30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Mitochondria and Chloroplasts
Margulis believes that mitochondria were originally parasites (or
predators - the distinction is not important at this level) which attacked
the larger bacteria that were destined to provide the shell of the
eucaryotic cell. There are still some bacterial parasites that do a similar
trick, burrowing through the prey's cell wall, then, when safely inside,
sealing up the wall and eating the cell from within. The mitochondrial
ancestors, according to the theory, evolved from parasites that kill ...23 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
A Better Future for Our Children
Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter. ... Transmutation of the elements, unlimited power, ability to investigate the working of living cells by tracer atoms, the secret of photosynthesis about to be uncovered, these and a host of other results, all in about fifteen short years. It is not too much to expect that our children will know of great periodic famines in the world only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas and under the an...Our children will experience a world made better through science.
16 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Joy of Being Wrong
It does happen. I have previously told the story of a respected
elder statesman of the Zoology Department at Oxford when I was
an undergraduate. For years he had passionately believed, and
taught, that the Golgi Apparatus (a microscopic feature of the
interior of cells) was not real: an artefact, an illusion. Every
Monday afternoon it was the custom for the whole department to
listen to a research talk by a visiting lecturer. One Monday, the
visitor was an American cell biologist who presente...Dawkins describes a professor being convinced that he was wrong about something for many years and being thankful for convincing to the truth.