Quiet Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance

Dominican society is a mixture similar to the one patented by these scientists:

• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bacteria-antibiotic-resistance

No matter how much we remind each other of the uselessness and counter-productivity we can't help but lie cheat and steal

Are Human Beings Organisms Or Living Ecosystems?

Hugh Pickens writes "Every human body harbors about 100 trillion bacterial cells, outnumbering human cells 10 to one. There's been a growing consensus among scientists that bacteria are not simply random squatters, but organized communities that evolve with us and are passed down from generation to generation. 'Human beings are not really individuals; they're communities of organisms,' says microbiologist Margaret McFall-Ngai.

A ver, como logramos dejar de ser tan egoistas.
Me encanta la noción de que poco a poco iremos cambiando la manera en que pensamos. Y el ego vaya disminuyendo su influencia sobre nuestro pensar.

Me encanta aceptar que no somos el centro del sistema solar, ni de la galaxia, que hay muchos otros planetas como este, que el universo es un axidente, y que no hay un proposito predestinado para la existencia.

Verlo ahora en direccion inversa es igual de satisfactorio: no somos un cerebro racional y pensante, estamos afectados por hormonas y emociones, no somos fisicamente entidades únicas; nuestros cuerpos son una comunidad, cada celula es una fabrica que escoge que va a producir y tiene una copia completa de la comunidad.

Como leí una vez sobre los sistemas complejos: es perfectamente comprehensible que emergan sistemas complejos sobre otros sistemas. Con caracteristicas y cualidades que no se encuentran en el sistema base.

Asi somos, y nos consideramos quizas estar en el medio: que hay sistemas por arriba, y que hay sistemas por abajo. Pero no me sorprende que eventualmente conoscamos la magnitud de sistemas que hay por encima de nosotros. Lo pequeño que somos. Quien sabe...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eoBKe-e6YOo/article.pl

Octopuses inside the box...

OCtopuses, the most brilliant invertebrate lack emotions, and yet exhibit a superior level of intelligence!...

Having had previous conversations about the role of emotion in humanity's progression. How does this new information shed light into a more complete explanation of our (humanity's) 'ascent'?

And how important is the key fact on relative speed! Time scales are so immensely important when identifying 'will' or 'concious intention' in causal change!... I only hope we can eventually prove Wolfram mistaken regarding our ability to 'think outside the box'.

Someone Agrees The Anthropic Principle is a load of Bull...

En ArsTechnica lei precisamente esta conclusión de un articulo sobre un experimento de la mecánica cuántica:

... It seems that there are always people who will argue for specialness.
First there was the luminiferous aether, then the anthropic principle,
and now an entanglement frame. With the possible exception of the
anthropic principle (and I wouldn't put money on that surviving the
next 50 years), none of these ideas survive for very long...

Me encantó leer a alguien defender mi punto de vista con respecto a los debates que tenia con mi abuelo... :D

Cosa que se alinea con una página que me envió Rubén:

• scientists argue: this model shows how the probability of life spontaneously forming is quite high as theories defend it as logically sane and probable path within these given initial conditions.
• critics say: well there is no garantue, pribiotic life had these very same specific initial conditions.
• scientist retorts (and I chat along): I know, I mean wow, this is life without even water, something we have sustained as critical to life, it could be an alternative equal path. it seems even though this path we are investigating turns out perfectly plausible, life has even more ways of 'spontaneusly' showing up! :D

Can you hear the cries of rationalized hate!

World-renowned geneticist draws fire for claims that Africans are intellectually inferior: Sciam Observations

Nothing like stirring the pot--not to mention selling books--with an incendiary claim, in this case that one race is intellectually superior to another. Dr. Watson, we presume? Bingo. World-renowned geneticist James Watson, 79, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his role in helping break the DNA code, is being widely criticized after telling The Sunday Times of London that he's "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours--whereas all the testing says not really." He went on, reports the newspaper, to say that "people who have to deal with black employees find...it is not true" that all humans are equal.

The Independent reports today that Watson is currently on a swing through Britain to publicize his latest book Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science due out next week in which he apparently makes similar such claims. "There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically," the London newspaper quotes from the upcoming book. "Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."

Opinions? Beware the Cyber Communists Plotting Red Revolt...
Update:

• Employer disassociation from the statement
• Scientist Apologizes

As you can see with the Home DNA test kit soon to be out, the last thing humanity needs is to fuel fascism...

Then again, doing an actual study and concluding once and for all, race does not determine intelligence would be very useful! Just as studies point out that race does not determine height... I mean science should not be scared of taboos, in my opinion scientists, or science in general, has a very delicate subject in its hands...

From a comment to the apology article:

When scientists are influenced by the fear of being labeled as racist, politically incorrect, socially inappropriate, or any of a multitude of other labels an often overly sensitive public is poised to slap onto them at first sign of error, they stop being scientists and start being 'yes men' to political correctness. Whatever Watson's intent in making the statements he was quoted as making, the net effect of those statements will be for all scientists to check their scientific results against what they perceive the public wants to hear. To me, this is just a feeding frenzy on scientific opinion at the expense of an open scientific forum. Given Watson's peer group's inclination towards political correctness over scientific pursuit, maybe he should have devoted his life to comedy instead. Obviously his peer group's priority is whether Watson can make them feel good as opposed to Watson's contribution to the mundane, such as genetics.

...You must be kidding me...

to live forever: starve

Scientists have known for more than 70 years that the one surefire way to extend the lives of animals was to cut calories by an average of 30 to 40 percent. The question was: Why?

Have any of you played Parasite Eve? Apparently it was a novel first?!

If you read both articles you may find a link, and think about this interaction from an evolutionary standpoint... Its a fun mind game, that takes place in the proverbial primordial soup where resources might become dominated by a powerful cell type, that soon acquires parasites, and eventually leads to be symbiosis where the exponential reproduction Must be kept in check... No? Will the mitochondria come and get us? Will we get control it and live for ever? lets see how Squaresoft plays it out first??? :p

DNA Sequence cross-referenced from parents to offspring

Scientists can now tell you whether it's your mom's or your dad's fault you are shortter, or prone to heart disease... :p


Complete DNA sequencing has grown MUCH simpler than the original project started in 2001... GATTACA is so close its not even funny! :p

How much is needed to define gender behaviour?

Al parecer los amanerados tienen una nueva escusa para explicar su comportamiento...

Esto me recuerda a una [breve] conversación con Mario Ernesto... sobre el comportamiento anormal y artificial de los seres homosexuales. Recuerdo habérselo presentado como un simple defecto... (algo falló, pero sucede muchísimo en la naturaleza, y los fallos son obviamente la cosa más natural que conozco... :p) Pero fijense que curioso lo que hace una ratona si le cortan la nariz:

Gigantic Species of Leopard-Eating Chimps Rule the Congo Jungle

Daily Galaxy dice:

... The big chimps even seem to be unaffected by the poison arrows used by locals, which are lethal to their smaller cousins. However, Hicks is quick to point out that in spite of their strength they are not known to be aggressive towards humans. To the contrary, researchers have reported that the chimps seem to “recognize” humans as similar creatures and behave with curiosity rather than hostility ...

t-cell protien retro-virus ballet...

SciAm writes: "Defense against Ancient Virus Opened Door to HIV"

On a hyper dimensional plane, evolution dances a local optimum ballet. Predator with prey, friends, parasite and host, lovers, disease and cure; we all dance, knitting a spiraling web, to a thermodynamic beet.

Enzyme cures HIV... ?

German Scientists.... "This is the first demonstration of actual removal of the integrated virus from cells"

La música de nuestros cuerpos.

Este artículo de "The Daily Galaxy" habla sobre unos que decidieron hacer un Midi de la secuencia molecular de ciertas proteinas.

• Brain prion
• Hemoglobin Chironomus

• Gene2Music Home
• Otros Ejemplares

A ver, que les parese como suena?

Are proteins qubits?

Yo he tenido la suerte de conocer ambos abuelos, y conocerlos bien, comprobar con su amor por sus hijos que mis padres también son normales, y buenos! y lo importante que es el amor.

Mi abuelo Pablo estuvo interno ayer, en relación a una pequeña hemorragia causada por el alojamiento de una metástasis en su intestino grueso. Se la removerán con una laparoscopía algún día de la semana que viene. Por esto le dedico este artículo a él:

Stumble Upon me trajo aquí, y no pude más que recordar la teoría de abuelo Pao sobre el funcionamiento cuántico de las enzimas y como entran en resonancia cuántica con las otras proteínas y moléculas que catalizan. Su versión de esta misma idea esta en una de sus publicaciones y el tuvo una audiencia al respecto en Puerto Rico hace unos años.

No quiero dejar implícito que a él se le ocurrió primero, o siquiera de manera independiente, esa no es mi intensión. Mi intensión es honorar su trabajo, que él siempre ha tomado la ruta profesional, de la organización mental, y la adoración de la naturaleza a través de la ciencia. Y esta inspiración, catalizada por mis padres me marcan, y participan en mi. Abuelito: nunca olvidaré los libros que me regalaste o las preguntas que me respondiste, te quiero!

PD: El articulo es bueno, pero no estoy seguro de compartir todas sus opiniones. Volver a leer sobre esas ideas de Penrose a generado nueva curiosidad en mi, alguien tiene su libro que me pueda prestar?

Los olores.

Agruparé aquí un grupo de ideas que tengo sobre los olores:

1. Los olores corresponden a la resonancia cuántica de la molécula a olfatear
2. Los olores son un salto evolutivo en el que ha conseguido procesarse a nivel cerebral información que previamente se procesaba únicamente a nivel celular
3. Los olores debido a que proveen un medio de comunicación directa entre célula y cerebro (me refiero a comunicación ínter-organismo) son responsable de muchos mecanismos de interacción aún por ser descubiertos, estudiados
4. Los olores proveen 'meta-data' sobre el funcionamiento / la realidad biológica

Supongo que cuando se ve de esa manera, queda obvia la utilidad evolutiva de la habilidad y porqué en tantas especies se ha desarrollado tanto o más que el oído o la vista. De igual modo confío en que seguiremos descubriendo más datos sorprendentes sobre el olfato, y tendremos perfumes y artefactos para: subir / bajar el metabolismo, atraer / repudiar personas, detectar / tratar enfermedades, controlar el sistema inmunológico, guiar el desarrollo infantil, controlar el estrés y la producción hormonal, ah, y claro, sabremos más sobre nuestras mascotas. :D

Post-Data: Les debo todas las referencias de donde saque estas ideas... andan rondando como par de links en este blog... ;)

LEGO Johnny 5

Encontre esto en engadget!!!

Supongo que todos vimos esa pelicula... :p Solo me hace pensar en las porquerias si tuviera tiempo libre... Yo quisiera estar en el futuro. en uno de los planetas de Asimov, se que las cosas seran tan diferentes, pero iguales a la vez, que quiero ver esa dinamica, quiero ver las nuevas fases de la vida.

La vida como yo la defino; la lucha contra la segunda ley de termodinamica. El otro dia vi una persona deshabilitada, y estuve pensando sobre el algoritmo genetico, el volumen de data que manejan nuestras celulas y la magia a la que aun ni llegamos en un 0.001 porciento, pero con la idea, de como sera cuando si lleguemos... Habra que poder manejar esa data y copiarla sin error. Pero como especie debemos seguir evolucionando. y siempre sera necesario el error, porque es la unica fuente de inovacion (segun entiendo yo la creatividad, y la inovacion). Pero lo veo sucediendo a lo largo de la vida del individuo. Seguiremos mutando, pero a gusto y evaluaremos y corregiremos inpromptu. y de vez en cuando habran siegos y mangos entre nosotros; pero estaran experimientando, y podran restaurar su vista, y sus miembros si asi lo decidieran.

Y habran escuelas de pensamiento, filosofias del ser. Y habra 42. No se que haremos con el 42 y la entropia. Me asus explicar que nunca hemos visto vida extra-terrestre con esos 2 problemas.

"Human Blood May Contain A Cure for AIDS"

Lisandro writes "German scientists at the University of Ulm have identified a natural ingredient of human blood that prevents the HIV-1 virus from from infecting immune cells and multiplying. The molecule, which they call virus-inhibitory peptide (VIRIP), promises new types of effective treatment for HIV in the future. 'Tweaks to its amino acid components boosted its anti-HIV potency by two orders of magnitude. Tests also showed that some derivatives of the molecule are highly stable in human blood plasma, and non-toxic even at very high concentrations. A synthetic version of VIRIP also proved effective at blocking HIV, excluding the possibility that some other factor was responsible. VIRIP targets a sugar molecule which HIV uses to infect a host cell. '"

Continue reading at Slashdot.



Oye esa vaina.... 2 ordenes de magnitud.... no side effects detected....



Viva el sexo libre!!! ?!

Darwin’s God

In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?