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User: Dr.+GeneMachine

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  1. Re:Keep your fararari. on Nanotechnology: Are Molecular Assemblers Possible? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, and sometimes you have to disassemble the motor and recompile it halfway between A and B...

  2. Yeah... on Piece of the Moon for Sale · · Score: 1

    I'd like some of that metallic hydrogen for my next casemod...

  3. FREE THE SLAVES on L.A. County Bans Use Of "Master/Slave" Term · · Score: 1

    Well, for performance reasons, I recently installed a PCI IDE controller card making all my drives masters. I named it Spartakus - FREE THE SLAVES!!!

  4. Re:quality references on Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge · · Score: 1
    Well, I concede that there is a loss of knowledge due to the vanishing of web pages. But the comparison to the burning of the Alexandrian library is ridiculous. This library was a comprehensive collection of contemporary science - and this is not remotely comparable to the mentioned ephemeral web pages. The loss of the library of Alexandria set back sciences hundreds of years. This is not even remotely the case when some obscure web links now point to 404.

    There is a point regarding journals switching to electronic only publication. But these articles are referenced by additional unique identifiers ( e.g. the doi) and are archived in several places. The main problem there will not be the loss of links, but the incompatibility of future data storage formats. But this is an entirely different cup of tea.

  5. quality references on Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge · · Score: 1
    The Washington Post reports on the loss of knowledge in ephemeral web pages, which a medical researcher compares to the burning of ancient Alexandria's library.

    Err, which serious medical researcher would cite a web page? Everything remotely reliable, that is, in science at least, peer reviewed, is published in journals. While these may have a web appearance, they are also published in print - and that's what you cite.

  6. Re:Rabbits and cats in Australia,pigs and the dodo on Glowing Fish are First Genetically Engineered Pets · · Score: 1
    Who can claim that knows with 100% certainity what will happen when more and more of these species are left in the wild?

    No one. And no one should have to. You don't have 100% certainty in anything - and you will never have.

    All you can ask for is a reasonable amount of certainty. I'm not even 100% certain that the sky won't fall on my head today. That does not keep me from leaving my house.

  7. Re:Novelty Item on Glowing Fish are First Genetically Engineered Pets · · Score: 1

    You will run into the additional problem that cell internal pH is tightly regulated and does not correspond to the pH value of the water the fish swims in. So if your pHish shows a significant change in pH, it is quite likely to go belly-up very soon.

  8. Re:Novelty Item on Glowing Fish are First Genetically Engineered Pets · · Score: 1
    The hotter you get the higher wavelength EM you emit. So first you emit IR, then visible red, yellow, green, blue, violet, then ultraviolet.

    That's shorter wavelength, son. Higher energy. Assuming ideal black body radiation and an excitation frequency for GFP fluorescence of about 455 nm, Wien's displacement law gives us a needed CPU temperature of T = 2.898e-3 m*K / lamda(max) = 6369 K for maximum emission at 455 nm ... Way to go, overclockers...

  9. Re:2003? on iTunes Music Store - 'Coolest Invention of 2003' · · Score: 1

    Obviously, a time machine was amongst the coolest inventions. It escapes me why they failed to mention it, though.

  10. Re:Soon, a Tomacco V8 on Simpsons Fan Creates Real Tomacco Plant · · Score: 1

    Not quite true... You also have to take into account the way of delivery - nicotin uptake during smoking is way lower than nicoting uptake during ingestion. While you won't get nicotine poisoning from smoking three cigarettes in a row, the amount of nicotine contained in these cigarettes will give you serious problems if extracted and taken orally. So tomacco is definitely not a good idea.

  11. Re:But will nanotech even be developed? on The Issues of Nano-Safety · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Miniturization is only a pain when you're talking about going from a macro scale to a micro/nano scale. When your assembly lines operate on that scale, making things on the same scale is trivial.

    Right. And, conveniently, we don't even have to fully go from macro to nano-scale - biological systems can supply us with many of the tools needed for nanoscale assembly. There is a lot of promising work done in the field of self-assembling nanostructures on DNA and protein basis.

    Some minor nitpicks, though. I don't think that the concept of a battery in the classical sense is applicable on this scale. Energy supply will have to be organized in a more biological kind of fashion - just put your nanomachine in some kind of energy gradient, be it thermal or chemical in nature. The first generation of nanomachines will undoubtely be stationary anyway, so you could put them on top of a membrane separating for example a high-proton from a low-proton medium and let them harvest energy from the proton flux along the gradient - again a working concept established in many biological systems, for example bacteria or mitochondria.

    For the same reason, I would not be concerned about movement at this stage. Later, though, I don't think it will be as simple as you put it. On the nanoscale, the fluid behavior of gaseous media is completely different from what we know, so your put-in-turbines-and-let-them-fly concept most probably won't work. But, again, we can look to biology - flagella and cilia are quite efficient ways of propulsion in media of relatively high viscosity.

  12. Tiny on Symantec Says No To Pro-Gun Sites · · Score: 1

    I recommend the Tiny Personal Firewall. Gives you much better control than Norton.

  13. Re:What is going to run on these computers? on Quantum Computing Breakthrough in Japan · · Score: 1

    It's not that easy. Folding simulations are not simply limited by computation time. While it is true that quantum computing would enable us to run far longer simulations, the main problem remains. We don't really know how to model force fields to get accurate simulations. Especially electrostatic interactions are still a big problem in force field design. This problem can't simply be overcome by brute force and computational power.

  14. Re:I am stubborn! on Hardcore Gamers - Living In The Past? · · Score: 1
    I used to be a fan of first person shooters, but really, how many times can you remake Doom & Wolfenstein. There are five thousand FPSs out there, and they just aren't fun anymore. I was on a Counter-Strike kick for a bit, I did like that game, but it just seemed to get old after a while (although I'm sure I wouldn't mind playing it again).

    Well, I for one don't think the genre is dead. The novelty value of the game mechanics is gone - but that doesn't invalidate the genre. I agree with you that most of the novel shooters are crap, but there are exceptions. The genre has to adapt - first person perspective is a great way to create immersive environments, this chance has to be taken. FPS need to get more cinematic, more story-driven. Take Mafia for example - nice shooter, great storyline - this game saved the genre for me. I hope more producers see this point and invest more into telling a story.

  15. Re:How far south? on Yet Another Big Solar Flare · · Score: 1

    Anecdotally, as far as Cologne in Germany. Did'nt see any myself, as I live in Bayreuth, about 55 north and constantly cloudy.

  16. Re:Anyone experience ANY damage? on Yet Another Big Solar Flare · · Score: 1

    Well, trying not to sound paranoid... but exactly three of our monitors (out of twentyseven) failed yesterday - fatally... Draw your own conclusions on this bit of anecdotally evidence...

  17. Re:Seriously... on U.S. Continues Biological Warfare Research · · Score: 1
    These studies show that IL-4 plays a huge role in moderating the immune cascade. Diseases from rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sepsis... and even probably cancer and heart disease have problems with different mechanisms in this immune cascade.

    But... If I want to check on the effect of IL-4 on immune response, I change IL-4 expression in the mouse and infect it with standard mousepox. No need to create a new virus to this end. - And, yes, I am a biochemist. So this research is weapons research, regardless what they tell you.