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From: norm@ochoa.bcm.tmc.edu (Norman Furlong)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Nature Articles. Anyone read them?
Keywords: amino acid tRNA charging code
Message-ID: <1173@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>
Date: 19 Jul 88 23:01:17 GMT
References: <1628@runx.ips.oz> <6209@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Sender: usenet@bcm.tmc.edu
Reply-To: norm@ochoa.UUCP (Norman Furlong)
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
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In Aimee Yermish's article (ayermish@athena.mit.edu) on July 14th, he states:

>I had never before realized just how terrible science reporting is in
>the popular press...  
>"Second genetic code" is a nice term to latch on to.  The idea is that
>the "first" genetic code tells you how to go from three bases in
>messenger RNA to a particular transfer RNA.  The code that Schimmel's
>working on tells you how to go from a particular transfer RNA to a
>particular amino acid. 

Here here!  The press had no business making Schimmel's discovery appear
as important as that of the FIRST half of the genetic code (DNA triplet 
to amino acid).  Schimmel & co. have contributed to the field, but this
is a far cry short of unlocking the SECOND half of the genetic code, the
protein folding problem:  how the sequence of amino acids directs the
3-dimensional structure of the gene product.

Let's hope the press doesn't continue to cry wolf every time a new discovery
comes out of the lab!
				Norman B. Furlong, norm@tmc.edu
				Office of VPIT
				Baylor College of Medicine
				Houston, Texas 77030