Break the Barrier (5/6) - Richard Dawkins

[PrincessTS01]

i wanna know what my dna code looks like

[Casshyr]

@PrincessTS01 you can easily do that nowadays, many companies offer to sequence your whole genome for just under $1000, although the quality may not be decent, usually it is around ~$3000 to $40000. The problem, afterwards, is the interpretation, cuz even if you decipher mutations within ur genome, that doesn't mean u'll get a disease or any form of reliable disease prediction. Ex: does knowing u'll have 1% to get disease X help u in any way?? Interpretation is the rate-limiting step.

[indi600]

Those experiments on those fruit flies was exactly what I did in class today! We had to use an etherising tube just like that one haha

[shcnoozlebop]

quote russell howard: you see the type of people who support her on the tv "i wanna LOOK like herr!!" how can you take her seriously?

[AmericanAtheist1038]

@jshowa2 He meant "spiritual" as in "numinous", not as in "supernatural". He frequently uses words like them in a more sophisticated sense, and people mistake him for being literal.

[Leyjoes]

Dr. Freeman!!??

[uiuiuiseraph]

What does Dr. Freeman remind me of? :D

[Shavarnarak]

By the time the sun goes, there won't be any humans around. Either we'll be long extinct, or what will be around will be distant evolutionary descendants of humanity, that are no longer humans.

Even if humans don't change themselves, and actually survive for that long (doubtful), evolution will change them into other creatures over those billions of remaining years the sun still has. For whom current humans will be distant ancestors.

[akaei0]

They spent three years isolating 1 protein receptor that is probably important. Sounds boring?

But our professional athletes, actors and musicians spend years on tedious development. We wouldn't be able to stand monitoring every moment of of their development. But when it's show time we line up to indulge ourselves in their efforts.

Some excitement may be lost during periods of peer review and reproducing results. But when we discover those important answers we should rejoice as a people.

[bdf2718]

Sarah Fucktard Palin, go fuck yourself.

Drosophila melanogaster has been important in genetic research for many decades. Short gestation time is one reason. But, until genetic amplification came alone, polytene chromosomes were the major reason.

And hey, they just gave us a major clue about cancer. But Palin wants to stop research using them.

As Dawkins says, we need to understand science as a society in order to make informed decisions.

[hipp6y]

@bdf2718 she does? i can't imagine why. maybe she doesn't know it's just fruit flies, and thinks it's kittens or sth? being dumb and all.

[bdf2718]

@hipp6y

She does. There was a congressional debate over funding research into fruit flies. Palin and "Get off my grass" McCain ridiculed it.

[hipp6y]

@bdf2718 huh, and just when you think there's a limit to her stupidity...

[shcnoozlebop]

@hipp6y legendary!!!!