I totally agree. We don't even know what aging really is. Shorter telomeres? Insulin insensitivity?
We can't even regrow hair at this point. We definitely know some (I repeat, some) of the underlying causes of male pattern balding, but we can't overcome it entirely.
Great summary. Technical language is used because, well, to understand and reproduce an experiment, one has to be absolutely precise in his/her descriptions and speak "technically".
Word processors are pretty good at catching misspellings and many common grammatical issues, so folks should at least take the time to run this at least at the end.
For me, this is in part comes down to whether scientists are public figures. Does accepting public funds require that our faces be associated with the research in a very public way? I struggle with this a bit, particularly when, as just one example, animal research is involved. You would not believe (well, maybe you would if you have ever read Youtube comments sections before) the abuse that comes with publishing a story with any general/mainstream media interest and that involves research animals in any capacity.
I agree that a publication's authors may well be the best ones to explain the relevance and impact of a study. I agree that scientists have an obligation to make good use of the resources given to them. But, I wonder if everyone should be subjected to the type of scrutiny that might come with this well-meaning endeavor.
Remember the physicist that wore that shirt during the interviews about the comet landing?
The OP comments that he/she is unable to commit times tables to memory. This alone indicates a real, measurable learning disability in at least one domain. He/she should get formally tested and have a plan to address the areas of weakness directly.
So, harassing low paid workers at the bottom of the food chain who are performing their jobs in good faith, slowing and inconveniencing all the other travelers with energetic 3-year-old kids and crotchety 85-year-old grandparents who all have to pee, and further diluting an already strained and minimally beneficial system to "buck authority" just doesn't seem to be the best way to address this.
Sure, this reporter got to write a really "witty" article. But, this kind of episode just seems really self-serving and inward focused.
You want to gum up the system? Spend some time organizing and do it in a concerted, organized fashion where it could actually make a change. Haphazardly slowing things up just ticks people off and makes many more complacent about "let's just get on with it so I can get on my vacation/get home/get to my meeting."
Separate issue: Since when does having served in any military capacity provide carte blanche for any behavior and imbue one with near mystical wisdom about life?
This is not a perfect solution, but one I have considered... Photo printing services like QOOP (works with Flickr) now print photo books (up to 600 pages). One could (1) Back up to Flickr (does have an annual fee, but then has unlimited back-up) (2) print all pictures to a photo book (~ $13 for 20 pages, then 40 cents per page, 20 small photos per page). Not cheap, but there's nothing like paper...
We already do such experiments on a large scale like the Nurses Health Study and others. They're called "Retrospective Analyses," and they can be a good first step but can ultimately give some BAD and very wrong results. The Nurses Health Study followed on the order of 10's of thousands of nurses over decades, and one of the "results" of the study was that taking estrogen replacement was correlated with decreased cardiovascular disease (i.e heart attacks). Unfortunately, what the study actually showed was that intrinsically HEALTHIER nurses took estrogen and, surprise, surprise, had less heart disease. It was only after going back and doing a real experiment (double-blind, placebo controlled) that it was revealed that estrogen is actually BAD (i.e. can increase cardiovascular risk).
I don't care how smart your supercomputer is, you're still going to have trouble with confounding variables in this type of analysis...
New bench to bedside program? It's called the Medical Scientist Training Program, and it was started at the University of Chicago in 1969... Nothing new here.
The genome (the actual sequence of A, T, G, and C that make up the genes) is still still the same (for the most part, see below). The notion that changes in chromatin structure (the way that DNA is wound up in higher order structures) or that MODIFICATIONS of the ATGC's take place (the fundamental base sequence is still the same) is not surprising, nor is it new. And, of course, these changes may have an effect on how the genes are read out (i.e. the resulting phenotype/appearance of the organism is going to differ because of the physical or chemical alterations of basic DNA sequences). I'm sorry, but Lamarck was still wrong (the giraffe's neck didn't get longer because his father stretched to eat the leaves and then passed this trait on to his offspring; his neck got longer because over generations his ancestors RANDOMLY had a mutation which resulted in a longer neck and this made him eat better and have more energy to get it on and pass on his genes...).
Yes, there is more fluidity in the genome than is generally recognized among the lay-folk (T and B cells in the immune system rearrange parts of genes and mutate the actual base sequence of certain genes extensively in order to generate a large variety of receptors to recognize bacteria, viruses, etc.; transposons jump around; mutations occur in the DNA sequence of somatic/non-sperm-non egg cells and lead to cancer; some mutations occur in and are passed through the germ/sperm-egg cells and we get evolution).
As far as this whole twins thing: people are a product of the interaction between their genes and their environment. So, one twin lives the rock star life-style and ends up with wrinkles and cirrhosis at age 45; the other one lives the life of a monk and looks 10 years younger. Now, with molecular biology, we can also see a MOLECULAR effect of these differences in life style (the rocker twin also has some different modifications of his DNA).
Long time pianist and electronic music tinkerer/enthusiastic here...
I just downloaded the NIN file and gave it a listen. I honestly have to say that the experience of messing with Trents tracks (!!!) was on par with my first hearing of Tomita's interpretation of "The Planets" or Wendy/Walter Carlos "Switched on Bach". It was like a whole new expanse of music was openned up to me... Wow!
It's one thing to kind of know that, in principle, you have the tools to produce something on par with "The Hand that Feeds" (i.e. a computer, a program like Garageband), but being presented with a finished product like this song to mess with is amazing. (I certainly don't claim to have anything even slightly on par with the talent of Trent Reznor or other pro musicians; I am just excited by the democratization of the whole process and the creative opportunities of it all).
Just to reiterate a couple of points above which are worth repeating...
When you eat something, parts of its genome DO NOT become part of your genome. Also, proteins (such as the fluorescent protein which is being expressed in the fish) are digested in your stomach and intestine, hence they can't get into your blood, or anything like that, and make you glow.
Sibelius is simple and powerful. After reading through the tutorial, I put together a 4 page piano score in 2 hour with ties, accents, peddling, the works...
There web support is outstanding as well. If you post to their support group, you will get a response in a day from their tech people, and probably sooner from another Sib user.
I have not used Finale, but I'm sure you couldn't go wrong with it if you put in the time.
Some of my favorite games from the IIE:
Federation
Karateka
F15 Strike Eagle (with the Mach III joystick, oh yeah!)
Kung Fu Master
Super Boulderdash (I wish I could get a port of this working now, it's a great puzzle/manual dexterity game)
I also recall attempting to write a role playing type game in Basic in about 5th grade taking place in the world of Dune. It took me two weeks just to program the first couple of graphics and it never went very far... oh well.
Now, if it only didn't "tick" between tracks...
on
iPod NoteReader Notes
·
· Score: 1
when listening to music, it might be worth keeping.
Slashdot Mirror
I totally agree. We don't even know what aging really is. Shorter telomeres? Insulin insensitivity? We can't even regrow hair at this point. We definitely know some (I repeat, some) of the underlying causes of male pattern balding, but we can't overcome it entirely.
Great summary. Technical language is used because, well, to understand and reproduce an experiment, one has to be absolutely precise in his/her descriptions and speak "technically". Word processors are pretty good at catching misspellings and many common grammatical issues, so folks should at least take the time to run this at least at the end.
For me, this is in part comes down to whether scientists are public figures. Does accepting public funds require that our faces be associated with the research in a very public way? I struggle with this a bit, particularly when, as just one example, animal research is involved. You would not believe (well, maybe you would if you have ever read Youtube comments sections before) the abuse that comes with publishing a story with any general/mainstream media interest and that involves research animals in any capacity. I agree that a publication's authors may well be the best ones to explain the relevance and impact of a study. I agree that scientists have an obligation to make good use of the resources given to them. But, I wonder if everyone should be subjected to the type of scrutiny that might come with this well-meaning endeavor. Remember the physicist that wore that shirt during the interviews about the comet landing?
The OP comments that he/she is unable to commit times tables to memory. This alone indicates a real, measurable learning disability in at least one domain. He/she should get formally tested and have a plan to address the areas of weakness directly.
So, harassing low paid workers at the bottom of the food chain who are performing their jobs in good faith, slowing and inconveniencing all the other travelers with energetic 3-year-old kids and crotchety 85-year-old grandparents who all have to pee, and further diluting an already strained and minimally beneficial system to "buck authority" just doesn't seem to be the best way to address this. Sure, this reporter got to write a really "witty" article. But, this kind of episode just seems really self-serving and inward focused. You want to gum up the system? Spend some time organizing and do it in a concerted, organized fashion where it could actually make a change. Haphazardly slowing things up just ticks people off and makes many more complacent about "let's just get on with it so I can get on my vacation/get home/get to my meeting." Separate issue: Since when does having served in any military capacity provide carte blanche for any behavior and imbue one with near mystical wisdom about life?
This is not a perfect solution, but one I have considered... Photo printing services like QOOP (works with Flickr) now print photo books (up to 600 pages). One could (1) Back up to Flickr (does have an annual fee, but then has unlimited back-up) (2) print all pictures to a photo book (~ $13 for 20 pages, then 40 cents per page, 20 small photos per page). Not cheap, but there's nothing like paper...
We already do such experiments on a large scale like the Nurses Health Study and others. They're called "Retrospective Analyses," and they can be a good first step but can ultimately give some BAD and very wrong results. The Nurses Health Study followed on the order of 10's of thousands of nurses over decades, and one of the "results" of the study was that taking estrogen replacement was correlated with decreased cardiovascular disease (i.e heart attacks). Unfortunately, what the study actually showed was that intrinsically HEALTHIER nurses took estrogen and, surprise, surprise, had less heart disease. It was only after going back and doing a real experiment (double-blind, placebo controlled) that it was revealed that estrogen is actually BAD (i.e. can increase cardiovascular risk). I don't care how smart your supercomputer is, you're still going to have trouble with confounding variables in this type of analysis...
New bench to bedside program? It's called the Medical Scientist Training Program, and it was started at the University of Chicago in 1969... Nothing new here.
The genome (the actual sequence of A, T, G, and C that make up the genes) is still still the same (for the most part, see below). The notion that changes in chromatin structure (the way that DNA is wound up in higher order structures) or that MODIFICATIONS of the ATGC's take place (the fundamental base sequence is still the same) is not surprising, nor is it new. And, of course, these changes may have an effect on how the genes are read out (i.e. the resulting phenotype/appearance of the organism is going to differ because of the physical or chemical alterations of basic DNA sequences). I'm sorry, but Lamarck was still wrong (the giraffe's neck didn't get longer because his father stretched to eat the leaves and then passed this trait on to his offspring; his neck got longer because over generations his ancestors RANDOMLY had a mutation which resulted in a longer neck and this made him eat better and have more energy to get it on and pass on his genes...). Yes, there is more fluidity in the genome than is generally recognized among the lay-folk (T and B cells in the immune system rearrange parts of genes and mutate the actual base sequence of certain genes extensively in order to generate a large variety of receptors to recognize bacteria, viruses, etc.; transposons jump around; mutations occur in the DNA sequence of somatic/non-sperm-non egg cells and lead to cancer; some mutations occur in and are passed through the germ/sperm-egg cells and we get evolution). As far as this whole twins thing: people are a product of the interaction between their genes and their environment. So, one twin lives the rock star life-style and ends up with wrinkles and cirrhosis at age 45; the other one lives the life of a monk and looks 10 years younger. Now, with molecular biology, we can also see a MOLECULAR effect of these differences in life style (the rocker twin also has some different modifications of his DNA).
Long time pianist and electronic music tinkerer/enthusiastic here... I just downloaded the NIN file and gave it a listen. I honestly have to say that the experience of messing with Trents tracks (!!!) was on par with my first hearing of Tomita's interpretation of "The Planets" or Wendy/Walter Carlos "Switched on Bach". It was like a whole new expanse of music was openned up to me... Wow! It's one thing to kind of know that, in principle, you have the tools to produce something on par with "The Hand that Feeds" (i.e. a computer, a program like Garageband), but being presented with a finished product like this song to mess with is amazing. (I certainly don't claim to have anything even slightly on par with the talent of Trent Reznor or other pro musicians; I am just excited by the democratization of the whole process and the creative opportunities of it all).
Just to reiterate a couple of points above which are worth repeating... When you eat something, parts of its genome DO NOT become part of your genome. Also, proteins (such as the fluorescent protein which is being expressed in the fish) are digested in your stomach and intestine, hence they can't get into your blood, or anything like that, and make you glow.
Sibelius is simple and powerful. After reading through the tutorial, I put together a 4 page piano score in 2 hour with ties, accents, peddling, the works... There web support is outstanding as well. If you post to their support group, you will get a response in a day from their tech people, and probably sooner from another Sib user. I have not used Finale, but I'm sure you couldn't go wrong with it if you put in the time.
Some of my favorite games from the IIE: Federation Karateka F15 Strike Eagle (with the Mach III joystick, oh yeah!) Kung Fu Master Super Boulderdash (I wish I could get a port of this working now, it's a great puzzle/manual dexterity game) I also recall attempting to write a role playing type game in Basic in about 5th grade taking place in the world of Dune. It took me two weeks just to program the first couple of graphics and it never went very far... oh well.
when listening to music, it might be worth keeping.