24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus

 The Signaling Pathway

In a typical signaling pathway, proteins are continually being modified and demodified. Kinases and phosphatases work ceaselessly like ants in a nest, adding phosphate groups to proteins and removing them again. It seems a pointless exercise, especially when you consider that each cycle of addition and removal costs the cell one molecule of ATP—one unit of precious energy. Indeed, cyclic reactions of this kind were initially labeled “futile.” But the adjective is misleading. The additio...
Folksonomies: neurology
Folksonomies: neurology
  1  notes

The underlying cyclical process of a synapse firing that turns it into a "tunable" device.

07 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 Type 0 and Type III Civilizations

It's humbling to realise that the developmental gulf between a miniscule ant colony and our modern human civilisation is only a tiny fraction of the distance between a Type 0 and a Type III civilisation – a factor of 100 billion billion, in fact. Yet we have such a highly regarded view of ourselves, we believe a Type III civilisation would find us irresistible and would rush to make contact with us. The truth is, however, they may be as interested in communicating with humans as we are keen...
Folksonomies: perspective
Folksonomies: perspective
  1  notes

We are closer to ants than the more advanced civilizations, so why would they show anymore interest in us than we the ants?

06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 Scientific Progress Crushes Conservativism

Innovations, free thinking is blowing like a storm; those that stand in front of it, ignorant scholars like you, false scientists, perverse conservatives, obstinate goats, resisting mules are being crushed under the weight of these innovations. You are nothing but ants standing in front of the giants; nothing but chicks trying to challenge roaring volcanoes!
Folksonomies: innovation progress
Folksonomies: innovation progress
  1  notes

Free thinking and innovation are forces that cannot be stopped.

14 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 The Energy Game in a Dead Moth

The moth moves across the porch, millimeter by millimeter, a brief stage of a longer journey of energy from the core of the sun to the table of the ants. Protons fuse at the center of the sun, releasing energy. The energy diffuses upward, taking several million years to reach the sun's surface, where it is released as heat and light. The light streaks across ninety-three million miles of space, reaching the Earth eight minutes later, where it falls upon the green leaves of plants. The plants ...
Folksonomies: energy energy game
Folksonomies: energy energy game
 2  2  notes

From the sun to the ants that eat it.

13 DEC 2011 by ideonexus

 Men of Sciences as Experimentors or Dogmatists

Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course; it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers o...
Folksonomies: science scientists
Folksonomies: science scientists
  1  notes

Francis Bacon describes them as ants and spiders and lays out a third way using the metaphor of the bee.

25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus

 Parable of the Scientist as Insect

Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course: it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers o...
Folksonomies: science metaphor parable
Folksonomies: science metaphor parable
  1  notes

Scientists work like ants, spiders, and bees.