My article is out!

My article "Beyond tRNA cleavage: novel essential function for yeast tRNA splicing endonuclease unrelated to tRNA splicing" is out on Genes and Development! Check out the abstract below and hit the link (CLICK HERE) to read more!


Abstract: Pre-tRNA splicing is an essential process in all eukaryotes. In yeast and vertebrates, the enzyme catalyzing intron removal from pre-tRNA is a heterotetrameric complex (splicing endonuclease [SEN] complex). Although the SEN complex is conserved, the subcellular location where pre-tRNA splicing occurs is not. In yeast, the SEN complex is located at the cytoplasmic surface of mitochondria, whereas in vertebrates, pre-tRNA splicing is nuclear. We engineered yeast to mimic the vertebrate cell biology and demonstrate that all three steps of pre-tRNA splicing, as well as tRNA nuclear export and aminoacylation, occur efficiently when the SEN complex is nuclear. However, nuclear pre-tRNA splicing fails to complement growth defects of cells with defective mitochondrial-located splicing, suggesting that the yeast SEN complex surprisingly serves a novel and essential function in the cytoplasm that is unrelated to tRNA splicing. The novel function requires all four SEN complex subunits and the catalytic core. A subset of pre-rRNAs accumulates when the SEN complex is restricted to the nucleus, indicating that the SEN complex moonlights in rRNA processing. Thus, findings suggest that selection for the subcellular distribution of the SEN complex may reside not in its canonical, but rather in a novel, activity.

Google Plus (+) : Why it totally rocks

Google plus has been out for a few weeks now and after playing around with it, it is clear that this product is a serious offering from Google.  Designed by an Ex-Apple Macintosh team mate Andy Hertzfeld, Google + exudes simplicity in every way.  The colors are toned down from google's normal ugly color schemes (in fact, they have even changed the look of gmail...you can now customize the theme of gmail to resemble google + like colors--making it look very cool and simple-TRY IT!) and the lay out is remarkably simple...almost Facebook-esque.  But it goes further than facebook in something that is really important: control of information.  This is, in my opinion, where google has understood the desires of many to limit information to a set of people.  Lets say I go out and get smashed with my friends and while I love my parents and other nagging relatives (you know who you are!), I dont want all of my family members to know about my crazy night.  In google + , I use circles to overcome sharing my crazy night with everyone that i do not want to share with.  I can put up a photo and expose it to only my Friends circle, leaving my family circle completely in the dark about the hangover that I got to experience the next day.  How many times have we wanted to separate out contacts from facebook and categorize them in to meaningful groups?  Google allows you to do that in a very novel way.  Click on the contact and drag him/her in to the circle.  If you have friends in Nepal and friends in America, then you can create a circle to distinguish the two groups of friends and then can share some info with select circles.  Its so simple and so well integrated into Google +.  
I know facebook has a groups feature...but it isnt the same because, it isnt well integrated.  You have to create groups from scratch and post to a group wall.  In google + the wall (or your thoughts) is integrated into the circles and anything on it is easily shared with everyone or just select circles!  
Furthermore, for those of you that are concerned with privacy you can even see how your profile is viewed by someone.  Just type in the name of the person and click- you have in front of you what your profile would look like to that person.  


What else?  Another major plus is integration with all else that is google.  GMAIL, TASKS, and all other google offerings is integrated into Google + and easily accessible from the top tabs.  


The only downside to the superior experience that is google + is the users!  Facebook has millions and millions of users and we are now almost a decade into using it while google plus is far far behind.  So it may be  a great product ...but it may be a little too late.  I for one hope that Google + will pick up steam and will be ubiquitous.  I know for sure that it has the potential to become a great social tool!

Chipotle Pepper Chicken with Apple Cider Vinegar- My wife's recipee

This is my wife's recipe for a delicious and very very VERY easy to make chicken that is tangy to the taste.  Its great for dinner with some steamed veggies!
**I'll post a pic up soon!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (sliced horizontally into 2 pieces each)
1 tbsp onion powder
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground chipotle chilli pepper
1 table spoon garlic

Instructions: (Super easy)
1) Marinate Chicken with all of the above ingredients
2) Add salt and black pepper to taste
3) Grill (or bake) to taste.  **If baked, the chicken may be a little dry (keep checking to make sure)

ENJOY!

Super 8: a great homage to our childhood!

My Rating for Super 8: 3.5 out of 5

If you don’t care too much for bad endings, do yourself a favor and watch super 8.  This movie is, from head to feet, a tribute to the classic sci-fi genre made popular by the likes of Steven Spielberg.  In fact, J.J. Abrams, in his movie Super 8, captures kids and their little nuances so well that you will find yourself smiling at the screen recalling fond memories of your good old times with your friends.  The dialogues between the kids are so well written and the story so well maintained (till the end) that you could forgive Abrams for getting lazy with the ending. 

There are two parts to this movie.  Let me first talk about Abram’s muse with monsters.  Without giving away too much, Abrams, as expected has created a situation where there is an unknown monster/alien/robot thing that is in a little town in Ohio and this monster is literally power hungry.  It is gathering all the engines and mechanic parts of the town for some unknown purpose. For most of the movie we don’t see the monster we just see its havoc on the little town.  And when we do see it, we come realize that all the pre-tense and build up and rather weak story provided for the monster falls apart and is actually inconsistent.

The other part of the movie is the real winner:  The kids.  The kids are in summer break and are making a zombie movie.  The appearance of the monster makes for a great set for the movie and that is how the monster is connected to the movie.  Some kids are falling in love, some are dramatic, and some are crazy…but all are adorable and their characters are an homage to our own childhood filled with curiosities and the desire to achieve something great, to be loyal to our friends, and to just do fun things during a lazy summer.  This part of the movie, a new avenue of exploration for director Abrams in both writing and directing, is handled very well and actually helps keep the movie entertaining and fun.  The climax is actually not the ending of the movie but actually when the credits roll because this is when we get to see the movie that these kids have made: a B-rated horror zombie flick.  It is amazing and this par of the movie alone makes Super 8 a great film.  This movie is an exploration of childhood and all of its ‘complicated’ relationships with other kids and their fascination with the unknown.  Easily a 3.5/5! 

Bing Begins to Grab more market share from Google.

Even with new technology stemming from google every couple of months (awesome products like Google instant, voice search, image search and etc), it seems Microsoft's Bing is slowly taking some (very little at this time= ie Millions of users) users from google.  Why?  I think it has a lot to do with Bing great integration of social networking built right into the engine (like facebook and etc).  These make search recommendations easy and publishing painless.  Personally I think Bing is a decent search engine and Microsoft has been trying very hard lately (unlike RIM, as mentioned in my past blog regarding blackberry) to stay relevant and to introduce new ways of offering functionality to end users like us.  Aside from Bing, I think microsoft also has done a decent job with their Windows Phone 7 OS which is a clean OS  and will be even better with the new Windows Phone 7.5 OS (named Mango) which is expected sometime next year.  New devices powered by microsoft's new OS will also be using Bing as the default search engine and I expect that within a few years, Bing could be more ubiquitous in the Search engine niche that google has confidently occupied for the better part of the last decade!  I am actually in support of Bing since Google has had a shady past with user privacy (from spying on people's wifi to forcing people to use that crap called Buzz).  Even though I use google daily, here's a rare support for a bright future for Microsoft's Bing !

Is blackberry falling from grace? My take on its ability to survive.

Recently stock market analysts are calling blackberry a "one trick pony" and today it seems more and more probable that Blackberry will not be able to bounce back.  The PlayBook, their take on the newly created tablet market, is an abysmal failure.  Their mobile phones, their "stronghold" carved out of their ability to create a fast and free communication app between blackberry devices, is slowly but sure also in the decline.  Their 'one trick pony', the messenger service is no longer a novelty.  With apple's and (even) android's leap in user interface in addition to Windows phone OS building up an admirable base, the messenger weapon that blackberry had is poised to become irrelevant.  Apple is on the verge of releasing the iMessages, an apple device to apple device communicator and its almost a given that android and windows will follow suit.  So what other tricks does blackberry have...?  They thought the playbook would do it...but the sales have been terrible.  No longer being able to tout the messenger service, Blackberry looks all but doomed.  And unlike Nokia, which is partnering with windows to create new devices that have a microsoft OS on them (and hence being pumped with millions from microsoft), blackberry has no one.  New age businessmen and upcoming innovators have already shown immense interest in apple's devices and those who carry a blackberry are clearly people who had it pre apple and android era.
So what can blackberry do? They must upgrade their phone's devices to the OS found in their playbook. While the playbook was no match for the lighter and far more app friendly ipad, reviewers loves the blackberry QNX OS found in the playbook.  So for success: they must QUICKLY develop a QNX like OS which may be able to revive a dying company.  However, based on industry trends, it is unlikely that Blakberry will be able to develop and push new OS based on QNX anytime before winter 2012.  Long wait providing plenty of time for apple, android, and now Nokia + microsoft to dominate the field.
If they don't succeed with QNX based OS for their newer devices, we can wave good bye to yet another phone company.  It goes to show that in the mobile world, fast response means everything and black berry was too slow to respond to an ever changing mobile field post apple iphone and android devices.

I say <20% chance of survival for blackberry beyond 2013.  What do you guys think?

Herbs and Vegetable Garden at home!

My wife and I have our very own herb garden going this year.  In our experience, mint, basil, tomatoes, and hot peppers grow really well on a pot.  We have to rely on pots since we are apartment dwellers and dont have any real land.  Regardless, I wanted to share our luck this year with you all.  We are also experimenting with green peppers, string beans, and spinach this year!  All seems to be growing well. I'll keep you posted!

Spinach!

Gardening is awesome.  It relieves stress.  Picking your own food freshly and eating is really comforting.  Watching the seedling grow into edible food is kind of cool.  If anyone is interested in tips/pointers: drop me a line. I will post more pics up as they grow!

Green String beans!

sweet basil, italian basil, and green peppers! 

Mint = Mojitos! (click for my own recipee)

view of 'garden'

Ginger mojitos for the summer

This is an awesome summer drink: the ginger mojito...adds that bite to the simple mojito.

Serving: 1 tall glass

1) 2 small pieces of peeled ginger (abt the size of a sugat cube)
2) 5 leaves of mint
3) 2 tablespoons of sugar (or splenda for the calorie minded)
4) 1/2 a large lime (juiced)
5) 2 other mint leaves ( for garnish)
5) 1/2 cup club soda
6) 30 ml light rum

Put sugar and mint leaves in glass tumbler/mixer
Grind with a strong utensil (it can even be a spoon)- v important to mix and grind thouroughly
Squeeze some lime juice in to help dissolve sugar.
Add ginger pieces and gruind/mix
Add rum
Add club soda- mix well
Fill a tall glass with crushed ice ( normal cubed ice is also ok)
Add some sugar ( aprinkle some on)
Pour contents of the tumbler/mixer into class
Add garnishing mint leaves
Enjoy!

This method works better with splenda since it can easily dissolve. If you're using sugar, you might want to make simple sugar by heating up 1cup sugar with1/2 cup water and using the simple sugar so that it dissolves easily. Adjust sweetness to taste!

Near Field Communications (NFC) and its REAL capabilities- not just to pay for coffee at a shop!

Make sure you look at Engadget's detailed analysis for more info and details...but here is my take ( i have borrowed some pointers from them)


Near field communication (NFC) is a technology that been around since 2003.  However, it is a much more prominent technology today due to the wide availability of gadgets that could use it on a daily basis.  What this means is that, the sword can finally be used where as before no one would be able to even lift the sword.  NFC allows rapid communication and transfer of data (or any information) between two things in a safe manner.  NFC is not just about having a credit card that is in your phone..no no...far from it.  NFC is a very neat tech that allows limitless possibilities.  


The full capabilities of NFC can be broken down into three main categories:

1. Card Emulation Mode - This is the most commonly understood capability.  The mode in which Google Wallet and other forms of contactless pay will be based, card emulation mode is exactly what it sounds like -- the phone becomes your credit card. Emulating a traditional smart card makes it convenient for companies like MasterCard and Visa that already have infrastructures set up for contactless pay, since nothing has to be changed.
This credit card emulation mode can of course be easily argued against since using credit cards themselves dont take very long.  The advantage of using an  NFC device would simply be that there would be one master "credit card" that could replace all credit cards.  Credit cards take 10-15secs to use so NFC tech here is not that useful....even with the advent of not having to pull out a specific credit card.  This is the reason why i think the two other applications of NFC are much more valuable and point to NFC's future!


2. Reader Mode - This allows the phone to read passive RFID tags on posters, stickers, and other stationary objects that contain certain types of information on them. For instance, you could tap your phone on the reader tag in a movie poster and it would begin playing the movie trailer, provide theater times, locations, and so on.

3. Peer-to-peer (P2P) Mode - P2P offers interaction between two active NFC-equipped devices such as phones. Using this mode, you could make payments to another individual or business just by tapping the two phones together. If the ice cream truck comes barrelling down your street or if your neighbor wants to pay you for that cup of sugar they just asked for, cash would no longer be a necessary part of the transaction. Or, what if you just got a killer track and you want to share it with your neighbor on the bus? P2P Mode is the magic that'll make it happen.


And all of these modes of NFC tech can be applied to almost anything.  I will list some that have little to do with the credit card functionality of NFC tech:

• Monitor your health- eg your diabetes monitoring device can be NFC enabled and now you can use your phone to tap the diabetes device and get info from the device instantly.  Likewise, your doctor can tap your diabetes device and know what kind of medication you're taking and when you've taken them.
• Mobile tickets for trains/planes/mass transit (this one is easy to imagine)
• Unlock doors: hotel rooms, cars, etc.
• Pair bluetooth devices by tapping the bluetooth device on your phone (no need to sync and discover)
• Log onto WiFi networks
• Check-ins: Foursquare, Latitude, etc.
• Share files between phones: music, docs, photos (tap devices and voila!)
• Store mobile "punch cards" for restaurants (tap to pay and tap to make a record of your visit-after 10 taps ...tap for free coffee for eg)
• Replace grocery store value cards with mobile coupons (kind of like credit cards but they have coupon value)

I think there's lots that can happen with NFC. Here's to hoping that developers do more than just use NFC for credit card purposes.  As I've shown, there is a lot that this amazing tech can do.    

Please Help me raise money for PELOTONIA: to cure cancer

This year I am partaking in the Pelotonia Ride!  This bike ride is to cure cancer!  All proceeds (Thats right, 100%) goes directly to cancer research. In fact, I am a Pelotonia fellow and am currently doing excting work to contribute to the group of scientists who are actively trying to rid the world of cancer.  Donations can be made through your credit card and can remain anonymous if you'd like.  If you can help in any way, I would forever me greatful, as would the cancer community. Your contributions can really make a difference.

Here is a list of People who are Funded by the pelotonia organization (we are working for the cure!):List of Pelotonia Fellows( Scientists working for the cure)

Here is my research topic:
My research funded by Pelotonia

Please read those and follow this link to contribute to my Pelotonia Fund Raising effors!

Click here to DONATE to PELOTONIA and help CURE cancer

-Click on the "Donate to my ride" link on the page.  It is completely secure and your contributions mean the world to cancer research and efforts to cure it!

Thanks !!

A promise for things to come

I'll be adding tons of stuff here. I am working on managing a blog and seeing where it takes me.  Actually the truth is, i will take it with me ...wherever I go.  Stay tuned friends!

iOS 5: The direction of apple is towards the cloud

Its pretty clear where aple is headed with the latest iOS 5: the cloud.  While its obvious there is much of a cloud offering currently, new features point to apple's future strategy.  Right now (or in fall when iOS 5 is released), users will buy a song or an app, create document or picture and poof , the documents will go to the cloud.   Automatically.  Afterwards photo, song, document or app will automatically be downloaded onto any iOS device or computer.  This isnt exactly cloud computing since the computing part of it (playing the song, viewing the photo or the document) still happens from the local drive (an iphone 4 for example).  True cloud computing means, the song will play off of the cloud drive....but apple is only storing those songs/files on the drive..to play it , the data is first downloaded to the device.  Why? you ask? Because today's data plans are not sufficient to cover all data processing in the cloud.  But it is sufficient to manage your files online so that it is always organized between all your devices.  This is EXACTLY what apple is achieving with iOS5.
Future updates, along with future (read: BETTER) technology will undoubtedly allow users to compute from the cloud.  But for now the advanatage of being able to take  a pic and have it be available eveywhere is where the tech is.  ANd it is exactly where apple wants us to be.  Right there at the forefront, ready to transition into full on cloud computing.

What else about iOS5? Cut the FUCKING cables!  Wireless sync to the devices!  Thats huge.
Plug your device in and goto sleep while your device syncs songs photos etc!

Recently I've switched to a mac, and it has taken me a decade to discover that apple is really the user oriented platform.  Things work and when they dont, they are repaired easily by apple.  Its simple.
ANyway more to follow later