phasevelocity

Project ideas Consider this: Bonnie Bassler: The secret, social lives of bacteria Research the usage of epigenetics in the bacteria that make up 99% of the DNA in our body. Alternative: Chemical communication between different kinds of these bacteria in our body. Some of them "talk"not with their own kind but with a completely different species. In this field a lot is still unknown. Or: Research how this type of chemical communication works related to the transition from single celled life to multicellular life. For example in lifeforms that life both single celled and in multicellular forms like myxobacteria. It seems that there is still a lot to learn about how those weird myxobacteria work: http://iopscience.iop.org/1478-3975/1/3/005/ http://www.pnas.org/content/102/32/11308.full

The first phase of mitosis is the prophase. Metaphase is the longest phase in mitosis. During cytokinesis the cytoplasm is divided by the construction of a contractile ring around the middle of the cell. This ring narrows and a cleavage furrow appears and grows inward. When it completes and there also are septin filaments beneath the cleavage furrow the cell does the actual division. After that the microtubules used in the mitosis process are reorganized back into the cytoskeleto and the cell is back in the normal interphase. Plant cells do not use a contractile ring or a cleavage furrow during cytokinesis. Plant cells instead create a cell plate. More info on cytokinesis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26831/

Your problem is a very old idea and already known since at least ancient Greece. Please take a look at this wiki page on Zeno's Paradoxes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno%27s_paradoxes The problem has physical limitations in that you will have to stop dividing when you come to the scale of atoms or molecules. If you disregard that you will be limited by what can be observed which is at least 10 magnitudes larger than the smallest scale. Ultimately you will be limited by the smallest scale science currently thinks exists fundamentally, the Planck scale or 1.616252×10−35 m. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_scale If you go even further and disregard all practical and physical limits you will encounter logical problems. At present the majority of logicians, philosophers and mathematicians regard infinities outside of concepts in math like for example in set theory as impossible. The distinction needs to be made between conceptual infinities and real infinities. Real infinities are officially termed actual infinities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actual_infinity All this would not stop you from considering the future as an infinity. Such infinities however are not actualized yet so they are called a potential infinity. Some people consider God an actual infinity (also called the absolute infinity) while others consider the infinity related attributes of God proof for His non-existence. Some links related to infinity that may be of interest that might keep you busy for a while: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertask http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balls_and_vase_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finitism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinitesimal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperreal_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surreal_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfinite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burali-Forti_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0.999... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleph_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom_of_limitation_of_size http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedekind-infinite_set http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclid%27s_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem%27s_paradox Note that nature is considered fully consistent. That is the basis of all knowledge. If a paradox exists it has to be caused by problems in man-made concepts (or axioms in mathematics). This means paradoxes must be analyzed by trying to find the problem in the definitions or concepts. The chicken and the egg problem for example is caused by the concept chicken. The concept chicken is something practical for humans but in nature lifeforms exist in a constantly changing form. Through many steps of gradual change transitions are made so there never is an exact point where the first chicken appears, the bird just became more and more chicken like. The paradox appears when we create a concept that sets an artificial boundary called chicken.

Yes you are correct. I was sloppy. The plastome is referring to DNA. Here is a reference: http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=plastome%20dna&source=web&cd=13&ved=0CCQQFjACOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjcs.biologists.org%2Fcontent%2F104%2F1%2F1.full.pdf&ei=CLTETrSeOtOBhQfwxvnjDQ&usg=AFQjCNG4xFL3d9fXyfkqWNQocSa2Nj2_bA&cad=rja

The mRNA (it is RNA not DNA) is distinct form nuclear DNA because evolution has weeded out most of the access redundant mRNA and has even moved most of the mRNA that does not need to be at the mitochondrial location to the nucleus. So most genes coding for mitochondrial proteins are now in the nucleus. Chloroplast RNA is called plastome.