Science News of the Day

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

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"A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times.

The work, carried out by George Church and Sri Kosuri, basically treats DNA as just another digital storage device. Instead of binary data being encoded as magnetic regions on a hard drive platter, strands of DNA that store 96 bits are synthesized, with each of the bases (TGAC) representing a binary value (T and G = 1, A and C = 0).

To read the data stored in DNA, you simply sequence it — just as if you were sequencing the human genome — and convert each of the TGAC bases back into binary. To aid with sequencing, each strand of DNA has a 19-bit address block at the start (the red bits in the image below) — so a whole vat of DNA can be sequenced out of order, and then sorted into usable data using the addresses."
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Ellenl »

Our DNA is even more than we once thought: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 9052a.html
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Ellenl wrote:Our DNA is even more than we once thought: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 9052a.html
The 20% of that that I understood (and when I say 20% I mean 10%), was really cool!
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Scientific theory.

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Scientific theory.
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Re: Science News of the Day

Post by Ellenl »

Nice theory poster. I'd just add that the theory of gravitation has experienced significant growth since Newton with relativity and quantum mechanics, and atomic theory changes with discoveries of new particles such as the Higg's boson. When a theory can never change or be revised it is called religion. "Just a theory" is either a sign of ignorance, Tea Party membership, or both.
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Re: Science News of the Day

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You'll know I've truly lost my mind, when you see me out in my front yard spraying vinegar at the sky....

***
How could I not write about this? If I live to be one-hundred years old, will I ever again get the chance to write about something so incredibly insane?

I have several friends who support Ron Paul. The aim of this piece is not to malign or belittle all Paul supporters – just the ones who adhere to the “if Alex Jones says it, it must be true” school of thought. And boy, do those Paul devotees love the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory (the belief that the contrails created by the exhaust of aircraft engines are actually toxic “chemical trails” that the Zionist/Illuminati/Bilderberger/alien-lizard-man secret societies are using to poison the earth).

When not listening to Alex Jones and Jeff Rense, chemtrail believers obsessively take photographs of the “poison trails” and “evil clouds.” Of course, since the alien-lizard-Zionist-Bilderbergers forbid the puppet governments of the world from admitting that chemtrails exist, the intrepid chemtrail hunters have been stymied. Sure, they can photograph them, but they can’t stop ‘em.

Or CAN they? This year, a movement has spread like dengue fever among chemtrail sleuths. This movement claims that chemtrails can be “killed” with vinegar, sprayed upward from the ground. And hundreds of chemtrail true believers are doing just that – and they’re uploading videos to Youtube, Dailymotion, Ebaumsworld, and elsewhere, documenting their chemtrail “kills.”

Of the hundreds of “chemtrail kill” videos, the majority are made by self-described Ron Paul supporters. I’ve dubbed this branch of the Paul camp the “Paulsamics” (as in “Paulsamic vinegar”). If you want to see the sheer volume of Paulsamic videos online, just Google or Youtube-search “chemtrails” and “vinegar.” Below, I’ve embedded the very best video of the lot. It’s ten minutes long. Normally, I would grab a video of that length and edit a highlight reel. But it’s impossible to edit this one down; it’s too damn perfect as it is. Watch as a chemtrail-obsessed, Ron Paul-obsessed mom uses her trusty spray bottle to combat the marauding trails, as her long-suffering teenage son is forced to record her. Witness her great victory as she reemerges later to find that she has “cleaned the sky.” Oh, and don’t miss the clip at the 8-minute mark that shows the state of the family’s lawn as a result of the constant vinegar-showers. Perhaps her gardener can explain to her that vinegar is not lighter than air!"

http://www.countercontempt.com/archives/2578

Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsdeAF_P ... r_embedded#!

These people are not kidding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBYO_4V ... re=related

And: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6KZZ62lmxk

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Prop 37 Loses, Scientists Cheer

"It comes as no surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly, follows my Twitter or Facebook feeds, or has talked with me in person lately that I’m pleased to see that Proposition 37 has failed to pass in California. I firmly believe that passing this legislation—as it was proposed—would have been a mistake.

The rallying cry for supporters of this proposition has been “The Right To Know.” It sounds so simple: why shouldn’t people know if their food is genetically modified? What does Monsanto have to hide? But couching the issue in terms of knowledge assumes one thing: that labeling will be in any way informative. In the case of Prop 37, it simply wouldn’t have been. Michael Eisen put it perfectly:
This language reflects the belief of its backers that GMOs are intrinsically bad and deserve to be labeled – and avoided – en masse, no matter what modification they contain or towards what end they were produced. This is not a quest for knowledge – it is a an attempt to reify ignorance.
The simple fact is that there is no evidence that GMOs, as a blanket group, are dangerous. There’s a simple reason for this: not all GMOs are the same. Every plant created with genetic technology contains a different modification. More to the point, if the goal is to know more about what’s in your food, a generic GMO label won’t tell you. Adding Bt toxin to corn is different than adding Vitamin A to rice or vaccines to potatoes or heart-protective peptides to tomatoes. If Prop 37 was really about informed decisions, it would have sought accurate labeling of different types of GMOs so consumers can choose to avoid those that they disapprove of or are worried about. Instead, anti-GMO activists put forward a sloppily written mandate in a attempt to discredit all genetic engineering as a single entity. The legislation was considered so poorly worded that most Californian newspapers rallied against it, with the LA Times calling Prop 37 “problematic on a number of levels”.

By all means, boycott Monsanto, or any food containing their products. Despite rumors to the contrary, I do not support Monsanto in any way (nor do they, in any way, support me). Like many big companies, I think they have had shady business practices at times and are more concerned with their own bottom line than the good of the people or the environment. I’ve already come out strong against RoundUp Ready crops. But my lack of love for Monsanto doesn’t tarnish the fact that GMOs have the potential to dramatically benefit people across the world by providing balanced nutrition and enhancing production in struggling areas. GMOs aren’t inherently evil, and they have the potential to address many of the very real concerns about our current and future food supply."

The rest....

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Are we thwarting God's will?

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Doug and I and some friends had an interaction with a young earth creationist last night (Briney). Doug passed along these links to help one of the fellows out. I think I'll archive them here:

***
"Fruit flies have been mutated and bred in laboratories for generations, but they are still fruit flies."
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB910_1.html

"No case of macroevolution has ever been documented."
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB901.html

The list of creationist claims, at talkorigins, with responses.
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html

Roast of many young earth arguments.
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~matthewt/yeclaimsbeta.html

A further debunk of Briney's favorite young earth argument, polonium halos.
http://web.archive.org/web/200111281520 ... vised8.htm

Roast of a fundie "journal" article that used polonium halos.
http://web.archive.org/web/200112012031 ... itage.html

A good reference site: "No Answers in Genesis."
http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/main_issues.htm

Easy-read roast of the fruit fly study.
http://www.unbecominglevity.com/2012/03 ... in-action/

Evolved fruit flies to be smarter.
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-evolution-fruit-flies.html

A link to teachers' resources on evolution. Very easy to understand material.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

Evolution for beginners.
http://evolution.mbdojo.com/

How Evolution is Scientific.
http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/factfaq.htm

A very short page on the inflationary universe theory.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/univers ... infla.html

More about the inflationary universe theory. Short.
http://www.edge.org/conversation/the-in ... -alan-guth

"The Self-Reproducing Inflationary Universe." Six pages.
http://mukto-mona.net/science/physics/I ... d_inde.pdf

2-column newspaper article on how scientists came to believe that it is possible to get something from nothing.
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news ... ossibility

An magazine interview with Lawrence Krauss on his book
"A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing"
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... te/256203/

Getting something from nothing, with pictures.
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang ... -for-noth/

Creationist claim: "Evolution is baseless without a good theory of abiogenesis, which it does not have."
Response: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB090.html

Creationist Claim: "The most primitive cells are too complex to have come together by chance."
Response: http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB010_2.html

A simple 10-minute video on how science has made progress on the origin of life, showing how the building blocks of RNA naturally assemble.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/ ... -life.html

A short article on how creationists like Pat Briney commit the fallacy of false dichotomy, where they try to show that creationism is true, not by showing that creationism is true, but by attacking evolution.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/ ... -life.html

This is a complete and thorough refutation of Briney's first law of thermodynamics argument for the existence of God. I go through his case line by line, providing details and references that show that his argument does not stand careful and common sense scrutiny.

http://fayfreethinkers.com/quacks/brine ... oast.shtml
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Skin color affects ability to empathize with pain

"Humans are hardwired to feel another person's pain. But they may feel less innate empathy if the other person's skin color doesn't match their own, a new study suggests.
When people say "I feel your pain," they usually just mean that they understand what you're going through. But neuroscientists have discovered that we literally feel each other's pain (sort of).
If you see -- or even just think of -- a person who gets whacked in the foot, for instance, your nervous system responds as if you yourself had been hit in the same spot, even though you don't perceive the pain physically.
Researchers in Italy are reporting that subtle racial bias can interfere with this process -- a finding with important implications for health care as well as social harmony."

CNN
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http://news.yahoo.com/russian-tycoon-wants-move-mind-machine

Post by pkinnamon »

From Yahoo! News (the most trusted new source in the world, of course!):

Dmitry Itskov gathered some of humanity's best brains — and a few robots — in New York City on Saturday to discuss how humans can get their minds to outlive their bodies. Itskov, who looks younger than his 32 years, has an aggressive timetable in which he'd like to see milestones toward that goal met:
— By 2020, robots we can control remotely with our brains.
— By 2025, a scenario familiar to watchers of sci-fi cartoon show "Futurama:" the capability to transplant the brain into a life-support system, which could be a robot body. Essentially, a robot prosthesis that can replace an ailing, perhaps dying body.
— By 2035, the ability to move the mind into a computer, eliminating the need for the robot bodies to carry around wet, messy brains.
— By 2045, technology nirvana in the form of artificial brains controlling insubstantial, hologram bodies.


Just wanted to get general feedback, thoughts on this. Regardless of whether or not it's going to happen in the time indicated, what are the implications for moving our minds to the cloud? Could this lead to the creation of a virtual heaven? (after thousands of years of empty promises, might science finally cash the check that religion has written?) My initial reaction was "heck yeah, let's do it!" But, after some thought, I have to believe no matter how great the experience is, we'll tire of it. And what then? Can we request a shut down after a time, or does this become tantamount to a Kevorkian-esque, assisted suicide in our future culture?

I'm sure this topic, or something like it has come up before, but I'm very curious about others' thoughts, especially given the timeline at hand. Thanks!

Patrick
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Re: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-tycoon-wants-move-mind-mac

Post by Dardedar »

pkinnamon wrote:From Yahoo! News (the most trusted new source in the world, of course!):
Dmitry Itskov... an aggressive timetable in which he'd like to see milestones toward that goal met:
— By 2020, robots we can control remotely with our brains.


Someone just did a variation of that the other day. Flew a little remote control plane around being controlled by electrical brain impulses.

— By 2025,... the capability to transplant the brain into a life-support system,


My feedback is that these are interesting concepts that may be possible but these dates are completely ludicrous.

Check out this sobering article that shows these problems are far more complex and far off than these futurists like to pretend:

http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/art ... gone-awry/
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Ta da! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/1 ... technology

"Mind-Reading Headset Helps Physically Disabled to Communicate"
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Re: Science News of the Day

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Nice organisms finish first: Why cooperators always win in the long run

"Leading physicists last year turned game theory on its head by giving selfish players a sure bet to beat cooperative players. Now two evolutionary biologists at Michigan State University offer new evidence that the selfish will die out in the long run.

"We found evolution will punish you if you're selfish and mean," said lead author Christoph Adami, MSU professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. "For a short time and against a specific set of opponents, some selfish organisms may come out ahead. But selfishness isn't evolutionarily sustainable."
The paper "Evolutionary instability of Zero Determinant strategies demonstrates that winning isn't everything," is co-authored by Arend Hintze, molecular and microbiology research associate, and published in the Aug. 1, 2013 issue of Nature Communications.
Game theory is used in biology, economics, political science and other disciplines. Much of the last 30 years of research has focused on how cooperation came to be, since it's found in many forms of life, from single-cell organisms to people."

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Re: Science News of the Day

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"We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets."
~ The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper
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Re: Science News of the Day

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Neat:

"Scope and Scale of NSA Collection:"
According to figures published by a major tech provider, the Internet carries 1,826 petabytes of information per day. In its foreign intelligence mission, NSA touches about 1.6% of that. However, of the 1.6% of the data, only 0.025% is actually selected for review. The net effect is that NSA analysts look at 0.00004% of the world's traffic in conducting their mission -- that's less than one part in a million. Put another way, if a standard basketball court represented the global communications environment, NSA's total collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on that basketball court."

LINK
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