Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A solvent that is widely utilized to dissolve plant DNA samples (e.g., when a scientist wants to sequence that sample of plant DNA). CTAB solvent helps the scientist to separate out contaminants that are commonly present in samples from plant tissues (i.e., polysaccharides, quinones, etc.) because DNA molecules are much more soluble in CTAB than…

A sequence of amino acids in two or more proteins that are not identical to each other.  

Those proteins produced by an organism that is not the wild type source of those proteins. For example, bacteria have been genetically engineered to produce human growth hormone and bovine (i.e., cow) somatotropin.  

A fused cell containing nuclei of different species.  

One that consists of two or more phases such as liquid-vapor, or liquid-vapor-solid.  

A chemical reaction in which the reactants are of different phases; for example, gas with liquid, liquid with solid, or a solid catalyst with liquid or gaseous reactants.  

A DNA molecule, the two strands of which come from different individuals so that there may be some base pairs or blocks of base pairs that do not match. Can arise from mutation, recombination, or by annealing DNA single strands in vitro.  

A chemical nomenclature prefix meaning “different.” For example, a heterocyclic compound is one with a (ring) structure made up of more than one kind of atom.  

The fraction of variation (of an individual’s given trait) that is due to genetics. For example, if a pig’s trait (e.g., weight at birth) is 30% heritable, that means that 30% of the (birthweight) difference between that individual pig and its (statistically representative) group of contemporaries (pigs) is due to genetics. The other 70% would…

Crop plants, cultivated by man, which have been altered to be able to survive application(s) of one or more herbicides by the incorporation of certain gene(s), via either genetic engineering or traditional breeding techniques. For example, crops (e.g., soybean, canola, cotton, corn/maize, etc.) are made tolerant to glyphosatecontaining herbicides by insertion (via genetic engineering techniques)…