Biology
The Quantum Pontiff
Category archives for Biology
Entangled in the Membrane, Entangled in the Brain?
Posted by Dave Bacon on January 13, 2010 Bad New Scientist has an article up today entitled Brain ‘entanglement’ could explain memories, which certainly must have sent Roger Penrose’s brain into a state of multiple correlated back-flips (twistor flips?) However, from the article: Subatomic particles do it. Now the observation that groups of brain cells seem to have their own version of quantum…
TTAGGG Nobel Prize
Posted by Dave Bacon on October 5, 2009 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2009 has been announced and has been awarded to Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak for “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.” I’m sure the medicalbioblogs here on Scienceblogs will have some fine coverage of this. But one thing…
Dewy Eyed Pastoralism
Posted by Dave Bacon on November 24, 2008 Today is the 149th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. I’m probably just suffering from a bout of dewy eyed pastoralism, but when was the last time a book which was readable by the general public was also a major work of science? (Not Here That’s For Sure)
Watching BioBarCamp From Afar
Posted by Dave Bacon on August 7, 2008 Over at Science in the open, the the ScienceOpener (Cameron Neylon) is attending BioBarCamp. Now, IANAB (that stands for “I am not a stamp collector” ) but there are a ton of cool talks at BioBarCamp: many on open science / social media / science 2.0 etc (for which biologists are kicking everyone’s rear at.)…
Shark Versus Octopus
Posted by Dave Bacon on June 20, 2008 Place your bets…
Amateur Bioengineering?
Posted by Dave Bacon on May 28, 2008 Bill Gates thinks that robots are at the equivalent stage that computers were when he and Paul Allen and a ton of hobbyists helped fuel the PC revolution. But is he right? Here is a radical proposal: might not bioengineering be the next field where amateurs have a huge impact? Such is the hypothesis of…
E. Coli In Finance
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 29, 2008 Via Alea, a new entry into the best title ever competition: “Option Model Calibration Using a Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm” by J. Dang, A. Brabazon, M. O’Neill, and D. Edelman. That right, using an algorithm inspired by trying to mimic E. coli foraging, one hopes to calibrate a volatility option pricing model. No word yet,…
Inspiring Talks: Drew Endy
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 24, 2008 Good talks are rare gems. Good talks about interesting topics even rarer. Good talks that make you want to change fields and design E. Coli which smell like bananas are the best. I saw a good one earlier this week, and its now online: Learning to Program DNA by Drew Endy. If you get a…
The Shrimp! They See Me Polarizations!
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 24, 2008 A new entry in the best title ever competition: arXiv:0804.2162, “The secret world of shrimps: polarisation vision at its best”, by Sonja Kleinlogel and Andrew G. White. Secret lives of shrimp? That sounds more like an expose on the secret drug habits of the Roloffs on the T.V. show Little People Big World, than the…
From Skin to Blastocysts
Posted by Dave Bacon on January 18, 2008 California company claims steps in human cloning. Witch burning outside of their laboratory to follow this evening.