Thoughts of Jade: DNA Shape

DNA, contrary to popular belief is not a "twisted ladder" with equal sides and such. it has an interesting form with a major and a minor groove, the minor being about half the size of the other. To demonstrate, here is a picture of correct DNA:

Notice the major and minor grooves, with the different distance between the backbone sections. This is because the way that the nucleotide bases align against each other is not parallel, but anti parallel, with the bases turning in the same direction, leading to a small side and a big side.












This is incorrect:

Notice the twist is equal on all sides. This is not correct. I've found consistently that about half of the pictures of DNA out there depict it incorrectly. I hope this lesson helps.

Going Jade: Olive Oil vs Canola Oil

This is a topic that has sparked a lot of passion from the masses. I have seen many sites which practically blame canola oil for all the worlds problems, the bane of all the earth. Why are there so many misconceptions? Here are the arguments of the people opposed to canola oil, that almost always tout olive oil as the only oil worth using. Ever. 
Point 1: Coconut oil comes from coconuts, olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola? 
Almost every site I went to had this argument. They start this way to get people wondering yeah, I've never heard of a canola! It must be some made up plant designed to hide how bad the oil is! Well, the reason most people don't know what a "canola" is, is that it isn't really grown here. It mainly grown in Canada, and in North Dakota, where it was developed as a cheap way to produce large quantities of cooking quality oil. It stands for Canadian Oil, Low-Acid. It was bred from forms of rapeseed(you can see why they changed the name when they started marketing it), which just happens to have the highest amount of oil produced per acre of any yearly food crop(it produces 2.6 times as much as soy and 7 times as much as corn per acre[1]).
Point 2: Canola is a genetically engineered plant (GMO) developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants.
Actually, Canola was not developed through genetic engineering, but through conventional breeding to eliminate the erucic acid content, which is bitter and wouldn't work as a food oil. Yes it is related to mustard, as evidenced by the name which derives from comes from the latin for turnip, rapa, which is also part of the mustard family. Nowadays, much of Canola is genetically modified, at least the portions in the US and Canada, but what is genetic modification? It simply is adding genes from other sources to another place, such as to provide resistance to pesticides, herbicides or pests and diseases, which means a healthier crop, and better yields, so we can continue to feed this growing population of humans. In all my searching, I have only found one real claim has been found of GMO organisms causing health problems, and even that one is pretty shaky[2].  

There are many other points, but I don't want to bore you. The only advantage I found for Olive oil over canola oil is that it is less processed and so if you like that, go ahead and use it. However, canola oil isn't toxic and in many cases is a good alternative to many other oils. Its not cheap because of  subsidies, or other government interventions, its cheap because the plant produces a lot of oil. If you want to compare them nutritionally, the best place is here(olive) and here(canola).

Thoughts of Jade

This section will be for the thoughts and things I have learned, not from an environmental standpoint, but from being me in life. I tend to see things from a rather different perspective than most, and this is to share that perspective with the world. I hope you find them entertaining and informative.

Going Jade

Often we hear about going green, how we should do things for the environment, and for our own health. This portion of the blog is meant to deal with these types of issues, and how we can benefit the environment without hurting ourselves and our wallets. I will try to find the truth as best I can in this and add as many references as possible so you can affirm my positions on these issues, especially primary literature, from reputable scientific journals. Basically I want to cut the crap and give the straight dope on environmental stand points. I hope to see you back soon!