According to Montreal police a suspect has been arrested in the "David Mabus" case. They don't say who it was but we all know it's Dennis Markuze [Montreal police make arrest in "Mabus" case on online death threats].
"Pervasive transcription" refers to the idea that a large percentage of the DNA in mammalian genomes is transcribed. The idea became popular with the publication of the ENCODE results back in 2007 (Birney et al. 2007). Their results indicated that at least 93% of the human genome was transcribed at one time or another or in one tissue or another. 
The implication was that most of our genome is functional because it is transcribed.1 The conclusion was immediately challenged on theoretical grounds. According to our understanding of transcription, it is expected that RNA polymerase will bind accidentally at thousands of sites in the gnome and the probability of initiating the occasional transcript is significant [How RNA Polymerase Binds to DNA]. Genes make up about 30% of our genome and we expect that this fraction will be frequently transcribed. The remainder is transcribed at a very low rate that's easily detectable using modern technology. That could easily be junk RNA [How to Frame a Null Hypothesis] [How to Evaluate Genome Level Transcription Papers]. We conclude that, while there are bona fide new intergenic transcripts, their number and abundance is generally low in comparison to known genes, and the genome is not as pervasively transcribed as previously reported.The technical details of this dispute are beyond the level of this blog and, quite frankly, beyond me as well since I don't have any direct experience with these technologies. But let's not forget that aside from the dispute over the validity of the results, there is also a dispute over the interpretation.
A close examination of the issues and conclusions raised by van Bakel et al. reveals the need for several corrections. First, their results are atypical and generate PR curves that are not observed with other reported tiling array data sets. Second, characterization of the transcriptomes of specific cell/tissue types using limited sampling approaches results in a limited and skewed view of the complexity of the transcriptome. Third, any estimate of the pervasiveness of transcription requires inclusion of all data sources, and less than exhaustive analyses can only provide lower bounds for transcriptional complexity. Although van Bakel et al. did not venture an estimate of the proportion of the genome expressed as primary transcripts, we agree with them that “given sufficient sequencing depth the whole genome may appear as transcripts” [2].The same issue of PLoS Biology contained a response from the Toronto group (van Bakel et al. 2011). They do not dispute the fact that much of the genome is transcribed since genes (exons + introns) make up a substantial portion and since cryptic (accidental) transcription is well-known. Instead, the Toronto group focuses on the abundance of transcripts from extra-genic regions and its significance.
There is already a wide and rapidly expanding body of literature demonstrating intricate and dynamic transcript expression patterns, evolutionary conservation of promoters, transcript sequences and splice sites, and functional roles of “dark matter” transcripts [39]. In any case, the fact that their expression can be detected by independent techniques demonstrates their existence and the reality of the pervasive transcription of the genome.
We acknowledge that the phrase quoted by Clark et al. in our Author Summary should have read “stably transcribed”, or some equivalent, rather than simply “transcribed”. But this does not change the fact that we strongly disagree with the fundamental argument put forward by Clark et al., which is that the genomic area corresponding to transcripts is more important than their relative abundance. This viewpoint makes little sense to us. Given the various sources of extraneous sequence reads, both biological and laboratory-derived (see below), it is expected that with sufficient sequencing depth the entire genome would eventually be encompassed by reads. Our statement that “the genome is not as not as pervasively transcribed as previously reported” stems from the fact that our observations relate to the relative quantity of material detected.
Of course, some rare transcripts (and/or rare transcription) are functional, and low-level transcription may also provide a pool of material for evolutionary tinkering. But given that known mechanisms—in particular, imperfections in termination (see below)—can explain the presence of low-level random (and many non-random) transcripts, we believe the burden of proof is to show that such transcripts are indeed functional, rather than to disprove their putative functionality.
I'm with my colleagues on this one. It's not important that some part of the genome may be transcribed once every day or so. That's pretty much what you might expect from a sloppy mechanism—and let's be very clear about this, gene expression is sloppy. 1. Not just an "implication" since in many papers that conclusion is explicitly stated.
Clark, M.B., Amaral, P.P., Schlesinger, F.J., Dinger, M.E., Taft, R.J., Rinn, J.L., Ponting, C.P., Stadler, P.F., Morris, K.V., Morillon, A., Rozowsky, J.S., Gerstein, M.B., Wahlestedt, C., Hayashizaki, Y., Carninci, P., Gingeras, T.R., and Mattick, J.S. (2011) The Reality of Pervasive Transcription. PLoS Biol 9(7): e1000625. [doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000625].
Birney, E., Stamatoyannopoulos, J.A. et al. (2007) Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project. Nature 447:799-816. [doi:10.1038/nature05874]
van Bakel, H., Nislow, C., Blencowe, B. and Hughes, T. (2010) Most "Dark Matter" Transcripts Are Associated With Known Genes. PLoS Biology 8: e1000371 [doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000371]
van Bakel, H., Nislow, C., Blencowe, B.J., and Hughes, T.R.. (2011) Response to "the reality of pervasive transcription". PLoS Biol 9(7): e1001102. [doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001102]
Don Johnson has written a book that I'm probably going to have to buy (and read) if I ever hope to understand Intelligent Design Creationism.
The author worked for ten years as a Senior Research Scientist in the medical and scientific instrument field. The complexity of life came to the forefront during continued research, especially when his research group was involved with recombinant DNA during the late 1970′s. … After several years as an independent consultant in laboratory automation an other computer fields, he began a 20-year career in university teaching, interrupted briefly to earn a second Ph.D. in Computer and information Sciences from the University of Minnesota.Over time, the author began to doubt the natural explanations that had been so ingrained. It was science, and not his religion, that caused his disbelief in the explanatory powers of nature in a number of key areas including the origin and fine-tuning of mass and energy, the origin of life with its complex information content, and the increase in complexity in living organisms. This realization was not achieved easily, as he had to admit that he had been duped into believing concepts that were scientifically unfounded. The fantastic leaps of faith required to accept the natural causes in these areas demand a scientific response to the scientific-sounding concepts that in fact have no known scientific basis.”Sounds like a typical run-of-the-mill creationist. He has several of the common characteristics of Intelligent Design Creationist proponents: (1) religion, (2) a background in engineering and/or computer science, (3) no obvious expertise in evolutionary biology, (4) multiple Ph.D.s. I'm really intrigued by the fact that so many IDiots have more than one Ph.D. because I hang out with real scientists all the time and none of them have ever felt the need to be a graduate student more than once in their lives.
"In the absolute sense, one cannot rule out design of anything since a designer could design something to appear as if it weren’t designed. For example, one may not be able to prove an ordinary-looking rock hadn’t been designed to look as if it were the result of natural processes. The 'necessity of design,' however, is falsifiable. To do so, merely prove that known natural processes can be demonstrated (as opposed to merely speculated from unknown science) to produce: the fine-tuning empirically detectable in the Universe, life from non-life (including the information and its processing systems), the vast diversity of morphology suddenly appearing in the Cambrian era, and the increasing complexity moving up the tree of life (with the accompanying information increase and irreducibly complex systems). If those can be demonstrated with known science, the 'necessity of design' will have been falsified in line with using Occam’s Razor principles for determining the most reasonable scenarios. If the 'necessity of design' is falsified, some may continue to BELIEVE in design, but ID would no longer be appropriate as science." (p. 92)Isn't that cool? It absolves Intelligent Design Creationism from any burden of proof since things are said to be designed unless you can prove the negative. If real scientists can't prove beyond a shadow of doubt that life came from non-life then design can't be falsified and must be true.
Researchers are discovering that what had been dismissed as evolution’s relics are actually vital to life. What used to be considered evidence for neo-Darwinism gene-formation mechanism can no longer be use as such evidence. In this case, neo-Darwinism has been a proven science inhibitor as it postponed serious investigation of the non-coding DNA within the genome, which was “one of the biggest mistakes in the history of molecular biology” [John Mattick, BioEssays, 2003 930-939].” This is reminiscent of the classification of 86 (later expanded to 180) human organs as “vestigial” that Robert Wiedersheim (1893) believed “lost their original physiological significance.” in that they were vestiges of evolution. Functions have since been discovered for all 180 organs that were thought to be vestigial, including the wings of flightless birds, the appendix, and the ear muscles of humans.”This is more than a little confusing since the statement is wrong about the scientific facts. But even more interesting is the implication that the presence of junk DNA and/or vestigial organs is a threat to Intelligent Design Creationism. What kind of threat? Here's how Denyse O'Leary describes it.
The explicit reason for both the junk DNA error and the vestigial organs error was the need to find evidence for Darwinism in the form of stuff in life forms that doesn’t work. Without that need, these errors would not have been made.Setting aside the lie about these being errors, let's try and see why this is such a big deal for the IDiots.
Not bloody likely. The real issue here is not whether Intelligent Design Creationism has a better explanation for the organization of the human genome. It doesn't. The real issue is that these topics can be used to discredit science and evolutionary biologists. (Hence, the title of the articles.)
1. Aren't you glad that Denyse O'Leary is a professional journalist? Can you imagine what her titles migh look like if she didn't have professional training?
Canadian Blood Services is a non-profit organization charged with the responsibility of collecting and managing the blood supply for Canadians (except Québécois). They have a website called What's Your Type: Find out what your blood type says about you ...
1. All knowledgeable scientists agree that this is the primitive allle, present in all primates. Subsequent mutations created the null allele (O) and the B allele, which is a modified version of the wild-type allele. I assume that Canadian Blood Services must be in possession of very recent information that overthrows all those previous scientific papers.
Hat Tip: Greg Laden
William Lane Craig is promoting his Reasonable Faith Tour of the UK this October. He would like to debate atheists during his visit to the United Kingdom because it's good publicity and a good revenue generator [see william lane craig resources if you want to contribute]. The President of the British Humanist Association has pulled out of debating renowned Christian philosopher William Lane Craig. Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and prominent critic of religion, readily agreed in April to debate Craig on the Existence of God but withdrew her involvement last week saying "I hadn't realised the nature of Mr Lane Craig's debating style, and having now looked at his previous performances, this is not my kind of forum".What could possibly have convinced her that this was a set-up—one where Craig has no intention of actually addressing the issue? Well, the data are readily available, even on YouTube.
In spite of what they promised earlier, the Evolution News & Views (sic) blog does not allow comments. That's why I'm posting a quotation from today's piece by David Klinghoffer: What Drives Darwinian Scientists to their Fury You may have wondered why Darwinists in academia get so worked up about intelligent design. Reading what they write about our scientists and their work, you picture these guys turning red and sweating a lot. Alternatively, they try to mask their rage by getting all sarcastic and pseudo-witty -- a man of mature age like Larry Moran, for example, calling other adults "IDiots."I get "worked up" about Intelligent Design Creationism because it's anti-science and one of my issues is the promotion of scientific literacy (and rationalism). It's wrong to describe my feelings as "rage." My feelings about Intelligent Design Creationists are more akin to my feelings about people who believe they were abducted by aliens, or people who believe in bigfoot. "Bemused," "flabbergasted," and "sad" are more appropriate terms to describe how I react when I read the name "David Klinghoffer."
A guy like Professor Pompous or any of the better known Darwinian-scientist writers you can think of aren't driven to their fury directly by the scholarly work of Michael Behe, Doug Axe or Stephen Meyer, but rather indirectly every time a student brings it up in class. Every year a new cohort of young people comes through the lecture hall and some number of them -- probably a growing number -- have been exposed somewhere to ID's critique and alternative to neo-Darwinism. Every time a student puts her hand up and politely asks something along the lines of, "But what about irreducible complexity?" it throws the class discussion down a totally different corridor of the mind than the professor meant it to go.I hate to be the bearer of bad news, David, but the vast majority of students in my classes have never heard of Intelligent Design Creationism. In my Fall course we discuss Jonathan Wells' book Icons of Evolution as an example of anti-science writing but I have to explain to the class what Intelligent Design Creationism is all about. It never comes up in other classes.
In my own writings on the subject, I concentrate mostly on what the minor IDiots are writing on their blogs and on what the bigger names are saying in their books. That's why I've been spending so much time lately discussing Jonathan Wells' new book The Myth of Junk DNA. I've also written about Michael Behe, Stephan Meyer, and Doug Axe. You can buy the T-shirt at Endangered Outlaw.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has produced a draft policy on Non-Allopathic (Non-Conventional) Therapies in Medical Practice. The document is flawed from the beginning because it gives credence and respectability to "alternative medicine," otherwise known as non-evidence based medicine or quackery.
Different operative terms have been adopted that were deemed to be value-neutral: ‘Allopathic medicine’ refers to traditional or conventional medicine (as taught in medical schools) and ‘non-allopathic therapies’ refer to complementary or alternative medicine.This is idiotic. "Allopathic" medicine is NOT a value-neutral term. It's the term used by homoepathic quacks to describe medicine that uses drugs to treat patients. By adopting this terminology, the College of Physicians and Surgeons is playing right into the hands of the quacks.
Allopathic Medicine: refers to the type of treatment, diagnostic analysis and conceptualization of disease or ailment that is the primary focus of medical school curricula and which is generally provided in hospitals and specialty or primary care practice.I work in a medical school. The operative phase is "evidence-based medicine" and I suspect that's a term used in most medical schools in Ontario. That's what is taught in medical schools and hospitals and that's how you describe proper medicine.
Non-Allopathic Therapies (Non-Conventional Therapies): refers to a broad range of procedures or treatments that are not commonly used in allopathic medicine; this includes those referred to as complementary or alternative. Non-allopathic therapies tend to differ from allopathic medicine in terms of diagnostic techniques, theories of illness and disease, and treatment paradigms. The categorization of specific therapies as non-allopathic is fluid: as clinical evidence regarding efficacy is accumulated, certain non-allopathic therapies may gain broad acceptance and thus be accepted in allopathic medicine.
Respect Patient AutonomyNothing has been lost by using "evidence-based" instead of "allopathic." Now, let's look at the meaning of this policy statement.
Patients are entitled to make treatment decisions and to set health care goals that accord with their own wishes, values and beliefs. This includes decisions to pursue or to refuse evidence-based or non-evidence based therapies.
The College expects physicians to respect patients’ treatment goals and decisions, even those which physicians deem to be unfounded or unwise. In doing so, physicians should state their best professional opinion about the goal or decision, but must refrain from expressing non-clinical judgements.
Providing Non-Allopathic TherapiesWhat the heck is that all about? The policy should read ...
When providing non-allopathic therapies, physicians are expected to demonstrate the same commitment to clinical excellence and ethical practice, as they would when providing allopathic care.
Any physician who provides non-evidence based therapies (especially for a fee) will be subject to charges of professional misconduct and may lose his/her license to practice medicine in Ontario.That's the only sensible policy that's consistent with what's written elsewhere in the document. You simply can't provide non-evidence-based therapies while maintaining "a commitment to clinical excellence and ethical practice." That's oxymoronic.
The Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) is very interested in this issue. Read what Michael Kruse has to say on his blog Skeptic North: Ontario Doctors Given Green Light to Promote Quackery.
I would not be writing this if I thought we could do nothing to oppose and change the viewpoint of the CPSO. That is why CASS is calling on members of both the public and the medical field to read the policy and comment on it. There is strong representation in the current comments of supporters of alternative medicine and we do not want all of the feedback to be pro-pseudoscience. Please visit the CPSO policy site above and fill out the comment form available at the bottom of the page. The deadline for this consultation is September 1st 2011, so we must move quickly and let the CPSO know the safety of Ontarians depends upon sound medical opinion based on modern scientific evidence.Please voice your opinion at Feedback: Non-Allopathic Therapies draft policy. Your response has to sent by email to ThirdPartyProcesses@cpso.on.ca. I have no idea how much censorship is applied to the responses they post—I suspect it's considerable so don't expect criticisms to appear on the website.
Barry Arrington tries to convince us that Intelligent Design Creationism is scientific [The ID Hypothesis]. The answer is that the hypothesis is, in principle, falsifiable.We need a good definition of irreducible complexity. I like the one proposed by Michael Behe in Darwin's Black Box.
All it would take is even one instance of CSI or IC being observed to arise through chance or mechanical necessity or a combination of the two. Such an observation would blow the ID project out of the water.
By irreducibly complex I mean a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional.If you read this carefully you'll see the catch. What Behe is saying is that a true irreducibly complex system can only arise by a single mechanism, namely one where the precursor has the same function. But the precursor can't, by definition, have the same function if it's missing some of the parts required in the final version. Thus, the only way for an irreducibly complex system to arise—by definition—is if it is created instantaneously as a complex system.
1. Attacking evolution is scientific. After all, lots of us question certain aspects of evolution and still call ourselves scientists. It's the concept of Intelligent Design Creationism as an explanation for observed events that's not scientific. Intelligent Design Creationism never explains anything. You're never going to see an IDiot explain how the bacterial flagellum arose—not even in a creationist textbook.
Hubris ... means extreme haughtiness, pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.There are two possible examples in this video: (1) most knowledgeable molecular biologists and biochemists; or, (2) Jonathan Wells and his sycophants (e.g. Denyse O'Leary). You be the judge.
I teach a course called "Scientific Controversies and Misconceptions." (You won't be surprised to learn that one of the main topics is evolution vs. creationism.) The most difficult part of the course is teaching students to be skeptical about the scientific literature. The reason why this is difficult is because the main focus is evidence based reasoning and science is an important way to gather reliable evidence. It's uncomfortable to have to mention that errors and fraud are not uncommon in the scientific literature.
Ralph de Amicis claims to be an expert on wine. He lives in the Napa Valley in California and runs tours of the vineyards with his wife, Lahni.
When you swirl your wine to the left (counter clockwise) the scent you pick up is from the barrels over the grapes, what we call the spice shelf. When you swirl the wines to the right (clockwise) you pick up more flavors from the fruit.Isn't that amazing? You may be asking yourself how the direction of swirling can make such a difference. Well, Ralph wondered the same thing but he has the background to answer such a question.
I’ve shown this to clients in the tasting room and experimented with it myself and found it to be true, and especially noticeable with wines that have spent significant time in newer oak barrels.
Now, as a master herbalist and aroma-therapist, and as someone who has lectured extensively on natural health, anatomy and physiology I know a thing or two about plants, and how people perceive them. So, based upon what I know about how living cells function, these are my insights.With credentials like that I just had to read on ...
Like all living things wine cells have a magnetic polarity, just like humans and the Earth. The positive pole is more highly charged, just like the North Pole of the Earth, which is why there are Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle, but not Southern Lights in the Antarctic. This polarity tends to keep wine cells generally upright, spinning on their axis when they are being swirled. This magnetic action within a liquid is commonly demonstrated in laboratories. Because plant molecules are mostly liquid, when they form they are also subject to the electromagnetic forces that are a component of the rotation of the Earth. As a result, the pores on the surface of the molecules develop based on that rotation, like the shingles on a roof.I assume that most readers of Sandwalk will find this as amusing as I did. But just in case you don't get the joke, here's what Derek Lowe has to say: In Which We Learn Lots About Wine Swirling.
When you swirl the wine counter-clockwise you are pushing against the molecules nap, just like stroking the fur of a cat the wrong way, this dislodges anything on the surface. Since the flavor from the barrel is introduced fairly late in the wine's development it tends to concentrate in the outer layers. When you swirl the wine counter-clockwise it dislodges that flavor, while at the same, pushing liquid into the pores, inhibiting the fruit flavors that are inside the cell from coming out.
In comparison, when you swirl the wine clockwise the pressure of the surrounding fluid forces the fruit flavors out through the pores. It also pushes any flavors concentrated on the surface down onto the skin of the molecule. The fact that the wine is alive, electrically charged, and still changing is why this happens. So, when you swirl the wine to the right or left think of it as if you are stroking your favorite pet. Sometimes they like it rough, but mostly they like it smooth.
1. For extra amusement, you might want to read Followup Swirling Article in which Ralph de Amicis responds to those who criticized his first article.
Hat Tip: Chad Orzel: The Stupidest Thing You'll Read Today
Photo Credits: (top) Amicis Tours Blog, (bottom) Wine Tour in the Napa Valley
This is part 9 of my review of The Myth of Junk DNA. For a list of other postings on this topic see the links below. For other postings on junk DNA check out the links in Genomes & Junk DNA in the "theme box" below or in the sidebar under "Themes." 
Nishihara, H., Smit, A.F., and Okada, N. (2006) Functional noncoding sequences derived from SINEs in the mammalian genome. Genome Res. 16:864-874.The first "function" paper Wells mentions is Nishihara et al. (2006). These workers characterized a new class of SINES in the human genome. They consist of a hybrid of 5S RNA and a tRNA (~300 bp). These SINES are found in most vertebrates (fish, amphibians, birds, mammals). There are about 1000 of these SINEs in the human genome and in 105 of them there seems to be more sequence conservation in the central portion of the sequence than expected from junk DNA. For example, the overall sequence similarity between human and zebrafish is about 59% in a stretch of 338 nucleotides. (The authors refer to these as regions that are "under strong selective constraint." That's a bit exaggerated.)
Walters, R.D., Kugel, J.A., and Goodrich, J.A. (2009) Critical Review (sic): InvAluable Junk: The Cellular Impact and Function of Alu and B2 RNAs. Life 61:831-837.Endogenous Retroviruses
Finding that Alu and B2 SINEs are transcribed, both as distinct RNA polymerase III transcripts and as part of RNA polymerase II transcripts, and that these SINE encoded RNAs indeed have biological functions has refuted the historical notion that SINEs are merely "junk DNA."
Even more compelling evidence for a common ancestor comes from the study of what are known as ancient repetitive elements (AREs). These arise from "jumping genes," which are capable of copying and inserting themselves in various other locations in the genome, usually without any functional consequences. Mammalian genomes are littered with such AREs, with roughly 45 percent of the human genome made up of such flotsam and jetsam. When one aligns sections of the human and mouse genomes, anchored by the appearance of gene counterparts that occur in the same order, one can usually also identify AREs in approximately the same location in these two genomes.Wells is upset because this is a double-barreled attack on intelligent design. Not only does Collins describe these sequences as junk but he also uses them as evidence of common ancestry. This is one of the reason why creationists like Wells maintain that junk DNA is used to support evolution.
Some of these may have been lost in one species or the other, but many of them remain in a position that is most consistent with their having arrived in the genome of a common mammalian ancestor, and having been carried along ever since. Of course, some might argue that these are actually functional elements placed there by the Creator for a good reason, and our discounting them as "junk DNA" just betrays our current level of ignorance. And indeed, some small fraction of them may play important regulatory roles. But certain examples severely strain the credulity of that explanation. The process of transposition often damages the jumping gene. There are AREs throughout the human and mouse genomes that were truncated when they landed, removing any possibility of their functioning. In many cases, one can identify a decapitated and utterly defunct ARE in parallel positions in the human and mouse genome.
Collins's argument rests on the assumption that those repetitive elements ... are nonfunctional. Yet their similar position in the human and mouse genomes could mean that they are performing some function in both. Given the rate at which functions are being discovered, Collins's assumption seems foolhardy, and his argument could easily collapse in the face of new scientific discoveries.As long as most of these repetitive elements remain non-functional they pose a serious problem for Intelligent Design Creationists. The IDiots have been wishing for evidence of function for 20 years but "wishing" isn't a very scientific argument. Given the rate at which functions are being discovered, it's going to be a long, long time before all those hundreds of thousands of repetitive elements are assigned a function (i.e. never!). The vast majority of them are junk and discovery of a few co-opted sequences isn't going to change that fact.
1. As a general rule, Wells "forgets" to mention when one of his "facts" is disputed in the scientific literature. Like most creationists, he is delighted to quote any scientific studies that confirm his bias but he is somewhat more reluctant to quote papers that don't. In this case—pervasive transcription—the criticisms in the scientific literature are so well-known that he is forced to discuss them in Chapter 9.
2. This is a bit strange coming from someone who doesn't believe in evolution but logic has never been a strong point is Wells' writing. Note that Wells does not accept the corollary argument that lack of conservation implies lack of function.
The structure of the integrated retrovirus genome is shown above. The ends of the viral genome contain long terminal repeat (LTR) sequences of several hundred base pairs. Both LTRs are arranged in the same orientation and the outside ends of each are flanked by short inverted repeats. The host DNA at the site of the insertion contains a short (5- bp) repeated sequence that is produced on integration as in transposons [Transposons: Part I]. 
Bjørn Østman of Pleiotropy and Carnival of Evolution was in town for a visit on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. We talked about evolution, accommodationism, atheism, PZ, education, visas, politics, carnivals, the USA, adaptationism, blogging, and careers in science.
