30 thoughts on “Geek humor”

    1. p53 is a protein that suppresses unnecessary cell division. I assume the ‘point mutation’ rendered that protein unable to function. Thus, the mouse is at a high risk of developing cancer.

      1. Wasn’t the p53 gene implicated in lung cancer and tobacco users or is it with cancers in general?

  5. I get the p53 part.
    But where does the ‘transgenic’ bit come in?
    Transgenic usually means the transfer of genetic information from one species to another. There are transgenic mice, such as those engineered to express a human gene, and there are knockout mice – those that are engineered to have a mutation rendering one of their normal genes non-functional.
    The p53 mouse seems to be the latter rather than the former.
    It’s knockouts anonymous!
    That’s the trouble with geeky jokes – us geeks tend to be pedantic!

    1. Couldn’t they have put in a transgene that also had a mutation in a specific place?

      1. The usual ‘mutated’ genes you see in these types of mice have an exon removed such that the open reading frame is disrupted.
        I guess you could put in a transgene that contained a full open reading frame of, say, human P53, with a point mutation – perhaps testing a dominant negative phenotype.
        So technically speaking, it could fit.
        (Although I still think they are mixing up the term ‘transgenic’, with the currently more common term ‘knockout’)

        2. FYI: The first transgenic mouse was a p53 mutant. By transgenic, I think we’re supposed to assume a knock-in “humanized” mouse model, in that they have a human version of the p53 gene, which has a point mutation somewhere, either rendering the gene nonfunctional, partially functional or over-expressed. Technically speaking I would not consider knock-outs to be transgenic.

        3. “transgenic, knock-in, knock-out, humanized, inducible, suppressible, conditional anonymous” rather loses the punch – a bit like this thread. Give the guy a little license.

  6. Whqt would be a representative example of a NON-geek joke?

    Would it be like the old 50’s/60’s Bill Cosby routine of a football player and the kid throwing the football before the football player plugs the Brylcreamesque (sp.?) stuff:

    Football player to kid: “Throw it to me, the ball. Pick it up first.”

    What affirmative noun name is synonymous with “non-geek”? What is a “non-geek”? Is it a “jock”? (A hedge fund manager?) Is a “geek” a “non-jock”?

    1. I have come to the conclusion that anyone who pursues a hobby or passion to a high level, and is willing to be publicly enthusiastic about it, can be considered a geek. Computer geek, band geek, bike geek, fashion geek, knitting geek. Whatever. The only place it doesn’t seem to apply is team sports – hence the “jock” stereotype, I guess. Nevertheless, if you listen to people who are really into, say, American football talking about American football, there’s no other way to describe it. They’re football geeks.

      The noun synonymous with “non-geek” is “normal”. It follows that normal people are boring.

    1. This is probably going to be postmarked for the 18th, so that’s two days in a row that you’ve got covered.

      use del or strike to do the job, I hope.

  9. What happened to the “Ancient (?) cat tracks”?
    I was looking forward to a bit of feline ichnology.

    1. They are now here. My email notification also included some quoted Icelandic/Gaelic/Early English poetry that I’d be curious to know more about.

      1. I’ll see if I can retrieve it from the bin. […] Oh yes, so there was. I didn’t look down far enough. I find WEIT interesting enough to just come into it and work my way through it on general principles without worrying over much about the content of each update mail.

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