Hello Internet,

I'm in the processes of running a Science and Skepticism trivia night. I don't have much experience outside of psychology, so I'm asking the collective to provide interesting science questions from whatever discipline you're from....

What nucleotide base replaces Thymine during DNA transcription? (Answer: Uracil)

Deamination of cytosine converts it into what amino acid? (Uracil).

Rift, my question should probably be found in any high school biology class. It should definitely be found in any college-level biology class.

GR, when did uracil get classified as an amino acid? It's kind of lacking the acid part?
Here are random trivia bits. Do with them what you will.

- Mice have gall bladders, but rats do not.

- Mice and rats do not have the neurophysiological response required to vomit. Instead researches use ferrets to characterize drug-induced emesis and anti-emetics. Their biphasic emesis response to the cisplatin perfectly mirrors that of humans, and this model allowed Merck to develop Emend, a substance P antagonist prescribed for cancer patients experiencing chemo-induced vomiting.

- Prostaglandins (a class of lipid signaling molecules) were initially isolated from seminal fluid and so named because it was originally thought they were synthesized by the prostate gland. Shockingly, they actually are synthesized in seminal vesicles... and a whole hell of a lot of other places in the body too. (Less entry level, so I suppose this is more for your own amusement.)

- The planet will be completely depleted of helium (at least in amounts large enough to collect) in ~30 years or so. Liquid helium is used for cooling big ass powerful lasers and magnets (e.g. MRIs).

- Ethylene glycol's (aka antifreeze) toxicity arises from its sequential metabolism by alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, the same enzymes that metabolize ethanol (aka booze). Metabolism of ethylene glycol generates oxalic acid, which is quite toxic, partially because it crystallizes in kidney tubules. Ethanol can compete with ethylene glycol, reducing formation of oxalic acid. Hence, the remedy for antifreeze is booze. Of course, some would argue that booze is the remed for a lot of things in life.

Nice catch BB, I meant nucleotide.  I think I posted this on when I was writing the portion of my proposal that talks about generating a knock in mutant mouse.  Another cool thing is that mice do not have a true prostate, they have a gland with prostate-like functions.  The helium thing is no joke, I see lots of people cutting back on their usage and trying to eliminate its use since its becoming more expensive as it gets scarce.

I read in New Scientist a few years ago that ther'es more gold in a landfill (per ton) than there is in gold-containing ore... It's all still out there, it's just not economical to get at (yet)...