DNA, Not Like I Thought It Was
I've read through a stack of Randy Oliver's papers (I find them way more interesting and helpful on paper than on the screen), and feel like I am finally starting to get an understanding of the issues with hive death that I am dealing with- and others in my area area dealing with. What he says- about the adjustment of bees to nosema, DMV, and mites, is obviously right on. There's no pat answer or solution- but there is hope, and it is unlikely that bees, and beekeeping, will pass from this earth in the near future. Thank you Randy, and of course, all of the sources that he has gathered and shared. I am heartened to think that is is not hopeless, and that something I love as much as this is worth pushing forward with, despite the losses.
As an aside, and the personal silver lining in my reading, is that I have really become fascinated by the basics of microbiology and the way DNA and RNA works- something that I thought I had a basic understanding of already, but now realized it was way off. Its referred to often in his writings, and so I thought it would be good to catch up on some of the basics.
It is beyond fascinating- its amazing and far more complex and interesting than I would ever have thought.
I started with some modern microbiology textbooks from the Goodwill. Holy smokes. Maybe my last biology book was in 1978. A massive amount of things have happened since then- and I am shocked and amazed by how much there is to know- and how complex, and infinitely interesting, the very basics of life are,
Before this, I think my knowledge was limited to the original Scientific American articles from the 60s that I read as a 12 year old, and The Double Helix. I understood that there was a big molecule, DNA, in a double helix, that it "unzipped" somehow, with 4 bonds that described the order of 20 amino acids, and that this had been discovered mostly manually- with sticks and foam balls in Cambridge, U.K.. I got that it was the whole program of how to make a creature. And I sort of got The Selfish Gene perspective- that this was the basis for everything- absolutely everything we do and are. That's about all I knew.
And that was it. But what I I didn't get wasnthat that there were actually things involved- like ribosomes, and all the myriad enzymes that open DNA, and copy it- and send it out of the nucleus... etc. And there were lots of them- and it was super complex, with lots of twists and turns- but they had shapes, and fit into each other, and acted like,,, well, machines. And this was the very, very basic root of all life.
Two sources- and I am sure there will be more- were jaw dropping, The first was reading James Watson's book DNA, and to read in detail the history that has happened since his and Crick's original insight, its an excellent book. Another Goodwill find, complete with pages that become unglued and fall out as i read them.
(I am also a fan of his wierder and wilder partner, Crick, who wrote The Amazing Hypothesis which is a book that seeks to decipher how we see.)
However, DNA caused me to realize that I had no really good idea of what was actually happening- I couldn't see it- what was, exactly, a ribosome, or tRNA, or the thousand other things- that were, in fact, things, that caused us to be what we are, think what we think, do what we do...? What did they "look" like- what was it like, at their scale?
So- another thank God for the internet-
This series of videos caused my jaw to drop. Likely, it won't affect you in the same way, its like recommending a "favorite movie" and doomed to fail, but if you go through the videos- they are all short, a minute or so, and they are all from the very center of DNA research, you may be as enthralled as I was. Real time. Happening millions of times a second- or minute- in your body, right now, More astounding, I think, then considering the extent of the cosmos. Who cares? But that there are these machines in our bodies- tiny, relentless, and never resting, and make us everything we are? And to actually be able to see them in animation? Really? A ribosome is two parts, clamps down on tRNA, reads the code 3 at a time, sucks in amino acids in a machine like grip, and out the top squirts a protein? Really? How is this even possible?
Its an aside- its not beekeeping- but it is, in so many ways. Because this is how the survival of bees will work- the playing field it will happen and it is how viruses work. They play on this field- molecular. I totally recommend taking a look.
As an aside, and the personal silver lining in my reading, is that I have really become fascinated by the basics of microbiology and the way DNA and RNA works- something that I thought I had a basic understanding of already, but now realized it was way off. Its referred to often in his writings, and so I thought it would be good to catch up on some of the basics.
It is beyond fascinating- its amazing and far more complex and interesting than I would ever have thought.
I started with some modern microbiology textbooks from the Goodwill. Holy smokes. Maybe my last biology book was in 1978. A massive amount of things have happened since then- and I am shocked and amazed by how much there is to know- and how complex, and infinitely interesting, the very basics of life are,
Before this, I think my knowledge was limited to the original Scientific American articles from the 60s that I read as a 12 year old, and The Double Helix. I understood that there was a big molecule, DNA, in a double helix, that it "unzipped" somehow, with 4 bonds that described the order of 20 amino acids, and that this had been discovered mostly manually- with sticks and foam balls in Cambridge, U.K.. I got that it was the whole program of how to make a creature. And I sort of got The Selfish Gene perspective- that this was the basis for everything- absolutely everything we do and are. That's about all I knew.
And that was it. But what I I didn't get wasnthat that there were actually things involved- like ribosomes, and all the myriad enzymes that open DNA, and copy it- and send it out of the nucleus... etc. And there were lots of them- and it was super complex, with lots of twists and turns- but they had shapes, and fit into each other, and acted like,,, well, machines. And this was the very, very basic root of all life.
Two sources- and I am sure there will be more- were jaw dropping, The first was reading James Watson's book DNA, and to read in detail the history that has happened since his and Crick's original insight, its an excellent book. Another Goodwill find, complete with pages that become unglued and fall out as i read them.
(I am also a fan of his wierder and wilder partner, Crick, who wrote The Amazing Hypothesis which is a book that seeks to decipher how we see.)
However, DNA caused me to realize that I had no really good idea of what was actually happening- I couldn't see it- what was, exactly, a ribosome, or tRNA, or the thousand other things- that were, in fact, things, that caused us to be what we are, think what we think, do what we do...? What did they "look" like- what was it like, at their scale?
So- another thank God for the internet-
This series of videos caused my jaw to drop. Likely, it won't affect you in the same way, its like recommending a "favorite movie" and doomed to fail, but if you go through the videos- they are all short, a minute or so, and they are all from the very center of DNA research, you may be as enthralled as I was. Real time. Happening millions of times a second- or minute- in your body, right now, More astounding, I think, then considering the extent of the cosmos. Who cares? But that there are these machines in our bodies- tiny, relentless, and never resting, and make us everything we are? And to actually be able to see them in animation? Really? A ribosome is two parts, clamps down on tRNA, reads the code 3 at a time, sucks in amino acids in a machine like grip, and out the top squirts a protein? Really? How is this even possible?
Its an aside- its not beekeeping- but it is, in so many ways. Because this is how the survival of bees will work- the playing field it will happen and it is how viruses work. They play on this field- molecular. I totally recommend taking a look.
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