Where am I?

There are 46 chromosomes in your body, carrying 20-25 thousand genes. Chromosomes and the genes they contain shape the genetic memory of a human being. Genes can contain hundreds of features, and these are revealed over time. For instance, you do not have any teeth when you are a newborn, but the time when you will get your teeth is encoded into your genetic memory. Once genes receive the action command, teeth start to emerge.

There are hundreds of genes located on chromosomes, all the way from the chromosome number 1 and 2, to chromosome number 46. For example, there are around three thousand genes found on chromosome number 1. The Y chromosome, in charge of male development, only contains 125 genes. A distinct address (locus) for each gene on the chromosomes is recorded. If you ask about the address of the fibrillin gene that synthesizes me, it is 15q 21.1, i.e., 15th Avenue, Long arm street, 21st pl, Number 1.

In other words my residing address is the 1st subband of the 1st band of the 2nd region located at the long arm of chromosome number 15. We are three siblings, known as fibrillin1, fibrillin2 and fibrillin3.

We stretch and relax like an arch. We can expand and tighten like an inflated balloon and then return to our previous state. If by an error, we happen to fail to restore ourselves after inflation, the tissue’s architecture gets deformed and expanded fibers cannot regain their original shape anymore. When observed in veins, this situation is called an aneurysm. The frequency of this disease is approximately one in ten thousand, which is also called ballooning. That said, my flexing is necessary. Veins flex so that the blood pumping through them doesn’t cause any turbulence, as it would otherwise be during a vacuum occurring inside metal water pipes. Flexible sportsmen who do acrobatic moves do not compare with me. I can bend, curve, flex, relax and constrict, inflate, deflate and transform like elastic, from one shape to another, for your health and overall convenience – all because of the wondrous features granted to my nature.

What kind of a fiber am I?

I provide structural support for the fabrication of elastic fibers in the connective tissue as a protein synthesized according to the code of the fibrillin gene. In case of my failure or absence, weaknesses occur, especially in the connective tissues of organs that are rich in elastic fibers, such as the aorta, lungs, and eye balls. The iris (the colored part of the eye), pupil, and eye lens display changes in accordance with levels of light or distance of objects observed. These changes are controlled perfectly according to my work, and humans often don’t even notice this. We also help the eye lens constrict and relax. It can be understood that we are such a great blessing granted for your service. Of course, if we tried to count all the blessings we’ve been given, and never even consider, it would be impossible!

My weight is 350 kilo daltons. A Dalton is an atomic mass unit approximately equal to one hydrogen atoms’ mass, which is 1.66×10-24. I consist of 2.871 amino acids. I am formed by the sequential arrangement of 20 amino acids that exist in your body as the smallest unit of proteins. We bind each other to become 10-12 nanometers wide microfibers as the result of a process called polymerization that brings loops of a protein chain together. These microfibers are brought together with the elastin protein that provides elasticity in our body. The system that we form with elastic fibrils constantly serves the body’s blood vessels, primarily the vessels located in your eyes, heart, and many of your tissues, such as your skin and nerves.

What do I do? We fulfill commands that are requested from us in many tissues and organs, without any flaws. Scientists call us the wonderful building blocks of the body’s architecture. We can extend twice as much of our length. We are always on task: while you are breathing, when your heart is pumping blood and your stomach is digesting food, or the moment you are gazing at nature with your eyes. We are given the duty to prevent many organs from tearing, including the heart, lungs, stomach, and blood vessels. One of the places I work most frequently is the aorta, the body’s major artery. Your heart beats approximately a hundred thousand times a day. A high level of pressure develops in the arteries during the pumping process. You would suffer greatly without the help of our elastic fibers. Blood vessels would rupture, ending your life. This high pressure is tolerated only through the expansion of the vessel’s diameter without any decrease in length of the artery. This diameter regulation is designed so wondrously that blood flow remains the same; no shaking or waves are observed. This diameter control happens via the fibrillin protein located inside the vessel.

I also play a role in the vitality and tension of your skin. Skin is essentially a dense fibrous connective tissue composed of a protein called collagen. I am also one of the main elements of this connective tissue. As you age, this layer starts to dry and has lesser fibrous proteins; therefore, as fibers decrease, so does my tension, and I start to wrinkle. Elderly people do not like getting wrinkly, but this is your fate. Whatever you do, I will also age and die.

I cannot go without pressing this important issue: Staying under the sun for a long time degrades me. If done properly, sun light is useful for skin. But solar radiation damages the live tissues and organs. This radiation is an effective factor both in degradation of protein structures, and the formation of varicose veins and skin damage. It is reported in various sources that exposure to sun rays leads to alterations in the genetic material of skin. Ultraviolet rays speed up the degradation of skin. In medical language, this is called oxidation via free radicals. Please do not burn us and yourself while sunbathing. Even if you do not care for yourselves, you should still be considerate of us. If you say that sunbathing both helps, with vitamin D synthesis and reducing the risk of osteoporosis, I would like to remind you that for the vitamin D synthesis of skin, it is sufficient to expose your hands, feet and face to the sun.

How is life without me?

Though we were wisely designed, sometimes, you are tested by certain diseases in which we are not present. Absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder!

Life without me is unbearable. I could give a couple of examples, should you like. If I was not created, your skin would not be flexible. You wouldn’t be able to control your eye lenses. Your aorta would not be flexible and your heart, which beats thousands of times a day, would be torn under the high pressure in a short amount of time. Major problems would occur with the development of your stomach, lungs, and other organs.

I also have a significant job keeping TGF-Beta (which helps cells grow) function under control. To give you an idea of how important this is, imagine your communication system turned upside down. Now imagine how complicated are the communication systems connecting billions of people around the world, how a mess it would be when they are out of service. These are nothing when compared to the human body. There are 100 trillion cells in the human body, communicating with each other instantaneously. A cellular community that is fifteen thousand times more crowded than the earth’s population communicates via small molecules, like us. Cellular proliferation and tissue differentiation would fail if cells failed to communicate. The full spoon of food in your hand would not end in your mouth but maybe in your ear or your eyes.

If a mutation happens with the Fibrillin-1 gene, Marfan syndrome can occur. This disease, which was defined in the 1800s, is named after its discoverer. The frequency of this disease is one in five thousand. One of the major lethal consequences of Marfan syndrome is an aorta tear. This is in addition to many problems with the eyes, skeleton, and cardio-vascular systems. Many of the patients die in their 30s or 40s because of the flaws in the cardio-vascular system. Of course, death may occur at any age because of an aorta rupture. 14% of the patients with Marfan syndrome display chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is associated with breathing problems, because the integrity of lung tissue is compromised. Another disease I help prevent is called Ektopia lentis, in which the eye lens is displaced from its original position. Normally, I help eye functioning. When my fibers relax or constrict, depending on light, I help the eye to relax, enabling both near and far sightedness. With Ektopia lentis, anomalies on the front vestibule of the eye, a high degree of myopia, and retina damage occur.

If overproduced, I can cause another problem with the eye, called exfoliation syndrome. This is when fibrous connective tissue, like me, accumulates in the eye – it’s commonly called glaucoma, or ocular hypertension. In some people, as they age, a fibrous material like hair dandruff collects on the eye lens. This material, dislocated by movements of the iris, blocks the drainage channels that discharge the intraocular fluid. Eye pressure increases as the result of failed drainage. As you see, I am not a problem when I am synthesized normally, but can be trouble if over produced! My final request from you!

You have seen our amazing works and complicated functions. Therefore, please remember me and my friends. Please do not ignore our efforts and activities. Be grateful for the blessings provided through us, even if you can’t see them. And take care of us, please – don’t get carried away with too much tanning!

The theory of plate tectonics explains what happens at plate boundaries. According to this theory, there are three primary plate boundary conditions; divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries. Divergent plate boundaries are characterized by ocean ridges and sea floor spreading; volcanoes are the most obvious setting. Here, a new crust is generated because the plates pull away from each other. Convergent plate boundaries are characterized by trenches and island arcs. In this setting, the crust is consumed in the Earth’s interior as one of the plates dives under another. In the case of transform plate boundaries, the crust is neither produced nor destroyed, as plates horizontally slide past each other. Significant earthquakes can occur under all of these boundary conditions.

We typically associate Japan with earthquakes because we know that it is a very earthquake prone island. The state of Alaska in the United States is also earthquake prone. The total number of earthquakes in Alaska per year is greater than the total number of earthquakes in the rest of the United States. The examples of Japan and Alaska reveal that more earthquakes occur at locations close to the plate boundaries. On a global scale, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, and western United States, are located along the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” where about 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 80% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur.

The magnitude of an earthquake is a representation of the total amount of energy released by the event. Typically, it is measured using the recorded ground oscillations from a seismogram. However, the interpretation of the magnitude is not straightforward because the magnitude scale is logarithmic. For instance, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake produces approximately 10 times more ground motion and releases about 32 times more energy compared to a magnitude 6.0 earthquake (2).

According to the statistics published by the US Geological Survey, every year on average 134 earthquakes with magnitudes 6.0 to 6.9 occur worldwide, 17 earthquakes with magnitudes 7.0 to 7.9, and at least one large earthquake with a magnitude greater than 8 (Figure 3). Further, the number of earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater has remained fairly constant but the number of moderate earthquakes (i.e., 6.0 or less) appears to be increasing. According to experts at the US Geological Survey, a partial explanation may lie in the fact that there is a tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world over the last twenty year. Thus, the actual number of earthquakes has not increased, but our ability to detect them. In scientific terms, this is referred to as reporting bias (3). When it comes to myths about earthquake activity related to weather and time, scientists rejects any connection. Earthquakes occur whether it is warm or windy, early in the morning or late at night.

In the United States, earthquakes are one of the most significant natural hazard for around 75 million Americans living in 39 states, including the state of California where the majority of the state’s population lives within 32 km of active faults. Historically, the region has been very active (Figure 4). To help predict earthquakes in California, a multidisciplinary group of scientists and engineers from various disciplines established a team entitled Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP). The team had a very ambitious objective to develop a comprehensive earthquake rupture forecast model for the state of California using the best available science. The details of the sophisticated model are beyond the scope of this essay, but the recently released report (USGS Open File Report 2007-1437) is available for public access (5). In her essay entitled, “The big one is evitable. Catastrophe is not,” Cathleen Decker, an editor of the Los Angeles Times, refers to the future predictions presented in the report as a “Chilling look into the future” (7). Based on historical evidence and scientific data, it is almost certain (with a 99% chance) that there will be at least one earthquake with magnitude 6.7 or greater in the state of California within the next thirty years. The likelihood of a more significant earthquake (magnitude 7.5 or greater) within the next thirty years in California is 46%. In the Greater Bay Area specifically (area includes large cities such as San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland), the probability of at least one earthquake with magnitude 6.7 or greater within the next thirty years is about 67% (6).

The current state of science considerably reduces the risk of death and damage by making resources available to individuals, teachers, policy makers, and engineers, but unfortunately, science at this time can neither prevent nor predict the exact time when an earthquake will occur. Casualties, financial losses, and mental trauma are sometimes inevitable for earthquake victims. Social and emotional suffering are often not limited to actual victims, but to everyone who has access to the news. Unlike financial and material losses, the psychological consequences of an earthquake exposure are long lasting. To address these consequences, earthquake preparedness should include mental and social aspects of the disaster as well.

Reference

• This dynamic Earth The Story of Plate Tectonics by W. Jasquelyne Kious and Robert I. Tilling (Online edition) U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/Vigil.html
• USGS Earthquake Hazard Program – Earthquake Facts and Statistics http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php
• USGS Earthquake Hazard Program – Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase? http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/increase_in_earthquakes.php
• California Geological Survey – Probabilistic Seismic Hazards Assessment – Historic Earthquakes http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/rghm/psha/Pages/historic.aspx
• The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, Version 2 (UCERF 2) By 2007 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 2008 http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1437/
• USGS Earthquake Hazard Program – 2008 Bay Area Earthquake Probabilities http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/nca/ucerf/
• Los Angeles Times (January 17, 2010) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-week17-2010jan17,0,4714976.story

Thus, the nitrogen molecule is inert and stable. However, in spite of this fact, nitrogen molecules undergo oxidization in the presence of water; in other words, nitrogen molecules are unstable in the presence of H2O and more easily form other compounds. This is expressed in the following equation:

This reaction occurs quite slowly. If this reaction did not occur so slowly, all of the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere would immediately combine with ocean water to form nitric acid. If this were to occur, an extraordinarily terrifying scenario that would lead to a global catastrophe would occur: The earth’s oceans would change into nitric acid, the most powerful and harmful acid in both its oxidizing and its acidizing effects! Such an event would entirely consume the nitrogen and oxygen of the atmosphere. The only more devastating global calamity imaginable is the apocalypse and the end of time itself! Of course, this chemical reaction cannot be entirely eliminated, even if its rapid occurrence would result in a terrifying global catastrophe. On the contrary, this chemical reaction must continue to occur slowly, as it has in the past, in order to ensure the proper formation of nitrogen compounds in the chemistry of the ocean; this is crucial to the continuation of life on earth. It is interesting that this phenomenon can show us how misguided some philosophers and philosophical movements, who have not based their thinking on religious principles, are in their attempts to demonstrate that humankind is God-like.

Although humankind is the most perfect creation in the universe, we are nonetheless almost entirely helpless in the face of the dangers that threaten us. The chemical reaction, summarized briefly above, has been taken from a basic chemistry textbook. The rate of the chemical reaction we described-in which nitrogen molecules in the presence of water can result in oxidation and the formation of nitric acid-in fact occurs in such a measured way that it is beneficial rather than harmful. This fact, along with the regularity at which the rate of this reaction occurs, clearly demonstrates the helplessness of the human condition.

Fortunately, the slow rate at which this reaction occurs ensures that the terrifying global catastrophe described above does not occur. Entire oceans do not turn into nitric acid, and the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, which is so crucial to our survival, is not consumed in this apocalyptic fashion. Should we not, therefore, learn the chemistry behind this good fortune? Even more importantly, should not we wonder Who calibrates the rate of this reaction, and continues to ensure that this careful calibration is not disturbed?

Who created such miraculous entities?

At present, many highly educated people and scientists maintain there should be a creator who knows and has the power to design of all these perfectly working organizations. Starting from an atom’s particles, this systemic structure consisting of atoms, molecules, macromolecules, cell organelles, cells, tissues, organs, systems, and finally a living creature exists in all ecological balances on Earth. Without seeing the impact of such a wide and large power, it is not logical to expect that all that we see in creation is the result of unconscious nature and thus conclude that everything occurred by blind happenstance.

We remain alive because millions of cells work together. Each maintains its life by being perfectly divided into units and having complex mechanisms within its structure. Each unit has unique features. When these units come together, large and unpredictable new features might occur. For example, hydrogen is flammable and oxygen is burning, but when they join together to form water, there is no fire.

A cell, which consists of electrons, protons, and neutrons, might function differently according to its location in the body. When cells are combined with each other, they form cell groups that acquire such characteristics as flexibility, movement, reproduction, and nerve transmission. We know that all such body units as cells, tissues, and organs have a perfect integrated system. And yet it is still unclear how they combine and carry out the functions necessary to make eyes, the brain, bones, muscles, and so on, all of which are composed mainly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphate.

In short, many scientists are very curious about how brain tissues can perform hundreds of different functions (e.g., hearing, thinking, and feeling) even though they are composed of atoms.

Recent discoveries

For the last two decades, scientists have been working on small molecules, DNA, RNA, and proteins, in order to shed some light to the unknown aspects of life. The Human Genome Project (HUGO) is one of the largest projects and is scheduled to be finished by 2005. Its goal is to sequence the cell’s genetic material, which presumably numbers some 100,000 genes, and explain each one’s function(s). However, so far only 10,000 to 20,000 are known. And this despite the fact that scientists have spent centuries learning how molecules are formed and what kind of force drives the atoms to form molecules!

Several famous foundations, among them Yale University, New York’s Cold Harbor Laboratory, and Germany’s Max Planc Institute, have been researching questions related to the body’s structure. For example, how did it occur in such a small living cell, even though its building mechanism and systems are far more complicated than the system, which is all around us? How are dead cells expelled and replaced by new ones without disrupting any system’s continued functioning.

In short, living creatures still hold many secret–so many, in fact, that despite recent technological advancements many unknown subjects remain. What we know may be compared to a drop of water and the ocean.

DNA and genes

Excluding blood cells, one body contains millions of cells. For instance, there are approximately 5 million white blood cells within 1 mm3 of blood. Each cell has a nucleus (its brain), and each nucleus contains genetic codes (DNA). Such genetic information as hair and eye color, bodily height, and blood group is hidden within the folded DNA and packed onto 46 human chromosomes distributed. If we could unfold the DNA package within each cell, we would get a 2-meter long DNA strain.

In addition, each chromosome contains small DNA units (genes). Scientists estimate that there are about 100,000 genes, each of which has a unique function, in a human genome. For instance, there are globin (the major component of hemoglobin) genes on chromosomes 11 and 16, and individual genes on the X chromosome that enable us to see colors. Another gene on the X chromosome synthesizes a dystrophine protein within our muscles, other genes on chromosome 6 control ferine metabolism, another gene on chromosome 7 controls the ion traffic, and so on.

When we look at a gene’s structure, we realize that it they only are encoded by four letters (nucleotides): adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and timin (T). The different orders of these four nucleic acids enable the gene to encode billions of protein amino acid combinations. The smallest gene, globin, is composed of 60,000 letters; the longest gene, distrophine, is composed of 2.4 million letters. If any letter is missing or is in the wrong place within the globin gene (e.g., AATG_ letter missing or AATTC letter change instead of AATGC), the ensuing point mutation, deletion, or insertion within the original order causes serious and incurable genetic diseases.

Many mutations occur within the functional parts of the 100,000 genes; however, they are instantly (10-10 second) repaired by the DNA ‘s repair mechanism. If not, serious diseases might occur. Interestingly, not all mutations cause genetic diseases, for while one mutation could be common within one human population, it might not occur so frequently within another one. Amazingly, our genes, composed of billions of letters (but only from A, T, C, and G) and always work in a harmony and collaboration so that our body can survive in a perfect manner. Therefore, spontaneous mutations or breakdowns are instantly repaired and old cells are replaced by new ones so quickly that we are not even aware of it.

Conclusion

In sum, the Creator has given each living entity a perfect and aesthetic body that functions in a most amazing manner. The only thing we have to do is thank the Creator for His generosity. That is perhaps the easiest task for us to do.

• References
• Thomas Gelehrter-William Wilkins, Principle of Medical Genetics Scientific American (January 1998).
• http://www.genome.gov/
• http://www.dnaftb.org/dnaftb/