Weird Genetic Fact

Among the great discoveries of the 20th century was that of the role of DNA in heritability and the maintenance of life. Each of our cells contains almost two meters (6.5 ft) of DNA coiled within it. The study of DNA is still ongoing, but some of the discoveries so far have been a bit weird.

Hybrid Vigor
We all know the dangers of inbreeding and that it is probably not best to marry a close relative. Charles II, the king of Spain in the late 1600s, was so inbred that instead of the usual eight great-grandparents, he only had four. A glance at his portrait and biography will show that this was not a good idea.But something interesting happens when you breed two inbred individuals from different families together. The offspring of such a match will often show a level of physical fitness well above either parent, and sometimes greater than the general population. This effect is called heterosis, or hybrid vigor. What seems to happen is that, for an inbred individual to survive, they must have some valuable traits to offset the detrimental ones. An individual who has been inbred from a different family will have different sets of genes. The cross will benefit from the good dominant traits and hide the negative recessive traits. This also explains the current trend of crossbreeding purebred dogs.
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Epigenetics
Just when you think you have genetics figured out, a new set of complications arises. You inherit one copy of a gene from your mother and one from your father, and you would think they would interact in a nice, equal style. Alas, the inequality between the genders is more than skin-deep.Epigenetics is the study of the changes which can be made to DNA without changing the actual sequence of the DNA itself. Chemical modifications to the DNA can make a gene more or less active. This imprinting, as it is called, can have large effects on offspring health. Two disorders—Angelman syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome—are caused by the inheritance of the same genetic information, but they have widely differing symptoms. The same DNA sequence causes different effects, and it all depends on whom you inherit that piece of DNA from. If the DNA is from your mother, you will develop Prader-Willi syndrome. If the DNA is from your father, you will develop Angelman syndrome.

Mosaicism
It is often said that the DNA in all of our cells is the same. This is broadly true, except in the case of mutations. If a mutation happens when an embryo is young, say eight or 16 cells, then all of the descendants of the mutated cell will inherit the mutation. This will lead to patches of the adult organism having the mutation while others don’t. This can lead to visible changes, such as patches of colored skin or hair, or localized diseases. In humans it can be possible to see stripes (called Blaschko’s lines) that occur when two colored cell types develop together.Occasionally it happens that two embryos in a womb will fuse at an early stage of development. The cells of the two embryos mingle and develop as a single individual. That one organism will then have two sets of DNA. Due to cell migration in embryo development, the resulting organism will end up with patches of each type of cell. In this case of mosaicism, the organism is referred to as a chimera.

Repeats
Proteins are coded for in DNA in sections of three base pairs in length (codons). When DNA is copied there is a proofreading process which makes sure that the copy is the same as the original. Mutations occur when a mistake slips through the proofreading, an event which only happens about once every several million base pairs. But certain sites are more likely to accumulate mutations than others. Sometimes there are repeated runs of the same codon, called trinucleotide repeats. These make it harder for the proofreading mechanism.In Huntington’s disease, the gene involved has a number of runs of CAG in its code. If during copying an extra set of CAG base pairs is slipped in, the proofreading mechanism might miss it, as there are CAG repeats on either side. As a result, when the protein is produced, it has an extra amino acid in it. Luckily there is some flexibility in the protein which allows for some additions. Only when the length of the mutation reaches a critical length does the disease show. And because mistakes accumulate with each generation, Huntington’s disease appears to get worse from parent to child.

05 Book Predictions That Really Came True

All through history, there have been startling accounts of people foreseeing the future, accounts that unnervingly hit or miss the mark. From Nostradamus predicting the Great Fire of London in 1666 (totally happened, according to some) to the Mayans prophesizing the Earth’s end in 2012 (er, not so much), history isn’t exactly lacking in the premonition department.These premonitions are actually more common than you might think. And it’s not just doom-filled calendars and ancient textbooks from the middle ages; there are plenty of contemporary premonitions that have been published, funnily enough, in works of fiction. Most literary forecasts that pop up in books are often brushed off as purely coincidental or chalked up to being educated guesses, but some of them are almost too unsettling for words. Let’s take a look.

Super Sad True Love Story By Gary Shteyngart
The novel Super Sad True Love Story, published in 2010, follows the romantic entanglement of Lenny Abramov and Eunice Park in a near-future dystopian New York, where life is dominated by technology and bad debt. Credit rating is broadcasted to the world through “apparats,” which bear a striking resemblance to the iPhone 4.In the novel, economic chaos reigns. The US is hopelessly in debt to China, the dollar is devalued, America has defaulted on its debt, and China scolds the country publicly. This exact event was mirrored in real life across international news channels when China stated that Washington must “cure its addiction to debt” less than a year later.[1]Shteyngart also managed to predict the Occupy Wall Street Movement in 2011. And though his predictions are parodic for sure, most of them have come true, proving, perhaps, that we live in a world where reality takes its cues from fiction.

2001: A Space Odyssey By Arthur C. Clarke
Although many consider 2001: A Space Odyssey a film and solely that, there was, in fact, a book that was written concurrently alongside the screenplay by Arthur C. Clarke, based on his short story, “The Sentinel.” It roughly follows a similar plotline but is based more on the revised version of the script and not the deviation the film eventually took. However, in both versions, we get a glimpse of the “newspad,” a device that features instant access to periodicals and other information all across the world. It looks like an iPad and works like one. The book was published in 1968, and the iPad was introduced in 2010, 42 years after the film and movie came out, so it’s no wonder that Kubrick is regarded as the sci-fi seer of his time.[2]Then again, perhaps it wasn’t Kubrick who saw the future but Steve Jobs who copied Kubrick?

Gulliver’s Travels By Jonathan Swift
In the world-famous Gulliver’s Travels, Swift takes us on several fantastical adventures across the hidden corners of the globe, where Lemuel Gulliver meets the Lilliputians in a far-off country, encounters the giants in Brobdingnag, and then goes on to visit the flying land of Laputa, where Swift’s premonitions rapidly come into play.It turns out that Laputa’s astronomers have discovered that Mars has two moons, 150 years before they were observed by Asaph Hall in 1877. The fact that his prediction was based on mere conjecture is far more impressive than someone who makes an educated and informed guess, as even their proximity and orbit are fairly accurate.[3]Hall named the moons Phobos and Deimos. In a nod to Gulliver’s Travels, a crater on Deimos was named Swift after the writer himself, a tribute as remarkable as the premonition that inspired it.

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Looking Backward: 2000–1887 By Edward Bellamy
Living in a time of social and economic turmoil in the late 19th century, Edward Bellamy grew embittered by the slow creation of labor unions, the violence surrounding the working-class majority, and hostility toward the privileged minority. The American writer therefore outlined his opinions and advice for the future in his novel, Looking Backward: 2000–1887. In it, protagonist Julian West falls into a hypnotized deep sleep and wakes up a century later, in the year 2000. The world has become a socialist utopia, where all of America’s goods are distributed equally to its citizens. It was Bellamy who first introduced the concept of credit cards to the world before they were ever invented, when his character is taken to a store and given one that works like a debit card.[4]They acquire all the products and services necessary to lead a comfortable life, depending on the buyer’s situation. Although not exactly the same as the present day, it’s still with remarkable foresight that Bellamy created this concept—now adopted by banks all over the world. And to think that far ahead in the late 1880s was something only a very forward-thinking individual could conceive. That, or a time traveler.

Stand On Zanzibar By John Brunner
Predicting the presidency of specific people is no easy feat. Yet John Brunner, in his novel Stand on Zanzibar, did just that. The book was science fiction, a novel set years in the future which follows two roommates: One is an executive at a powerful global company, and the other is a spy. Brunner also predicted outbreaks of violence in schools and acts of terrorism becoming a massive threat to the United States. Although he wrote his book in the 1960s, Brunner successfully predicts young adults’ hookup culture, drugs to improve sexual performance, electric cars, inflation prices, and even how homosexual relationships go mainstream.[5]It’s a future that’s not far off from our current reality, and the truly bizarre coincidence comes in the shape of a major world leader, a man called President Obomi, a mirror version of Obama. And it’s not just the weirdly similar names and the fact that he’s the US president; he even looks like Obama.Never mind our floozy hookup culture; that’s just plain remarkable, given that it was published in 1968 and set in 2010, not long after Obama’s actual election. Mcafee Support Number

03 Hurricane Survivors And Their Stories Of Survival

There are many devastating natural disasters that will we see throughout our lifetimes. One of the worst are hurricanes. Hurricanes have been responsible for millions of deaths throughout history, and each year, we get to witness at least a few of these terrifying storms. Even though there have been so many deaths due to hurricanes, there are also a lot of heroic survival stories. Some of the following people survived against all odds, and here are their amazing stories.

Jennifer Lowry
Jennifer Lowry survived Hurricane Odile in 2014. This hurricane hit Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Hurricane Odile was a very unique storm. Back in September 2014, it was broadcasted that Odile would be near Cabo but that it would head out to sea and peter out, so residents and guests weren’t too alarmed by the hurricane nearing them. Unfortunately, the hurricane unpredictably changed its course, and because of this, it became a very severe storm. Since the people in Cabo were not expecting this magnitude of a hurricane, 18 people lost their lives, and many were very unprepared for the events that were about to occur. Lowry was one of them.[1] Lowry was on a trip to Cabo with her friends when the storm hit. Her and many hotel guests were provided a safe place and shelter from the storm in the hotel ballroom. Even though Lowry was unharmed, many hotel guests who arrived at the ballroom had been cut up by broken glass. She also described the horrible sounds that she heard as the winds screamed by the hotel. Lowry and her friends had to stay an extra week in Cabo after the hurricane because the airport was completely destroyed. Even though this story is of a woman who was relatively safe throughout the hurricane, it still shows just how scary one of these storms can be if it suddenly changes course and intensity.
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Isabel Ramos
Isabel Ramos survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992. This hurricane hit Miami-Dade County, Florida, where Ramos is a resident. Hurricane Andrew was incredibly severe and was very devastating to Ramos. The night the storm hit, Ramos’s house was completely destroyed and fell apart around her. Ramos was able to find shelter with her dogs in her garage. She heard the howling wind and her house falling down outside her garage. She was trapped in her garage for hours and even had to hold up part of of the roofing to protect herself and her dogs.[2]Ramos’s story shows just how devastating hurricanes can be and how you can pretty much lose everything you own. It also shows how important it is to keep yourself safe during a storm like this and to not worry about your other possessions.

The Smiths
The Smiths are a married couple who survived Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Not only did they have to brave harsh conditions, but they are also on this list for another reason: Annie Smith went into labor during the peak of the hurricane. Harvey was one of the worst storms the United States has ever seen; imagine having a baby while that was going on. The Smiths reached out to the director of Annie’s fellowship program, who contacted their local fire department for help. The fire department sent a truck to the Smiths’ house. The truck had to go through many feet of water, and the rescue was very difficult for the firefighters. They, along with neighbors, had to form a human chain to rescue the Smiths. Eventually, the Smiths made it to the fire truck.[3] Annie gave birth 12 hours later.
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Grenfell Tower: 'Stay put' advice failed, says expert

Advice to "stay put" during the Grenfell Tower fire had "effectively failed" within around half an hour of the blaze starting, a report has found.

Dr Barbara Lane said there was "an early need for total evacuation of Grenfell Tower", but she added it was not an "easy decision to make".

Her comments are in one of five reports published at the start of the fact-finding stage of the public inquiry.

Seventy-two people died as a result of the blaze, the inquiry has said.

This includes Maria Del Pilar Burton, 74, who died in January. She had been in hospital since she was rescued from the 19th floor.

The inquiry is expected to last around 18 months.

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What happened at Grenfell Tower?
Grenfell Tower inquiry: What is happening?
Who were the victims?
Having already heard seven full days of tributes to the tragedy's victims, the public inquiry has turned to the cause and spread of the fire.

Five expert reports were published on Monday morning, looking at the tower's safety measures and the evacuation on 14 June last year.

The reports include three studies of how the fire spread - including one examining the contribution of the highly flammable cladding and insulation which had been installed as part of a refurbishment.

Another report considered the building's own fire protection measures, and another the safety regulations in place at the time of the tragedy.

When the fire was first reported at 00:54 BST, residents were initially given advice to "stay put" inside the building.

In her report, Dr Lane said this advice had "effectively failed" by 01:26.

A change in policy recommending residents try to leave wasn't made until 02:47 BST, one hour and 53 minutes after the first emergency call.Prof Jose Torero's report said a "stay put" strategy was appropriate while the fire was contained to flat 16, but not once the fire started to spread up the building.

He said that once the fire had breached the flat - the "second phase" - it would have been better for residents to have left their flats and exited the building.

Prof Niamh Nic Daeid's report stated that the fire began in the south-east corner of the kitchen in flat 16 on the fourth floor of the tower but there was "insufficient" evidence to determine the exact cause.

She said the "cause of the fire remains undetermined" but the origin was more than likely around a fridge-freezer in the flat.
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