Telomeres
 

Telomeres are lengths of non-coding DNA on the ends of chromosomes - every time a normal cell replicates (unless it is a stem cell), the telomeres become a little shorter, until eventually bits of genes start falling off. Without the protection of the telomeres, Chromosomes will fuse together, and the cell will die.
Cancer cells produce an enzymes which lengthens the telomeres, so they become 'immortal'. Many cancer researchers (including some of my lecturers) are attempting to find a way of preventing cancer cells from lengthening their telomeres, thus curing the cancer.

See? I've been studying, not making presets...

You will need a high mesh size to view these properly. If you have a slow machine, you will probably want to tweak the dx movement (in per_pixel) to make it a bit faster, so it looks right. Alternatively, you could slow down the movement of band1 and band2 in per_frame, so they oscillate slower.

- Krash

hey hey - it's D-N-A!

I like it!!!

Just realised I gave the double helix a left-handed turn, rather than a right-handed one. D'oh.

- Krash

Non-coding? <snort>

Krash and his big words like gave confuse me ;) :)

Crash course in DNA stuff:

DNA is made up of two strands, each made up of things called nucleotides. There are four different nucleotides, which are abbreviated to A, T, C, and G. The nucleotides on one strand match up to the other - A always goes with T, and C always goes with G.
The sequence of A, T, C and G together encodes a gene, which is used as a blueprint to make a protein. In viruses and primitive bacteria, every single nucleotide is part of a gene (sometimes more than 1) - it is all 'coding' DNA.
In all higher level organisms, there are lengths of DNA inbetween the genes, to space them out. Some of it (like telomeres), we know what it's for. Some of it we don't. Some of it might be junk. These lengths of DNA which don't form part of a gene are 'non-coding' sequences.

Back to study =]

- Krash

Ahhh more big words!! j/k..