Entomologist have a wealth of stories to tell. One of my favortites is traumatic insemination in bed bugs.
The bed bug, Cimex lectularius, has a unique mode of copulation termed "traumatic" insemination [Carayon, J. (1966) in Monograph of the Cimicidae, ed. Usinger, R. (Entomol. Soc. Am., Philadelphia), pp. 81-167] during which the male pierces the female's abdominal wall with his external genitalia and inseminates into her body cavity [Carayon, J. (1966) in Monograph of the Cimicidae, ed. Usinger, R. (Entomol. Soc. Am., Philadelphia), pp. 81-167]. Under controlled natural conditions, traumatic insemination was frequent and temporally restricted. We show for the first time, to our knowledge, that traumatic insemination results in (i) last-male sperm precedence, (ii) suboptimal remating frequencies for the maintenance of female fertility, and (iii) reduced longevity and reproductive success in females. Experimental females did not receive indirect benefits from multiple mating. We conclude that traumatic insemination is probably a coercive male copulatory strategy that results in a sexual conflict of interests.
It used to be a hobby of mine. tcpdump and ethereal. Chat, email, documents, http requests, password snarfing.
Then I discovered that most folks had nothing of any interest to say. One step above listening to teenage girls talk on their cell phones.
Ironic how the "Union of Concerned Scientists" invites criticism of political influence over science when that is precisely what they do. Take a look at their efforts and you will see a group that would be more aptly called "the fervent minority of environmental reactionaries". Start with the publications of Margaret Mellon or Jane Rissler.
So what about the cartoons? Do they hope to endear themselves with the scientific community? To the public? Maybe they have a chance with the latter, but the former is more likely to understand the concept of reletive risk and reward.
If there's gold to be found in them there genetic hills, by God the locals ought to have dibs -- so the thinking goes.
Why is that? Venter has specifically targeted non-cultivated microbial organisms. How could anyone claim to own an entire species far older than the human race just because they currently occupy a specific location? What hubris.
Our own squeezebox worked so well for my wife that I purchased one for my father and another for my best friend as well. All three enjoy the painless remote control interface. Both my wife and friend are decidedly non-technical and prefer to have little or nothing to do with computers, but the squeezebox has been a big hit with them. My wife, a professional pastry chef, says that it has changed her work life in the kitchen. It is a really well concieved appliance.
For those of you who have not seen The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, it is definitely worth a read. The drawings alone are worth the price of the book.
For those of you how are not impressed by ants, try to build one.
Sorry, but it is the female worker bees, and not the male drones, that sometimes clone themselves. AFAIK, this has only been observed in queenless colonies and has been explained as a genetic escape mechanism. Without a queen, a hive would otherwise be a reproductive dead end. When unfertilized workers lay haploid eggs in response to lack of queen pheromones, all of the eggs become male drones. Although the colony remains doomed, the drones can go out and mate with queens from other colonies and continue the genetic line. See this article for a general description of this phenomenon. So you might ask why workers don't cheat and clone themselves more often. Well, they do, but their sisters don't stand for it.
The DNA theme is pretty thin. There are no real laboratory robotics in the competition. Instead, Roche is leveraging the BEST competition to help distribute their genetics educational CD (linked from the BEST homepage). I suppose it IS a good way to distribute a positive spin on gene testing (don't get me wrong, I am FOR the technology), but why not take advantage of a real need. Laboratory automation is full of robotics and I am sure young minds could contribute to the development of better systems.
Hey Roche, why not sponsor a lab related competition next year?
In the US,company email is the legal property of your employer. Email is typically monitored after the fact as text searches of archives, but there are multiple commercial efforts employing pattern recognition technologies as real-time filters. Add VoIP and voice recognition at the commercial level and you have one brawny big brother at the workplace.
I am NOT an expert in throat cancer, but Dr. Hupp's homepage indicates that he is focusing on regulatory proteins associated with tumor formation, which has led to "the discovery of a novel stress-protein response in human oesophageal epithelium".
The "dipstick" test is probably one or more antibodies and an associated color reaction.
Non- or minimally invasive assays are definitely needed for early detection and customized treatment for the many different types of cancer. I used to work (and still hold shares) for a biotech startup using a mouse retrovirus system as a functional screen for discovering genes related to cancer. The company, Sagres Discovery, quickly found over a thousand oncogene targets. A public collaboration using the same technology is being led by Neal Copeland at the National Cancer Institute.
I am very encouraged by these efforts and hope that this kind of content can be combined with highly parallel microfluidic tests (lots of tiny reactions) to build comprehensive diagnostic tests.
TapRoot Systems has been working on 802.11b capable phones for some time now.
I live in a rural university town which happens to have a large number of open hotspots in cafes, restaurants, and offices. It also happens to have terrible cell coverage. I'll be first in line for a WiFi capable phone.
Novozymes Biotech in Davis, California is selectively breeding better enzymes for converting the cellulose in corn by-products to fermentable sugars. They passed their economic goal some time ago, but they are still making improvements.
For technophiles, failing fast (working harder) has another distinct advantage: it's more fun. It certainly beats waiting on management/marketing types or worrying about the burn rate. Paychecks are ephemeral and should be treated as such. A good hacker ethic can, however, result in a lifetime of interesting things to do.
He's also written about how Samba came into being, which was basically because he was trying to avoid doing any real work on his PhD.
I think that is common. Our LUG was founded and remains heavily influenced by this effect. Nice to know that so many are compelled to avoid their profs long enough to something useful
Biological weapons are indiscriminate by nature, making them useless in most battle scenarios. Unfortunately, even a primitive biological is an excellent tool for terrorizing civilian populations. Parallels with the nuclear physics are not valid. There are just too many paths toward the development of this kind of terror weapon to support security through obscurity. A far more realistic path is to develop advanced diagnostics with the ability to detect components and whole pathogens.
Without diagnostics, each person is a potential conduit of disease. With diagnostics, every person is a potential sentinel.
I live in a small iniversity town. Even the shortest bike ride with my Zaurus running kismet finds many access points in businesses and homes unencrypted (war biking?). I often run ethereal for the few minutes it takes me to get up and order coffee at one of the local cafes. It never fails to catch pop and imap passwords, mail, and instant messaging conversations. I always use ssh or VPN, but I don't feel superior. Most of my own non-work related mail is sent in plain text.
Slashdot Mirror
It used to be a hobby of mine. tcpdump and ethereal. Chat, email, documents, http requests, password snarfing. Then I discovered that most folks had nothing of any interest to say. One step above listening to teenage girls talk on their cell phones.
The video suddenly pixelates when he lifts his feet. It is a scam.
Ironic how the "Union of Concerned Scientists" invites criticism of political influence over science when that is precisely what they do. Take a look at their efforts and you will see a group that would be more aptly called "the fervent minority of environmental reactionaries". Start with the publications of Margaret Mellon or Jane Rissler.
So what about the cartoons? Do they hope to endear themselves with the scientific community? To the public? Maybe they have a chance with the latter, but the former is more likely to understand the concept of reletive risk and reward.
Why is that? Venter has specifically targeted non-cultivated microbial organisms. How could anyone claim to own an entire species far older than the human race just because they currently occupy a specific location? What hubris.
1. gene sequences
2. google
3. big pharma
4. profit!
Except that genbank already does that for free.
The ultimate gatekeeper of your genetic privacy is YOU. What isn't in the database can not be googled.
Our own squeezebox worked so well for my wife that I purchased one for my father and another for my best friend as well. All three enjoy the painless remote control interface. Both my wife and friend are decidedly non-technical and prefer to have little or nothing to do with computers, but the squeezebox has been a big hit with them. My wife, a professional pastry chef, says that it has changed her work life in the kitchen. It is a really well concieved appliance.
For those of you who have not seen The Ants by Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, it is definitely worth a read. The drawings alone are worth the price of the book.
For those of you how are not impressed by ants, try to build one.
Wouldn't this market analysis reveal which music people are willing to pirate rather than purchase?
Sorry, but it is the female worker bees, and not the male drones, that sometimes clone themselves. AFAIK, this has only been observed in queenless colonies and has been explained as a genetic escape mechanism. Without a queen, a hive would otherwise be a reproductive dead end. When unfertilized workers lay haploid eggs in response to lack of queen pheromones, all of the eggs become male drones. Although the colony remains doomed, the drones can go out and mate with queens from other colonies and continue the genetic line. See this article for a general description of this phenomenon. So you might ask why workers don't cheat and clone themselves more often. Well, they do, but their sisters don't stand for it.
The DNA theme is pretty thin. There are no real laboratory robotics in the competition. Instead, Roche is leveraging the BEST competition to help distribute their genetics educational CD (linked from the BEST homepage). I suppose it IS a good way to distribute a positive spin on gene testing (don't get me wrong, I am FOR the technology), but why not take advantage of a real need. Laboratory automation is full of robotics and I am sure young minds could contribute to the development of better systems.
Hey Roche, why not sponsor a lab related competition next year?
In the US,company email is the legal property of your employer. Email is typically monitored after the fact as text searches of archives, but there are multiple commercial efforts employing pattern recognition technologies as real-time filters. Add VoIP and voice recognition at the commercial level and you have one brawny big brother at the workplace.
I am NOT an expert in throat cancer, but Dr. Hupp's homepage indicates that he is focusing on regulatory proteins associated with tumor formation, which has led to "the discovery of a novel stress-protein response in human oesophageal epithelium".
The "dipstick" test is probably one or more antibodies and an associated color reaction.
Non- or minimally invasive assays are definitely needed for early detection and customized treatment for the many different types of cancer. I used to work (and still hold shares) for a biotech startup using a mouse retrovirus system as a functional screen for discovering genes related to cancer. The company, Sagres Discovery, quickly found over a thousand oncogene targets. A public collaboration using the same technology is being led by Neal Copeland at the National Cancer Institute.
I am very encouraged by these efforts and hope that this kind of content can be combined with highly parallel microfluidic tests (lots of tiny reactions) to build comprehensive diagnostic tests .
TapRoot Systems has been working on 802.11b capable phones for some time now.
I live in a rural university town which happens to have a large number of open hotspots in cafes, restaurants, and offices. It also happens to have terrible cell coverage. I'll be first in line for a WiFi capable phone.
Novozymes Biotech in Davis, California is selectively breeding better enzymes for converting the cellulose in corn by-products to fermentable sugars. They passed their economic goal some time ago, but they are still making improvements.
Please let me know when it renders the giant vehicles (and the naked people, too).
For technophiles, failing fast (working harder) has another distinct advantage: it's more fun. It certainly beats waiting on management/marketing types or worrying about the burn rate. Paychecks are ephemeral and should be treated as such. A good hacker ethic can, however, result in a lifetime of interesting things to do.
Those interested in efficient flight should read about Paul MacCready (and many others) who have been involved in the American human/solar powered flight movement: More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight.
I think that is common. Our LUG was founded and remains heavily influenced by this effect. Nice to know that so many are compelled to avoid their profs long enough to something useful
Biological weapons are indiscriminate by nature, making them useless in most battle scenarios. Unfortunately, even a primitive biological is an excellent tool for terrorizing civilian populations. Parallels with the nuclear physics are not valid. There are just too many paths toward the development of this kind of terror weapon to support security through obscurity. A far more realistic path is to develop advanced diagnostics with the ability to detect components and whole pathogens.
Without diagnostics, each person is a potential conduit of disease. With diagnostics, every person is a potential sentinel.
I love internet chat sessions. I snoop on them with ethereal at every opportunity.
Digital Dragonflies has been around for many years and is the best example of scanning large insects I have ever seen.
I live in a small iniversity town. Even the shortest bike ride with my Zaurus running kismet finds many access points in businesses and homes unencrypted (war biking?). I often run ethereal for the few minutes it takes me to get up and order coffee at one of the local cafes. It never fails to catch pop and imap passwords, mail, and instant messaging conversations. I always use ssh or VPN, but I don't feel superior. Most of my own non-work related mail is sent in plain text.
I agree completely. Scratching vinyl is the new urban equivalent of the mouth harp.
Imagine the remix: "Boing, boing, wicka, wicka, boing, boing."