Jack Aidley

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Formerly a games developer, I am now studying for a PhD in microbial genetics.

	798 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	4 months
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May 16	comment	Why do eukaryotic organisms have introns in their DNA? But prokaryotes do have introns - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC177115 - although on nowhere near the scale that Eukaryotes do.
May 15	comment	Why aren't organelles considered alive? In human cells, mitochondrial DNA codes for just 37 genes. All other genes required for mitochondrial function have been transfered to the nuclear DNA. Specifically the POLG and POLG2 genes that are involved in mitochondrial DNA replication are now located on chromosomes 15 and 17, so without being present in the host cell they could not replicate. The replication itself occurs in the mitochondria but the proteins needed are synthesised by the host machinery.
May 15	comment	Why aren't organelles considered alive? Neither Mitochondria nor Plasmids could maintain or replicate themselves outside of a cell because both have passed the genes that encode for key proteins over to the host cell.
Apr 18	comment	Why are there no wheeled animals? I mean that finding an animal with wheels would demonstrate both that it is anatomically possible and that it is evolutionarily possible. I consider both to be good arguments as to why we'll never find such a thing but I suspect the reality is that the space of possible organisms that might be anatomically possible has never actually been explored because there's no evolutionarily advantageous pathways that leads there.
Apr 17	comment	Why are there no wheeled animals? Equally I'd conclude there must be some anatomic way it works too.
Apr 17	comment	Why are there no wheeled animals? Um, I not sure which argument is strongest. I think I favour the evolutionary angle, myself. Both are though, I think, sufficient answers but the evolutionary one probably better reflects the historical reality of matter. Wheels didn't evolve because there was no beneficial intermediate for them to pass through.
Mar 21	comment	Why is that all the animals can swim in water without learning to swim but humans cannot? I found a website that claims "Most animals are good swimmers. In fact, they can swim from the time they’re born. But some animals have to be taught how to swim. This group includes people, gorillas and chimpanzees."
Mar 13	comment	What is the difference between a circular and a cat's-eye pupil? Your alternative explanation makes no sense: animals with vertical pupils have these pupils expand to circles in low light conditions so the slit is not used during night vision.
Mar 5	comment	Perception of artificial light - flickering I believe this answer is correct; but I think it's worth emphasising that these things are actually flickering. It's not an illusion; if anything the absence of flicker when directly observing is the illusion.
Mar 4	comment	Types of bacteria that will kill other types of bacteria? I doubt it. Such bacteria are extremely diverse and cover a large spread of species.
Feb 26	comment	Effect of doubling volumes of PCR reagents Older models simply raise the block to the temperature and don't worry about controlling for getting the liquid in the tube to the indicated temperature. In this case, it is possible that the real temperatures were different depending on volume.
Feb 26	comment	Lactose Intolerance To expand on the infant thing: lactose is present in most mammalian milk but mammals usually only consume milk as infants so there is no need to preserve functioning into adulthood. It's only our weird fondness for milking other animals that has led to selective pressure on retaining the necessary enzyme into adulthood.
Feb 25	comment	Are there examples of encryption in nature? I don't see there's anything masked here; it's just a matter of using different signals.
Feb 25	comment	Gas from bacteria that's not methane Good answer. Although fermentation can produce carbon dioxide too.
Feb 25	comment	Are there examples of encryption in nature? @Nick: I disagree, my view is closer to that in Wikipedia - "[E]ncryption is the process of encoding messages (or information) in such a way that eavesdroppers or hackers cannot read it, but that authorized parties can".
Feb 24	comment	Are there examples of encryption in nature? Isn't this just signalling?
Feb 24	comment	Are there examples of encryption in nature? R-M systems are fascinating, but it seems to me that there is no message that is encrypted.
Feb 19	comment	Very high 260/230 absorbance ratio of an RNA sample scientistsolutions.com/t11627-high+260_230+ratio+for+dna.html suggests that high ratios are caused by high salt concentrations in your sample?
Feb 19	comment	What are some alternatives to Charles Darwin evolution except creationism? An idea akin to Creationism could be a hypothesis but Creationism as it exists in the world today is not a hypothesis but a collection of delusional anti-reality rants without a coherent notion of what supposedly happened.
Feb 19	comment	Does every human eye see the same visible spectrum? Also, you've somewhat confused the women having a fourth type of cone too. What happens in some women is that they have two variants of the same colour photoreceptor (red, almost aways).