This undated image provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute shows the 46 human chromosomes, where DNA resides and does its work. Each chromosome contains genes, but genes comprise only 2 percent of DNA. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, 500 scientists around the world reported their findings on the complex functions occurring in the rest of DNA, much of it involved in regulating genetic activity. (AP Photo/National Cancer Institute)
This undated image provided by the U.S. National Cancer Institute shows the 46 human chromosomes, where DNA resides and does its work. Each chromosome contains genes, but genes comprise only 2 percent of DNA. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, 500 scientists around the world reported their findings on the complex functions occurring in the rest of DNA, much of it involved in regulating genetic activity. (AP Photo/National Cancer Institute)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A colossal international effort has yielded the first comprehensive look at how our DNA works, an encyclopedia of information that will rewrite the textbooks and offer new insights into the biology of disease.
For one thing, it may help explain why some people are more prone to common ailments such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
The findings, reported Wednesday by more than 500 scientists, reveal extraordinarily complex networks that tell our genes what to do and when, with millions of on-off switches.
"It's this incredible choreography going on, of a modest number of genes and an immense number of ... switches that are choreographing how those genes are used," said Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, which organized the project.
The work also shows that at least 80 percent of the human genetic code, or genome, is active. That's surprisingly high and a sharp contrast to the idea that the vast majority of our DNA is junk.
Most people know that DNA contains genes, which hold the instructions for life. But scientists have long known those genetic blueprints take up only about 2 percent of the genome, and their understanding of what's going on in the rest has been murky.
Similarly, they have known that the genome contains regulators that control the activity of genes, so that one set of genes is active in a liver cell and another set in a brain cell, for example. But the new work shows how that happens on a broad scale.
It's "our first global view of how the genome functions," sort of a Google Maps that allows both bird's-eye and close-up views of what's going on, said Elise Feingold of the genome institute.
While scientists already knew the detailed chemical makeup of the genome, "we didn't really know how to read it," she said in an interview. "It didn't come with an instruction manual to figure out how the DNA actually works."
One key participant, Ewan Birney of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Hinxton, England, compared the new work to a first translation of a very long book.
"The big surprise is just how much activity there is," he said. "It's a jungle."
The trove of findings was released in 30 papers published by three scientific journals, while related papers appear in some other journals. In all, the 30 papers involved more than 500 authors. The project is called ENCODE, for Encyclopedia of DNA Elements.
The human genome is made up of about 3 billion "letters" along strands that make up the familiar double helix structure of DNA. Particular sequences of these letters form genes, which tell cells how to make proteins. People have about 20,000 genes, but the vast majority of DNA lies outside of genes.
So what is it doing? In recent years, scientists have uncovered uses for some of that DNA, so it was clearly not all junk, but overall it has remained a mystery.
Scientists found that at least three-quarters of the genome is involved in making RNA, a chemical cousin of DNA. Within genes, making RNA is a first step toward creating a protein, but that's not how it's used across most of the genome. Instead, it appears to help regulate gene activity.
Scientists also mapped more than 4 million sites where proteins bind to DNA to regulate genetic function, sort of like a switch. "We are finding way more switches than we were expecting," Birney said.
The discovery of so many switches may help scientists in their search for the biology of disease, particularly common conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma, scientists said.
Studies have found that DNA variations that predispose people to such common disease often lie outside the genes, raising the question of how they could have any effect. The new work finds evidence that many of these variations fall within or near regulatory regions identified by the ENCODE project, suggesting a way they could meddle with gene activity.
Another finding raises questions about just how best to define a gene, researcher Thomas Gingeras of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and colleagues suggest in their report in the journal Nature. The common notion that genes are specific regions of DNA that are separated from other genes "is simply not true," he said.
He and colleagues said it would make more sense to define a gene as a collection of RNA molecules instead of a particular location on the DNA.
Birney said that with the finding of widespread activity across a person's DNA, scientists will be debating how much of it is really crucial to life.
Still, "it's worth reminding ourselves that we are very, very complex machines," Birney said. "It shouldn't be so surprising that the instruction manual is really pretty fearsomely complicated."
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Online:
Journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature
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"All these stories originate from the earth. From the very earth you live on". That is the final line of the official description of the omnibus film "Doomsday Book". The film contains three stories of how mankind would perhaps bring about its own apocalypse. In Kim Ji-woon's "Creation of Heaven" this theme of self-destruction is placed against the backdrop of technological advancement as a product of human effort and imagination. In Kim's version, mankind's fall seems to share its destiny with technological advancement, all the while asking hard questions on issues of morality, spirituality, and being in the near future.
The title of this short is "Creation of Heaven"; an interesting headline to a film that pokes around the future of religion and society. One does not need to look very hard at the film to say that RU-4 does indeed appear to be the genuine article, as in him we see nothing but thoughtful words and timely action. In one key scene, when he does finally gather his reflections, the camera slowly changes its angle to paint RU-4 against Buddha himself. It may be a little heavy-handed, but in this short format such compositional considerations tend to enrich rather than intrude on a film's enjoyment. Kim has chosen this religion and its all its orientations to critique the notion of progression, even evolution, of being and consciousness. Kim's 'apocalypse' is depicted as not the result of an external threat or outwardly expressed 'flaw' in our collective make-up, but rather an internal examination of our perception and knowledge of this new future world.
android forged by man who has seemingly surpassed us spiritually. His face is expressionless and there are two pools of black where its eyes should be. His lips are fixed in a strange frown/smile, the uneasiness felt from which is only compounded by the streaks of blue light that accompany his digitised speech. His white body is made of sheets or panels, leaving the joints between them open as his mechanical frame and hydraulics are put on displayed for all to see. His white, emotionless state is consistent with one's archetype of a truly spiritual leader, one who can stand with and above us as we walk the road of enlightenment.
To better understand how Kim has portrayed robots in this film, it should be interesting to see how other robots in the film are depicted. In addition to RU-4, there is another 'R200' robot that was saved from the extermination team by the head monk at the temple: "That is not necessary. This robot is still useful in our temple". This model seems to lack the ability to communicate, and as such our emotional investment towards him lessens. There is also a robot dog that the engineer tried to fix, however here the robot lack any spatial awareness and the ability to engage in the world with any sense of itself. Leaving it to be dragged down the hallway and, ultimately, dumped in the trash. Although here we still feel a small degree of sympathy for the cute little dog toy, it's a shallow and fleeting feeling at best. Interestingly, the head of the organisation that wants to terminate RU-4, has his position of robots very clearly pinned to him from his very first scene. He rides a highly responsive, non-communicative electric chair that he does not even need. It carriers him from one location to the next, and was denied by its creator the blessing of awareness and communication, reduced to, quite simply, a tool.
Do-Won, is seen playing with a remote controlled robot spider. This scene requires a little retrospection here as Kim attempts to layer his film one last time before the time runs out. A robot controlling another robot for fun? This robot spider is but a puppet to be controlled or toyed with, its serves only to amuse. Ironic, naturally, that Kim has this scene caught in a moment of deep reflection for this character, as he appears to be struggling with the events around him. The viewer can acknowledge his struggles, but again like RU-4, we don't have enough information on him to commit to an emotional attachment. If there was every any clue in film that he was, in fact, a robot himself, I believe it can be found here.
