A hard rain's a-gonna fall

Patti Smith

Prémios Nobel 20016

 

 Bob Dylan (1964)

 

 

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son

And where have you been, my darling young one

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

 

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son

And what did you see, my darling young one

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

 

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warnin'

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'

Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'

Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

 

Oh, what did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman whose body was burning

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow

I met one man who was wounded in love

I met another man who was wounded with hatred

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

 

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

And what'll you do now, my darling young one?

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'

I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

And the executioner's face is always well hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten

Where black is the color, where none is the number

And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'

But I'll know my song well before I start singin'

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

 

The times they are a-changin'

Foi grande a surpresa, mas fiquei bastante contente. É uma rotura com o estabelecido, mas justificada. Ainda bem que os tempos estão a mudar.

 

Bob Dylan

 

Come gather 'round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone.

If your time to you

Is worth savin'

Then you better start swimmin'

Or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin'.

 

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'.

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'.

 

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's a battle outside

And it is ragin'.

It'll soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'.

 

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is

Rapidly agin'.

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'.

 

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is

Rapidly fadin'.

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin'.

Telómeros e telomerase

 

Este ano o prémio Nobel de Fisiologia e Medicina distinguiu três investigadores - Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider e Jack W. Szostak - pelos trabalhos desenvolvidos sobre a importância dos telómeros e da telomerase.

 

Os telómeros são as pontas dos cromossomas dos seres que são formados por células com núcleos (eucariotas).

 

As células são as unidades que formam os tecidos (a pele, os osso, o coração, etc.). As células são como o ovo – têm um núcleo (a gema) onde está a informação vital da célula e onde está o material genético – os cromossomas, constituídos por um dupla hélice de DNA - e o citoplasma (a clara), onde está a maquinaria e os ingredientes que alimentam a célula.

 

Cromossomas; telómeros - pontas brancas

wikipédia

 

De cada vez que as células se dividem tem que haver uma duplicação dos cromossomas, que depois se separam e formam duas células com a mesma informação genética que a célula mãe. Em teoria é assim, mas na prática sabemos que todos nós resultamos de uma célula única e nos transformamos naquilo que somos, um conjunto de milhões de células.

 

Para que os cromossomas se dupliquem é preciso que a dupla hélice se abra e se formem cópias das hélices, complementares às primeiras. Mas quando a separação chega à ponta dos cromossomas – os telómeros (do grego telos - final, e meros – parte), que não são mais que uma sequência de DNA, diferente para cada espécie, tendo a função de impedir que as pontas dos cromossomas abertas se possam unir com fragmentos que não são de lá, resultando naquilo a que se chamam mutações (material genético anormal por junção ou perda), acaba por  haver encurtamento dos telómeros. Por isso, à medida que a célula se divide, essas pontas vão perdendo vários genes (informação importante) o que, pensa-se agora, levará inexoravelmente à morte celular, ao fim de algum tempo, pelo encurtamento sucessivo dos cromossomas – um dos mecanismos que contribui para o envelhecimento celular.

 

Representação do DNA do telómero

wikipédia

 

Mas a verdade é que algumas células, como as células embrionárias e as células tumorais, conseguem dividir-se quase indefinidamente sem perda nem encurtamento dos telómeros. Descbriu-se que isso é devido a uma enzima – a telomerase – que é capaz de reconstruir o bocado de telómero encurtado, mantendo o cromossoma sempre igual.

 

Representação da telomerase

wikipédia

 

É claro que isto é uma simplificação grosseira de um dos fenómenos mais intrigantes e complexos a nível celular. Estas investigações e estas descobertas podem abrir caminho a novas terapêuticas contra o cancro, se percebermos como é possível impedir que as telomerases actuem em células malignas. Por outro lado podemos perceber melhor qual o mecanismo da senescência celular e, quem sabe, retardar a morte celular.

 

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