The previous thread to this subject for the Obama campaign's responses to these questions has grown too lengthy to follow and has diverted widely to unrelated political subjects. Which is okay to a point, but in this thread I'll work harder to keep things on topic.

Senator John McCain's campaign has submitted their responses to those same 14 science policy questions, and those responses are now listed side-by-side with Obama's at Science Debate 2008. These display some strong contrasts that should serve to inform the public fairly well about how each of the candidates would approach the important issues of science, education and technology as we head into the second decade of the 21st century, with our economy is tatters and continuing to spectacularly fail on an almost daily basis (Merill Lynch and Lehman's both went down this weekend, just a week after the the nation's primary mortgage lenders were nationalized due to criminal bankruptcy).

Please use this thread for discussion of the actual questions and the contrasts (if any) between the campaigns' responses to them. Thanks!

SD published an article entitled Structure of Key Epigenetics Component Identified that hails the reporting of the 3D structure of a key protein, UHRF 1, in ensuring the "epigenetic code" (attached chemicals for methylation) is accurately copied when the DNA is replicated.

A question for those here who claim to understand all these details (and have access to Nature, please. How do chemical attachments to DNA get copied in this process? Does the protein somehow get reverse-engineered into standard DNA code, or does the replicated string come with non-nucleotide chemical 'markers'? Does the DNA now encode this particular protein in this particular spot (standard DNA code)?

Some clarification of what, exactly, is being copied, "proof-read" and reconstructed in the daughter cell would be appreciated. Thanks to anyone who can translate this for me.

Thought Provoker mentioned EAM while talking about FLE in another thread.

Alan Fox requested answers from an EAM point of view to determine if it is just another variation of FLE. As the only resident EAMer, I described it here and expanded here.

That thread has more than 100 comments, meaning I won't be able to keep following if that discussion wants to go anywhere. So this thread will serve that purpose if anyone's got anything they want to discuss about Endogenous Adaptive Mutation.

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…for the Candidates to answer

Thought Provoker is a little ruffled that there's a non-science specific thread on the front page [Lying to Advance a Cause], so I thought I'd post something genuinely scientifical that some here might be interested in.

This is, right on time following the political minutiae of hammering platform planks into a sturdy stage and getting nomination formalities out of the way, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama's Answers to the Top 14 Science Questions as winnowed by ScienceDebate2008 and leading science organizations from more than 3400 questions submitted by more than 38,000 scientists, engineers and other concerned Americans.

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Politics isn't a focus of this forum, and participants here cover the spectrum of political views and policy leanings. This is not a thread about politics, please don't use it as one.

That out of the way, I'd like to post a few excerpts from a review of progressive activist Markos Moulitsas' new book Taking On the System, because his words have broader social application.

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LHC to Start Up September 10

I have expressed some interest in High Energy Physics and various QC, GUT and SUSY theories on occasion. There are several Swamp denizens (including one doing double duty as commenter here and peanut gallery heckler there) who strongly believe that I have no right to be interested or business following theories and developments at that end of physics. I beg to differ.

Why, anyone interested in what science knows or doesn't know about the nature of nature and/or any part of nature (and what they're doing to plug holes in their knowledge) might find the theories and experiments of HEP of great interest and entertainment value. I figure that when I have no business or right to know what's going on in theoretical and experimental physics, they'll stop reporting what's going on in theoretical and experimental physics. A situation none of us should welcome.

Fortunately, the public still has a right to know some or most of what's going on (at least at the public funding level), and an entire scientific press corps out there attempting to give people information that they can understand if they try. Perhaps those with a bit of background physics will follow with less effort, but if the interest is there, effort is a fair investment. For those interested, here's where things are at as of August 12, 2008…

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A website named X-Ray Technician Schools [Alabama] has offered its "Top 100 Cutting-Edge Science Blogs" list, and Telic Thoughts weighs in at #35, #2 under the Biology section. After General, Astronomy, Academic, Research and Group Blogs. Had they started with Biology, we'd be much farther up the list.

Seed's ScienceBlogs comes in collectively at #32 under Group Blogs, none are individually singled out. Panda's Thumb appears at #84 under Miscellaneous.

Now, this list isn't exactly authoritative for the blogosphere ratings system (that has long held PZ's Pharyngula as the #1 Science Blog despite its piddly percentage of actual science posts). But it is a pretty good collection of blogs about this and that, and NOT dominated by Seed's insular empire of professional Culture Warriors. Check it out!

Discussion on the lengthy Remarkable Nucleotides thread has become unwieldy, as well as not much about remarkable nucleotides anymore. This thread serves for continuing sidelines off-topic there - OoL and ET scenarios primarily, as well as physical diversions.

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