Hey, nice selection! May I also recommend "Lost Liberties: Ashcroft and the Assault on Personal Freedom" ed. Cynthia Brown (seems relevant to this discussion)
At this point we no so litle about gravity that it is difficult to make any conclusions about it.
We know quite a bit about gravity - this NASA page lists a bunch of tests of General Relativity, and doesn't even include the atomic clock measurements of gravitational redshift (The GPS satellite system works only because the approximately 40 microsecond/per day relativistic time dilation is well characterized.
Now like electromagnetism, gravity is one of the four fundamental forces.
Is it? Generations of theorists, starting with Albert Einstein himself, have attempted to draw the connection between the two, unsuccessfully to date (although String Theory research is big business these days, I know, and may eventually pay off).
It seems that gravity is actually is very different from the other forces. Those forces act on other particles & masses and subsequently cause reactive movement, but that movement is within spacetime, where gravity is due to the alteration of the spacetime fabric itself.
You have to remember that gravity's effects go beyond just being an atractive force. The curvature of spacetime can be measured, most accurately in the time dimension; an atomic clock runs slower at sea level than it does on top of the rockies, and way slower than one in orbit. None of the other forces come close to producing that kind of effect.
Umm... I just saw the film last night. Spiderman (Peter Parker) DOESN'T get the girl. Its a TRAGIC ending. In fact, thats what makes this film (and
the Marvel comic series) so interesting - the characters are in many ways realistic (often they're outright dysfunctional).
My limited experience with STL was pretty satisfactory, but I had a lot of trouble finding either a well-written reference or guide. There are plenty of books out there, but I had to study them pretty seriously and do a lot of learning-curve testing before I felt comfortable using the library.
Otherwise, the STL design is pretty rational. I'll continue using it.
Oh, I suppose you feel that it was a race, and that since one of those horrible FOR-PROFIT companies was working on the same thing, then everyone EXCEPT them is allowed to see and work with the data.
It shouldn't come down to "for-profit companies vs. publicly funded research". There is a strong symbiotic relationship between business and public research, especially in molecular biology these days. Both need each other, and we all benefit from this relationship.
There are many, many, many examples of business providing products and services for research groups, far more cheaply than those groups could themselves provide (i.e restriction enzymes, oligonucletide synthesis, sequencing machines, etc). Research is thriving now because of these developments. Our standard of living is very high because of these developments, and it continues to improve.
At the same time, its important for businesses to recognize that publicly-funded research is a goose that has laid and continues to lay golden eggs for new business opportunities, and therefore it should not be killed. On the contrary, it should be nourished to keep it thriving. It drives me berserk when some personality makes some short-sighted recommendation to reduce (or even eliminate) public funding for research, and just let for-profit companies do everything, because the economic health of those companines (and therefore, our lifestyle) depends on a vibrant public research program. It drives me beserk because that kind of ignorant short-sightedness threatens our well-being in the long term.
I'm not objecting to Celera's outstanding work - I was objecting the attempt to undercut the public consortia's work, much of which they ended up using in the end (quite extensively in the case of the Drosophila pilot- see Science 24 mar 200, vol 287 p 2196)
Celera could have done the job alone
Believe me, both Venter and his computer hotshots spent plenty of time developing their techiques and expertise with public funding. They just didn't pop up out of a vacuum; their research was extensively funded by NIH, DOE, etc.
Well, I don't see any problem with Celera using the public data.
The problem is hypocrisy. When Celera was just gearing up to begin sequencing, I recall that Venter testified in front of Congress, claiming that the entire public effort was a waste of the taxpayer's money, and that the government should let Celera do the job alone, because it would do it much better and much faster.
As it turned out, Celera relied heavily on the existing public sequence to assist in their assembly (this is not an uncommon technique - but in light of that testimony, it smacks of hypocracy).
The analogy with open source software is a good one, in light of the company's attempts to patent gene sequences from their assemblies (see previous slashdot articles on this)
post-human? I paraphrase Richard Leakey, who once stated at a lecture at Stony Brook, that he spent many years looking at the fossil record, trying to answer the question "When did we first break off from the rest of the primates and become human?". He's now convinced this has not yet occurred.
post-"Homo sapien" is more accurate. Genes make a species; they don't make a human being. Maybe we should focus on what it really means to be human rather than focusing on what happens next.
I had an all-too-brief love affair with Lisp back in college in the 70s, but I never used it in my subsequent career in various scientific environments, thinking of it as an interpreter (somewhat slow) for doing symbolic processing rather than number crunching. However, a report from JPL recently came to my attention, which suggests that Lisp (using new compilers/interpreters) is competitive with Java or C++ in terms of programming time and execution speed & memory. While the authors themselves admit the study is not very conclusive or scientific, it did re-kindle my old love with the language.
Do you think its worthwhile pursuing Lisp solutions to everyday-type problems in scientific/engineering enviroment, which are numerically intensive or data-intensive? (for example, a particle physics monte-carlo simulation, or searching gigabytes of DNA sequence for patterns)
Sean McCorkle
Genome Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory
French cultural values aren't the same as american values. One difference, which I think is important in the Bove situation, is the emphasis placed on excellence and artistry in food - this just pervades the whole country. Going to a good school of cuisine and making a reputation as a chef is considered a good thing to do with your life (local newspapers have pictures of high school graduates who have been accepted into culinary schools, much the same way one sees pictures of kids that have been accepted into the naval or air force academies here in the US). Grocery stores and markets brim with incredibly fresh produce, breads, excellent cheeses.
From this perspective, McDonalds is an abomination, serving up homogenized, tasteless garbage just for the sake of a fast meal. Until now, its been something to sneer at from afar, but now that its right in the town, its triggered a major backlash.
I can empathize with this - I grew up in the Baltimore area, well known, at least it used to be, for its distinctive seafood cuisine. Ive been away for >25 years now, and each time I go back to visit, there's less and less places that can make really good crab dishes, and the area looks more and more like every other area - roads covered with burger kings, dennys, wendys, uno pizza's etc. What I find objectionable is the "homogenization" of the local cultures in the US, and I suspect thats what bothers many of the followers of Bove.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, nice selection! May I also recommend "Lost Liberties: Ashcroft and the Assault on Personal Freedom" ed. Cynthia Brown (seems relevant to this discussion)
At this point we no so litle about gravity that it is difficult to make any conclusions about it.
We know quite a bit about gravity - this NASA page lists a bunch of tests of General Relativity, and doesn't even include the atomic clock measurements of gravitational redshift (The GPS satellite system works only because the approximately 40 microsecond/per day relativistic time dilation is well characterized.
Now like electromagnetism, gravity is one of the four fundamental forces.
Is it? Generations of theorists, starting with Albert Einstein himself, have attempted to draw the connection between the two, unsuccessfully to date (although String Theory research is big business these days, I know, and may eventually pay off).
It seems that gravity is actually is very different from the other forces. Those forces act on other particles & masses and subsequently cause reactive movement, but that movement is within spacetime, where gravity is due to the alteration of the spacetime
fabric itself.
You have to remember that gravity's effects go beyond just being an atractive force. The curvature of spacetime can be measured, most accurately in the time dimension; an atomic clock runs slower at sea level than it does on top
of the rockies, and way slower than one in orbit. None of the other forces come close to producing that kind of effect.
Umm... I just saw the film last night. Spiderman (Peter Parker) DOESN'T get the girl. Its a TRAGIC ending. In fact, thats what makes this film (and
the Marvel comic series) so interesting - the characters are in many ways realistic (often they're outright dysfunctional).
My limited experience with STL was pretty satisfactory, but I had a lot of trouble finding either a well-written reference or guide. There are plenty of books out there, but I had to study them pretty seriously and do a lot of learning-curve testing before I felt comfortable using the library.
Otherwise, the STL design is pretty rational. I'll continue using it.
Oh, I suppose you feel that it was a race, and that since one of those horrible FOR-PROFIT companies was working on the same thing, then everyone EXCEPT them is allowed to see and work with the data.
It shouldn't come down to "for-profit companies vs. publicly funded research". There is a strong symbiotic relationship between business and public research, especially in molecular biology these days. Both need each other, and we all benefit from this relationship.
There are many, many, many examples of business providing products and services for research groups, far more cheaply than those groups could themselves provide (i.e restriction enzymes, oligonucletide synthesis, sequencing machines, etc). Research is thriving now because of these developments. Our standard of living is very high because of these developments, and it continues to improve.
At the same time, its important for businesses to recognize that publicly-funded research is a goose that has laid and continues to lay golden eggs for new business opportunities, and therefore it should not be killed. On the contrary, it should be nourished to keep it thriving. It drives me berserk when some personality makes some short-sighted recommendation to reduce (or even eliminate) public funding for research, and just let for-profit companies do everything, because the economic health of those companines (and therefore, our lifestyle) depends on a vibrant public research program. It drives me beserk because that kind of ignorant short-sightedness threatens our well-being in the long term.
I'm not objecting to Celera's outstanding work - I was objecting the attempt to undercut the public consortia's work, much of which they ended up using in the end (quite extensively in the case of the Drosophila pilot- see Science 24 mar 200, vol 287 p 2196)
Celera could have done the job alone
Believe me, both Venter and his computer hotshots spent plenty of time developing their techiques and expertise with public funding. They just didn't pop up out of a vacuum; their research was extensively funded by NIH, DOE, etc.
Well, I don't see any problem with Celera using the public data.
The problem is hypocrisy. When Celera was just gearing up to begin sequencing, I recall that Venter testified in front of Congress, claiming that the entire public effort was a waste of the taxpayer's money, and that the government should let Celera do the job alone, because it would do it much better and much faster.
As it turned out, Celera relied heavily on the existing public sequence to assist in their assembly (this is not an uncommon technique - but in light of that testimony, it smacks of hypocracy).
The analogy with open source software is a good one, in light of the company's attempts to patent gene sequences from their assemblies (see previous slashdot articles on this)
Can somebody tell me which gene results in a giantic ego?
post-human? I paraphrase Richard Leakey, who once stated at a lecture at Stony Brook, that he spent many years looking at the fossil record, trying to answer the question "When did we first break off from the rest of the primates and become human?". He's now convinced this has not yet occurred.
post-"Homo sapien" is more accurate. Genes make a species; they don't make a human being. Maybe we should focus on what it really means to be human rather than focusing on what happens next.
I had an all-too-brief love affair with Lisp back in college in the 70s, but I never used it in my subsequent career in various scientific environments, thinking of it as an interpreter (somewhat slow) for doing symbolic processing rather than number crunching. However, a report from JPL recently came to my attention, which suggests that Lisp (using new compilers/interpreters) is competitive with Java or C++ in terms of programming time and execution speed & memory. While the authors themselves admit the study is not very conclusive or scientific, it did re-kindle my old love with the language.
Do you think its worthwhile pursuing Lisp solutions to everyday-type problems in scientific/engineering enviroment, which are numerically intensive or data-intensive? (for example, a particle physics monte-carlo simulation, or searching gigabytes of DNA sequence for patterns)
Sean McCorkle
Genome Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory
From this perspective, McDonalds is an abomination, serving up homogenized, tasteless garbage just for the sake of a fast meal. Until now, its been something to sneer at from afar, but now that its right in the town, its triggered a major backlash.
I can empathize with this - I grew up in the Baltimore area, well known, at least it used to be, for its distinctive seafood cuisine. Ive been away for >25 years now, and each time I go back to visit, there's less and less places that can make really good crab dishes, and the area looks more and more like every other area - roads covered with burger kings, dennys, wendys, uno pizza's etc. What I find objectionable is the "homogenization" of the local cultures in the US, and I suspect thats what bothers many of the followers of Bove.