The Violinist's Thumb

And other Lost tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written By Our Genetic Code

Sam Kean 2012 Little Brown Bvtn 572.8 KEA

Kean focuses on scientific history and personalities, with some interesting science along the way. Amusing and snarky.

Asterisks indicate notes (digressions, really) in the back of the book.

The "thumb" was on Niccolo Paganini's (1782–1840) incredibly flexible hands. Possibly due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which limits collagen production.

• p020 1871 Johannes Mischner "nuclein", later DNA
• Thomas Hunt Morgan fruitflies (Nobel 1933) Columbia, to Caltech 1928
• Hermann Muller ( Nobel 1946 for radiation mutation)

• p60 RNA Tie Club 24 physicists and biologists: many baroque models for DNA -> RNA -> Protein

• p77 Zipf's law: word frequency inversely proportional to frequency ordering, p79 ditto for proteins
• p82 grawlix (symbols for swearing)
• Sister Miriam Michael Stimson - shapes of DNA bases in 1940s - errors, but developed infrared imaging of bases
• p103 Lynn Margulis, endosymbiosis
• p106 Microbes without mitochondria use 75% of energy for protein synthesis, no extra for novelties

• p108 Barbara McClintock, maize. Cornell instructor 1927, Cold Spring 1941.

  • p112 1950, jumping genes letter, chromosome regulation, controversy after 1951
• p118 William Barentz, polar bear liver vitamin A poisoning (vitamin A retinol regulates cell growth, too much and body organs and skin fails)
• p131 methyls stick mostly to cytosine
• p139 1909 Rockefeller Institute - Francis Rous, viral initiated cancer in chickens
• p143 Human genome 8% virus, 2% "human"
• p146 Jack and Donna Wright, 700 cats, toxoplasma gondii makes cat urine attractive
• p158 Philadelphia translocation, DNA swap between non-twinned chromosomes
• p163 Placental embryos may be using retrovirus "fusion" proteins
• p179 Ilya Ivanovic Ivanov attempted Chimp/Human crossbreeds in 1920s
• p183 split was 7MYA, some interbreeding 6MYA
• p185 Human-Chimp X chromosomes more alike than other chromosomes
• p193 probably not, humans 23 pairs chimps 24, different DNA regulation
• p196 consanguous family in China with 22 pairs
• p205 Human apoE mutated from chimps "boosted performance of" (macrophages), protect against inflammation
• p206 "left our arteries looking lie the insides of Crisco cans"
  • second mutation appeared 220,000 years ago, helped break down fats and cholesterol

MoreLater