finally, after several weeks of choosing and tossing, i’ve settled on a title for this blog. so yes, despite the new title, it’s still me, ruth. if you need to update your links, might as well change it to my new url, too: http://www.about-ruth.com. will soon have everyone auto-directed over there. AnP’s promising me a spanking new lay-out that will match my virtual persona. but, like my opa neighbor always say when he sees us rushing up or down th staicase, “langsam, langsam… we’ll get there, one at a time…”

so, what is a transposable element, anyway?

also called transposons, or jumping genes, transposable elements are segments of DNA that can move around to different positions within a cell’s genome. the process of ‘transposition’ is simply removal from one place to be relocated to another. sounds familiar? well, if you’re an expat, you’ll know what it means to be relocated, or sometimes more aptly, dislocated, from one place to another.

that’s not where the analogy ends. in the process of transposition, these DNA segments can cause mutations, or change, both in the spots where it came from and where it transfers to. ultimately, it has an influence on the traits expressed by the cell. i’d like to think that i am making waves, confined though they may be to the little communities where i play a role. i may be just a statistic in studies outlining population migratory patterns, but in my own small world, i make a difference (nothing big, i guess, but not completely negligible either). not only in the place i left, and the place to where i go, but well, you know… they say when you drop a pebble in a pond, you’ll never know how far the ripples go…

transposable element. bow.

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