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stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 15 2008,19:37    Viruses Collectively Decide Bacterial Cell's Fate ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2008) — A new study suggests that bacteria-infecting viruses – called phages – can make collective decisions about whether to kill host cells immediately after infection or enter a latent state to remain within the host cell. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915121231.htm

blipey Posts: 2061 Joined: June 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 15 2008,20:32    Quote (stevestory @ Sep. 15 2008,19:37) Viruses Collectively Decide Bacterial Cell's Fate ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2008) — A new study suggests that bacteria-infecting viruses – called phages – can make collective decisions about whether to kill host cells immediately after infection or enter a latent state to remain within the host cell. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915121231.htm Wow!  That just screams intelligence.  One more for ID! ID! ID! ID! -------------- But I get the trick question- there isn't any such thing as one molecule of water. -JoeG And scientists rarely test theories. -Gary Gaulin

blipey Posts: 2061 Joined: June 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 15 2008,20:37    That's actually really cool, in a creepy sort of way.  The idea would seem to generate whole new avenues of research with medicinal uses and treatment in mind.  Or at least that would be the case if all of modern science wasn't a lying ball of big liar guys. -------------- But I get the trick question- there isn't any such thing as one molecule of water. -JoeG And scientists rarely test theories. -Gary Gaulin

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 16 2008,03:06    THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/taleb08/taleb08_index.html

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 16 2008,21:48    http://www.nytimes.com/2008....ted=all Quote But David B. Goldstein of Duke University, a leading young population geneticist known partly for his research into the genetic roots of Jewish ancestry, says the effort to nail down the genetics of most common diseases is not working. “There is absolutely no question,” he said, “that for the whole hope of personalized medicine, the news has been just about as bleak as it could be.”

Timothy McDougald Posts: 1036 Joined: Dec. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 16 2008,22:19    Two open access articles from PNAS. First: Molecular signatures of ribosomal evolution Here is the abstract: Quote Ribosomal signatures, idiosyncrasies in the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and/or proteins, are characteristic of the individual domains of life. As such, insight into the early evolution of the domains can be gained from a comparative analysis of their respective signatures in the translational apparatus. In this work, we identify signatures in both the sequence and structure of the rRNA and analyze their contributions to the universal phylogenetic tree using both sequence- and structure-based methods. Domain-specific ribosomal proteins can be considered signatures in their own right. Although it is commonly assumed that they developed after the universal ribosomal proteins, we present evidence that at least one may have been present before the divergence of the organismal lineages. We find correlations between the rRNA signatures and signatures in the ribosomal proteins showing that the rRNA signatures coevolved with both domain-specific and universal ribosomal proteins. Finally, we show that the genomic organization of the universal ribosomal components contains these signatures as well. From these studies, we propose the ribosomal signatures are remnants of an evolutionary-phase transition that occurred as the cell lineages began to coalesce and so should be reflected in corresponding signatures throughout the fabric of the cell and its genome. Second: Stage-specific predator species help each other to persist while competing for a single prey The abstract: Quote Prey in natural communities are usually shared by many predator species. How predators coexist while competing for the same prey is one of the fundamental questions in ecology. Here, we show that competing predator species may not only coexist on a single prey but even help each other to persist if they specialize on different life history stages of the prey. By changing the prey size distribution, a predator species may in fact increase the amount of prey available for its competitor. Surprisingly, a predator may not be able to persist at all unless its competitor is also present. The competitor thus significantly increases the range of conditions for which a particular predator can persist. This “emergent facilitation” is a long-term, population-level effect that results from asymmetric increases in the rate of prey maturation and reproduction when predation relaxes competition among prey. Emergent facilitation explains observations of correlated increases of predators on small and large conspecific prey as well as concordance in their distribution patterns. Our results suggest that emergent facilitation may promote the occurrence of complex, stable, community food webs and that persistence of these communities could critically depend on diversity within predator guilds. -------------- Church burning ebola boy FTK: I Didn't answer your questions because it beats the hell out of me. PaV: I suppose for me to be pried away from what I do to focus long and hard on that particular problem would take, quite honestly, hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin to pique my interest.

Peter Henderson Posts: 298 Joined: Aug. 2007 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 18 2008,19:03    This is what makes science so fascinating: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7543776.stm Quote A new class of cosmic object has been found by a Dutch schoolteacher, through a project which allows the public to take part in astronomy research online. Hanny Van Arkel, 25, came across the strange gaseous blob while using the Galaxy Zoo website to help classify galaxies in telescope images. http://www.physorg.com/news137157808.html Quote Scientists working at telescopes around the world and with satellites in space were asked to take a look at the mysterious Voorwerp. "What we saw was really a mystery," said Schawinski. "The Voorwerp didn't contain any stars." Rather, it was made entirely of gas so hot — about 10,000 Celsius — that the astronomers felt it had to be illuminated by something powerful. They will soon use the Hubble Space Telescope to get a closer look. Since there was no obvious source at hand in the Voorwerp itself, the team looked to find the source of illumination around the Voorwerp, and soon turned to the nearby galaxy IC 2497. "We think that in the recent past the galaxy IC 2497 hosted an enormously bright quasar," Schawinski explains. "Because of the vast scale of the galaxy and the Voorwerp, light from that past still lights up the nearby Voorwerp even though the quasar shut down sometime in the past 100,000 years, and the galaxy's black hole itself has gone quiet." "From the point of view of the Voorwerp, the galaxy looks as bright as it would have before the black hole turned off – it's this light echo that has been frozen in time for us to observe," said Chris Lintott, a co-organizer of Galaxy Zoo at Oxford University, UK. "It's rather like examining the scene of a crime where, although we can't see them, we know the culprit must be lurking somewhere nearby in the shadows." Similar light echoes have been seen around supernovae that exploded decades or centuries ago. Makes a nonsense of the "where you there" argument. I'm always surprised why more scientists don't use astronomy/cosmology as proof of an ancient universe when confronting YECs.

Lou FCD Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,18:13    At Science: Quote Back when our own solar system was still forming, collisions between young planets were commonplace. In fact, astronomers think our moon is the product of an encounter between Earth and a Mars-sized body. But other than occasional and relatively small-scale smash-ups, such as Comet Shoemaker-Levy's 21 pieces pelting Jupiter in 1994, no nearby worlds have been destroyed for billions of years. Not so in a binary star system called BD+20 307, located about 300 light-years away in the constellation Aries. In 2004, a team of astronomers discovered a huge cloud of dust encircling what they thought was a young star. Now measurements using NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and Tennessee State University's automated ground-based instrument have revealed two old stars, each about the same age as the sun, locked in close orbit. That means the dust must have come from a collision between two planetary bodies, a collision that must have happened within the past 100,000 years or so--or even more recently, says astronomer Benjamin Zuckerman of the University of California, Los Angeles, a member of the 2004 team who led the new study. More at the link, paper in December's The Astrophysical Journal. -------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas? Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

Lou FCD Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,18:41    From PNAS: Quote Abstract Two coastal sites in Gibraltar, Vanguard and Gorham's Caves, located at Governor's Beach on the eastern side of the Rock, are especially relevant to the study of Neanderthals. Vanguard Cave provides evidence of marine food supply (mollusks, seal, dolphin, and fish). Further evidence of marine mammal remains was also found in the occupation levels at Gorham's Cave associated with Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian technologies [Finlayson C, et al. (2006) Nature 443:850–853]. The stratigraphic sequence of Gibraltar sites allows us to compare behaviors and subsistence strategies of Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic observed at Vanguard and Gorham's Cave sites. This evidence suggests that such use of marine resources was not a rare behavior and represents focused visits to the coast and estuaries. -------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas? Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

Timothy McDougald Posts: 1036 Joined: Dec. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,18:46    Quote (Lou FCD @ Sep. 25 2008,18:41) From PNAS: Quote Abstract Two coastal sites in Gibraltar, Vanguard and Gorham's Caves, located at Governor's Beach on the eastern side of the Rock, are especially relevant to the study of Neanderthals. Vanguard Cave provides evidence of marine food supply (mollusks, seal, dolphin, and fish). Further evidence of marine mammal remains was also found in the occupation levels at Gorham's Cave associated with Upper Paleolithic and Mousterian technologies [Finlayson C, et al. (2006) Nature 443:850–853]. The stratigraphic sequence of Gibraltar sites allows us to compare behaviors and subsistence strategies of Neanderthals during the Middle Paleolithic observed at Vanguard and Gorham's Cave sites. This evidence suggests that such use of marine resources was not a rare behavior and represents focused visits to the coast and estuaries. I have this paper if anybody wants a copy. Email me at afarensis1@sbcglobal.net -------------- Church burning ebola boy FTK: I Didn't answer your questions because it beats the hell out of me. PaV: I suppose for me to be pried away from what I do to focus long and hard on that particular problem would take, quite honestly, hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin to pique my interest.

Lou FCD Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,18:50    I just popped back in as I'm wading through my feed reader and was about to plug some guy's blog who wrote about this. -------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas? Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

Timothy McDougald Posts: 1036 Joined: Dec. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,19:07    Quote (Lou FCD @ Sep. 25 2008,18:50) I just popped back in as I'm wading through my feed reader and was about to plug some guy's blog who wrote about this. Aww, I like this one better because I mention the benefits of maritime exploitation a few days ahead of the publication of the Gibraltar paper. Serendipity can be a wonderful thing... -------------- Church burning ebola boy FTK: I Didn't answer your questions because it beats the hell out of me. PaV: I suppose for me to be pried away from what I do to focus long and hard on that particular problem would take, quite honestly, hundreds of thousands of dollars to begin to pique my interest.

Henry J Posts: 5787 Joined: Mar. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,22:11    Going up, up, up? Want a lift? Quote Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier. Japan hopes to turn sci-fi into reality with elevator to the stars RidingHigh_402601a.jpg Henry

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 25 2008,23:32    Rocks may be oldest on earth

Louis Posts: 6436 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 26 2008,08:41    I just thought I'd mention BOINC just on the tiny chance that you chaps and chappesses were not already well aware of it. Sign up and do science in your spare (computer) time by doing nothing! Yay! Louis This message was brought to you by Slackers For Science, the letter Q and the number 11. Slackers for Science is a not for profit organisation that will be going down the pub later seeing as it's POETS day. The views contained within might reflect those of someone somewhere, but not necessarily anyone you care about -------------- Bye.

Henry J Posts: 5787 Joined: Mar. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 26 2008,20:34    "BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink". Henry

Lou FCD Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 28 2008,10:52    Since we're learning about cell structure, and specifically the structure of the plasma membrane, in Biology class right now, this caught my eye, from PLoS ONE: Anti-Plasmodium Activity of Angiotensin II and Related Synthetic Peptides Quote Abstract Plasmodium species are the causative agents of malaria, the most devastating insect-borne parasite of human populations. Finding and developing new drugs for malaria treatment and prevention is the goal of much research. Angiotensins I and II (ang I and ang II) and six synthetic related peptides designated Vaniceres 1-6 (VC1-VC6) were assayed in vivo and in vitro for their effects on the development of the avian parasite, Plasmodium gallinaceum. Ang II and VC5 injected into the thoraces of the insects reduced mean intensities of infection in the mosquito salivary glands by 88% and 76%, respectively. Although the mechanism(s) of action is not completely understood, we have demonstrated that these peptides disrupt selectively the P.gallinaceum cell membrane. Additionally, incubation in vitro of sporozoites with VC5 reduced the infectivity of the parasites to their vertebrate host. VC5 has no observable agonist effects on vertebrates, and this makes it a promising drug for malaria prevention and chemotherapy. (My emphasis) Pretty cool, especially given the timing. -------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas? Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 29 2008,20:36    fat baby girls and breast cancer

Richard Simons Posts: 425 Joined: Oct. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Sep. 29 2008,21:07    Quote (stevestory @ Sep. 29 2008,20:36) fat baby girls and breast cancer The title is misleading as it is size at birth, including weight and length, that they were investigating, not the fat on chubby 6-month-olds. -------------- All sweeping statements are wrong.

midwifetoad Posts: 4003 Joined: Mar. 2008 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,12:24    Quote Small Asteroid Predicted to Cause Brilliant Fireball over Northern Sudan Don Yeomans NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office October 6, 2008 A very small, few-meter sized asteroid, designated 2008 TC3, was found Monday morning by the Catalina Sky Survey from their observatory near Tucson Arizona. Preliminary orbital computations by the Minor Planet Center suggested an atmospheric entry of this object within a day of discovery. JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The fireball, which could be brilliant, will travel west to east (from azimuth = 281 degrees) at a relative atmospheric impact velocity of 12.8 km/s and arrive at a very low angle (19 degrees) to the local horizon. It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere. Objects of this size would be expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere every few months on average but this is the first time such an event has been predicted ahead of time. Update - 6:45 PM PDT (1 hour prior to atmospheric entry) Since its discovery barely a day ago, 2008 TC3 has been observed extensively by astronomers around the world, and as a result, our orbit predictions have become very precise. We estimate that this object will enter the Earth's atmosphere at around 2:45:28 UTC and reach maximum deceleration at around 2:45:54 UTC. These times are uncertain by +/- 15 seconds or so. The time at which any fragments might reach the ground depends a great deal on the physical properties of the object, but should be around 2:46:20 UTC +/- 40 seconds. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news159.html -------------- Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.

Louis Posts: 6436 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,12:51    Quote (Henry J @ Sep. 27 2008,02:34) "BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink". Henry But surely you must know from "Calvin and Hobbes" that scientific progress goes "boink"? Or in this case "boinc". Do your part people! (The docking and protein folding studies are of particular interest, as is the quantum chemistry one. Fascinating stuff). Louis -------------- Bye.

Henry J Posts: 5787 Joined: Mar. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,15:03    Quote JPL confirmed that an atmospheric impact will very likely occur during early morning twilight over northern Sudan, north-eastern Africa, at 2:46 UT Tuesday morning. The sky is falling!11!! The sky is fallling!one!! Quote It is very unlikely that any sizable fragments will survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere. Oh. Never mind.

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,15:45    http://scienceblogs.com/neuroph....ied.php prion infection method identified.

khan Posts: 1554 Joined: May 2007 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,17:41    Quote (Louis @ Oct. 07 2008,13:51) Quote (Henry J @ Sep. 27 2008,02:34) "BOINC"? Not the best choice of name, given it's similarity to "boink". Henry But surely you must know from "Calvin and Hobbes" that scientific progress goes "boink"? Or in this case "boinc". Do your part people! (The docking and protein folding studies are of particular interest, as is the quantum chemistry one. Fascinating stuff). Louis I've got the climate modeling one running on my desktop. -------------- "It's as if all those words, in their hurry to escape from the loony, have fallen over each other, forming scrambled heaps of meaninglessness." -damitall That's so fucking stupid it merits a wing in the museum of stupid. -midwifetoad Frequency is just the plural of wavelength... -JoeG

Reed Posts: 274 Joined: Feb. 2008 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 07 2008,18:04    I posted this in the UD thread, but it here might be a better place for it. http://www.astroengine.com/?p=1382 Evidence for Correlations Between Nuclear Decay Rates and Earth-Sun Distance Searching for modifications to the exponential radioactive decay law with the Cassini spacecraft Weird stuff.

Lou FCD Posts: 5455 Joined: Jan. 2006 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 08 2008,10:35    Yes, *ahem*. Quote People like you find it so easy, by Roo Reynolds -------------- “Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas? Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 08 2008,15:42    How the Turtle got its Shell Irreducible Complexity Failure #10,193,883,469,093.

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 11 2008,00:25    Chains of arthropods from half a billion years ago.

Henry J Posts: 5787 Joined: Mar. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 13 2008,13:30    Quote Chains of arthropods from half a billion years ago. But did they find any missing links?

stevestory Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005 (Permalink) Posted: Oct. 13 2008,22:09    How ships like The Beagle dealt with lightening

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