Does anyone know of any published studies that
have correlated genetic data (esp. mtDNA or RFLP data)
with habitat variables or managment practices? Is this
even possible?<br><br>Thanks!<br><br>M. aust.

Hey! Guess what? Ya'll have a new member. I was
just wondering- how many of ya'll are laymen and how
many of ya'll are actually working with some aspect of
genetics? I myself am working on a population genetics
study of bats. I guess what I really want to know is:
can anybody give good advice on genetic lab
techniques or know a good place to buy primers? If not,
that's cool.<br><br>Oh- as far as that whole mammoth
thing- whatever. Species interbreed all the time. Wolves
and cyotes and dogs, for example. Perhaps the
definition of a species is outdated but hey- if you have a
better one..........<br><br>See ya-<br><br>M. aust.

ust found this in the sci. news on retours on
"my-yahoo" I only lifted the first 2 paragraphs so check the
full story today...<br><br>Huge Land Mammal Fossil
Found In Pakistan<br><br>By Scott
McDonald<br><br>KARACHI (Reuters) - The fossil remains of an enormous
rhinoceros-like mammal have been<br>discovered in Pakistan and
the French paleontologists who found them believe
they're the largest<br>fossil remains of a land mammal in
the world.<br><br>The almost complete remains of the
mammal were discovered last month in the eastern part
of<br>Baluchistan province, team leader Jean-Loup Welcomme told
Reuters at the weekend as he passed<br>through Karachi on
his way back to France.

hank u Dralfonzmephesto , for the explanation and the reference. ill get down to
it.

hat's true we don't use some of our dna ,in fact
we don't use most of it. I've heard loads of figures
from 99% to 15% the truth is we are not 100% certin on
the correct figure ;some parts of dna may be used
only by the developing foetus for example (hard to
prove how much because of ethical constraints of
experimenting on a growing foetus).<br>but it is certain we
don't use all our dna, we don't need to because there
are so many bases.<br>Another interesting thing about
nonfunctional dna is that it isn't packed away at the end of a
chain it tends to occour inbetween genes. This meens it
is possible for it to replace parts of genes during
miosis and mitosis (however this only hapens rarely )
and may be one of the things that cause evolution
(provided that that cell survives with it's changed gene
which is extreamly unlikly but must happen
sometimes).<br><br>A good place to start learning about genetics is in
your local universtys bookstore or a libery, but be
carefull when picking up a text book if you are only just
starting to learn about genetics like any subject
different authors assume a different level of
understanding. A good place to start is the basics of Mendelian
genetics and Darwins Origen of species. After this you
should have enoth understanding to be able to understand
the more compicated stuff and make up your own minds
about ethical issues and the like.

i there. i think Genetics and evolution are
really iteresting but i dont know the first thing about
them. i entered anyway because perhaps i can learn
something. This is my question: a friend (biologist)told me
that theres a percentage ( i think he said 20 percent
, i dont remember) of the DNA, thats "non
functional DNA" and only serves as a "link". But also
mutates relatively fast. He explained a little about
this. But if anyone could expand on this subject. Like
what are the more important implications, if this is
non functionale DNA, whats the importance of it.
Whatever u wanna trow in. Maybe this is too basic
question, hope is ok. see ya.If u can keep it basic id be
very grateful, thanks a lot.

ose anyone have any questions or subjects to
bring up?any topics of conversation? post them up on
the message bord ,I haven't herds from some of you
for a while remember this club can deal with just
about any genetic topic and evolution and paileontology
.or if you have any theorys on any subject post them
as well .

ea dral! yea dral!<br>I'll be updating chapter 2
of reticulate phylogeny as I have gotten valid
feedback from several people in several clubs, and
redrawing some of my illustrations onto puter formats, then
printing them and scanning them as attachments to email
them to you when you are ready for them, and when I
have them ready. I'll also shorten the wording into a
more concise format, as chapter 2 is over 50 pages in
length because it also deals with methods of analysis
for species delimitation which can be a separate
topic.

hould be possible to do down and up loads (up
loads may have to be sent via me though as I don't know
the coading to set this up) .<br>I don't know how big
it's going to be yet exactly but If I find the space I
can afford too limiting I may have to cheat and get a
few free websites with some hyper links between the
'pages' so I should be able to fit in as many pages as is
neaded (I'll probably break the habit of a life time and
spell cheack my work on the site too!)<br>Charts and
graphs can be shown as bitmaps or anyother picturey
thingamejig so your phylogeny work will be gladly apsepted
Marshall.<br>It shouldent take too long to do as I took
programing as one of my a-levels.<br>PS. any one with any
nice pictures or animations to put on the site ? send
them to me please.

ill you be able to down and upload files onto
this website? Do you have a way to put charts and
graphs on it too? Would reticulate phylogeny, the kind
i'm working on, be an acceptable topic? And, how many
pages is ok to put on it. Also other questions I can't
think of.

he web site is all planned out now (although I
still am open to sugestions of what you want to see in
it) and now I've got to program it.<br>Topics I am
including are:<br>Human genome project : What genes have
been located (and ,if I can get any,chromosome maps so
far)<br>Geneticly modifyed foods: both sides of the augument (I'm
curently chaseing up a G.M.food manufacturer and a
enviromental groop to give their opinions)<br>Who's cloning
what:reports on cloning projects throughout the planet from
Wooly mamoths to Elvis.<br>Evolution famaly trees:
vertebrates,cats and more.<br>Breif history of life: A time line
detailing key evolutionary events.<br><br>The website will
have this and anything else I can fit on it and
ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ON IT. remember it's the
club website so any input from members counts!

t isnt nessersary for you all to do this but if
you feal the same way about the media and some
political parties as I do then here are some organiasations
you can e-mail to complaine about their current
stance about genetics (ie it's ALL evil).<br>here are
the addresses:<br><br>BBC-
WWW.bbc.co.uk<br>Consevative party- www.consevative-party.org.uk<br>lord
sainsbury- www.j-sainsbury.co.uk<br>labour party (british
government)- www.poptel.org.uk/labour-party<br>USA-
government- www.whitehouse.gov<br><br>more to folow
soon<br><br>Disclamer : Keep emails cleen I can't take any
responceability for their content<br><br>thanx for your suport

f like me you are discusted with the british
govenments new polisy of banning GM foods please email them
and the media organisations responcable to show your
discust. I will post some addresses up within the next few
days.<br>FACT : MOST SO CALLED 'SCIENCE CORISPONDANTS' DO NOT
EVEN POSESS A SCIENCE A-LEVEL !

f you have any photos of fossils or
reconstructions and information on ediacarian or burgess shale
organisams and the cambrian explotion please post them on
the notice bord and the photo album <br>Thanx

ow about taking a look at some of the fossil
photos I have put in the club photo album ?<br>They are
posibly some of the best quality fossils you may ever
see.<br>Please feal free to add to the photo album with your own
photos/pictures of anything at all to do with genetics and
evolution and label them clearly if you want to put any
personal photos (eg: this is my cat ,isn't it a nice
cat?)or amuseing pictures (any innapropriate material
will be deleted) then put them in the album called
"MEMBERS LIVES".<br><br>If you want to veiw or add
photos/pictures click on the blue link that says "photos" on the
left hand window of the club screen and clic on the
icon/link of your choice.<br><br>enjoy.

hanks. I think I'll do that for next year. I'm
really behind this year. I'm just going to research
Dominant and recessive genes. Not enough time to get into
much depth eighther. :(<br><br>Oh well, thanks again.

ear Dralfonzmephesto,<br>email me at
marshallsmyth@... to get an email address of one of the important
researchers that I'd mentioned. I found it going through the
links on the AIBS site, which is www.aibs.org an
excellent organization you probably know of. It requires a
frames capable browser.<br>I can't feel right putting
somebody's personal email address up in a public message
board, so just let me know where I can send it to you
personally, and I'll send it to you to invite him, and after
you do, I'll send him a personal email letting him
know what's going on.<br>Also, I found Ernst Mayr's
snail mail address on another link from the aibs site.
Perhaps there would be a way we could invite a professor
in the same building who has a computer who would
help him to get an email address and get him online.
He's in his mid nineties. Hear from you
soon?<br>Marshall Smyth

sk yourself to stop asking yourself what to
research. That'll give you a clean slate. Then walk into
your favorite library by yourself. Where do you find
yourself going. Ok. If some friends are in there, you will
have to try it again. How about this: are you
satisfied with the way meiosis was taught to you in
classes? Really? Think about it. There has to be a lot
more to it than what is taught. Reason? There IS a lot
more to it! How about thinking about how does the RNA
in the ribosome know exactly the form of protein to
work on? Is it one of those positive-negative charge
things? Want to know something? 16 is old enough to go to
your local college bookstore and buy a genetics
textbook and start reading it HARD. It'll probably start
out with simple Mendelian transmission genetics that
you probably knew about quite awhile ago. If you're
in a hurry, just read it. That may give you some
ideas.<br>The library dude.<br>The library.<br>It's monday.
Good day to go to the library. Alone.<br>Want some
titles?<br>1) Basic Genetics---Weaver<br><br>2)
Evolution---Strickberger<br><br>3) Microbiology---Prescott, Harley, and
Klein<br><br>Ok. Now, have you noticed that on some topics<br>the
answer you get isn't very satisfying? Like:<br>Where did
the first chromosome come from? Don't<br>you wonder
like, hmmm, You know, the DNA is in the boundary
membrane of Procaryotes, and some kind of endosymbiosis
got the mitochondria and chloroplastids into the
Eucaryotes...hmmm, could the eucaryotic chromosomes have come about
by some kind of endosymbiosis too? Those
centromeres, where did they come from?<br><br><br>Conclusions?
They'd probably best be tentative.<br>Good science
doesn't make conclusions until things are pretty much
proven. Try to keep an open mind about conclusions.<br>I
do hope that helps ya a little...<br>Marshall Smyth

am in serious need of help. <br><br> I am at a
loss for thoughts. I guess I could research heredity
in general, but was instructed to be specific.<br>I
made a survey (Or began to.) late one night. I was
very tired, so was not thinking very clearly (As I am
beginning to be now) I don't know what other questions to
ask, which to get rid of, or what conclusions i should
be able to make from them. The survey so far is at
<a href=http://members.tripod.com/Curtis_Me/science.html
target=new>http://members.tripod.com/Curtis_Me/science.html</a><br>PLEASE HELP
ME!!!!!!!!

i all<br><br>I would just like to inform anyone
who is interested thta tomorrow 7th 0f March there is
a dbete on Human Cloning between 1800 Gmt To 1930
Gmt. There will be two proffesors, from the British
institute of Medical research attendinng as special
speakers you may ask them Questions if you wish.<br>If you
would like to participate I advise you to join the
cloning and genetics club before 2100 gmt to avoid
dissapointment

ust seeing if that last message posted, Can't see it in the message list.

ello everyone. I joined to ask any of you for
advice. I have to make a science fair project. I want to
do something concerning genetics. I don't have much
comprehension on the subject as of yet, but have books I can
read. Any suggestions for a topic?<br><br>Thank
you.<br><br>Curtis (why_33@...)

ear Dral.<br>I would assert that if that
geneticist could produce a mammoth, and I certainly hope he
can, and if it could breed with african elephants and
indian elephants,(I don't know if indian and african
elephants can breed, but since I've never heard of it being
done let's presume for the moment it can't. k?), then
one has a SUPERSPECIES GROUPING in which the mammoth
is the same species as each of the two modern
elephants, but the two modern elephants are not the same
species as each other, yet still belong to the same
superspecies group. We cool with that assesment? Actually,
there probably are instances of such groupings in the
recesses of my memory. Seems I read about a superspecies
group of birds on some island group, and it wasn't
Darwin's finches. Those finches would probably make a good
test for such superspecies groupings too though, don't
you think? Hey. Let's look into this. Your
friend,<br>Marshall Smyth

n my opinion it is almost imposible to clasify
species by the more conventional method of whether they
mate and produce fertile young with other members of a
groop in nature.<br>for example the indian and african
elephant are decended from mamoths , if a momoth was
geneticly recreated what if it was possible that it could
mate with both types of elephant and produce fertile
young (I'm not making this up there is a professer in a
japanese university who thinks this may be possible)how
could you reclasify the mammoth and elephant in terms
of species?<br>The only possible answer seams to be
genetic clasifacation but evenso the idea of species
clasifacation is,in my opinion,flawed by design:<br>evolution
is a process that can happen in a continuous manner
(in terms of genetics a slight change in genotype can
result in the formation of a whole new class of
species)so you have to have sensible cut off points in
classifacation and half the problem is decideing which point is
a sensible cutoff point.<br>I hope this is of use
to you ,however I must point out that as I haven't
finished my degree yet my veiws may contian a few
inacurasys.

'm beginning to wonder if this is for real.
There doesn't seem to be anything at all going on
here.<br>Here's a short list of folks I'd like to see get invited
to be here. Would somebody do so. One of them I
maybe might could get invited. He's very very old
though.<br>Jerrold I. Davis<br>Elizabeth Vrba<br>Ernst
Mayr<br>Edward Wilson<br>Don Johansen<br>many others along these
lines that you can think of.<br>Come on people. WAKE
UP.<br>Drink some coffee!

ello. I'm Marshall Smyth. I've been working on
an<br>idea for decades really, but more and more recently.
That 1) The biological definition of species
absolutely must correspond perfectly with the genetic
definition of species. 2) The genetic definition of species
is mostly determined by the karyotype. Of course
these concepts are being applied to sexually
reproducing eucaryotes. Would anyone like to discuss these
issues? <br> On a very much related topic, I would like
to see some valid views concerning attempts to place
populations of biological species on standard phylogenies, or
cladograms. PPlease keep in mind that there are some that are
good, but not quite complete, such as Darwin's from the
first edition of Origin of species. Oh, as a side
topic, can someone tell me why Darwin didn't get his
phylogeny quite right as far as populations of species is
concerned. I don't care about the usage of the terms variety
or race, other than they are simply not quite
specific, it's their phylogenetic placements that has been
a real problem. <br> My agenda here is that I would
like to see how others have solved this problem, and
compare these other solutions to my own, in kind of a
self review process prior to placing it before the
critical eyes of peer review. Please be explicit<br>with
your replies. Thanks. <br>PS---Is Ernst Mayer online?
Or Dr. Vrba? <br>I'd like to hear from them or their
direct students, among the other outstanding
thinkers.<br>Thank you

he debate on genetically modifed foos will be on the 21st febuary

ear all<br><br>There is going to be a debate, in
cloning and genetics club, at 1800 hors GMT until
1930.<br>The debate is about Geneitically modified
foods.<br>One of the profeesors from the national institute of
medicalresearch will be there.<br>So come on and talk and ask
questions on any topic about gm foods or other related
topics.<br><br>P.s You are all welcome to become members of this
club<br><br>I'll see you there

n the U.K. recently there have been a lot of
scare stories in the news about Geneticly modifyed
foods and how the media think they will kill us
all.<br>in fact if the media are to be belived by the year
2002 britaian will be a derilict wasteland layed to
waste by the evil potato people (an amalgamation of
potato and man who were perfictly normal untill they ate
g.m. potatoes).<br>this is as far from the truth as it
is posible to get and is being reported in this way
because the media have an instant distrust about anything
new or that they don't understand.G.M. foods often
are chaper than others as they have been made to
maximise yealds and often have better uptake of
nutreants.there have been 2000+ tests made on g.m.food to
determine it's safty and all but a very questionable one on
a potato have proved that g.m. food is safe, in
fact the potato (no matter how dodgy the test) would
not have made it to our shelves any more than a car
dealer would sell a car without an engine.<br>in closing
I would like to draw peoples attention to the
insulin that all diabetics take , it is made by geneticly
modifyed bacteria (e-coli in fact) and has saved millions
of lives.

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