[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Thoughts?

PING!

[buckalfa]

Should some knowledge remain unknown?

[grey_whiskers]

Great. Now see what codons they form, (among themselves or *with* the existing four bases), what they code *for*, and the relative affinitiees of different substrates one to another.

Oh, and how do they react to methylation?

[faithhopecharity]

This could explain Nancy pelousy

[Ken H]

“It’s moving. It’s alive!!”

[Billthedrill]

Interesting, with big implications in the data storage and retrieval biz. Not so much in life functions, though, at least not yet:

The researchers could potentially use their synthetic DNA to create novel proteins as well as RNA.

The problem is: do they code for anything? That is, do they make proteins? Can we incorporate them into tRNA attached to anything that binds?

It's pretty exciting stuff, actually, but building a meaningful protein isn't just getting a sequence right, it's figuring out how the thing folds into a useful morphology. We're taking baby steps here, but they're forward.

[gundog]

What could possibly go wrong?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

So, it seems that we’re 4-bit life forms; and, we may be rendered obsolete by 8-bit life forms. Or not.

[OrangeHoof]

And yet there’s still no “gay gene”...

Bummer.

[SamAdams76]

I don’t know much about DNA but I did score well on the GCAT test.

[Stosh]

Something like this was reported a couple of years back, with the addition of two unnatural groups that base-paired reasonably specifically, to give a total of six “letters” to the genetic alphabet. Don’t know if much of anything practical was done with it; it was largely an experimental demonstration of a theoretical concept.

[fruser1]

I’ll stick with the garlic, cilantro, anise, and thyme.

[Ezekiel]

Normally, as a pair of DNA strands twist around each other in a double helix, the chemicals on each strand pair up: A bonds to T, and C bonds with G.

So far so good.

For a long time, scientists have tried to add more pairs...

That's what got us into this mess.

[KarlInOhio]

Why do I hear "Don't Fear the Reaper" in the background?

[moovova]

RSTLNE

[TheZMan]

“The study implies that there is nothing particularly “magic” or special about those four chemicals that evolved on Earth”

Right, OK. So you COPIED an architecture from another design and can now claim the design is not particularly “magic”.

Yet you walk around the room, doing your research ... running on those boring old chemicals.

[dangus]

Kinda dumb news. Uracil also occurs in nature.

[Yaelle]

To paraphrase Taylor Swift, “cause we don’t know what we don’t know...’

[hoagy62]

That’s going to play hell with the movie “GATTACA”.

[x]

By adjusting these holes and prongs, the team has come up with several new pairs of bases, including a pair named S and B, and another called P and Z2.

______

So what will they call Gattaca II?

And will anybody be able to pronounce it?