God's Programming

Papá was very excited because they delivered a big new machine to his lab. An automatic DNA analyzer - it cost thousands and thousands of dollars.

I asked Papa how you use it – he laughed.

“Who knows” – that’s what he said. “There’s a special technician who operates it. I just send off a test-tube and they send me back the DNA sequence!”

I was supposed to be showing him about information bits and there was my dad telling me about his brand new DNA analyzer. I thought he might be interested in me for once. But, he’s kind of distracted when I tell him.

It always comes back to his work.

I guess genetics is kind of interesting. NOT!

I wish my dad would notice that I don’t care enough to want to study it?

Blocking Traffic

Papá was trying to tell me how alike we are with our programming. Me with computers, him with DNA – it’s all the same thing. I was showing him a program I had created to stop websites hacking my computer. ¡Está padre! But, it still needs some work.

Imagine a city with roads, and rivers, railways and footpaths, all leading into it. A computer doesn’t have roads. It has ports.

Ports do the same thing as roads, really. A road lets in a car, a port lets in data. Simple, see?

So, by blocking a road or closing a port you prevent cars or data from getting through.

I want to make my computer invisible so that other websites won’t even see it.

Papá was impressed. We have a small network at home and I showed him how to connect to my computer from his. Then I showed him what happens when I close the ports.

Muahahahahahahahahaha.

The Dogman

Anyway, Papá was telling me how similar computers and genetics are.

All data stored in computers is made up of ones and zeros. It’s like a secret language.

If I wrote 1001010111100010110100011101000101111, all those ones and zeros (each one is called a bit) could mean something like “Hi, Señora Estrada”.

(It doesn’t really, but you see what I mean.)

I explained to Papá that bits work like a light switch so that they are either on (1) or off (0). He told me that computer programs are man’s answer to God’s programming!

He said that DNA is like all those bits (ones and zeros) and is God’s universal language for programming everything from pineapples to monkeys and human beings.

While bits are either 1 or 0, Papá said, the bases in DNA can be either G, C, A, or T.

DNA makes RNA makes protein – may dad said. He called it the Central Dogman of Molecular Biology.

At least – I thought he said Dogman. That would have been cool!

But it turns out he actually said ‘dogma’. It’s like ‘the central belief’.

Not as cool as a Dogman.

Gusto Musical

Abuelita always thought I was a bit of an oddball when it came to music – I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. She had a sense of national pride –for singers like Luis Miguel o Los Fugitivos.

ThOSe sOpPy lOVe sOnGs aRe aLL a liTTle… cUrSi!

I guess I’m a little different to some of my classmates. I don’t like rap, hip-hop and especially not reggaeton! Yuk!

I guess I’m a rock chick. Anything with a strong guitar sound will get me on my feet – Papá’s caught me a couple of times, dancing on my bed, just jumping up and down really.

My favourites groups at the moment are:

1. Bon Jovi
2. Coldplay
3. Metallica
4. Rodrigo y Gabriela
5. U2

And, I have a soft spot for my dad’s favourites too. He likes the Rolling Stones and Clapton and The Police.

You know, the typical, old guy stuff...

Programming

I loVE tO pLAy aRoUNd wItH lITtLe prOGrAms.

Creating computer programs can be real fun. Though, I think you need determination to solve puzzles. I guess that’s what Papá was always going on about with his work – trying to make a mouse glow, or turning a frog into a prince, or whatever he does.

GeNéTiCa! PAh!

Computadoras are where it’s happening. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when it all comes together and you solve the puzzle you set yourself.

Try this game. The Towers of Hanoi is a great example of decision making – and mostly that’s what programming is – you have to choose how best to carry out a task. Programs are designed to make decisions depending on what they are told to do.

If you play the Towers of Hanoi, and try to work out the quickest and best way to move all the discs, then your brain is running through a set of questions and trying to decide the best way to do it:

Where shall I place disc 1?

I can’t put disc 2 on disc 1, so I have to put it on the only free peg.

Should I move disc 1 on top of… well, you get the point.

ThAt’S eXaCTly wHat A prOGraM dOEs. YoU uSe tHOse dEciSiONs tO Do sOMe exCeLEnTe tHIngS

Science is aburrido

I dON’t gEt wHaT’s sO iNTerEsTIng aBoUT lOokINg aT thInGS tHaT aRe tOO smALl tO eVeN sEe.

Papá looks at “the building blocks of life”, he keeps telling me, but I just think we’re made this way for a reason. Why are they playing around with what makes us human?

He’s tried in the past to get me interested (I really think he wanted me to take after him - seguir los pasos de alguien). Once, we did this experiment to extract DNA from one of Mama’s rosa bushes, where we mushed it up in a blender and did some kind of separation with alcohol. At the end of it we had this stringy white stuff that was DNA. At least that’s what Papá said it was. I thought he’d spat in the test tube while I was watching the televisión.

When Mama saw where Papá had snapped the rosa off, leaving just the stem poking out of the bush, she was furioso. We had already sworn Abuelita to secretismo (she shook her head and hid away in her room – she hated lying and found it difficult that Papá could never tell her about his work) and told Mama it was one of the neighbourhood perros (they bark all day long, so if she went out and hit one with the broom, I wouldn’t mind).

I’ve just found the experiment we did. It’s here if you want to give it a go for yourself.

Papá always told me never to do any experiments unsupervised. Like he thinks I’m still a little girl and interested in science.

Secret Projects

PaPá dOEs a lOt oF tRAvELling – hE’s a moLEcuLar bIoLoGIst, reMeMbeR?

Usually he has to go where the work is (he works for himself and companies hire him). He’s always jetting off to Switzerland or somewhere exotic for some aburrido, sciency conference. Boring guys talking about boring subjects.

He was getting really excited about his latest employer, some company called… er… I wasn’t listening… Chad… or Chal… or Chan… something.

Papa never tells me what he’s going to be working on. When I used to ask, he’d go all quiet, make sure no one was around to listen and whisper in my ear: “Es un secreto”. And off he’d go, laughing to himself.

Oooh, big, secret, money-making science ideas…

Don’t worry Daddy. Your secrets are safe with me.

(Like he’d ever tell me! You’re crazy!)

Lucha Libre

mY tWO fISh, MyStERio y EpHeStO, aRe nAmED afTeR mAskED wReSTlerS fRoM frEEstYLe pRo-WreSTliNg. I dOn’T reALly lIKe wReStLing bECauSe iT’s jUSt bIg, sWeATy mEn gRUntIng aNd thROwiNg eAch oTHer arOUnD. But, it’s so big over here that you can’t help but see at least one masked man every day.

¡Sigh!

Really, I named my fish after luchadors because they are dumb. They both make the same breathless, puffing faces. It’s so ugly and funny. Luchadors never see the setup either – when their opponent does a flying headscissor they never see it coming – talk about short memories!

My family aren't known for keeping pets - they're all too busy with work. But my aunt did have a little cat called Isabel.

We all called her Isa.

My Family

PaPá iS aLWayS aWAy oN buSIneSS, sO MaMa aNd AbUEliTa, pReTTy mUch, bROugHt mE uP. EvEN wHen pApá iS hOMe I hArDLy sEe hiM bECauSe hE’S sO oBSesSEd wItH hIs wORk.

Before Abuelita died, she used to say that’s where I got my determination from. She was the same though. Nobody ever won an argument against Abuelita. She was a testarudo old lady. Once she’d set her mind on something, there was no way to change it. She’d give you un golpecito just for trying. Not that it would hurt – Papá used to clutch his cheek like a little boy, while she would continue to wag her finger, just to wind her up. And she’d brandish a rolling pin until he fled the kitchen, laughing. Territorial as a gato (miaow!), prowling the kitchen and salón, keeping the rest of us in order.

Papá loves his genetics, but I love computer programming. OK, I’m a nerd, get over it!!!!

I guess the only difference between him and me is that I’m playing around with software programs and he’s playing around with DNA. At least I think that’s what he does.

It all sounds kinda boring.

WhAtEVer! It’s still programming.

Occasionally, he tries to interest me (seems to think science is cool), like, a couple of years ago he was going on about a breakthrough in fighting malaria…

I’ve just Googled it, and actually it’s a “breakthrough in understanding the genetics of” blah blah blah.

See, like I say - boring.

But you can read about it here if you think you fancy becoming a scientist.

Why do these things always have something to do with fruit flies?

AnYWay, iF YOu wAnt tO sAVe tHe wOrLd - wEAr a wHitE cOaT.

About Me

mY naMe is gAbi.

I was born Gabriela, but the only people who call me that now are the boys when they’re trying to be chistoso. The only thing funny is the way they run away when I threaten to kick them in the- (Señora Estrada has told me to save my insultos for playground).

ApoLOgiEs iF yOU’ve aCcIDenTAlly fOuND yoUr wAy heRE bUt I’Ve gOt soMe aBuRRido tHiNgs I haVe tO wrITe tO pRovE a bAsIC kNoWLedGe oF EnGlISh:

Like, I am 14 years old. I have no brothers or sisters. I have two fish. They are called Mysterio y Ephesto.

Mi papá is a molecular biologist and mi mama is a housewife. Mi abuelita (papá’s mama) used to live with us.

I live in Tenochtitlan (that’s what Ciudad de México was called before the Spanish trampled everything – so they keep telling us in history classes – yawn!) I’ve lived in Ciudad de México my whole life. In fact everyone just calls our city ‘México’.

It might sound like a great place (it’s one of the world’s largest cities) but Mama refuses to let me go anywhere unsupervised. I can’t do anything myself, like go into anywhere with just my friends.

Pues, mira – I want to be free to enjoy myself. OK! Like, I know the city can be a dangerous place. It wouldn’t matter so much if we were poor. (OK we’re not rich but, you know what I’m saying, we’re not poor, not like some of the real poor people we got here in Mexico).

You don’t need to be rich to be kidnapped in Mexico. Pretty sucky, but that’s the truth. Just if you ahev a nice car or maybe go to a nice school, is enough to make you interesting. Newspapers are always full of murders and kidnappings. Mama has always said that we just can’t risk going out alone.

It’s just that round here all the faces are the same, and you have to put up with the same idiotas (tHIs mEaNS yOU KaSPeR caSTiLlo – thE nEXt TIme yOu sPReAd rUmORes aBoUT mE I’M gOInG tO tELl eVEryOne tHat yOU eStAS enAMorAdo dE lEOni MoREnO).

WhOOpS!