12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus
Money Allows for Easy Conversions
Money is thus a universal medium of exchange that enables people to convert almost everything into almost anything else. Brawn gets converted to brain when a discharged soldier 1 
notes
notes30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
It is No Accident that We Inhabit a Veritable Paradise
Imagine a spaceship full of sleeping explorers, deep-frozen would-be
colonists of some distant world. Perhaps the ship is on a forlorn mission to save the species before an unstoppable comet, like the one that killed
the dinosaurs, hits the home planet. The voyagers go into the deep-freeze
soberly reckoning the odds against their spaceship's ever chancing upon
a planet friendly to life. If one in a million planets is suitable at best, and
it takes centuries to travel from each star to the nex... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
A Black Hole is a Star Forever Falling Inward
He talked to us about the new theory of black holes which he had then just worked out. The idea of a black hole was one of the most dramatic consequences of Einstein's theory of gravity. According to Einstein's equations, a massive star at the end of its life, when it has exhausted its nuclear fuel, continues to contract and grow smaller and denser under the influence of its own gravitation. After the nuclear fuel is used up, the star goes into a state of gravitational collapse. All parts of ... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
A Black Hole is a Star Forever Falling Inward
He talked to us about the new theory of black holes which he had then just worked out. The idea of a black hole was one of the most dramatic consequences of Einsteins theory of gravity. According to Einstein's equations, a massive star at the end of its life, when it has exhausted its nuclear fuel, continues to contract and grow smaller and denser under the influence of its own gravitation. After the nuclear fuel is used up, the star goes into a state of gravitational collapse. All parts of t...24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
A Black Hole is a Star Forever Falling Inward
He talked to us about the new theory of black holes which he had then just worked out. The idea of a black hole was one of the most dramatic consequences of Einstein's theory of gravity. According to Einstein's equations, a massive star at the end of its life, when it has exhausted its nuclear fuel, continues to contract and grow smaller and denser under the influence of its own gravitation. After the nuclear fuel is used up, the star goes into a state of gravitational collapse. All parts of ...10 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Strategy of Predator Satiation
An effective strategy of predator satiation involves two adaptations. First, the synchrony of emergence or reproductions must be very precise, thus assuring that hte market is truly flooded, and only for a short time. Secondly, this flooding cannot occur very often, lest predators simply adjust their own life cycle to predictable times of superfluity. If bamboos flowered every year, seed eaters would track the cycle and present their own abundant young with the annual bounty. But if the perio... 1 notes
notesCicadas have evolved the strategy of mass-producing in such numbers that the predators cannot eat them all.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Candles and Animals Both Need Oxygen
If a small animal and a lighted candle be placed in a closed flask, so that no air can enter, in a short time the candle will go out, nor will the animal long survive. ... The animal is not suffocated by the smoke of the candle. ... The reason why the animal can live some time after the candle has gone out seems to be that the flame needs a continuous rapid and full supply of nitro-aereal particles. ... For animals, a less aereal spirit is sufficient. ... The movements of the lungs help not a...Folksonomies: physiology respiration
Folksonomies: physiology respiration
1 notes
notesQuoting John Mayow.
20 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Speciesization in a Test Tube
We can even see the origin of new, ecologically diverse bacterial
species, all within a single laboratory flask. Paul Rainey and his colleagues
at Oxford University placed a strain of the bacteria Pseudomonas fluorescens
in a small vessel containing nutrient broth, and simply watched
it. (It’s surprising but true that such a vessel actually contains diverse
environments. Oxygen concentration, for example, is highest on the
top and lowest on the bottom.) Within ten days—no more than a few
...Folksonomies: evolution experiment
Folksonomies: evolution experiment
1 notes
notesBacteria evolve into different species in order to adapt to the different environments at the bottom and top of a test tube.
20 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Bacteria Evolve to Process Lactose in a Test Tube
But “laboratory” adaptations can also be more complex, involving
the evolution of whole new biochemical systems. Perhaps the ultimate
challenge is simply to take away a gene that a microbe needs to survive
in a particular environment, and see how it responds. Can it evolve
a way around this problem? The answer is usually yes. In a dramatic
experiment, Barry Hall and his colleagues at the University of Rochester
began a study by deleting a gene from E. coli. This gene produces an
enzyme th...Folksonomies: evolution experiment
Folksonomies: evolution experiment
1 notes
notesScientists blocked a gene for digesting lactose in bacteria, which then mutated to have the digestive function taken over by another gene producing an enzyme, which then got progressively selected for efficiency.
14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Avicenna Describes His Learning
At night I would return home, set out a lamp before me, and devote myself to reading and writing. Whenever sleep overcame me or I became conscious of weakening, I would turn aside to drink a cup of wine, so that my strength would return to me. Then I would return to reading. And whenever sleep seized me I would see those very problems in my dream; and many questions became clear to me in my sleep. I continued in this until all of the sciences were deeply rooted within me and I understood them... 1 notes
notesDisciplined, exhaustive, and systematic.
