24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Science Communication: Definitions VS Metaphors
A hundred years ago, Charles Darwin could write books discussing the central problems of biology in language which was scientifically precise and still accessible to the general public. In those days the subject matter of biology was plants and animals. The language of Darwin was intelligible to experts and non-experts alike. One did not need a degree in {55} botany to understand the difference between a fern and a flower. Darwin could assume that his readers were familiar with the world of...Folksonomies: science communicatoin
Folksonomies: science communicatoin
1 
notes
notes29 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Survival of the Stable
Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' is really a special case of a more general
law of survival of the stable. The universe is populated by stable things.
A stable thing is a collection of atoms that is permanent enough or
common enough to deserve a name. It may be a unique collection of
atoms, such as the Matterhorn, that lasts long enough to be worth
naming. Or it may be a class of entities, such as rain drops, that come
into existence at a sufficiently high rate to deserve a collective name,... 1 notes
notesOne of the characteristics of a successful species is stability.
17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
The Sequence Hypothesis and The Central Dogma
My own thinking (and that of many of my colleagues) is based on two general principles, which I shall call the Sequence Hypothesis and the Central Dogma. The direct evidence for both of them is negligible, but I have found them to be of great help in getting to grips with these very complex problems. I present them here in the hope that others can make similar use of them. Their speculative nature is emphasized by their names. It is an instructive exercise to attempt to build a useful theory ... 1 notes
notesCrick describes two guiding principles of understanding how DNA produces proteins. The second is interesting for the use of the term 'information.'
21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
1.5 Percent Gene Difference Translates to Thousands of Pr...
But recent work shows that our genetic resemblance to our evolutionary
cousins is not quite as close as we thought. Consider this. A
1.5 percent difference in protein sequence means that when we line up
the same protein (say, hemoglobin) of humans and chimps, on average
we’ll see a difference at just one out of every 100 amino acids. But
proteins are typically composed of several hundred amino acids. So a
1.5 percent difference in a protein 300 amino acids long translates into
about four di... 1 notes
notesThe analogy is made that if you change 1 percent of the words you change much more than 1 percent of the sentences, and the same applies to the genetic drift between humans and chimps.
09 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The Uselessness of Nitrogen in the Atmosphere
My 165-pound body consists of about 110 pounds of oxygen, 30 pounds of carbon, 16 pounds of hydrogen, 6 pounds of nitrogen, and 3 pounds of everything else. Basic stuff, mostly, the stuff of water and air. You'd think we could get almost everything we need to build our bodies by taking deep breaths and gulps of water. But it's not quite that simple. Consider those 6 pounds of nitrogen in my body. Our cells build proteins by stringing together chemical units called amino acids, and every amino... 1 notes
notesRaymo describes how many pounds of each element there are in his body, and why, despite them mostly all existing in the air we breath, they are bound up in molecules so that we cannot access them.
