On Mondays, I get home late from teaching. Usually right around 10:45 pm. Last night, when I got home, Bridge had a beer and Pad Thai waiting for me. What a lovely, lovely woman. Here is part of our wacky conversation from last night.
Lights up on the living room. ME is sitting on the couch, reading over B's shoulder as B is going over a powerpoint from her biology lecture.
ME: What is this? This isn't even English. What's deleterious?
B: Things that are detrimental to a society as whole..things that don't let you perform for optimal survival.
Me: Like this! (ME holds up clamato beer and takes a long swig.)
B: No. Things that are in your genetic code.
ME: Exactly. Like beer. What's an allele?
B: An allele--
ME: Is it like a tapeworm that lives in your stomach?
B: Yes. And it's 8 feet long.
ME: You're lying!
B: No, like say you have sickle-cell anemia--
ME: That's what you have!
B: No, I don't. OK, so you have two little a's, you're a definite carrier (B draws out big A's and little a's) And these are homozy-
ME: Homo what? Ohh yeah ... (ME makes dance club sounds.)
B: Homozygous and these (B points to big A,little a) are heterozygous.
ME: (ME abruptly stops making techno sounds) Oh! Like a punnet square. Like Gregory Mendel and his peas.
B: Yes.
A few moments later.
ME: (Kissing B's forehead, whispering) Homozygous?
B: Yes.
ME: Your mom is an allele.
B: She is.
(Scene.)
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2 comments:
Did she tell you about the huge punnet squares we used to do? Ah memories. High school was a wild, wild time.
Hey k! Those were good times....now I'm learning about how to calculate allele frequencies with punnet squares, and the implications these frequencies have for evolution, and conservation. You would Love it!
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