riddler 0 #1 October 12, 2004 Ok, so this isn't as ground-breaking and awe-inspiring as mapping the human genome, but the complete sequence for a cloned species of tetrahymena has been completely mapped. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=53830043 Tetrahymena - you know - they're related to the parameseum. Parameseum - you know - those little pond-water germs you used to look at under a microscope in high school biology class? Why is this so exciting? Because this was done by none other than my older brother, after four years of research for his PhD thesis at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Have I already mentioned how proud I am of him? All I can say is that when we were kids, I was the smart one. So the next time you think four years is too long to spend doing anything important - getting a college degree, saving up for a rig, planning a wedding - just think: there are people out there that spend that same amount of time mapping 8500 base pairs of single-celled organisms that live in pond scum. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpeedRacer 1 #2 October 12, 2004 That's cool!I was in a lab in grad school, where we were raising Tetrahymena. We were feeding them to the Euplotes, which we were also growing in order to study them using electron microscopy. It was pretty cool. Euplotes are these little freshwater protozoa that have these thick armored plates all over them. They propel themselves through the water with cilia. The cilia are held in place by these sort of cage-like structures, which were made out of a unique protein that my lab had discovered. Speed Racer -------------------------------------------------- Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riddler 0 #3 October 13, 2004 Yep, seen Euplotes too - my brother's hobby is electron microscopy - he just had to get the microbiology degree so he could play with them Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DrunkMonkey 0 #4 October 13, 2004 Quote...but the complete sequence for a cloned species of tetrahymena has been completely mapped... Tetrahymena - you know - they're related to the parameseum. ...this was done by none other than my older brother, after four years of research for his PhD thesis at Albert Einstein College of Medicine... Could you ask him to name one of those lil guys "Bob"? No reason in particular, just thought "Bob" would be a good name for a Tetrahymena Thermophila. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
