6 ms·

The title is not terribly informative, but the result sounds fairly interesting (and the article is open access): "Maximum mutational robustness in genotype–ph

by kkylin 3y ago

The title is not terribly informative, but the result sounds fairly interesting (and the article is open access): "Maximum mutational robustness in genotype–phenotype maps follows a self-similar blancmange-like curve" https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2023.0169 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2023.016...

twic 3y ago
TIL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blancmange_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blancmange_curve
- kreeben 3y ago
  The rabbit hole that is the Blancmange curve wikipedia page goes very deep, though. See you back here in a few years?
- gerikson 3y ago
  Here's a Project Euler challenge featuring it: https://projecteuler.net/problem=226 https://projecteuler.net/problem=226
- rsiqueira 3y ago
  I've just implemented this Blancmange curve using less than 140 characters of javascript. It's a fractal also known as Takagi curve. Source code and graphics: https://www.dwitter.net/d/28260 https://www.dwitter.net/d/28260 (it can be edited and remixed)
keepamovin 3y ago
A decade ago doing some bioinformatics research I discovered that if you use Lempel-Ziv algorithm on the genetic sequences of many organisms, you get a sequence of "words" (of length 1 to n) that has a power law that matches the power law of displayed by human languages, and crucially is different to the "power law" you get from random, or almost random, sequences. I submitted two papers about this, both were rejected. Not surprising I guess, my first papers ever! It was also fascinating to me how complex (and how much larger) plant genomes are compared to animals. Plants have enormous genomes, almost making me wonder, what do they know that we don't? I think the answer could be--a lot! :)
- mleonhard 3y ago
  Did you put the papers on your website or on arXiv.org?
- fooker 3y ago
  Papers, unfortunately, are only about answering questions and never about asking great questions. As a consequence, there are just a handful of papers that answer great questions. This has probably held back science a bit.
- DrAwdeOccarim 3y ago
  I assumed it's because plants can't run, so they need a larger chemical arsenal to convince predators not to eat them and mates to coit with them, all with line of sight to the sun.
  - mnw21cam 3y ago
    Likewise cold-blooded things like frogs have fairly massive genomes too, and I thought it was so that the organism could cope with the vast differences in chemical processes required to operate at different temperatures. We as warm-blooded creatures don't need to be as complicated.
    - eesmith 3y ago
      > cold-blooded things like frogs have fairly massive genomes too Yes, the genome size of the common frog (Rana temporaria) genome is 4.1 Gb. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8407/ which is larger than that of mammal genomes. On the other hand, the smallest frog genome is the Ornate burrowing frog at 1.06 GB, which is 1/3rd the size of the human genome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome#Genome_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome#Genome_size . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornate_burrowing_frog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornate_burrowing_frog says: "This is an adaptation to the desert environment where it lives. Because the ponds where they breed dries up fast in the desert, the tadpoles has to go through metamorphosis as fast as possible, which can occur just eleven days after the eggs were fertilized. A small genome gives small cells, and the smaller the cells are, the faster the tadpoles transform into small frogs and can escape the shrinking ponds" Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) is 2.7 Gb, also smaller than humans - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8355/ Thus, warm/cold-blooded cannot be the main reason for the difference. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size : "genome size is not proportional to the number of genes present in the genome ... In eukaryotes (but not prokaryotes), genome size is not proportional to the number of genes present in the genome, an observation that was deemed wholly counter-intuitive before the discovery of non-coding DNA and which became known as the "C-value paradox" as a result." From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value#Variation_among_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value#Variation_among_specie... : "Variation in C-values bears no relationship to the complexity of the organism or the number of genes contained in its genome; for example, some single-celled protists have genomes much larger than that of humans. ... C-values correlate with a range of features at the cell and organism levels, including cell size, cell division rate, and, depending on the taxon, body size, metabolic rate, developmental rate, organ complexity, geographical distribution, or extinction risk ...

by kkylin 3y ago

twic 3y ago

TIL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blancmange_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blancmange_curve

kreeben 3y ago
The rabbit hole that is the Blancmange curve wikipedia page goes very deep, though. See you back here in a few years?
gerikson 3y ago
Here's a Project Euler challenge featuring it: https://projecteuler.net/problem=226 https://projecteuler.net/problem=226
rsiqueira 3y ago
I've just implemented this Blancmange curve using less than 140 characters of javascript. It's a fractal also known as Takagi curve. Source code and graphics: https://www.dwitter.net/d/28260 https://www.dwitter.net/d/28260 (it can be edited and remixed)

keepamovin 3y ago

A decade ago doing some bioinformatics research I discovered that if you use Lempel-Ziv algorithm on the genetic sequences of many organisms, you get a sequence of "words" (of length 1 to n) that has a power law that matches the power law of displayed by human languages, and crucially is different to the "power law" you get from random, or almost random, sequences. I submitted two papers about this, both were rejected. Not surprising I guess, my first papers ever! It was also fascinating to me how complex (and how much larger) plant genomes are compared to animals. Plants have enormous genomes, almost making me wonder, what do they know that we don't? I think the answer could be--a lot! :)

mleonhard 3y ago
Did you put the papers on your website or on arXiv.org?
fooker 3y ago
Papers, unfortunately, are only about answering questions and never about asking great questions. As a consequence, there are just a handful of papers that answer great questions. This has probably held back science a bit.
DrAwdeOccarim 3y ago
I assumed it's because plants can't run, so they need a larger chemical arsenal to convince predators not to eat them and mates to coit with them, all with line of sight to the sun.
- mnw21cam 3y ago
  Likewise cold-blooded things like frogs have fairly massive genomes too, and I thought it was so that the organism could cope with the vast differences in chemical processes required to operate at different temperatures. We as warm-blooded creatures don't need to be as complicated.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    > cold-blooded things like frogs have fairly massive genomes too Yes, the genome size of the common frog (Rana temporaria) genome is 4.1 Gb. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8407/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8407/ which is larger than that of mammal genomes. On the other hand, the smallest frog genome is the Ornate burrowing frog at 1.06 GB, which is 1/3rd the size of the human genome. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome#Genome_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome#Genome_size . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornate_burrowing_frog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornate_burrowing_frog says: "This is an adaptation to the desert environment where it lives. Because the ponds where they breed dries up fast in the desert, the tadpoles has to go through metamorphosis as fast as possible, which can occur just eleven days after the eggs were fertilized. A small genome gives small cells, and the smaller the cells are, the faster the tadpoles transform into small frogs and can escape the shrinking ponds" Xenopus laevis (African clawed frog) is 2.7 Gb, also smaller than humans - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8355/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/taxonomy/8355/ Thus, warm/cold-blooded cannot be the main reason for the difference. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genome_size : "genome size is not proportional to the number of genes present in the genome ... In eukaryotes (but not prokaryotes), genome size is not proportional to the number of genes present in the genome, an observation that was deemed wholly counter-intuitive before the discovery of non-coding DNA and which became known as the "C-value paradox" as a result." From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value#Variation_among_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-value#Variation_among_specie... : "Variation in C-values bears no relationship to the complexity of the organism or the number of genes contained in its genome; for example, some single-celled protists have genomes much larger than that of humans. ... C-values correlate with a range of features at the cell and organism levels, including cell size, cell division rate, and, depending on the taxon, body size, metabolic rate, developmental rate, organ complexity, geographical distribution, or extinction risk ...