A nice video showing the transcription of DNA to mRNA by RNA-polymerase. A messenger RNA transcript then exists the nucleus to find a ribosome. Their is it translated into a primary structure polynucleotide. Chaperonin fold proteins with the use of ATP into secondary and tertiary structures. Once realised from the chaperonin the protein may be complete or join part of a quaternary structure.

(via biological-chemistry)

Although she looks like a baby, Brooke Greenberg from Reisterstown, Maryland, is actually 20-year-old. Besides the physical stagnation, she did not develop cognitively as well, as her intellectual capacity is similar to that of a 1-year-old toddler. Brooke Greenberg was born in 1993, but can not speak, still have milk teeth and walks using a trolley. She seems to suffer from “Syndrome X”, thus being the only person known to date suffering of this condition that manifests by an abnormally slow growth rate.

Her father, Howard Greenberg, said: “From age 1 to 4, Brooke changed. She grew a little bit bigger. However at the age 4 or 5 she stopped.”

Scientists believe her unique DNA could offer important clues about the aging process and lead to the development of treatments for diseases such as Parkinson that occurs at old age.

jtotheizzoe:

DNA: The Book of You

Oh hey, some guy with the same name as me and who sounds exactly like me wrote and narrated this video for TED-Ed all about the scale, structure and organization of the human genome.

Oh wait… it IS me! Enjoy the sciencey sounds of my voice telling you all about how big the human genome is.

Although 20,000 genes sounds like a lot, it’s far less than the number scientists initially predicted. We end up getting lots of variants out of fewer genes thanks to something called alternative splicing. Although none of it is “junk”, about 8% of our genome is inactive virus DNA (which we stole genes from in order to be born), and more than half is other kinds of insertions from ancient, jumping “selfish genes” called retrotransposons.

Enjoy!

(A note: Most of the numbers in this lesson are for one copy of the human genome. Remember that you actually have two copies of the human genome in every cell, so the length of DNA and number of bases, etc. it actually DOUBLE that! If you want to know more details about any of the facts and figures in the video, leave me a note in the YouTube comments or send me a message here or on Twitter.)

Development of the Human Embryonic Brain

This video from the the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) gives a good overview of fetal brain development. The fetal brain grows enormously during pregnancy, both in terms of its size and the number of neurons.