gemstone (gemstone) wrote, @ 2005-10-05 12:09:00

DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
I knew there was a reason my biology professor of many… many… many moons ago made us memorize deoxyribonucleic acid. Because sometime in 2005 its acronym DNA will be the most used word in primetime TV. Heck, it will be the most used word at home – “Here’s the serving spoon, Son, don’t contaminate the mashed potato with your DNA” or “Honey, this lab report says our daughter’s DNA isn’t even close to mine.”

Just by watching all these crime and mystery series on TV, you learn a lot of neat, geeky stuff… like GSR. That’s gunshot residue that the CSI officers, or crime scene investigators, lift from your hand, clothes, or any other surface including a mosquito’s wing, to determine if a firearm (or a mechanical device that uses a propellant to propel projectiles at high velocity) was recently fired in close proximity.

Then there are those fingerprints. They can be lifted off any solid surface – paper, plastic, fiber, glass, metal, anything! And they don’t have to be complete fingerprints – even palm prints, or partials can solve a crime.

Crime lingo would include COD for cause of death, and MMO for means, motive, and opportunity. Of course, there’s the alpha male general who barks at his staff with an “I need those reports ASAFP!” You notice the F is for “insert favorite F word here.”

There’s also the D word for disorder. Back in my time (never thought I’d ever say that!), we had no ADD (attention deficit disorder) or OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) or MPD (multiple personality disorder – also known as DID or dissociative identity disorder) – we were all just plain O-D-D if not C-R-A-Z-Y.

Then when you watch the sci-fi channel, their favorite catchall conundrum is the deadly retrovirus. According to Wikipedia, that’s a “virus which has a genome consisting of two plus sense RNA molecules, which may or may not be identical… it relies on reverse transcriptase to perform the reverse transcription of its genome from RNA into DNA, which can then be integrated into the host's genome with an integrase.” I knew that.

How do they dissolve, disintegrate, or detonate the retrovirus? With an all-powerful top-secret “device,” of course! A device, in the hands of a twisted-but-genius and bad-childhood-but-sensitive hero or hero-ess always saves the human race!

Enough of this. I still have a bunch of taped shows to watch.

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