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
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 ...24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus