It might indeed be difficult to portray a level of
technology that is sufficiently advanced to seem futuristic to us, but still less advanced than the
LEGO-controlled computers with pneumatic voice synthesizers seen in the original series.
I saw updates to the Thorn UML modeller rather frequently over the last few weeks on Freshmeat. It is written in Java, stores models using XML, uses Jython as a scripting language and is released under the GNU GPL.
I've seen quite a few posts mentioning this "ionizing radiation" thing. Shall I assume that it's only possible to cause uncontrolled cell division (e.g. Cancer) through
damaging DNA directly, and not through indirect molecular mechanisms, such as causing RNA molecules to be built improperly? Is there a biologist out there who
can confirm this, since it seems to be a common complaint about this article.
It has also been suggested that electromagnetic fields might affect the electrostatic potential that is maintained over cell membranes. This potential affects the flow of ions through the membrane and the opening/closing of channels, which might in turn cause signals to be generated and transduced to other parts of the cell.
To remove the "Shop" button from the toolbar in Netscape for UNIX, add the following line to your.Xresources file (in your home directory):
Netscape*toolBar.myshopping.isEnabled: false
and log out. When you log in again, the button will be gone.
Re:Some clarification on "gene patents"
on
Squatting On Life
·
· Score: 1
In the case of gene sequences determined by large scale sequencing efforts and without a known biological function, I do not see how it could be "useful in practical sense" or in any specific way.
No, they are actually patenting the specific nucleotide sequence of the genes they identify. General (and obviously, patented) methods for the synthesis of arbitrary DNA strands have been in common use for several years now. You just specify the nucleotide sequence, send the form to a company and a few days later you get your DNA. The technique is mostly used to make short DNA primers (for PCR reactions and other lab applications). Synthesising a complete gene with several hundred nucleotides would still be very expensive, but is already possible. I don't think you could now patent a method to synhesise any specific gene zith these genaral methods available.
What if they find out they only aprear to be human... and have some unknown alien DNA?
More specifically, what if they turn out to contain traces of some weird alien parasite and have genes for the luciferase system or some luminescent protein in their eyes? We might finally have proof of the Goa'uld presence on earth in Egyptian times!
Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?
Unlike other distributed computing projects,
Folding@home is run by an academic institution
(specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a
non-profit institution dedicated to science research and education.
The results from Folding@home will be made
available on several levels. First, we put
movies and images of all folding runs on the web for everyone to see...
Slashdot Mirror
It might indeed be difficult to portray a level of technology that is sufficiently advanced to seem futuristic to us, but still less advanced than the LEGO-controlled computers with pneumatic voice synthesizers seen in the original series.
I saw updates to the Thorn UML modeller rather frequently over the last few weeks on Freshmeat. It is written in Java, stores models using XML, uses Jython as a scripting language and is released under the GNU GPL.
At $4795 for the UNIX version and $959 for one year's maintenance, I don't think this qualifies as "dirt cheap" either.
I've seen quite a few posts mentioning this "ionizing radiation" thing. Shall I assume that it's only possible to cause uncontrolled cell division (e.g. Cancer) through damaging DNA directly, and not through indirect molecular mechanisms, such as causing RNA molecules to be built improperly? Is there a biologist out there who can confirm this, since it seems to be a common complaint about this article.
It has also been suggested that electromagnetic fields might affect the electrostatic potential that is maintained over cell membranes. This potential affects the flow of ions through the membrane and the opening/closing of channels, which might in turn cause signals to be generated and transduced to other parts of the cell.
and log out. When you log in again, the button will be gone.
In the case of gene sequences determined by large scale sequencing efforts and without a known biological function, I do not see how it could be "useful in practical sense" or in any specific way.
No, they are actually patenting the specific nucleotide sequence of the genes they identify.
General (and obviously, patented) methods for the synthesis of arbitrary DNA strands have been in common use for several years now. You just specify the nucleotide sequence, send the form to a company and a few days later you get your DNA. The technique is mostly used to make short DNA primers (for PCR reactions and other lab applications). Synthesising a complete gene with several hundred nucleotides would still be very expensive, but is already possible. I don't think you could now patent a method to synhesise any specific gene zith these genaral methods available.
What if they find out they only aprear to be human... and have some unknown alien DNA?
More specifically, what if they turn out to contain traces of some weird alien parasite and have genes for the luciferase system or some luminescent protein in their eyes? We might finally have proof of the Goa'uld presence on earth in Egyptian times!
From the FAQ (second question):
Who "owns" the results? What will happen to them?
Unlike other distributed computing projects, Folding@home is run by an academic institution (specifically the Pande Group, at Stanford University's Chemistry Department), which is a non-profit institution dedicated to science research and education. The results from Folding@home will be made available on several levels. First, we put movies and images of all folding runs on the web for everyone to see...