26 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
tokamak
It is called a tokamak—old Soviet shorthand for a more precise and geometrical name, toroidalnaya kamera s aksialnym magnitnym polem, or “toroidal chamber with an axial magnetic field.” Sakharov’s rough sketch depicted a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber, or torus, ringed with electromagnets, and that is how iter’s core will look, too, once it is completed.
In myriad ways, the project is a fragment of the Cold War stranded in the present day. Sakharov had predicted that a reactor based on his s... 1 
notes
notes“toroidal chamber with an axial magnetic field.”
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Each of Us is Ordinary, Yet One of a Kind
Each of us is ordinary, yet one of a kind.
Each of us is standard issue, conceived by the union of two germ cells, nurtured in a womb, and equipped with a developmental program that guides our further maturation and eventual decline.
Each of us is also unique, the possessor of a particular selection of gene variants from the collective human genome and immersed in a particular family, culture, era, and peer group. With inborn tools for adaptation to the circumstances of our personal world,...
1 Samuel Barondes insightful observation.
16 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Human Cognome Project
The Human Cognome Project was an
academic research venture to reverse
engineer the human brain, paralleling
in many ways the Human Genome
Project and its success in deciphering
the human genome. The HCP was a
multidisciplinary undertaking, relevant
to biology, neuroscience, psychology,
cognitive science, artificial intelligence,
and philosophy of mind.
Funded and supported by scientific
and corporate entrepreneurs and early
transhumanist groups, the HCP developed
the fundamentals of digitizi...
1 A science fiction idea of modeling the human mind.
04 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Ideas Power the American Economy
Ideas are what power our economy. It’s what sets us apart. It’s what America has been all about. We have been a nation of dreamers and risk-takers; people who see what nobody else sees sooner than anybody else sees it. We do innovation better than anybody else — and that makes our economy stronger. When we invest in the best ideas before anybody else does, our businesses and our workers can make the best products and deliver the best services before anybody else.
And because of that inc... 1 notes
notesThe Human Genome Project returned $140 for every $1 spent.
30 MAY 2012 by RadioGuy
Humans share 98.5% of our genes with chimpanzees
The genome is not a blueprint for constructing a body; it is a recipe for baking a body.
As the hox story illustrates, DNA promoters express themselves in the fourth dimension; their timing is all. A chimp has a different head from a human being not because it has a different blueprint for the head, but because it grows the jaws for longer and the cranium for less long than a human being. The difference is all timing.
The startling new truth that has emerged from the human genome - that...Folksonomies: genetics
Folksonomies: genetics
1 notes
notesEven the difference between human and mouse blueprints are minor. Our variation comes from the schedules that manage the expression of genes, and these are controlled by the chemicals and enzymes in our environments.
18 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
How Brains Grow Into Bodies
Brain wiring begins with the outgrowth of axons. Once a newborn neuron has migrated, planting its cell body in a permanent position, it sends out a fine axon shoot with an enlarged tip known as a growth cone. At the end of the growth cone are about a dozen long tentacles that shoot out in all directions and act like radar, picking up all manner of navigational signals. They feel out the best-textured surfaces, sniff around for chemical cues, and even use tiny electrical fields to help the axo...Best description yet of the synaptic "pruning" human brains go through as the brain wires up to the body and best reason yet for why children should have rich, mentally-nourishing environments in which to grow so that their synapses don't get unnecessarily pruned, resulting in smaller brains.
