My name’s not Rick.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Sure did. My pops worked in midtown Manhattan, I remember going to his office in April of 2001. His office had an automatic coffee machine that would also make hot chocolate, I thought that was the coolest thing. He took a long lunch with me so he could take me on a trip downtown. We ended up going to the World Trade Center and visiting the observation deck at One World Trade. That added a real crazy dimension to September 11th for me, I had just been there not even five months ago. My father was able to get on one of the last trains out of the city before they were shut down that day. He talked about how scary and confusing it was, watching fighter jets streaking across the sky above 5th avenue, not knowing what else was going to happen. Still, he was one of the lucky ones.




















  • Interesting question, I found this

    You can’t make a baby with two moms by simply fusing two eggs or adding one egg’s DNA to another’s.  Even though the resulting embryo would have the usual 46 chromosomes, this wouldn’t work.

    The reason isn’t some special string of A’s, G’s, T’s or C’s found in dad’s DNA.  No, instead it has to do with chemical marks found on egg and sperm DNA.  This methylation (as the marks are called) makes the DNA from each parent unique, and you need both to make a baby.

    What these marks do is affect how at least 80 different genes are used.  In science speak, these genes are imprinted.

    As you may remember, we have two copies of each of our genes, one from each biological parent.  The chemical marks shut off either the copy from the egg or sperm, depending on which has the marks present…

    If an embryo’s DNA came from two parents of the same sex, then both copies of some of these imprinted genes will be shut off.  And for the rest of these genes, both copies will be turned on.  Embryos simply can’t survive when so many genes are out of whack. In fact, diseases like Angelman syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome can happen when just one of these genes isn’t passed on properly.

    You can read more here if you’re curious