Hm maybe I missed it -- I didn't see him mentioned in TFA...but it is late. Anyway if he's not, he should be -- as far as I know he was the first to figure out and demonstrate how a few simple rules can generate flocking behavior (Cryptacool lists the rules in another comment).
The flies have been engineered to express receptors for the neurotransmitter ATP in subpopulations of neurons. (This is the same ATP that is used for energy storage; it also acts as a neurotransmitter in mammals.) They are then injected with a form of ATP that is inactive until it is exposed to ultraviolet light. When the flies are exposed to the UV, the ATP is uncaged, and the selected population of neurons expressing the transgenic receptors is activated.
Also, Carl Zimmer has written an article in the NYTimes on this; here's his blog post on the topic, as well.
Spacy people can have a lot to contribute. The way Lamo describes himself reminds me of George Fox, founder of the Quaker religion (as quoted by William James in Varieties of Religious Experience):
"As I was walking with several friends, I lifted up my head and saw three steeple-house spires, and they struck at my life. I asked them what place that was? They said, Lichfield. Immediately the word of the Lord came to me, that I must go thither. Being come to the house we were going to, I wished the friends to walk into the house, saying nothing to them of whither I was to go. As soon as they were gone I stept away, and went by my eye over hedge and ditch till I came within a mile of Lichfield where, in a great field, shepherds were keeping their sheep. Then was I commanded by the Lord to pull off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter: but the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I put off my shoes and left them with the shepherds; and the poor shepherds trembled, and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was got within the city, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying: Cry, 'Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield!' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield! It being market day, I went into the market-place, and to and fro in the several parts of it, and made stands, crying as before, Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield! And no one laid hands on me. As I went thus crying through the streets, there seemed to me to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the market-place appeared like a pool of blood. When I had declared what was upon me, and felt myself clear, I went out of the town in peace; and returning to the shepherds gave them some money, and took my shoes of them again. But the fire of the Lord was so on my feet, and all over me, that I did not matter to put on my shoes again, and was at a stand whether I should or no, till I felt freedom from the Lord so to do: then, after I had washed my feet, I put on my shoes again. After this a deep consideration came upon me, for what reason I should be sent to cry against that city, and call it The bloody city! For though the parliament had the minister one while, and the king another, and much blood had been shed in the town during the wars between them, yet there was no more than had befallen many other places. But afterwards I came to understand, that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand Christians were martyr'd in Lichfield. So I was to go, without my shoes, through the channel of their blood, and into the pool of their blood in the market-place, that I might raise up the memorial of the blood of those martyrs, which had been shed above a thousand years before, and lay cold in their streets. So the sense of this blood was upon me, and I obeyed the word of the Lord."
Wizards of the Coast has attracted a ton of third party roleplaying game content to its d20 system because, according to the license, anyone can make supplements or even whole games based on the d20 game mechanics and other 'Open Gaming Content'. (See here for some plain English info.)
Maybe somebody should try making Lego-like toys with a similar license -- it would be very cool if manufacturers converged on interchangable components, from the complex (Mindstorms-like stuff, and 'Expert Set' gearing componentry) to the low (simple old-style bricks). And if some company wanted to make the idiotic prefab pieces that predominate today, they could do that too.
How DNA is expressed depends on its context, i.e. a species-specific machinery for transcription, translation, and protein traffic. This context varies between tissue types, and certainly between species.
I wonder how close one could ever get to recreating the Tasmanian tiger, or any other extinct species.
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Hm maybe I missed it -- I didn't see him mentioned in TFA...but it is late. Anyway if he's not, he should be -- as far as I know he was the first to figure out and demonstrate how a few simple rules can generate flocking behavior (Cryptacool lists the rules in another comment).
I wonder if they base their algorithm on Craig Reynolds' boids?
I think ultrapure water would leech ions from any exposed metal and become conductive. No good.
Also, Carl Zimmer has written an article in the NYTimes on this; here's his blog post on the topic, as well.
"As I was walking with several friends, I lifted up my head and saw three steeple-house spires, and they struck at my life. I asked them what place that was? They said, Lichfield. Immediately the word of the Lord came to me, that I must go thither. Being come to the house we were going to, I wished the friends to walk into the house, saying nothing to them of whither I was to go. As soon as they were gone I stept away, and went by my eye over hedge and ditch till I came within a mile of Lichfield where, in a great field, shepherds were keeping their sheep. Then was I commanded by the Lord to pull off my shoes. I stood still, for it was winter: but the word of the Lord was like a fire in me. So I put off my shoes and left them with the shepherds; and the poor shepherds trembled, and were astonished. Then I walked on about a mile, and as soon as I was got within the city, the word of the Lord came to me again, saying: Cry, 'Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield!' So I went up and down the streets, crying with a loud voice, Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield! It being market day, I went into the market-place, and to and fro in the several parts of it, and made stands, crying as before, Wo to the bloody city of Lichfield! And no one laid hands on me. As I went thus crying through the streets, there seemed to me to be a channel of blood running down the streets, and the market-place appeared like a pool of blood. When I had declared what was upon me, and felt myself clear, I went out of the town in peace; and returning to the shepherds gave them some money, and took my shoes of them again. But the fire of the Lord was so on my feet, and all over me, that I did not matter to put on my shoes again, and was at a stand whether I should or no, till I felt freedom from the Lord so to do: then, after I had washed my feet, I put on my shoes again. After this a deep consideration came upon me, for what reason I should be sent to cry against that city, and call it The bloody city! For though the parliament had the minister one while, and the king another, and much blood had been shed in the town during the wars between them, yet there was no more than had befallen many other places. But afterwards I came to understand, that in the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand Christians were martyr'd in Lichfield. So I was to go, without my shoes, through the channel of their blood, and into the pool of their blood in the market-place, that I might raise up the memorial of the blood of those martyrs, which had been shed above a thousand years before, and lay cold in their streets. So the sense of this blood was upon me, and I obeyed the word of the Lord."
Wizards of the Coast has attracted a ton of third party roleplaying game content to its d20 system because, according to the license, anyone can make supplements or even whole games based on the d20 game mechanics and other 'Open Gaming Content'. (See here for some plain English info.)
Maybe somebody should try making Lego-like toys with a similar license -- it would be very cool if manufacturers converged on interchangable components, from the complex (Mindstorms-like stuff, and 'Expert Set' gearing componentry) to the low (simple old-style bricks). And if some company wanted to make the idiotic prefab pieces that predominate today, they could do that too.
I wonder how close one could ever get to recreating the Tasmanian tiger, or any other extinct species.