The Biosphere - 2015-10-28 (page 2 of 2)

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9:00 PM

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Sure, but the iodine doesn't actually do anything(AFAIK). Iodine is only present in some thyroid hormones, but it's well-conserved across hundreds of millions of years of evolution so there must be some reason why it's there. Lots of hormones don't contain iodine but still control all kinds of things.

This is why I want to know so badly

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. what? It takes me time to answer questions! Otherwise, I will give an answer that just has big chunks of text from differen articles! you want that? @Resonating

It seems like there should be a simple answer but there isn't

@Resonating That pasta thomij answer is improbably detailed. How does he know so much about it?

Answers take time, especially good ones.

@Resonating Doesn't do, as in not involved in the mechanism of T4 etc. affecting a cell's behavior?

9:01 PM

@FaheemMitha man I have no idea, but I'm impressed.

@Resonating Me too.

I mean, not doing electrophilic or nucleophilic attacks and all that chemistry?

Maybe he got bored one day and researched it. Or maybe he's a food chemist.

@FaheemMitha Thomij?

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. T1 binds dna regulatory sites, it doesn't directly participate in metabolism

9:02 PM

30

A: Why does pasta really boil over?

The starch forms a loosely bonded network that traps water vapor and air into a foamy mass, which expands rapidly as it heats up. Starch is made of glucose polymers (amylopectin is one of them, shown here): Some of the chains are branched, some are linear, but they all have $\ce{-OH}$ groups ...

In the article I am reading, it says - "the ease with which various iodine species become volatile, react with simple organic compounds, and catalyze biochemical reactions explains why iodine became an essential constituent of life and the Earth's atmosphere—and a potential marker for the origins of life."

@Resonating Not the metabolism itself. I mean, what are the reactions of T1/T2/T3/T4?

@Resonating That's what I was asking. The iodine doesn't actually do anything? It just sits there?

@FaheemMitha That's our Thomij! He knows some general chem and IIRC he's a polymer chemist.

@TanMath That's crazy. Iron is actually used as an electrochemical catalyst in many many enzymes. Iodine not so much.

9:04 PM

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Oh. Are you a chemist too?

@FaheemMitha what did you think?

If you think you can convince me otherwise write an answer! I'd love to be wrong

@FaheemMitha No. "our" was pertaining to chem.SE.

I'm just a kid. :)

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. ok

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. I thought you were a chemist... You a student like @orthocresol?

9:06 PM

@TanMath Less than that.

@Resonating In another article, it says that " Iodide, which acts as a primitive electron donor through peroxidase enzymes, has an ancestral antioxidant function in all iodide-concentrating cells from primitive marine algae to more recent terrestrial vertebrates. Similarly, thyroxine and iodothyronines show antioxidant activities through deiodinase enzymes. "

@TanMath See, that's interesting. Is there a connection between peroxidases and metabolic functions? Is it a question of 'here, increase your metabolism and here is some iodine to help soak up the free radicals generated by your newly increased metabolism'

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. ? What do you do? you are in a university?

@Resonating yeah.. I will write up an answer.. I hope it is fine with you if I take some time..

@TanMath There's no rush, I don't have terminal cancer or anything.

BTW, why did you accept the answer you accepted?! It doesn't seem like it answers the question... Also, can you change the accepted answer? I promise to give you a good answer..,

@Resonating I figured! ;) Are you a researcher?

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. BTW, what did you think of my meta post?

9:15 PM

@TanMath Kind of? I have an awkward set of job responsibilities right now.

@Resonating meaning?

@TanMath I'm not allowed to think of your meta post since I'm not a Bio guy.

@TanMath Partially research partially tech support partially software development

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. why not?

It is not Biology!

Plus, you ask and answer bio questions here anyway!

@Resonating ok.. That can be awkward!

Well, I could go and shout myself to be heard in meta, but I rather not.

This is your community, not mine.

When I went and posted 10 posts, then I count as a semi-avid user of Bio.

9:18 PM

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. sure, but I still want your opinion.. as a leader of thr chem.SE community, your advice would be very beneficial!

"Leader of the chem.SE community" LOL

@FaheemMitha @Resonating what do you think about the post? Anything to say?

I'm just a happy user of chem.

Nothing more.

The chat one? Not really.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. yeah! note that i said "a leader of the chem.SE community*

@Resonating why not? please help us improve our chat!

9:20 PM

I can't make my 10-yo brother do something. How am I a leader?

I don't have any ideas and I don't really have any experience with revitalizing chats or anything, so I figured I would just wait and see

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. you got a 10-year old brother? can i assume you are young?

And also say things

@TanMath Which post?

@FaheemMitha the one you pinned...

9:21 PM

@TanMath Don't assume. I'm 16.

@TanMath Oh. Well, I certainly think a more active Biosphere would be a good idea.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. i don't believe it! How can you be a simple teenager?

He's a complicated teenager, like all teenagers

Believe what you wish.

like all people, actually.

9:22 PM

in The Periodic Table, Sep 30 at 11:15, by inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Full disclosure - I'm just a kid in high school

It's nice if people talk more to each other. Though I think Bio is full of busy professionals, who don't have the time.

in The Periodic Table, May 15 at 18:40, by MARamezani

Thanks @Ron and @nicolau, but you missed the fact that I'm not just a high school kid. I'm also a cyclohexane.

@TanMath Are you new here?

in The Periodic Table, Sep 1 at 16:00, by inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

I'm a kid; but not that kid.

That sums it up.

@FaheemMitha nope...

9:24 PM

Anyway, @Resonating has been here for a while, and knows some of the people, so he probably has a more informed opinion.

Plus he actually knows biology.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. bro, i didn't realize that.. I am young too, but I don't want to reveal my age..

Some of the other chats deteriorate into random gossip or worse, so it certainly would be nice if the chat could stay on topic.

this is the farthest i am going - I am younger than you would think

@TanMath No one can make you reveal what you don't want to.

Not on the internet.

You know what they say

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog

9:26 PM

@TanMath Anyway, that's pretty much my thoughts on the subject.

@FaheemMitha sure, but, soem fun is necessary! do you have any ideas about how to keep it on topic?

@Resonating But I'm a chemical, not a dog.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Same principle applies.

@TanMath Well, if enough people want to stay on topic, it will stay on topic.

@FaheemMitha When it gets busy, you could ask any two-sided conversers to go make a room for themselves.

That way it won't become the ELU chat.

9:27 PM

Compare and contrast. U&L is nearly always on topic. The Frying Pan (cooking) is almost never on topic.

Yes, ELU is almost as bad as the Frying Pan.

Almost? Haha.

The tech chats are generally quite good at staying on topic. Even TeX.SX.

Well, I think the max conversations running at the Table have been 2.

And they're usually when I'm impatiently waiting for Mart's feedback on something meta.

Which does have its share of digressions. But most of the time stays on TeX. It's full of TeX fanatics, including a bunch of developers.

So, yes, in summary, it would be good to stay on topic. There's certainly plenty to talk about in Biology. Resonating could educate us. He's forgotten more about biology than I ever knew, probably.

you'll make me sound like a nicer version of Watson

9:31 PM

Scratch nicer.

>:)

@Resonating Of Double Helix fame? He's a major jerk, by all accounts.

Hmm,

Interesterified fat

Interesterified fat is a type of oil where the fatty acids have been moved from one triglyceride molecule to another. This is generally done to modify the melting point, slow rancidification and create an oil more suitable for deep frying or making margarine with good taste and low saturated fat content. It is not the same as partial hydrogenation which produces trans fatty acids, but interesterified fats used in the food industry can come from hydrogenated fat, for simplicity and economic reasons. == ChemistryEdit == Fats such as soybean oil consist mainly of various triglycerides which are made...

So that's not saying much.

@FaheemMitha hence nicer

whats wrong with watson?

9:32 PM

@TanMath He's a major jerk.

We could play a game.

Everyone could mention a basic biological fact that everyone should know, but probably doesn't.

@TanMath It's the name of every doctor character I've seen in semi-humorous series.

Crick also. He almost ran down my entire girlfriend's family when she was little.

@Resonating That sounds like an anecdote waiting to happen.

not holmes and watson watson, watson and crick watson

9:33 PM

I thought Crick was Cool.

I do not really know the details

Ok

And this is third-hand, so don't go off telling anyone

I also might be mixing up Crick and Watson here. One is sexist and One almost ran over my girlfriend, but they might be the same one

@Resonating Nobody would care. Now, if it was Michael Jackson who nearly ran down my entire girlfriend's family, that would be a different story.

(in a truck on a footpath in massachusetts because he was famous and wanted to take a shortcut)

9:36 PM

3 mins ago, by Faheem Mitha

Everyone could mention a basic biological fact that everyone should know, but probably doesn't.

Go!

ok! DNA is a double helix?

@FaheemMitha was that a bad one?

Scratches head Raises hands Does this test affect our mid-term average?

> Biology is applied chemistry.

>:P

@TanMath LOL

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. :-)

Oh, here's a fun fact. Since the invention of the Haber process raw biological productivity worldwide has increased 30%

Too peaceful here @Reson, let's start a war.

@Resonating Yay for stats. Goes to find some

9:40 PM

@Resonating I somehow had the impression that process was discovered in the 19th century.

That's what they use to manufacture artificial fertilizer, right?

Er, does "how pH affects the mechanism of zwitterions" count as "biological fact that everyone should know, but prolly doesn't"?

@FaheemMitha Yup. invented in 1909, so you're close at least.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. zwitterions?

there are only a handful of ecosystems where nitrogen is the limiting reagent now. That wasn't always true

german for between + ions

@FaheemMitha Molecules with positive and negative charge. Proteins are usual biochem examples.

9:43 PM

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Possibly, but an example would help.

Yeah, something like that.

I mean, what kind of biology does this come into?

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. not really. I was just out and out wrong abotu that

@Resonating What did you say?

this is not biology.. more of chemistry!

9:44 PM

@TanMath They say the highest rep user here is a biochemist.

The Big Bang Theory made me look up what thermite was, which was unexpectedly interesting. But that's not biology, unfortunately.

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. essentially acids with pKa near 7.

@Resonating What? Zwitterions?

Yes. That's not what they are.

It's kind of related but zwitterions are not weak acids

Yes. Glycine is a zwitterion, I think.

9:46 PM

well they often are acids or bases, but nto all bases are zwitterions

Yes. OK, I think I should sleep. 1:18 a.m. here.

Actually, I unexpectedly learned a biological fact in the Frying Pan a few weeks ago.

Apparently the image from the eyes undergoes lots of preprocessing before it hits the brain. Some of it inside the eye itself. Which I found quite surprising. In the retina, perhaps?

I didn't think any part of the body had the machinery to do that kind of thing, outside the brain.

Oh yeah. the retina is crazy. there are like secondary sheets of neurons that connect to two cones and fire only when their cones are different and that kind of thing

@FaheemMitha nearly all reflexes are outside the brain itself. When you touch hot things and jerk away, a lot of walking is regulated by a little knot of nerves in the hip for reaction time, etc

Sample:

in The Frying Pan, Oct 8 at 21:39, by rumtscho

in vision, pattern recognition starts in the retina, even before information is sent up the optic nerve towards the brain

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. : bye! thanks for coming! see you soon!

9:51 PM

@Resonating But does that qualify as mental processing, I wonder. Pattern recognition, I mean.

Heres a fun fact, yellow fire trucks are easier to see at night! this does have to do with biology!

@Resonating Is image preprocessing a reflex?

@FaheemMitha Shrug I've been doing biology too long to care about distinctions like that.

@Resonating Hmm.

@Resonating distinctions are important as a biologist!

9:53 PM

They're not, not really.

But a reflex is something not under ones control.

And you can presumably choose to focus on some aspects of an image.

@FaheemMitha As opposed to stuff your brainstem does? get your cartesian duality out of my biology

In that discussion, I talked about that trick picture where you can switch between seeing a goblet and a face.

@Resonating So you think the privileged role of the brain is the rankest biological superstition?

Jerking away from hot things or subconsciously tracking movement with your eyes or noticing faces

What's the difference?

@FaheemMitha Oh man I wish I'd thought to call it that. Yes.

@Resonating Isn't pattern recognition an intellectual function then?

I.e. can one's eye think? To put it crudely?

To recognise a pattern, you first have to have a pattern stored, right?

9:57 PM

@FaheemMitha Crudely speaking your eye can think. But it can only think crudely.

Crudely.

@Resonating Apparently I never gave my eyes enough credit.

the pattern they're matchign is simple

possibly 'face' but mroe likely 'movement'

I actually don't have the slightest idea how the brain works. So...

and it's encoded in the physical structure of the eye

to change it you'd have to rewire that stuff and that takes a while

I have more respect for the eye now!

9:59 PM

@Resonating What's a simple example of pattern recog by the retina?

To be honest, i want to change topic.. I cant follow...

I guess this really long and fun chat session is over! thanks all for chatting! @Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. @Resonating @FaheemMitha

Sleep time. Later, everyone.

@FaheemMitha bye

@TanMath Bye.

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Oct '1528

The Biosphere

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