bitches be crazy like what is she gonna do next?? o she gonna act like a protein now and do shit?? im on the edge of my seat 

-sometimes u just gotta make more chromosomes man like sometimes u just be hanging out and u gotta make ur genome 64 sizes larger and then change ur mind only 100,000 years later and delete half of it and thats just how it is on this bitch of an earth

-random shit from like 5 BCE is just casually left over everywhere like no susan i told u to leave that gene alone we might need it to fight dinosaurs again u just never know!!!!!

Breakthrough in understanding mitochondria

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how mitochondria - the “powerhouses” of human cells - are made.

Mitochondria, which exist within human cells but have their own DNA, need many different proteins to function - but the process of how they get these has never been imaged in detail.

Now a study led by Dr Vicki Gold, of the University of Exeter, has shown that some ribosomes - the tiny factories of cells which produce proteins - are attached to mitochondria. This can explain how proteins are pushed into mitochondria whilst they are being made.

The findings open new avenues for studying protein targeting and mitochondrial dysfunction, which has been implicated in diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s.

Vicki AM Gold et al, Visualization of cytosolic ribosomes on the surface of mitochondria by electron cryo‐tomography, EMBO reports (2017). DOI: 10.15252/embr.201744261

But the odds are severely in favor of Republicans for 2018. The election is ridiculously lopsided: 23 Democrat seats and both (there are only 2) Independent seats (who Caucus with Dems) will be up for the taking compared to only 8 Republican seats. Not to mention midterm election turnout is always far less than POTUS elections and Republicans consistently turn out for midterms while non-Republicans fail to show up worse than they normally do.

It gets worse. This is the Senate race in 2018:

Arizona - Currently Republican

California - Currently Democrat

Connecticut - Currently Democrat

Delaware - Currently Democrat

Florida - Currently Democrat

Hawaii - Currently Democrat

Indiana - Currently Democrat

Maine - Currently Independent

Maryland - Currently Democrat

Massachusetts - Currently Democrat

Michigan - Currently Democrat

Minnesota - Currently Democrat

Mississippi - Currently Republican

Missouri - Currently Democrat

Montana - Currently Democrat

Nebraska - Currently Republican

Nevada - Currently Republican

New Jersey - Currently Democrat

New Mexico - Currently Democrat

New York - Currently Democrat

North Dakota - Currently Democrat

Ohio - Currently Democrat

Pennsylvania - Currently Democrat

Rhode Island - Currently Democrat

Tennessee - Currently Republican

Texas - Currently Republican

Utah - Currently Republican

Vermont - Currently Independent

Virginia - Currently Democrat

Washington - Currently Democrat

West Virginia - Currently Democrat

Wisconsin - Currently Democrat

Wyoming - Currently Republican

All of the states in bold were awarded to Drumpf, 11 of which are currently held by Democrats. Republicans hold a 52 seat majority right now. If they can maintain the 8 seats they have to defend, they only need 8 Democrat and/or Independent seats to have a 60 seat supermajority and the power to pass basically anything they want under Trump for two years.

So about 4 days ago my brother was working in the yard and he was getting rid of this big old plastic pot we had that was already falling apart. To fit it in the garbage bag he had to smash it into smaller pieces with a shovel.

But when he dumped out the dirt….

…eggs. Ten little eggs.

My mom brought them in to show me. Not knowing what they were or if they were dangerous or not, she asked me if I wanted to take one and open it up outside to make sure it wasn’t full of baby bugs or something. I told her that they were definitely reptile eggs but she was still giving them the ‘I-still-don’t-trust-that-they-aren’t-bugs’ look.

I knew there was no way it was full of bugs and I wouldn’t be able to get it off my mind if we cut one out and killed it. But then I remembered candling.

If you don’t know what candling is, it’s when you put a flashlight under an egg to check if it’s fertile or not.

So I told her to hold on and I ran to get a flashlight.

Lo and behold they were not bugs.

It was our first time ever candling anything so we weren’t exactly sure what to look for. The only videos I had ever seen for candling an egg was a video talking about how some geckos lay eggs without a mate but there is a rare chance they could be fertile anyway; the eggs in the video were always empty though. So we checked all the eggs and they were all alive and responsive. I managed to convince my family that I was 99% sure they were lizards of some kind.

Since we kind of accidentally destroyed their nest and a storm was coming we set out to give them somewhere safe to hatch.

 We got a pot and filled it with damp dirt like the one we found them in but smaller. After candling each egg, we made a divot in the dirt and placed each egg half in and half off, careful not to turn them too much and damage them.

My mom did some research and found that the eggs needed to be kept somewhere with good humidity so we got a plastic book crate, drilled some holes in it, and filled the bottom with wet paper towels.

The mystery eggs were put in the garage where it was just as hot as outside but safe from the huge thunderstorm.

Day 2 of eggs and nothing happened. We didn’t think anything would happen just yet but we were all a little worried that we were doing the wrong thing. It was my day to go finish up cleaning up the dirt and shards from the broken pot in the yard when I found another egg.

I picked it up and it wasn’t as firm as the others. In fact it was leaking. I called my mom and candled the little guy. He was just as alive as the others were. There wasn’t much room in the new incubator with the other eggs so we got a tiny beta fish tank we haven’t used in years and fixed it up for the egg. We put it in the garage next to the others.

Now this egg had me worried. He had been out in the storm with a damaged egg. I would go out and check on him throughout the day. Not a thing happened and I was starting to worry that he didn’t make it.

Day 3 of eggs was interesting. I went out to check again on little egg 11 with my mom. She asked how the others were doing and wanted to see. It was fogged up on the inside so I shone a light through and saw it. A head! A little baby lizard head poking out of the egg! 

The incubator was taken inside and everyone was gathered around the table. We would all switch from watching the eggs, to someone doing research, to checking the eggs, to setting up the empty tank we had, to checking the eggs again.

All together 4 little lizards were hatching. They’d kick for a bit in their eggs but then fall asleep because it was so tiring. 

After a while my mom got concerned about one that hadn’t opened its eyes in ages. It wasn’t moving. I picked up the egg and put it in my hand. I rubbed the shell and gently gave it little tugs. Then out the baby came!

This little guy came out healthy and fast. After a brief look-around he ran out of my hand and back into the pot. Then over the edge of the pot to explore the hides we fit in. 

After 4 of the babies fully hatched and we figured out what we were going to do, we put the incubators in the spare tank we had so we could keep an eye on them. At that point it was a little past 1:00am and a 5th egg started to hatch.

Day 4 of eggs and lizards we went to the local pet store to get something that these super small babies could eat. Luckily, Petco carries super small crickets and meal worms. We loaded up on reptile supplies: bus, vitamin dust, hides, heat lamps, you name it we probably bought it.

Upon getting home my mother and I readied the tank.

At that point all but two eggs had hatched. One we thought wasn’t going to make it because it didn’t react when I candled it, and the other was number 11 who was found a day late and broken. We decided to move the two into one incubator instead of two while we moved 9 of the lizards into their temporary home.

When we look for them they were hiding in the incubator all curled up together under a plant we had put in. They actually seem to do that everywhere they decide to hide which is kind of surprising to me. I thought they were going to all be really territorial with each other. But they seem to like each other more than I thought they would.

After a few hours, number 11 hatched and he was just as healthy and fast as the others despite being through the storm earlier. Not too long after that, the last egg hatched. He was much smaller than the others but equally as fast. We added them both to the tank with the others and they hid as quick as a ninja.

Day 5 of lizards was mostly setting up heat lamps and lights and worrying if they were okay. They stayed hidden under rocks and brush. We never saw them eat so we went back to researching.

Day 6 of lizards and they are alive and well! They’ve taken a liking to the new heat lamp and have been scuttling around there all day. I even saw one eat a cricket! 

Even the smallest of the bunch was enjoying himself in the warmth :)

from a scientific aspect: 

the facts are, GMOs are the future and the key to increasing crop production for our increasing population if your goal is to keep up food production for more people. remember, the goal right now in agriculture- the key goal that we’re throwing everything into because big yikes fam- is to produce more food off less. so like, vertical farming? good, saves space. smaller plants with bigger yield? great, saves space, can plant more and get more food. plants that are resistant to drought? to high temps? to low fertilizer? amazing, it means you have hardier plants that you can put in places that regular plants wouldn’t be able to stand.

so are they agriculturally efficient? hell yeah, because remember, it takes about 10 years for a crop in testing- GMO or not- to reach a point in development where it can be submitted for approval by the USDA for the market (something I’ve learned in my current job). imagine doing all breeding without GMOs. you would literally be able to do one cross a year, maybe two if you’re in a warmer area (this is why a lot of soybean breeding has been moved to South America, where they can do twice as much breeding). with GMOs, you can develop and test stuff faster, so by a monetary standpoint it’s awesome. 

lets not forget that GMO crops can withstand more because of the pure amount of precision put into them. like, lets say your corn breaks a lot. you can spend 3-4 years meticulously cross breeding your developing strain with a break-resistant variety to get that trait in, or you can just cut and paste in the gene. and get this: it doesn’t even have to be from the break resistant variety. you can pull it from another plant that might be better at not breaking, and get an even better resulting variety. 

another thing that we can’t forget about is that new GMO tech helps us keep up with pests and diseases. at work, i’ve seen experiments involving root pests; plants infected had root systems destroyed down to a single tap root. imagine that happening to a farmer’s field. like, all of it. that’s the kind of thing we’re up against here; to stop infestations and to solve new challenges quickly by developing technology quickly, while still improving the plant to commercial level. 

when talking to the breeders at work, they told me that the industry as a whole recently upped its goal from creating a crop that would give each farmer a 200 bushel harvest (200 bushels has been the goal for the past 30 years; they’ve recently reached it and exceeded it) to 300 bushels per harvest. they have to do this just by modifying the plants. they have no control over how much the farmer plants and/or how many fields they have.

to give some perspective here, one bushel is 60 pounds of grain. they’re aiming to have each farmer that buys their products be able to reliably harvest and sell 18,000 pounds of grain per year. 

the moral of the story is that the breeding and agri industries are under a lot of pressure here, and they have to work fast, because the population is rising. 

knock knock

whos there?

dwindling nitrogen supplies in farmland and unsustainable farming practices but im gonna save that for another time

are they healthier? it depends on what you believe. like, what we’ve found so far is that GMOs don’t hurt you. some of them have added vitamins that can help you (lets not forget the famous GMO golden rice, which uses a daffodil gene coupled with a soil bacterium gene to make a rice variety produce a huuuuuge amount of vitamin A. this has been so effective in solving vitamin deficiencies and health problems in 3rd world countries since it was introduced in 2005 that its won awards and been used as a universal case study for the whole “GMO plants” thing) but most are just like. idk. kind of there? they help the health of the plant and help the farmer bring in income, so???? idk???

are they better for the environment? i have no idea. i suppose indirectly, because like. if you have a heartier plant you have to clear less land for agriculture?? (can anyone weigh in here?). But if these got out into the wild, the effects could be DEVASTATING, which is why the USDA and related government organizations (depending on where you live) make it so you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what you’re putting out into production won’t be crazy damaging if it magically gets out somehow.

(hears the siren song, waddles into the fray)

Re: health - the only GMO plant bred for health so far (that I know of) has been the Golden Rice. and know that Golden Rice also faced a HUGE backlash from anti-GMO activists. 

Golden Rice is just rice + beta carotene, that stuff that makes your carrots orange. Your body converts beta carotene into Vitamin A, which allows you to live and not be blind. People in developing countries with poor diets, especially children and pregnant women, can have huge difficulties getting access to enough Beta Carotene so scientists thought it would be super helpful to add it to a dietary staple - rice. Even Bill and Melinda Gates think that this is a great idea. 

Wikipedia: “The research that led to golden rice was conducted with the goal of helping children who suffer from vitamin A deficiency (VAD). In 2005, 190 million children and 19 million pregnant women, in 122 countries, were estimated to be affected by VAD.[24] VAD is responsible for 1–2 million deaths, 500,000 cases of irreversible blindness and millions of cases of xerophthalmia annually.[25] Children and pregnant women are at highest risk.“

Anti-GMO activists HATE it though, so there’s currently a lot of difficulties for farmers in developing countries to get access to Golden Rice. They tend to prefer having people take supplements, which they can’t always get (they are provided - sometimes - by charities), and can’t make on their own (which leaves them dependent on others), instead of letting local farmers help solve this problem.

There is a group of plant scientists, who work at a plant science charity / germplasm / research institute in the UK, working on creating wheat that contains more iron. They are fighting a huge backlash against their work  - experimental fields get burnt down in the UK by anti-GMO activists a lot.

There are also projects to increase the amount of zinc in various cereal crops and increase the protein in sorghum and cassava. These are all called Biofortification, in case you want to research it more.

Something of a holy grail for agriculture would be to transfer the nitrogen fixing relationship/ability of Fabacea to say, corn. This means that you could enable the corn plant to do what Fabacea does - they make friends with things in the soil, are and able to use the Nitrogen which makes up 78% of the air we breathe. Nitrogen-fixing corn would be a world-changing nobel-prize winning kind of achievement. This would dramatically improve soil health and substantially decrease the amount of fertilizers needed. 

Some plant scientists in the UK are  working on this. It’s incredibly technically difficult.

Better for the environment: GMOs are used to do different things, so it’s hard to talk broadly. The plants that have Bt (Bacillus thurengenisis, a naturally occurring organism and is widely used in organic agriculture) with them ARE better for the environment, in that farmers use way fewer pesticides since they effectively produce their own. I read a study awhile back that certain water ways in China are cleaner thanks to Bt GMOs. There have been some concerns that this will end up with overuse of Bt, pests will evolve past it, and we’re back at the same problem of pests destroying the things we want to eat (or, more likely, animal feed… so much of what we grow is animal feed it’s pretty insane). The thing is, there’s lots of different strains of Bt, scientists keep running across new ones. But we’ll never get away from the arms race that is humans vs pests when it comes to this, it’s as old as agriculture itself.

Papaya ringspot virus - driving Papayas in Hawai’i to extinction

Ethically: People were upset that the terminator gene existed, the public threw such a shitfit that no plants were ever released with them. So now instead everyone freaks out that genes from the GMO plants could end up in the wild. Sometimes, you can’t win.

Scientists were able to save the Papaya trees in Hawai’i thanks to GMO technology. The Papaya Ringspot Virus came through that was wiping out the Papaya trees there to and destroying the livelihoods of many farmers. It was so bad that it was thought that Papaya trees might go extinct, until a few genes were inserted to make them resistant to the virus. There are still anti-GMO activists upset about this for some reason.

Cheese - cheese is made using a a coagulant called rennet. The main enzyme in rennet is chymosin. The old, traditional way of accessing chymosin was from the stomach lining of baby cows. Rennet was/is a byproduct of the veal industry. A combination of people starting to give a shit about animals, increased human population, and increased demands for cheese, meant that rennet prices were all over the place. Scientists managed to create a microbe that could produce chymosin by implanting certain bovine cells, and ended up with a purer product, at a cheaper price, with no baby cows slaughtered in the process. 90% of cheese in the US is made using GMO chymosin aka fermentation-produced chymosin (FPC). Vermont made all dairy products exempt from their non-GMO labeling. However, if you want dead baby cows (or dead unborn baby cows) as part of your cheese making process, insist on buying USDA-organic cheese.

There are tons of non-plant uses for GMOs. We have been using GMOs in healthcare since the 1980s, which has made things safer - no longer using dead animals and human cadavers to harvest certain things. The cadavers in particular were a problem, they were spreading Creutzfelt-Jacob syndrome, which destroys your brain and takes your life, usually in the span of a year. Prions are a nasty business. Children needing human growth hormones were the ones acquiring and dying from it. Now we make hyper-specialized GMO bacteria and yeast to crank out things like insulin, human growth hormone (without prions), and antibodies to diagnose and treat certain kinds of cancer, among other helpful things.

GMOs are also used extensively in science, from breeding special mice to experiment on to creating special fish that will glow in the presence of certain pollutants. There’s new developments every day. 

You FOOL.

ok

- You..do know that I’m not a clown, right? ♠

- Sure