Columns Dec 23, 2010 at 4:00 am

What Does Radiation Do to DNA?

Comments

1
Thanks for very informative post.
2
well as you all know by now i am a tsa agent at sea-tac. for fucks sake go through the scanner. we really really don't want to touch you , or your junk EVER ! YOU ARE JUST SLOWING THE SHIT DOWN FOR EVERYONE ! no i didn't know you were in a hurry to catch a plane, and that fact that your in an airport in a line 1,000 feet long was no clue either. don't tell me to hurry up and get it over with because you need to go, i'll send you to the "strip and dip room" wanna know what that means just try me. my partner went out and bought an extra large ring just for the christmas crowd this year, wanna find out what that means? just try me. a little tip for you trannys out there, you come through my line wearing a garter belt and stockings , bra and panties, or bustier thingy. i am gonna make you say out loud what you are wearing under your clothes! you people disgust me seriously. keep your little perversions in your checked baggage please. you can prance around like a princess after you get to the motel. and yes we will wave around your dildos and butt pluggs or what ever vibrating appliance you have in your bags , and make you turn them on like we do your telephones and pagers etc. that way next time you won't bring the shit to the air port to make us deal with your filthy sex toy's! in the end , just go through the dam scanner, or we will make your day o so much brighter. and yes vinnie loves applying the ring ! vigorously !
3
Wow, Mr. The Eric Cartman, I am so turned on by your rough and tough hot man-sweaty masculinity and abusiveness. I hope I get your security line so you can give me your deep security pole jamming. Oh yeah, every time you post on the Stranger it makes me hard. All your comments are so hot and such a turn-on. Can we go on a date? I'll let you tie me up and you can fuck me til I stop wanting your hot straight cock in my ass. Yeah, that'll teach me.
4
OMG, Eric the Cartman, you did it again. You are so fucking hot. I see you are into humiliation play too! Damn, can we please go on a date? I will let you work out all of your perverted fantasies. You sound like you really need someone who understands you are straight, but you gotta show those fags who is boss. So, let's go, hot daddy. You can show me, with every last inch of it. Every time you post your hateful posts, it makes me tingle in a special place. And even you need some love, don't you? I won't judge you. We can just hang out, watch the football game and you can shove my head down on your cock til you are sure I understand just how straight you are. Hot!
5
lol ! omfg ! o.k. that was fuckin funny , honey if i ever went that way i would ruin you for all other men .
6
Oh yeah, ruin me for all other men with your big, thick inspection tool! Oh Eric! You're so fucking hot. Yeah, big ex-marine TSA screener daddy! You can scan me, you can pat me down, you can humiliate me all you want. Oh Eric! Yes! I'm more turned on than ever!
7
"DNA—a delicate chain merely two atoms wide, but hundreds of millions of atoms long"

Two atoms wide, Jonathon? I know you're a clinical pathologist, but maybe it's time to brush up on some organic macromolecular structure.
8
Phew--I thought I was the only one traveling with toys. Glad to know it's a regular occurance.
9
@8 more so on the holidays it seems , go figure ?!
10
@Danger: If you take a DNA double strand, and draw a line through it widthwise, the fewest atoms that you can hit with that line is two-- try it; it's easiest along the phosphodiester oxygen.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http ://www.dna-sequencing-service.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dna-molecular-structure.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.dna-sequencing-service.com/dna-sequencing/dna-molecular-structure/&usg=__C9RalnXvW9KrOmW0CE36zUv-po0=&h=317&w=406&sz=6&hl=en&start=18&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=-p4GWeBZwkDf3M:&tbnh=97&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDNA%2Bstructure%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26channel%3Ds%26tbs%3Disch:1

So the DNA is indeed two atoms wide, one for each strand. The maximum width of course is wider because the strands are held apart by the base pairs, which are several atoms across.

It's just as correct as saying the minimum width of material in a ladder is twice the width of the uprights, rather than the rung width plus the width of the two uprights.

(In our ladder-DNA analogy, the uprights=the backbone, while the rungs=the basepairs.)

After all, the context is how easy it would be to break the strand-- all you have to do is to break one molecular bond for a single strand break, and two for a double strand break.

-edgey
11
@2 Gee, I wonder why people think TSA are a bunch of uneducated assholes. If the scanner ever comes under serious scrutiny, it won't be because of logical arguments like Jonathan's, but as a reaction to thuggish douchebags like you. Keep it up.
12
Oh god, please tell me you're kidding and he's not a real pathologist (who's fuzzy about how DNA works?). Um, yeah, DNA repair doesn't have to do with sister chromatids/paired chromosomes. At all. What he's talking about is just the complementary DNA strand of the double helix.

This is why doctors and people in the medical field scare the crap out of me. Their grasp on Biology 101 can be quite vague, yet they're disseminating medical info. Someone needs to learn the difference between meiosis and mitosis?

And why are people so freaked about the radiation? Drink and smoke and eat Twinkies all day long every day and sit out in the UV rays, yet cry about the radiation of a scanner (how often do you fly?). Shut up.
13
@12 Not everyone chooses to drink, smoke, and eat Twinkies. What I object to is being intentionally humiliated for refusing to walk sheep-like into an experimental machine built and administered by people who I know have no concern for my health.

There are technologies which accomplish the same thing as the backscatter scanners without ANY risk of radiation exposure. Why don't airports use those exclusively? Because they don't give a shit, and they know that if someone gets cancer as a result, it will happen years later and they won't be able to prove that the scanners were a contributing factor.
14
Dude, nice threats of abuse of authority. Seeing you rage like this is exactly the reason we don't go through the scanners. The Stranger should be reporting you and getting your ass fired.

15
@ Eric,
Your post misses the point. Yes you can slow us down on the way to the airplane and embarrass us and, according to you, sexually assault us but in the end some people will take it because they have to get somewhere and they want their chromosomes intact. We can all chose what other risks we're willing to take whether it be flying, going through a scanner, smoking or getting sexually assaulted by you and your jewelry wearing partner.
16
#2

FTW!
17
@14, no doubt. I absolutely fucking hate the TSA. Who the fuck does CARTMAN think he is? Look you little bully there's still a constitution and you are part of the government which is violating my inalienable God given rights. You don't have the fucking right to unzip my DNA or grope me until I prove I'm innocent and not flying isn't an option for a lot of people. You are part of a facist un-American bureaucracy which I will always fight. You sir are tyranny! Educate yourself and read the 4th amendment or stop thinking of yourself as one of us. You can't willfully violate your fellow citizens constitutional rights and consider yourself a citizen. You are a traitor and an enemy of liberty. Fuck with me at the airport and you better get some backup!
18
Everyone please get your panties out of a bunch and learn to internet. Cartman is not a real TSA agent, he's just a hilarious troll.
19
@ Cytochrome - for my job, my livelihood that allows me to pay bills and support my family, I fly 2-3 complete trips (usually 8-12 legs (actual airplanes)) per month. You amateurs don’t need to worry about this like we do. There are people out there that fly a full three complete trips per week and we don’t have a bypass lane like the pilots do. I have been doing this for the last 5 years and I don’t need this kind of hassle and new health risk on top of everything else. My shoes, belt, jacket, laptop and toiletries are removed and replace more times than I care to count.

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