02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Hawking Considers Computer Viruses Life
A living being like you or me usually has two elements: a set of instructions that tell the system how to keep going and how to reproduce itself, and a mechanism to carry out the instructions. In biology, these two parts are called genes and metabolism. But it is worth emphasising that there need be nothing biological about them. For example, a computer virus is a program that will make copies of itself in the memory of a computer, and will transfer itself to other computers. Thus it fits the...Folksonomies: life
Folksonomies: life
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notes18 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
Using Feedback to Control Weight
Recent research has shown that exhaust from lungs (part of excretion) is a major factor in weight loss. Burning 10 kg human fat requires inhalation of 29 kg oxygen. This produces 28 kg carbon dioxide and 11 kg water. As food and drinks are temporarily stored in the human stomach and bowels, the body weight is instantaneously increased with the weight of any food or drink consumed. Metabolism is usually divided into catabolism and anabolism, where catabolism is the process of breaking down ... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Computer Metaphors for Biochemistry
The metaphor of the computer represents in some crude fashion the chemistry of life. Nowadays one may assume that the average citizen of an industrialized country is at least as familiar with computers as with rain forests. The idea of using the computer as a metaphor is a natural one. A computer is a device for handling information according to a program which it is able to remember and execute. A living cell, to remain in control of its vital functions in a variable environment, must also p...Folksonomies: metaphors
Folksonomies: metaphors
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notes21 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Drugs is a Human Construct
The human body is an assembly of chemicals, as is all food & all medicine. So what we label as a drug is a social construct.
Lifting weights changes your bio-physiology in a way that creates performance-enhancing effects on your body.
Drinking coffee changes your metabolism in a way that creates performance-enhancing effects on your body.
Eating breakfast changes your biochemstry in a way that creates performance-enhancing effects on your body.
Practicing in your sport of choice creat... 1 notes
notesEveryone and every substance is chemicals and molecules. How we classify them is purely a social construct.
04 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Genetics Grew Up an Orphan
In a sense, genetics grew up as an orphan. In the beginning botanists and zoologists were often indifferent and sometimes hostile toward it. 'Genetics deals only with superficial characters', it was often said. Biochemists likewise paid it little heed in its early days. They, especially medical biochemists, knew of Garrod's inborn errors of metabolism and no doubt appreciated them in the biochemical sense and as diseases; but the biological world was inadequately prepared to appreciate fully ... 1 notes
notesGeorge Beadle in 'Genes and chemical reactions In Neurospora' describes out botanists, zoologists, and biochemists were uninterested in genetics as it dealt simply with the transmission of characteristics between individuals while there were greater things to study in the field.
08 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
We Cannot Trend How Our Reasoning May Go
There is no abiding thing in what we know. We change from weaker to stronger lights, and each more powerful light pierces our hitherto opaque foundations and reveals fresh and different opacities below. We can never foretell which of our seemingly assured fundamentals the next change will not affect. What folly, then, to dream of mapping out our minds in however general terms, of providing for the endless mysteries of the future a terminology and an idiom! We follow the vein, we mine and accu... 1 notes
notesAs we follow lines of thought, "mining" them, we do not know where they will take us, and as we metabolize our thoughts, they pass away from us.
