Oct 23, 2023·edited Oct 23, 2023Liked by Doc Impossible
I love this! One comment on simplification of base pairs: So many people don't even remember the short names, and need memory aids like my AT🧬GC t-shirt. Hmm, I feel a song coming on...
As always, a wonderfully written article. I only wish that the transphobes would actually understand that their basic, high school understanding of genetics and chemistry, is far more nuanced than they are willing to understand. I find this all very fascinating, thank you so much for sharing it with us.
I really wonder how many have used the ship of Theseus as metaphor for a transphobe talking about a trans person in this way. If so many different genes have been activated and deactivated by that time are the genetics even the same anymore at all? Is it still the same ship that first set sail all those years ago?
Certainly the ship of Theseus is a great analogy for race. For example, is a child who is visibly white, and with one grandparent of color, really mixed race? It’s a fascinating and deeply human question.
I can't go there with you on that, because the whole question of the Ship of Theseus is about change over the lifetime of a person or thing, which race just plain isn't about--and especially not how a person was racialized by our culture as they grew up, which is a whole *different* question.
I'm excited about this! Some effects of HRT have made themselves evident after only 5 months. (The other girls on my Discord server have high hopes for my transition). I'm so stoked that these changes are expressed down to the genetic level!
And epigenetics may only be the 2nd later of the iceberg. Something like 95% of DNA never gets converted into mRNA. What does it do? At least one hypothesis is that the “junk DNA”, the 95% that doesn’t turn into mRNA, acts as the structural basis for bringing proteins next to each other, so they can efficiently coordinate their actions
The cell is so packed with protein; if the cell was an Olympic size swimming pool, and each protein was a swimmer, that pool would have 10,000 swimmer jammed in, ranging in size from Shaquille O’Neill to a newborn infant
So getting this crowd organized is super important and the “junk dna” might be doing precisely that.
I love this! One comment on simplification of base pairs: So many people don't even remember the short names, and need memory aids like my AT🧬GC t-shirt. Hmm, I feel a song coming on...
'Cause it's DNA, It's in your genes,
DNA, We don't know what it all means,
DNA, I'm on HRT,
DNA, And I'll redefine me!
As always, a wonderfully written article. I only wish that the transphobes would actually understand that their basic, high school understanding of genetics and chemistry, is far more nuanced than they are willing to understand. I find this all very fascinating, thank you so much for sharing it with us.
I really wonder how many have used the ship of Theseus as metaphor for a transphobe talking about a trans person in this way. If so many different genes have been activated and deactivated by that time are the genetics even the same anymore at all? Is it still the same ship that first set sail all those years ago?
The Ship of Theseus is a very apt metaphor for transition--and something I have plans to write about in the future!
Certainly the ship of Theseus is a great analogy for race. For example, is a child who is visibly white, and with one grandparent of color, really mixed race? It’s a fascinating and deeply human question.
I can't go there with you on that, because the whole question of the Ship of Theseus is about change over the lifetime of a person or thing, which race just plain isn't about--and especially not how a person was racialized by our culture as they grew up, which is a whole *different* question.
I'm excited about this! Some effects of HRT have made themselves evident after only 5 months. (The other girls on my Discord server have high hopes for my transition). I'm so stoked that these changes are expressed down to the genetic level!
And epigenetics may only be the 2nd later of the iceberg. Something like 95% of DNA never gets converted into mRNA. What does it do? At least one hypothesis is that the “junk DNA”, the 95% that doesn’t turn into mRNA, acts as the structural basis for bringing proteins next to each other, so they can efficiently coordinate their actions
The cell is so packed with protein; if the cell was an Olympic size swimming pool, and each protein was a swimmer, that pool would have 10,000 swimmer jammed in, ranging in size from Shaquille O’Neill to a newborn infant
So getting this crowd organized is super important and the “junk dna” might be doing precisely that.