h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I found your introduction fascinating, and I think your doing brilliantly - I'm half your age and twice as beffudled by this technology. I am a mature age student, having thrown in my job of fifteen and a half years to put myself back through high school and university. I am struggling for motivation in what is the most important year for me to date. If you find the time, I wonder if you could let me know how you managed to maintain the required work ethic during your studies. Hopefully it will be just the spur I need. You keep doing what you're doing, because you're just fine!

Dear Biomass,



What a lovely surprise to find your note to me. I badly needed to be reminded of my University years, and hopefully you have given me just the inspiration I needed.

I went to your home page and I see that you are stuydying science. I was actually a sociologist with the emphasis on Law. All I can say is that I started off determined to major in French, and gradually changed my subjects to what I was really interested in - which were politics and the sociology of law.

Perhaps that is what is wrong/missing/pear-shaped in your first year. I certainly remember that once I had kicked Psychology (strong emphasis on the behavioural approach) down the drain at the end of my first semester, and started on Logic and Metaphysics my whole life changed.

I think that the greatest joy about being a mature student is the fact that you can choose the subjects that interest you. I had certainly never heard of Logic and Metaphysics when I went at the age of 44 to Uni. And yet, I now find that that is really my whole essence of life.


So I would suggest that you look at your subjects carefully - examine the options, and choose what you want to study. There is so much there and you might find that you are totally turned on by something which you had never dreamt you might be interested in!!.

Which Uni are you at? I visited Monash when I was visiting my daughter and her family when they lived in Melbourne. Incidentally a city which I loved.

With kind regards, and do not be disheartened.

Incidentally it took me 5 months to be able to teach myself to concentrate so that I remembered what I had read!!..

Also Ran1

And lots of good luck. Please feel free to write whenever you want to.

A quick note, I will be on and off the air for about 10 days due to computer repairs. I will try to check messages from uni, like now, but don't know if/when the next chance will be. Please keep in touch during this little hiccup. I am actually finished my degree, and I have accepted an offer to do an Honours year with the Microbiology department, but I will have to leave the details until I get my computer back. Hope to hear from you soon.

Congratulations on doing your Hons. How exciting and how interesting. Have you a special area of interest?

I hope that your computer gets mended quickly. I am lost when when I cannot get on line as I have so many friends on line and basically when one is as old as I am, nad basically jolly handicapped, people are not really interested in you in RL . I always feel like I am consigned to the compost heap. Which makes me very ANGRY!!!
Perhaps I should say cross because it appears athat it is not PC to get angry. But I seem to remember Dylan Thomas writing a wonderful lpoem to his father who was verybill and anger definitely came into that!!.

I wonder what you are doing for Easter. Have a happy one and I hope to hear from you soon. Ours is going to be very quiet.

Kind regards

Also Ran1

I wrote quite a long reply several hour ago and my modem dropped out. When I reconnected the message has been erased. So here I go again!
Firstly, I will have no more talk of the scrap heap from you. I'm interested in you, so the rest can go to blazes.
Thank you for the Easter wishes. I am doing the same as you - nothing much. Honours students don't get any holidays (I now find out to my horror), instead we get the keys to the micobiology department and our specific labs so that we can be there any time of the day or night we choose (or have to be). Generous aren't they. My sisters have taken their families up to see Mum and Dad, so I have been appointed the pet carers job because I couldn't go. Oh, well.

I'm sick of all this PC garbage, you get angry if you want to! I insist.

Yes, I do have a specific area of research. In Australia we cannot do Honours in microbiology without one - I know this isn't the case over there because of the different academic system. My research is in - wait for it - mitochondrial RNA processing. Fancy name but it's not that great, I'll explain a little of it to you.
Mitochondria are endosymbiotic bacteria (endo means internal, sym means together, and biotic means living. So they live together with us inside each and every one of our cells) that you only inherit from your mother, and they are the powerhouses of our cells - we couldn't exist without them, they produce almost all of the energy our cells use to carry out their various functions.
No doubt you have heard of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), well there is a second type of nucleic acid called RNA (ribonucleic acid) - these are the only two nucleic acids. DNA is "transcribed" into RNA, which is then "translated" into proteins. I won't bore you with transcription and translation mechanisms, but mistakes in the processing of mitochondrial RNA causes several hundred diseases including various types of blindness and deafness. If we can understand these processes we may be able to prevent or cure such conditions. I don't expect to solve the problem, but I believe I can add to the knowledge base so that someone else can crack it open.
For my research I need 8 specific fragments of DNA (so that I can get the RNA I require). I have had 6 of them for some time, I got the 7th about 11 days ago, and after many failures and late nights (and weekends too) I isolated the last one on Thursday. Hopefully this will launch my research into another gear because it has been quite slow going - but that's science. I take critcism much better than I take praise, so I left early on Thursday because there was too much backslapping going on for my liking. I must say, however, that they were all genuinely pleased for me. And I'm proud of them too, of the 8 honours students 5 are tackling problems that have not yet been solved, and in my lab their are 2 honours students and we are both doing research into unsolved mysteries. In some areas of mitochondrial research my tiny little lab leads the world (mainly thanks to my supervisor), and I am very proud of the work our people and my supervisor have put in. Very proud, indeed. I'm quite sure that I have bored you to tears by now. But as for that compost heap, if I thought you were ready for that I would have had to explain what I do in a childlike manner. I didn't do that, yet you understood every word. That must tell you that you're not ready for recycling just yet! I am sorry that this turned out to be so long, I do waffle on sometimes.

My dear dear biomass,

What a wonderful Easter egg. To be treated as if I have NOT lost my marbles - and to have this quite wonderful research explained to me. And to think that what you are examining is inherited from the cell of the mother. I hope there are good things as well in the maternal cell "mitochondrial RNA" -. Must go and check in your "EGG"

Incidentally congratulations on "extracting" - is that the correct word? - all those DNA's. I thought that one just sort of put something under a microscope and there were all those beautifull coloured ribbons of DNA,!! I should have realised that there was more to it than that. I seem to remember reading that someone had invented a microscope that was able to check the DNA very quickly. And now you have RNA as well. Do men also have RNA or is it something which is specific to women. I suppose not. But perhaps they carry different "things". That surely is a most important breakthrough because I have never heard of RNA. Until you explained it to me. Thank you so much.

You must be a super person in order to be able to stand criticism better thatn backslapping!!. Perhaps that is because as one gets older the affirmation is often either not given or actually perhaps assumed to be there. That, my friend, is a vital point to remember in research "NEVER ASSUME". But I am sure that you know that. Does your research have anything to do with the auto immune syste category of illnesses? I have a hootoo friend in Scotland who started off doing her PhD. at Guy's in London and is completing it at Glasgoow and that iws her interest. She also shared some of her work with me. So I feel very honoured with the two of you.

So you are on your own this weekend except for the pets. I love the idea of each of you having your own little lab instead of a study - but I suppose that it really is a study. You have not yet told me which Uni you are at. In South Africa when we did Hons. we also specialised in just one area of research. In fact with the Masters as well. When I started my Ph. D. it was when so many changes in the apartheid legal system were being implemented. I found that as soon as I chose one topic to research that particular law would be scroapped and gone would be the work of the last three months! I certainly did not complain as it was vital that they be repealed as quickly as possible. After about two years of this I gave up when my husband died - and instead just did social research in a voluntary capacity for the various African organizqtions which were clamouring to have research done. It really was so exciting and hopefully worth while.

Sadly though I never kept a diary - because of the very sensitive nature of any form of social research; I find that although I can remember lots of the work done but I have some problems putting names to people with whom I worked - or in some instances fought with!!.

Have a happy weekend and go down to that beautiful park and have a lovely walk along the river. That must be one of the most perfect spots in the world - except possibly for the beautiful forests outside of Hobart, Tasmania!!

Again a thousand thanks for your lovely present to me

Also Ran1

I'm glad you enjoyed my sermon, I just hope I didn't appear too pompous - and I'm sorry that it dragged on. The pleasure was all mine.

I have conducted a thorough examination of your marbles and I find then to be infinitely more sound than the majority of the members of our species. I'm willing to put that on a certificate that you can frame and hang on your wall.

Yes there are many good things in mitochondrial RNA (abbreviated to mtRNA) - in fact it should be all good. It is only due to mistakes in the processing that problems arise. For example, RNA editing is amongst such processes, and as RNA carries information, you can see how problems arise. Imagine reading a book or watching a film that has been edited in a haphazard or random manner.

It is possible to simply put some cells under a microscope and view DNA, but in order to observe the indidual strands the microscope will not be a garden variety light microscope. I would guess that you would need around 80,000 - 100,000 times magnification, and for that you would need an Electron Scanning Microscope. I have viewed my own white blood cells (they're the easiest to obtain - but red are no good, they are the only cell type in your body that doesn't possess a nucleus) under 1,000 times magnification and you cannot even make out the individual chromosomes with any acceptable accuracy. The colours of the strands that you mention, by the way, are the result of someone going to great lengths to differentially stain them for easier identification.

Men do have RNA. All living creatures possess RNA - bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. There are no exceptions, if you possess DNA (which you must) then you have RNA. Nobody talks about RNA because it is an intermediary, but the two nucleic acids are inextricably intertwined. It copies the information carried by DNA and carts it off elsewhere to be turned into proteins. So as you can see, if the messenger (there is actually a type of RNA called messenger RNA or mRNA) brings an altered or incorrect message to the production factory, the wrong product may result with detrimental consequences. I don't know this for certain, but because of the number of diseases that errors in RNA (not just in mitochondria) can cause, I couldn't imagine autoimmunity escaping its effects. My guess is that this would not be a possibility at all.

What a pity that you never kept a diary of all your research. That is such a shame. It was, however a timely reminder to me. I will be more considerate of what I write down, what I keep, and what I throw away from this point on. It had not even occurred to me to be honest. Thank you so much, that is something I will not have to regret myself in 10 years time, and all because you shared that with me. I hope that makes you proud, because I know it will change the way I look back at my work in the future.

For some reason I assumed that you were in England like nearly everyone else on this site. See, I made an ASS out of U and ME. Well you have certainly lived through some interesting times then. Some good, some I would venture to think not so good. You may know of the old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Never dull, but not always in a good way.
I hope you enjoyed your Easter, and thank you for the lovely message. By the way, my name is Michael. Once again I have got up on the pulpit and rambled on. My apologies.

Dear biomass,

Thank you for your beautifully clear explanation You have the precious gift of making these incredible discoveries and research projects sound simple. The sign of a truly powerful intellect. I realise that they are the result of much profound thought, reading and discussion. I feel privileged that you should share them with me.

The only point which I must clarify and that is that I have lived in England since 1991. Until then I had lived either in South Africa - where I was born - or in Zimbabwe where I lived for 21 years and where my children were born. I moved back to South Africa in 1970 and lived there until I came to England in 1991 to care for my mother. Also to obtain help for my second son. A brilliant mind but tragically "crippled" with an hereditary auto immune illness - schizophrenia. (After chatting to you this morning I guess that I must go back to my original thesis and that is that they are a very "special" sort of person endowed with what can really call ESP) Basically I suppose that this is why I am passionately interested in research such as yours.

I did think that men also had RNA but as I was not sure, felt that I should ask the question. What I did not realise was that even fungi also had DNA. Was mtRNA discovered at the same time as DNA? I was also under the impression that DNA was a sure-fire way of identifying every individual human being. Can one also identify - for instance - trees and what type they are and where they come from? Does every single human being have the same type of "pattern" of DNA? Is it possible to determine gender, age. nationality from mtDNA? Sorry you do not have to "waste" your precious time in explaining these

Thank you for your "marble" certificate. You might be interested to know that one of my acquaintances on hootoo, offered to send me some of hers as she felt I had "lost" mine!! I was hugely amused about this.

It is 7 a.m. on Easter Monday morning and it is 5 p.m. Melbourne time. You have just celebrated the last day of your Easter weekend. I have a granddaughter who is completing her final year in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Brisbane. She is very interested in the environment and in obtaining alternative sources of energy from various natural sources. In fact she came to England last year and studied for a year at Sheffield University which she absolutely loved. She has gone with a group of friends to the Barrier Reef for the Easter break. A last fling before her final all out effort to finish all her work in time.

I am confused with the terms "editing" and "process". How can mistakes occur in these actions or functions? How is a "normal" mtRNA determined? Perhaps some people are meant to be blind or deaf, or for instance "suffer" from schizophrenia.With regard to being born blind and deaf I remember that in the last century there was a truly remarkable woman in the States who was born with such a condition. Again I cannot remember her name, but thanks to a truly devoted companion I believe that she lived a very fulfilled and worthwhile life.

Nor have I have forgotten that many of the "greatest" minds and intellects suffered from the schizophrenia. Perhaps I should use the verb "experienced" schizophrenia. . I think particularly of Van Gogh, Nietzsche, and in our present day that wonderful American physicist who has won a Nobel Prize for another discipline. Sorry I cannot remember his name but there was a marvellously inspiring film called "The Beautiful Mind" which gave me great hope. Perhpas some people ARE supposed to be different to the mould? I think it would be wonderful if one could show that there is nothing "wrong" in being different - that in some ways, correctly handled, it can be an advantage because other senses. feelings, ideas develop.

Oh dear, now you see where you have led me!. I am so pleased that you will be keeping a diary. I should think that it is very important to record, not only your developing ideas and theories, also your emotions in that diary. This certainly will aid you in maintaining your humanity and compassion - the two most precious gifts which warm sentient humans and endowed with (as well as intuition!!) and which the inanimate world does not possess.

Have a good night's rest - thank you for your very loving friendship and care. I treasure them both my very dear new-found friend.

Also ran1 .

If you have an e-mail address, I think it would be more convenient to correspond in that manner. DO NOT PUBLISH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS HERE. I will give you an account to contact, here is the address
[email protected]
e-mail me at this address with a simple message (eg. Hello) and that will give me your e-mail address without publishing it here. This is an account I have created so that I can let it become obsolete if open publication like this creates any problems (i.e., it is bogus). I will then contact you from my "real" address, which you can then add to your contacts list. Once again, DO NOT give me your e-mail address in this open forum, you just don't know what sort of things people may send you. Use my account as given above, any untoward mail will then come to me and I will simply let the account fold. If you do not have an e-mail address leave a message in this place saying so and we will continue here. Also, I continually forget to answer your question as to what uni I am attending. Sorry about that. La Trobe University in Bundoora, I'm not sure if you have heard of the institution or the suburb, but we have some fine, dedicated workhorses plugging away for all they are worth. I'm sorry but I must get to sleep as it is nearing midnight, but please remember never to post your e-mail address (or any other personal details for that manner) in an open forum such as this. Hope to hear from you soon.