Traveler J - "Catalyst (Find Him)" [02/08/2007]

[Brucker]

Brucker: the reverse complement goes from right-to-left, not left-to-right.

Argh, I thought I had reversed it; who knows what I had been thinking?

Code: Select all

CGT	Arginine
CGC	Arginine
CCA	Proline
CCG	Proline
GTC	Valine
CCT	Proline
CGG	Arginine
CGG	Arginine
CCG	Proline
CCA	Proline
TCT	Serine
TGG	Tryptophan
CCC	Proline
AAC	Asparagine
TGC	Cysteine
TCC	Serine
CCT	Proline
CAC	Histidine
TCC	Serine

[Luminous]

WD Hardt appears to be a "real-life" German microbiologist/immunologist. His work, while apparently fairly impressive (just judging from a list of his published articles and which journals they went into), doesn't seem immediatly noteworthy. What led you to his name?

At the end of the video "Catalyst (Find Him)" Traveler says this:

"I am afraid that I have no further information about the project. I do however know a man who does." followed by morse code - I'm not sure if someone has decoded it or not, but knowing what it says is important, I think.

Then in a response to an email I sent traveler, (posted above on page 1)asking why we had to destroy J2 and he didn't do it himself, he responded with this:

"WD has explained this to me before, although he is not always forthcoming. Maybe finding him would answer your question."

EDIT to add: So I googled WD 5'3' restriction enzyme, (or something like that) and got pages and pages and pages of articles by W.D. Hardt. Maybe a coincidence that has nothing to do with TravelerJ's mission, maybe not. I don't know.

[TOSG]

Cool, but what led you to WD Hardt in particular?

I definitely agree that decoding the morse code is important...that's not something that I know how to do, but it's probably worth seeing if someone can (one of the Op-heads, maybe?).

[TOSG]

EDIT to add: So I googled WD 5'3' restriction enzyme, (or something like that) and got pages and pages and pages of articles by W.D. Hardt. Maybe a coincidence that has nothing to do with TravelerJ's mission, maybe not. I don't know.

Oh, okay, cool.

Good sleuthwork, but I highly doubt that it's signifcant; "restriction enzyme" will probably appear in 90% of all published molecular biology papers, and "5'3'" is just a designation of the direction in which the DNA strands are read.

[McPackage]

The morse code was already decoded. Please see the first post in this thread.

[Luminous]

EDIT to add: So I googled WD 5'3' restriction enzyme, (or something like that) and got pages and pages and pages of articles by W.D. Hardt. Maybe a coincidence that has nothing to do with TravelerJ's mission, maybe not. I don't know.

Oh, okay, cool.

Good sleuthwork, but I highly doubt that it's signifcant; "restriction enzyme" will probably appear in 90% of all published molecular biology papers, and "5'3'" is just a designation of the direction in which the DNA strands are read.

The bottom line is that whoever "WD" is, Traveler says we must find him if we want anymore info than he has been able to provide thus far.

So we have a profile of him (I think - if that's him at the end of the "Find Him" vid)
We have the morse code at the end of that video.

Any other "WD" clues I may have overlooked?

[Luminous]

The morse code was already decoded. Please see the first post in this thread.

Thanks

So that's how he pointed us towards finding the enzyme.

[Luminous]

I am still having problems with my editing program - am going to need to do a complete reinstall/reconfigure, so I don't have the clips to post yet, but I reviewed and created transcripts for each of the video's along with screen captures of what I think are pertinent clues.

TravelerJ19 Transcripts to Date (Feb 13)

Video 1
Title: History Lessons (xx/xy)
Description: xx/xy, it's all a game to them.
Attribution: Adhesion - Bank Holiday
Tags:

Transcript:
It is a question that has plagued humankind's deepest philosophical thinkers ever since men were men and women were women.

Why are men and women really so different?

Women have an XX pairing of chromosones and men a xy pairing.

The sex of our ancestors was then determined not by sex chromosones but by the temperature of the embryo in a developmental state (stage?) before birth.

The y chromosone progressively mutated. So much so that much of it no longer exists.

But does this mean that as evolution takes it course the every shrinking y will spell the death of the male?



Video 2
Title: History Lessons (Coded Rings)
Description: Genetic engineering is nothing to play around with.
Attribution: Adhesion - Persymphony
Tags: DNA OpAphid FacilityJ Plasmid Decoder Ring

Transcript:
We're gonna talk today about recombinant DNA.



Uh . . .people of the general public hear the term recombinant DNA they sort of conjure up these ideas of mad scientists thats going around you know cloning bizarre organisms or creating dangerous forms of life.

I told you about plasmids last night - small circular DNA molecules that are, that are used in purposes of cloning. They are derived from nature then they are, they've been heavily manipulated by scientists.



Purify the enzyme and then perhaps inject it into the individual.



The Bacteria that didn't get a plasmid died. The Bacteria that did get a plasmid survived.

Um . . . The gene of interest is a "Toxic Gene".



Video 3
Title: The Project (Great Minds Gather)
Description: They answered the call.
Attribution: Attribution: Mental Anguish - A Trip to the

Park
Tags: Lovett OpAphid FacilityJ Biology

Transcript:
It was the fall of 51. The war was long over and we could already see the new battle that was emerging.

Lovett himself gathered the greatest biological minds of our time in a project whos results were to rival even those of Oppenheimers group.

Our work was to be secret and I was in charge of recording the results and sending the reels in bi-weekly.

We had nothing but the best intentions. If only we had known then what we know now.




Video 4
Title: History Lessons (Knock 'Em Down)
Description: Knockdowns aren't all fun and games.
Attribution: Text Adventure - Kill Meow
Tags: Gene Knockdown RNAi OpAphid FacilityJ Bowling DNA

Transcript:
Gene knockdown uses RNA interference to silence the expression of the gene.

Researchers at Stonybrook University have successfully knocked down genes in mice. and these traits are heritable in future generations.

The creation of germ line transgenic mice with heritable RNAi opens the door to the manipulation of gene activity in humans.



Video 5
Title: The Project
Description: The new facility led to surprising advances in many fields, although no individual researcher seemed to understand the larger goals of the project.
Attribution: The Go! Team - We Listen Everyday
Tags:Welcome Prentice FacilityJ OpAphid Biological Sciences

Transcript:
(This video was hard to hear in detail. The question marks are the parts I'm unclear about. Maybe someone with better ears than I can fill in the gaps.)

Welcome to Facility J A new state of the art government installation.

??????????????

John Rockefeller Prentice was in charge of research efforts at Facility J and believed that success could be acheived within the decade.

????????? for the american people . . .the masterminds .

. . have absolute control.

Progress is being made . . .



Video 6
Title: Catalyst (A Call to Action)
Description: What hath God wrought.
Attribution: The Happy Planets - Countdown to Armageddon
Tags: Codon Call Action FacilityJ OpAphid

Transcript:
You know at the beginning of the 1970's I made a statement.It was at a ralley in Hollywood where we marched down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard and then had a big ralley. I made a statement that the 1970's would be the most determinative decade in history. And certainly it was. From the 1970's the die was cast as far as the things predicted.

But now at the beginning of the 1980's, I want to make another personal prediction. The 1980's will be the most catastrophic decade in the history of mankind.

This generation will not pass away until all these things take place. What generation? In context it would have to be the generation that would see all the signs. That's this generation. We're seeing them all right before our eyes.

Morse code. (I believe the solution to this morse code lead us to his MySpace page, and ultimately to the "McPackage")




Video 7
Title: Catalyst (Find Him)
Description: If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us.
Tags: Search 5'3' Restriction FacilityJ OpAphid

Transcript:
I assume that you have successfully destroyed J2. This was an essential task.


(This is the briefcase with the samples that was sent to McPackacge by TravelerJ19. There is a zoom out to this shot, which but I couldn't get it with screen capture. The zoom out is the same photo that was sent by TravelerJ19 in his MySpace bulletin 07/08.)

I have already taken care of J1 myself.


(This appears to be TravelerJ19 destroying J1)

I'm afraid I have no further information about the project. I do, however, know a man who does.


(Could this be a profile of the WD, whom we are instructed to find?)

Morse Code. (This lead us to the Tiny URL, which revealed the base 64 code, which was decoded into the genetic sequence we are currently trying to solve.)

The clip of the briefcase, and the clip of TravelerJ19 destroying J1 both have have a flashing strobe like quality to them. The last email (posted above) leads me to believe that counting the flashes in these two clips will help us to identify the enzyme he is refering to.


Hope this is helpful.

[trainer101]

I am still having problems with my editing program

I hope you get your editing program up and operational again. It would be great to see the solutions to these puzzles as a series of videos. I'm sure everyone working on the Traveler J puzzles would love to see their hard work documented by you. It would make a fun collaboration.

[Logan]

I have the answer:

4 8 15 16 23 42

Not really. Sorry. I had to.

[Luminous]

I am still having problems with my editing program

I hope you get your editing program up and operational again. It would be great to see the solutions to these puzzles as a series of videos. I'm sure everyone working on the Traveler J puzzles would love to see their hard work documented by you. It would make a fun collaboration.

Thanks for the suggestion, Trainer. I'm up for it. It shouldn't be much longer before my editing capabilities are back online. I've isolated the problems, and the solutions are just tedious proceedures I have to execute.

[Weepel]

I actually tend to think that the important part isn't the repeating unit, but rather what TravelerJ inserted into the middle (flanked by BamHI cut sites).

If this is right, then you have: GGATCCTTTTTATTCTTCGACTCAGGATC. BamHI cuts GGATC after the first G (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_enzyme), so what you are left with is GATCCTTTTTATTCTTCGACTCAG. According to McPackage, this converts to:

GAT Aspartic acid
CCT Proline
TTT Phenylalanine
TAT Tyrosine
TCT Serine
TCG Serine
ACT Threonine
CAG Glutamine

Not sure where you'd go from here.

[TOSG]

Yeah, I looked at that, and, to be honest, I don't know either. But that's the portion of DNA that "sticks out."

It would help if we knew what we were really looking for.

[Weepel]

I thikn the basic idea is to use the amino acids to form a word or phrase like in the last code. You can see how that worked here http://www.lonelygirl15.com/forum/viewt ... 18&start=0. In that one we had only useful RNA with numbers signifying letters. Here we have extra DNA and this list of numbers:
1(-4) 7(-4) 8 1 2 3 9(-1) 4(+3)

[TOSG]

I think I might have got it.

1st position: Aspartic Acid. 1st letter: A. 4 letters back in the alphabet (-4): W

2nd position: Proline. 7th letter: E. 4 letters back in the alphabet: A

3rd position: Phenylalanine. 8th letter: L

4th position: Tyrosine. 1st letter: T

5th position: Serine. 2nd letter: E

6th position: Serine. 3rd letter: R

7th position: Threonine. 9th letter: E. 1 letter back in the alphabet: D

8th position: Glutamine. 4th letter: T. 3 letters forward in the alphabet: W

Putting it all together, we get:

WALTER DW

Could this be the WD that we're looking for?