White Lightning Productions

As some of you may know, I hold a doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and work at a research lab at UCSF. I thought it'd might be fun (and a good exercise for me) to hold a Q&A on the forum.

So if you have a burning question about biology or chemistry that can't be answered by a quick search on Google or Wikipedia, post 'em here and I'll do my level best to answer them.

I heard that chameleons use crystal matrices in their skin to help them change color, but I can't find any details. I thought it worked like octopuses, with pigment-filled cells that expand and contract. What gives?

Aside from human chromosome #2, are there any more known examples of chromosome chains getting fused?

How close are we to a real life Jurassic World?

Anything else?

Have we isolated the genes that control breast size in human females?

I work in a laboratory that studies HIV, if that piques anyone's interest.

Biochemically, what would happen in SanFrancisco when....


ENTERS THE LAB FOR A
5-SLIDE "SCOPES & LADDERS"
MICROBIOLOGY MATCH?!?!?

I was reading a journal article on axonal growth and I noticed this reference...

Cheng, P.L., Poo, M.M., 2012. Early events in axon/dendrite polarization. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 35, 181–201

The co-author's full name is Mu-ming Poo.

I'm sorry. Different culture and nomenclature and as Terry Prachett observed there are only so many syllables out there, but...

My brain just jumped the tracks at the name "P. L. Cheng" and said, "Huh. I wonder if there's a combination neurology clinic and Asian fusion cuisine restaurant somewhere?"