welcome
Dear visitor,
welcome to Mr. Gene’s Blog.
Please fasten the lid of your lab centrifuge and make sure that the tubes are well balanced. Then relax. As an appropriate inauguration of this blog, we should first clarify a very special term.
This term is, ahem, gene (click here to view a cute animated sequence on it).
Ok, well… G-E-N-E [\’jēn\] - what is it?
For most of us, it’s a twisted stretch of DNA, installed in a 24.500-fold variety in every single human cell, fully equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art regulatory devices and plenty of additional elaborate functions. In a word: really cool matter.
The popular four-letter term was introduced more than hundred years ago by Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen. Click here to take a look at the legendary scientist preparing a lecture in genetics and teaching students.
The abstract entity named G-E-N-E has also yielded plenty of Nobel prizes, of course, propelling previously bland researchers to fame and, sometimes, to untold wealth (e.g. MIT gene researcher Phil Sharp, who made a mint after founding the biotech heavyweights Biogen Idec and Alnylam).
G-E-N-E is, however, also an item that stampedes environmentalists harassed by the health risks of “bad genes”. On the other hand “gene” is an item upon which high hopes are placed to provide the missing piece to many disease puzzles.
Even when you have left your work bench behind, genes have a way of weaselling into your home. Turn on the radio and Mr. Kelly is singing in the rain; start your CD player and Mr. Vincent is kissing the microphone in a “Be-Bop-A-Lula” style; and fall asleep in front of the TV set and be startled by a micro-shorts-wearing Mr. Simmons shouting out fat-blasting routines.
Yes, many a genes are hanging around at peculiar places. Have we forgotten any? Please let us know!
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Congratulation, that’s infotainment!