# Nova: First Flower



## Heather (Apr 17, 2007)

Airs here tonight. Check your local listings. 
http://www.wgbh.org/schedules/program-info?program_id=27203&episode_id=3273702


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## Heather (Apr 17, 2007)

Damn sox game. I forgot it was on! D'oh!


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## eOrchids (Apr 17, 2007)

Thanks for the link, Heather!

I watched part of it; found it very interesting!


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## toddybear (Apr 18, 2007)

Great show! I met Dan Hinkly last year...great guy...he has certainly been around! I didn't realize he would be featured on the show. It was a real bonus seeing him there!


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## Heather (Apr 18, 2007)

Oh Jeez, it was Dan Hinkley? He spoke here last week and I spent a good part of yesterday looking for his address. 

Sigh...


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## littlefrog (Apr 18, 2007)

I've only seen about half of it so far... But I want one of those Cyp. tibeticum or whatever that purple cyp was. Super sweet...


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## Heather (Apr 18, 2007)

It's on again tonight so I'm hoping to catch it.


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## littlefrog (Apr 18, 2007)

Tivo, baby. I was watching Nova in the breaks during the Redwings game.


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## Heather (Apr 18, 2007)

littlefrog said:


> Tivo, baby. I was watching Nova in the breaks during the Redwings game.



I know, I lost my tivo in the breakup. Honestly, does he really need two?! 
Besides him, it's the thing I miss the most! : (


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## littlefrog (Apr 18, 2007)

Doesn't have anything better to do now than watch TV... Sounds boring to me.


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## Heather (Apr 18, 2007)

littlefrog said:


> Doesn't have anything better to do now than watch TV... Sounds boring to me.



Yes, I was much more exciting!


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## ohio-guy (Apr 19, 2007)

Did anyone else wonder if the gene sequencuing information is availible for our perusal? The claim was that thousands of plants were evaluated and close relationships were determined . 
Wouldn't this be a way to determine what species are closely related, figure what plants will cross potentially....and for example is mexiped.... is it close or distant from the phrags....or which phrag is closest to which paph to attempt a more promising cross species cross.....


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## littlefrog (Apr 19, 2007)

Well... I'm afraid it isn't quite the information you are looking for.

Most of the molecular phylogeny analysis looks at only a few regions of a few very well conserved genes. They aren't actually sequencing the entire genome for any of these organisms. Or even sequencing an entire single gene! But, there are a lot of orchids with published sequences for those few genes. So, at NCBI (the National Center for Biotechnology Information), there are 19,500 nucleotide sequence records.

I don't have time to break it down too much, but about 8000 of them are from mRNA sequencing projects (EST sequencing), it looks like that is one project comparing Phal violacea to Phal. equestris flower buds (in Taiwan, of course). There are about 400 sequences for other mRNAs. I'd bet the rest are all sort sequences generated in molecular phylogeny projects.

if you really want to browse...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id=4747


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## NYEric (Apr 24, 2007)

Well I missed this TV program but...Heroes started again last night.


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## Candace (Apr 24, 2007)

Tivoed Heros and saw the Nova program. It was interesting, the fossils were amazing. Even hubbie enjoyed it.


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