Has anyone discovered the Chaos Game ? It looks like a cool learning tool for geometric thinking and fractals. I just discovered it while reading a paper on DNA sequences. I got involved in the game and must now return to the paper...warning, highly addictive.


Val

Hm so tell me about the paper on DNA sequences!

I did see that game recommended somewhere.

Fun! DD8 matched novice best score second time. I'm e-mailing her the link so she can have fun with it.

Thanks Val!

Cool!!!

You're welcome.

I found a site with some explanation about these ideas; the maths is a little bit advanced, but it's interesting: iterated function systems.

I worked through this myself without too much trouble; it helps to work out the examples rather than just read them (this time, I'm legitimately doing this to understand the paper I mentioned, but am still on page 1!).

Also, the Wikipedia has a cool illustration of a Sierpinski triangle and fractals.

Val

Very cool game, Val. I haven't showed it to DS yet (we are reading books and getting ready for bedtime), but I will tomorrow. But I'm certainly addicted to it!! I know what I will be doing for the rest of the evening!

But I agree with Dazey! I would love to hear about the DNA paper. My eight year old is fascinated with anything related to DNA, and he has me hooked as well. He reads books about mitochondria, RNA, gene sequencing, etc. And he loved the Standard Deviant's Biology tape and sat glued to it for over 2 hours. Do you have any resources for kids for learning about DNA? (Or for us stay-at-home moms who have degrees in science?) I would love suggestions.

We liked "Enjoy Your Cells" by Balkwill but it may not be as detailed for you. I read it w/ DS when he was 5 or so.

Hi EBeth,

The paper is pretty technical but is available for free; parents with a reasonable understanding of DNA base pairing and who are comfortable with advanced algebra will be able to follow it. It's actually well worth the effort because it talks about fractal-like patterns in DNA sequences. I found it to be very trippy stuff and well worth the effort.

Here's a link to the paper on PubMed Central.

Another paper commented on this one ~3 years later; you can also get it free at PubMed Central.

I also owe some people a small kit for extracting DNA from a piece of fruit. I'll try to get that together this weekend. Sorry for the delay, but a couple people told me they wouldn't get to it until summer and so I procrastinated.

Val

Hmm ok I can extract DNA, sequence DNA, radioactively tag DNA, insert DNA, clone DNA, make animals with inserted DNA, delete genes from animals ... but fractals and DNA....way out of my league! LOL.

Yes, speak slowly...I are a English major!

Wow... Thanks Val. That is one of the coolest papers I have read in quite a while. I'm going to have to find a way to explain it on a simple level to my son. Using non-linear dynamics to tease out the structure of DNA sequences is really just mind-boggling! It is acting like a giant sifter to sift out the patterns in the DNA coding. How cool.

Can someone with a basic kitchen-sink lab concoct a DNA test for fruit? That sounds really exciting! I would trade you that for the instructions for a snap-circuit diagram and explanation of how to build an electronic rooster! (you need a transistor, a photo resistor, and a piezo-electric buzzer which allows you to sense light and set off an alarm. They sell those in the big kits or at Radio Shack.)

As I said in the other post (My head head hurts)... We need a science tid-bit of the day!

That paper was way, way cool. I really enjoyed it. It's great to read something so completely different like that every now and then.

Re: kitchen-sink lab. I PROMISE I will put the DNA extraction kits together this weekend. Swimming lessons and Saturday chess are over and I don't feel so rushed anymore.

Val