Dean: I just finished reading Survival of the Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem. In it he states that the majority of the 'junk DNA' found in the human genome is, in fact, retrovirus.
His book is rather speculative on a lot of fronts, but it's certainly interesting. It touches topics as diverse as why people get an urge to pee when they get cold (part of the body's strategy to drive up the sugar content in blood to protect against freezing damage) to how hematochromatosis (excessive iron in the blood) offers some degree of protection against bubonic plague.
Again, he's pushing the envelope on a lot of issues, but it makes for fascinating (and easy) reading.
Dean,
It's when you post these type issues that you are most appreciated by your readers. I've been busy with caring for a chemo patient, my daughter in law, and have not kept up completely with what all has been going on here lately. There is a reason though, that you are so widely read by others, and that is that you so widely read. Or maybe you are a lot like me, you are interested in everything, so I like you.
Isn't it amazing that in the very earliest days of retroviruses, when they'd only recently been proven to exist and only a tiny handful had ever been found, Robert Gallo got ahold of a sample of one he got from Luc Montagnier's lab in France, proposed that this exotic beastie was the cause of human immune deficiency, went looking for it, and found it in a bunch of--but not all of--those early AIDS patients.
Now it turns out that you can find a ton of retroviruses in just about anyone. They're extremely common, and most if not all of them don't do anything destructive.
Mighty lucky shot, eh?
Within about two years of that, they declared that it was proven that this one retrovirus caused AIDS. Those gay men who had the early AIDS symptoms--kaposi's sarcoma, severe wasting, pneumocystis carnii pneumonia, and low t-cells--who did not have HIV were written off as having an obscure condition that was unexplained (idiopathic cytopathic lymphoma). Then the definition of AIDS was written to be the presence of HIV and the presence of any of a long list of possible health problems.
By the way, the main tests still don't even test for the presence of the retrovirus, just an antibody to it. Then they use PCR to "verify" the presence of it, if you're in a country where the PCR tests are available. The PCR tests are not standardized so different labs will give you different results on that.
It's all fascinating and mysterious and only those who have studied the issue for years can entirely understand it all.
Ruth: Aw shux.
3.1.2007 7:08pm
Commenting on Dean's World is a privilege, not a right. Dean is your host, you are his guest, and you should behave in that fashion. Dean is not your babysitter, nor is he your punching bag. Please remember this. In general, you are free to disagree with anyone on any subject you wish, but abusive behavior will not be tolerated.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.
His book is rather speculative on a lot of fronts, but it's certainly interesting. It touches topics as diverse as why people get an urge to pee when they get cold (part of the body's strategy to drive up the sugar content in blood to protect against freezing damage) to how hematochromatosis (excessive iron in the blood) offers some degree of protection against bubonic plague.
Again, he's pushing the envelope on a lot of issues, but it makes for fascinating (and easy) reading.
It's when you post these type issues that you are most appreciated by your readers. I've been busy with caring for a chemo patient, my daughter in law, and have not kept up completely with what all has been going on here lately. There is a reason though, that you are so widely read by others, and that is that you so widely read. Or maybe you are a lot like me, you are interested in everything, so I like you.
Isn't it amazing that in the very earliest days of retroviruses, when they'd only recently been proven to exist and only a tiny handful had ever been found, Robert Gallo got ahold of a sample of one he got from Luc Montagnier's lab in France, proposed that this exotic beastie was the cause of human immune deficiency, went looking for it, and found it in a bunch of--but not all of--those early AIDS patients.
Now it turns out that you can find a ton of retroviruses in just about anyone. They're extremely common, and most if not all of them don't do anything destructive.
Mighty lucky shot, eh?
Within about two years of that, they declared that it was proven that this one retrovirus caused AIDS. Those gay men who had the early AIDS symptoms--kaposi's sarcoma, severe wasting, pneumocystis carnii pneumonia, and low t-cells--who did not have HIV were written off as having an obscure condition that was unexplained (idiopathic cytopathic lymphoma). Then the definition of AIDS was written to be the presence of HIV and the presence of any of a long list of possible health problems.
By the way, the main tests still don't even test for the presence of the retrovirus, just an antibody to it. Then they use PCR to "verify" the presence of it, if you're in a country where the PCR tests are available. The PCR tests are not standardized so different labs will give you different results on that.
It's all fascinating and mysterious and only those who have studied the issue for years can entirely understand it all.
Ruth: Aw shux.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.