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New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

sciencemag.org

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Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#31

Post by jerf »

Dev_2019 wrote: post #17
ccvannorman wrote: post #5

* 'Small proteins also promise to revise the current understanding of the genome. Many appear to be encoded in stretches of DNA—and RNA—that were not thought to help build proteins of any sort. Some researchers speculate that the short stretches of DNA could be newborn genes, on their way to evolving into larger genes that make full-size proteins. Thanks in part to small proteins, "We need to rethink what genes are,"…

We aren't curing aging any time soon are we :(?

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that it is easier to build a brain scanning machine and simulate you in a computer than to "solve aging".

And don't think I underestimate the difficulty of that, either.

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#32

Post by hinkley »

In retrospect it’s shocking that we are surprised by this.

When life evolved on earth wouldn’t it have first been dominated by shorter, less complex proteins? Why assume all of those have disappeared? Especially when we have some pretty archaic forms of life still around?

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#33

Post by cwkoss »

doctoboggan wrote: post #30
Balgair wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melatonin and Melanin are closely related chemicals that are used all over the body and are synthesized in the body through related mechanisms and pathways. Melatonin is used in the sleep-wake cycle and melanin is used by the skin to darken it and protect from solar radiation. When you need to sleep and when you need solar protection tend to be inversely related. The interaction between these processes is still being…

The comment you are replying to is referring to Melanotan and you are referring to Melatonin. Two very different things (but the same caution about injecting peptides should apply to both)

You point out an important distinction. However,

Melanotan has been reported to cause yawning and sleepiness as a side effect, so I think concern that MelanotAn could interfere with the melatonIn system is certainly plausible.

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#34

Post by paulsutter »

hprotagonist wrote: post #14
Jaygles wrote: post #2

Imagine trying to understand biology like we try to understand what we code day to day. I would need a brain at least 100x as large and efficient.

This is "the andy grove fallacy": it's not clear that you actually can , because code and computational hardware was designed by humans and biology emphatically was not. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2007/11/06/and...

Wouldn’t it need to be clear that we can’t, before it can be called a fallacy?

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#36

Post by hprotagonist »

paulsutter wrote: post #34
hprotagonist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is "the andy grove fallacy": it's not clear that you actually can , because code and computational hardware was designed by humans and biology emphatically was not. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2007/11/06/and...

Wouldn’t it need to be clear that we can’t, before it can be called a fallacy?

fsvo "proof", i'm willing to take it as an axiom that biological systems are fractally weird in ways that are extremely resistant to formalism.

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#38

Post by kodachi »

jerf wrote: post #31
Dev_2019 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We aren't curing aging any time soon are we :(?

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that it is easier to build a brain scanning machine and simulate you in a computer than to "solve aging". And don't think I underestimate the difficulty of that, either.

Simulating the micro-environment is the tricky part. Humans go great distances and interact a lot with the world, and that, plus time, is what aging is, isn't it? Can you simulate all the different ways DNA can mutate?

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#39

Post by jdironman »

hprotagonist wrote: post #14
Jaygles wrote: post #2

Imagine trying to understand biology like we try to understand what we code day to day. I would need a brain at least 100x as large and efficient.

This is "the andy grove fallacy": it's not clear that you actually can , because code and computational hardware was designed by humans and biology emphatically was not. http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2007/11/06/and...

We are just in the debugging phase.

Re: New universe of miniproteins is upending cell biology and genetics

#40

Post by sedeki »

jerf wrote: post #31
Dev_2019 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We aren't curing aging any time soon are we :(?

I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest that it is easier to build a brain scanning machine and simulate you in a computer than to "solve aging". And don't think I underestimate the difficulty of that, either.

Wow. I understand that you are a layperson, but that’s a very strong statement in my view. What do you base it on? Or did you just pull it ”out of a hat”?
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