Random Questions

2009 ACF Nationals - Packet by Minnesota A - #23 [report this tossup]
Substitutions of an alanine at position 143 or a histidine at position 175 allow this protein to bind to hsp70. Its L2 loop binds to an ankyrin repeat of a protein homologous to ASPP1. Wip-1 reduces the activity of this protein by dephosphorylating MAP kinase. The C-terminal RING finger motif of one protein promotes ubiquitination of this protein, while the N-terminal domain of that MDM-2 protein binds to it. Inheritance of only one copy of the gene coding for it leads to Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Human cancers typically involve mutations in either the retinoblastoma pathway or the pathway involving this protein. For 10 points, name this tumor suppressor, the "guardian angel of the genome."
Answer: p53

2009 ACF Fall - Packet by Chattahoochee - #3 [report this tossup]
The original Thomsen-Berthelot principle, also known as the principle of maximum work, was shown to violate this law because it failed to incorporate irreversibility. The Kelvin-Planck statement is one component of this law, and a flaw in Boltzmann's H-theorem concerning this law and time reversal symmetry is Loschmidt's paradox. A thought experiment in which an imaginary creature guards a trapdoor between a two-part gas container was proposed to try to violate this law. Clausius stated it as heat cannot flow from a hot object to a cold one spontaneously. For 10 points, name this law which says that the entropy of a system increases until it reaches equilibrium.
Answer:  second law of thermodynamics

2001 ACF Nationals - Packet by ACF Editors (Playoffs Round 3) - #10 [report this tossup]
W. D. Hamilton of the London School of Economics first developed this theory, building on the earlier work of Wynne-Edwards. Hamilton noticed that male Hymenopterans develop from unfertilized eggs and only have one copy of each chromosome, which means that sisters share more genes with each other then they would share with their own daughters. It is also seen in burrow-dwelling squirrels, where certain altruistic females give alarm calls in response to predators. FTP, identify this theory in which individuals behave altruistically so that their relatives have a better chance of survival.
Answer: kin selection (do not accept altruism)