I Wish I Was An Intellectual

It's okay, Sweve. I feel the same way. I'm still trying to understand the applications of analogies made by famous people. Like Bruce Lee.

Sometimes it's not just trying to understand. Often maybe it's just... doing.

Bruce never said think about how water works... he said "be" as water.

Thread is now about the effects of microRNA on mRNA transcription and Final Fantasy. Both topics are fair game.

Final Fantasy: Clash on Big Bridge:

[video=youtube;NKwqMZd6zhw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKwqMZd6zhw[/video]

Alcohol kills off neurons in your brain thus resulting in tolerance: (written by Swerve)

Andrzej Pietrzykowski presented his research on the relationship between alcohol tolerance and post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA. In order to study this relationship, the BK channel was selected as the subject of interest. The BK channel is located in the human brain and is responsible for regulating neurons that influence the release of chemical and electrical signals. Varied potentiation for each BK channel is due to alternative splicing of its α subunit, resulting in functional diversity. The presentation focused on alcohol upregulation of miR-9, a microRNA that binds to the 3’UTR of alcohol sensitive mRNA and proceeds to rapidly cleave the molecule in order to render it useless. Loss of particular mRNA transcripts results in BK channel modification that causes alcohol tolerance.

In order to assess the natural state of the brain before alcohol exposure, end-point polymerase chain reaction was applied to neurons from the supraoptic nucleus in order to identify alternative spliced exon sites. After sequencing, it was discovered that the mRNA transcripts contained eight different variations of exonal compositions with exon 29 being prevalent in five of the eight transcripts. However, when the neurons were exposed to alcohol, the eight different variations were reduced to only two and neither contained exon 29. Therefore exon29 became known as ALCOREX (alcohol regulated exon) due to its absence after exposure to alcohol. In order to examine quantitative changes in mRNA due to alcohol exposure, qRT-PCR indicates that the total BK mRNA was significantly downregulated because ALCOREX mRNA was sharply reduced along with other splice variants.

The reduction in ALCOREX mRNA coincided with an increase of miR-9 in the alcohol exposed neurons therefore indicating that the two factors are connected. MicroRNA functions by binding to miRNA Recognition Element (MRE) located in the 3’ untranslated region of most mammals. As stated previously, it is known that ALCOREX mRNA is significantly reduced in comparison to other splice variants. If miRNA is responsible for the dramatic reduction of ALCOREX mRNA, then it is possible that ALCOREX mRNA contains a characteristic MRE that distinguishes itself from the other two mRNA transcripts that did not contain exon 29 after alcohol exposure. Primers revealed that there were three major MRE sequences in the 3’UTR region with no alcohol exposure: 3’UTR-2.1 (90% of total 3’UTR), 3’UTR-2.2 (10% of total 3’UTR), and 3’UTR-1.0 (hardly detectable). When the neurons were exposed to alcohol, miR-9 specifically targeted the 3’UTR-2.1. Further experimentation revealed that ALCOREX contains only 3’UTR-2.1 MRE in its 3’UTR region, while other sequences such as STREX contained both 3’UTR-2.1 and 3’UTR-2.2 in equal amounts. Therefore this explains the target reduction in ALCOREX when exposed to alcohol.

Reduction of ALCOREX mRNA results in alcohol tolerance as the exon is the most sensitive when it comes to alcohol exposure. Neurons containing BK channels with high amounts of ALCOREX have the greatest potentiation and have the longest duration when it comes to signal transmission. Loss of ALCOREX results in reduced BK Channel potentiation and duration, therefore resulting in alcohol tolerance for neurons in the brain.

I hate how Bahamut was perverted by Final Fantasy.
Also I pronounce it's name as "Bah-Hah-Muht," and I don't know nor care if it's wrong.

Ugh positive feedback. Thanks for the lesson.

I hate how Bahamut was perverted by Final Fantasy.
Also I pronounce it's name as "Bah-Hah-Muht," and I don't know nor care if it's wrong.

Perverted? How so.

Ugh positive feedback. Thanks for the lesson.

Science time, science time. Tell me what you've learned.

Bahamut (Arabic: بهموت‎ Bahamūt) is a vast fish that supports the earth in Arabian mythology.[1] In some sources, Bahamut is described as having a head resembling a hippopotamus or elephant.[2]


In Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, Bahamut is a beast of Arabic mythology "altered and magnified"[1] from Behemoth. In Arabic myth, Bahamut is a giant fish, described as so immense that a human cannot bear its sight; "[a]ll the seas of the world, placed in one of the fish's nostrils, would be like a mustard seed laid in the desert."[1]
One tradition describes Bahamut as a fish floating in a fathomless sea. On the fish is a bull called Kujata,[3][4] on the bull, a ruby mountain; on the mountain, an angel; over the angel, six hells; over the hells, earth; and over the earth, seven heavens. Another tradition places the Earth's foundation on water, the water on a crag, the crag on a bull's forehead, the bull on a bed of sand, the sand on Bahamut, Bahamut on a stifling wind, and the wind on a mist; what is beneath the mist is unknown.[1] In a similar telling of the hierarchy, Bahamut supports a layer of sand, on which stands a giant bull, on whose forehead rests a mountain of rock which holds the waters in which the earth is located.[2]
According to Borges, Bahamut is the giant fish that Isa (Jesus) beholds in the 496th night of the One Thousand and One Nights. Bahamut in this telling is a giant fish swimming in a vast ocean. It carries a bull on its head; the bull bears a rock, and above the rock is an angel who carries the seven stages of the earths. Beneath Bahamut is an abyss of air, then fire, and beneath that a giant serpent called Falak.[5]
Upon seeing Bahamut, Isa passes into unconsciousness:

At this sight Isa fell down aswoon, and when he came to himself, Allah spake to him by inspiration, saying, 'O Isa, hast thou seen the fish and comprehended its length and its breadth?' He replied, 'By Thy honour and glory, O Lord, I saw no fish; but there passed me by a great bull, whose length was three days' journey, and I know not what manner of thing this bull is.' Quoth Allah, 'O Isa, this that thou sawest and which was three days in passing by thee, was but the head of the fish; and know that every day I create forty fishes like unto this.'[5]

Borges cites the idea of Bahamut as part of a layered cosmology as an illustration of the cosmological proof of the existence of God, which infers a first cause from the impossibility of infinite prior causes.[1] He also draws parallels between Bahamut and the mythical Japanese fish Jinshin-Uwo.[6]

That description sounds like Kefka. Do you think that Bahamut is at the bottom?

Science time, science time. Tell me what you've learned.

No time now . Studying nucleophilic additions to the carbonyl groups of aldehydes and ketones. Will poast later.

Problem is Kefka's a character created in the FF-verse. Bahamut is a fish-deity of creation of arabic mythos. not a bloody dragon that shoots fireballs from it's mouth.

No time now . Studying nucleophilic additions to the carbonyl groups of aldehydes and ketones. Will poast later.

I think of carbonyl groups like a vagina. They have that positive center in the middle just waiting for a negative nucleophile to ram into them.

I think of carbonyl groups like a vagina. They have that positive center in the middle just waiting for a negative nucleophile to ram into them.

And considering water can act as such nucleophile, I think it's time we all embody Bruce Lee's quote and create some chemistry.

I think of carbonyl groups like a vagina. They have that positive center in the middle just waiting for a negative nucleophile to ram into them.

And considering water can act as such nucleophile, I think it's time we all embody Bruce Lee's quote and create some chemistry.

Oh god. Likening atoms to phallic images...
I've seen it all. Please kill me now.

And considering water can act as such nucleophile, I think it's time we all embody Bruce Lee's quote and create some chemistry.

Water is actually a poor nucleophile. Whenever you have a poor nucleophile you need to make sure to protonate the oxygen on the carbonyl group before you can initiate nucleophilic attack.

Water is actually a poor nucleophile. Whenever you have a poor nucleophile you need to make sure to protonate the oxygen on the carbonyl group before you can initiate nucleophilic attack.

Very true. I suppose that means we'll need a little help from our friends, since water can do just that.

[troll science]
Gold has 79 protons and electrons
Mercury has 80 protons and electrons
Take a neutron and pelt away one electron and proton from Mercury
Turn Mercury into Gold!
PROBLEM MENDELEEV?
[/troll science]

[troll science]
Gold has 79 protons and electrons
Mercury has 80 protons and electrons
Take a neutron and pelt away one electron and proton from Mercury
Turn Mercury into Gold!
PROBLEM MENDELEEV?
[/troll science]

And people thought us alchemists were quacks.

Protip! Pick one subject learn the pomegranate out of it and then only talk about that.

[troll science]
Gold has 79 protons and electrons
Mercury has 80 protons and electrons
Take a neutron and pelt away one electron and proton from Mercury
Turn Mercury into Gold!
PROBLEM MENDELEEV?
[/troll science]

Even easier, slam a proton on platinum. It'll naturally pick up an electron and become gold! Too bad it becomes less valued.

Very true. I suppose that means we'll need a little help from our friends, since water can do just that.

True. Wasn't thinking of it like that. I apologize.