A gut feeling about a scientific fact leads to an unexpected discovery. For me anyway. Stay with me - this is story actually is about wine.
In the early hours I was tossing and turning. Thinking about the number 30,000. Just how big is it?
Why 30,000? Well that’s the number I thought was the number of genes in the human genome. It had stuck in my mind for about two decades. Scientists working on the Human Genome Project just after the turn of the millennium were surprised that there were ‘so few’ genes needed to describe humans.
Earliest estimates when the structure of DNA was discovered in the 1950s and 60s were in the millions. Later guesses seem to have declined from around 100,000 down to 50-60,000. Then as improved technology, and importantly global cooperation on the problem advanced the number of genes fell to around 30,000 - or so I thought.
But if Albo, the then Opposition Leader, can misremember the unemployment rate maybe I could mistake a number too. I should check that number. Perhaps in the two decades since I encountered 30,000 something has gone astray in my neural networks.
Google it mate! Advice from another politician.
So it turns out that the best estimate nowadays for the number of genes is somewhere around 22,000.
Phew! That seems a much lower number to disturb my sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
But the side result of my little excursion into Google land and the Wilds of Wikipedia was an astounding discovery.
Look at this!
Image from “Between a chicken and a grape: estimating the number of human genes” by Mihaela Pertea and Steven L Salzberg. See full article here
Isn’t that amazing!
Grapes have a more genes than humans! So that’s why wine is an endlessly fascinating subject. It is because grapes have so much more genetic oomph going for them than we mere mortals.
With almost 50% more genes than us we should be showing grapes more respect.
That’s another reason why we should be looking for diversity and individuality in our wine instead of sticking to the mainstream industrial supermarket varieties.
Just why did I want to know about 30,000? Too late! I’m not going to say. The new number to keep tossing and turning at 3.45am is 22,333. That number will inspire another story…
But you will need to be a subscriber to find out about where the number 22,333 takes me.
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Disclaimer: Some of the above rant is just a bit unscientific. Don’t take it too seriously!
Next post will be part 2 of my look back at wine labels of the ’60s and ‘70s.