Re: [lojban] Re: guess the tanru

[Jim Carter <jimc@MATH.UCLA.EDU>]

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Robin Lee Powell wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 21, 2004 at 11:53:13AM -0400, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> > On Tuesday 21 September 2004 11:31, Arnt Richard Johansen wrote:
> > > On Mon, 20 Sep 2004, Pierre Abbat wrote:
> > > > Here's a tanru for a phrase I've seen many times. Can you
> > > > guess what it means? {terzbacau spisa nilcla kamsortai}
> > >
> > > "Materialless piece length polymorphism".
> > >
> > > Have no idea what it *means*, though.
> > 
> > Restriction fragment length polymorphism, 
> 
> Oh, yeah, I feel *SO* bad that I didn't figure that out...
> 
> What the hell was the point of that exercise, exactly?  To test our
> obscure biology knowledge?

It's an article of faith that people are supposed to be able to understand 
a lujvo, or its underlying tanru, that they have never heard before.  
Usually it works pretty well, but this one fell on its face.  Granted, the 
English tanru isn't that informative: how does "restriction" get into the 
act anyway?  

Viruses are "restricted" in their host range because hosts have enzymes
that cut DNA at specific sequences that may or not appear in the virus
genome, but which appear nowhere in the host genome.  When the enzymes are
harvested and applied to experimental sample DNA, the cut pieces are called
"restriction fragments", and variations (polymorphism) in cut points, and
thus the fragment lengths, are a sign that different kinds of DNA are in
the sample.

To symbolize that entire paragraph in four words is daunting in any 
language, so I don't feel too bad that nobody guessed the tanru, 
particularly given that they aren't bio experts.  But we need to be able to 
create guessable tanru on a broad scale.

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
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