Cloning a Fluorescent Gene - Chapter 1: Pipettes and Pipetting. The double slit experiment and the collapse of the wavefunction. By Cemal Yalabik, Bilkent University, Physics Department. May 2002 This applet demonstrates how the wavefunction of a particle - say an electron - develops in time as it passes through the two slits in an interference experiment. Actually, what is shown is the square magnitude of the wavefunction, the wavefunction itself is a complex valued function. The square magnitude is always positive, and is proportional to the probability of finding the particle at a particular point. Remember that the electron itself is a very small particle, less in size than the size of a point (a pixel) in the figure.
The randomness in the detection process is inherent in nature, and cannot be avoided. In the applet, the detectors are placed at the extreme left and right sides of the simulation region, so that the detection can take place only after an appreciable part of the wavefunction reaches these regions. Closing one of the slits removes the interference effects. Some other Java applets I have developed: 2011 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate: The Theory of Everything. Antikythera Mechanism Part 1: by Nature Video. Leonardo Da Vinci Automovile (1495) Leonardo Da Vinci Atom Model. Entire Genome of One Species Discovered Inside Another's | Wired Science. (In the image, fruit fly ovaries show wolbachia infection within.) While analyzing genetic material taken from fruitflies, scientists at the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute noticed that quite a few Wolbachia genes were mixed in. Wolbachia is a prolific parasite, having carved out a niche for itself in some 70 percent of all invertebrate animals.
But it’s doing more than living in their cells: it’s changing their very DNA in a way that could affect how scientists study genetics and evolution across the animal kingdom. At first, the scientists thought they were doing something wrong. But after treating the flies with a parasite-killing antibiotic, the genes were still there. They realized that the flies had actually absorbed the Wolbachia genome into their own — the most dramatic example yet of lateral gene transfer, in which genes pass between unrelated species.
Traditionally, biologists thought such transfer was limited to the simplest organisms. Life. Antiscience Beliefs Jeopardize U.S. Democracy. It is hard to know exactly when it became acceptable for U.S. politicians to be antiscience. For some two centuries science was a preeminent force in American politics, and scientific innovation has been the leading driver of U.S. economic growth since World War II. Kids in the 1960s gathered in school cafeterias to watch moon launches and landings on televisions wheeled in on carts. Breakthroughs in the 1970s and 1980s sparked the computer revolution and a new information economy. Advances in biology, based on evolutionary theory, created the biotech industry. The Founding Fathers were science enthusiasts.
Yet despite its history and today's unprecedented riches from science, the U.S. has begun to slip off of its science foundation. In late 2007 growing concern over this trend led six of us to try to do something about it. US Supreme Court says human DNA cannot be patented. 13 June 2013Last updated at 12:34 ET Around 40% of the human genome is subject to patents, researchers say Human genes may not be patented, but artificially copied DNA can be claimed as intellectual property, the US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously.
The court quashed patents held by a Utah-based firm on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The opinion said DNA came from nature and was not eligible for patenting. The US biotechnology industry had warned any blanket ban on such patents would jeopardise huge investment in gene research and therapies. "We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in Thursday's opinion. But his ruling said that synthetic molecules known as complementary DNA can be patented "because it is not naturally occurring". 'Different chemical structure' Continue reading the main story Analysis Jason Palmer Science reporter, BBC News.
The Universes of Max Tegmark. Nick Bostrom - The Simulation Argument (Full) TVO S James Gates on Does Reality have a Genetic Basis. Richard Feynman on Quantum Mechanics - Part 1 - Photons: Corpuscles of Light. Richard Feynman on Quantum Mechanics - Part 2 - Reflection and Quantum Behaviour. Richard Feynman on Quantum Mechanics - Part 3 - Electrons and their Interactions. Quantum Physics Revealed As Non-Mysterious. This is one of several shortened indices into the Quantum Physics Sequence. Hello! You may have been directed to this page because you said something along the lines of "Quantum physics shows that reality doesn't exist apart from our observation of it," or "Science has disproved the idea of an objective reality," or even just "Quantum physics is one of the great mysteries of modern science; no one understands how it works.
" There was a time, roughly the first half-century after quantum physics was invented, when this was more or less true. Certainly, when quantum physics was just being discovered, scientists were very confused indeed! But time passed, and science moved on. If you're confused about a phenomenon, that's a fact about your own state of mind, not a fact about the phenomenon itself - there are mysterious questions, but not mysterious answers. The series of posts indexed below will show you - not just tell you - what's really going on down there.
And here's the main sequence: Alan Sokal Articles on the "Social Text" Affair. Investors Seek Ways to Profit From Global Warming. Investing in climate change used to mean putting money into efforts to stop global warming. Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), and other firms took stakes in wind farms and tidal-energy projects, and set up carbon-trading desks.
The appeal of cleantech has dimmed as efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions have faltered: Venture capital and private equity investments fell 34 percent last year, to $5.8 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Photograph by Getty Images Now some investors are taking another approach. Working under the assumption that climate change is inevitable, they’re investing in businesses that will profit as the planet gets hotter. (The World Bank says the earth could warm by 4C by the end of the century.) Their strategies include buying water treatment companies, brokering deals for Australian farmland, and backing a startup that has engineered a mosquito to fight dengue, a disease that’s spreading as the mercury climbs. Dr. Ingraffea Facts on Fracking. GSA press release - Hydro-Fracking: Fact vs. Fiction. GSA Annual Meeting & Exposition, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, 4–7 November 2012 Boulder, CO, USA –In communities across the U.S., people are hearing more and more about a controversial oil and gas extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing – aka, hydro-fracking.
Controversies pivot on some basic questions: Can hydro-fracking contaminate domestic wells? Does it cause earthquakes? How can we know? What can be done about these things if they are true? A wide range of researchers will address these and related critical questions at the GSA Annual Meeting this week.
"When people talk about contamination from hydraulic fracturing, for instance, they can mean a lot of different things," says hydrogeologist Harvey Cohen of S.S. But all of these concerns can be addressed, says Cohen, who will be presenting his talk on groundwater contamination and fracking on the morning of Wednesday, 7 Nov. “That would be the 100 percent confident solution,” says Cohen of the tracers. www.geosociety.org.
Florida Sinkholes are Swallowing Cars: America's Water Crisis (Part 2/3) Massive Louisiana sinkhole caused by oil industry just keeps on growing. A sinkhole triggered in Louisiana by the fossil fuel industry grew to 12 acres over the weekend, and it appears that hundreds of displaced nearby residents will never be able to return to their homes. The sinkhole has been growing since it appeared in August. It was caused by a salt mining operation that sucked brine out from beneath the Assumption Parish marsh and piped it to nearby petrochemical facilities. Houston-based Texas Brine had apparently excavated too close to the surface, and officials are worried that a similar fate could befall another Texas Brine salt mining site nearby.
Salt is used by the oil industry to stabilize the earth around drilled wells. Emptied salt domes are also used to store oil, gas, and other petrochemicals. Natural gas is belching out of the sinkhole and the waters that have filled it are covered with a rainbow slick of oil. From the Daily Comet: After months of silence on the issue, Louisiana Gov. Ackal is urging Governor Bobby Jindal to intervene.
Sentient Organizations: A Cryptozoological Approach. First of all, let go of the possibility that I might at all be speaking metaphorically or figuratively. I think it is possible — probable, even — that some organizations, be they businesses or churches or street gangs or what have you, are literally alive. Alive to the point that studies should be made to classify them taxonomically as a new branch on the tree of life. Alive to the point that many of them are aware and self-aware.
And I’m going to say the word “literally” again just so you get the point. I first broached this topic in a serious fashion when I was researching and writing my portion of the presentation for Stan Woodard’s Atlanta Zombie Symposium in September of 2009. I understand that for some of you this isn’t going to be anything like a gosh-wow concept. And that’s a good thing. While I am definitely speaking literally, I will resort to metaphors to paint the picture.
And yes, I am working on the assumption that evolutionary mechanisms are a fact. Ask any demon. Mosh Pit Math: Physicists Analyze Rowdy Crowd. Hide captionFans in the mosh pit during the performance of Liturgy at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, Chicago, on July 14, 2012. Roger Kisby/Getty Images Fans in the mosh pit during the performance of Liturgy at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, Chicago, on July 14, 2012. Physics and heavy metal don't seem to have a lot in common, but Matt Bierbaum and Jesse Silverberg have found a connection. Both are graduate students at Cornell University. They're also metal heads who enjoy going to concerts and hurling themselves into mosh pits full of like-minded fans. About five years ago Silverberg took his girlfriend to her first gig. "Usually I would jump in the mosh pit," he says. While he was watching, he realized that the motion of people in a mosh pit looks kind of like molecules moving in a gas.
"It was basically just this random mess of collisions, which is essentially how you want to think about the gas in the air that we breathe," he says. YouTube. Blue-eyed Humans Have A Single, Common Ancestor. New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.
What is the genetic mutation "Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Professor Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. "But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a "switch," which literally "turned off" the ability to produce brown eyes.
" The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The "switch," which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris -- effectively "diluting" brown eyes to blue. Resurrecting the Extinct Frog with a Stomach for a Womb. Two years ago, Mike Archer from the University of New South Wales looked down a microscope and saw that a single fertilised frog egg had divided in two. Then, it did it again. And again. Eventually, the egg produced an embryo containing hundreds of cells. “There were a lot of hi-fives going around the laboratory,” says Archer.
This might seem like an over-reaction. The fact that it started to grow into an embryo was a big deal. Archer’s goal is simple: To bring the extinct gastric brooding frog back from oblivion and, in doing so, provide hope for the hundreds of other frogs that are heading that way. Frozen southern gastric brooding frog. Stomach for a womb The southern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus) was discovered in 1972 in the mountains of Queensland, Australia. Simply put, the mother frog converts her stomachs into a womb. When news broke about this weird strategy, other scientists were incredulous. They didn’t have long. Then, good news! Cloning Lazarus Is it worth it? Strange phallus-shaped creature provides crucial missing link. Jeudi, 14 Mars 2013 08:49 News Two individuals of Harrimania planktophilus, a modern enteropneust (harrimaniid) worm.
Proboscis to the left. Total length of a relaxed and uncoiled animal is approximately 32 mm. Photo: C.B. Christopher Cameron of the University of Montreal's Department of Biological Sciences and his colleagues have unearthed a major scientific discovery - a strange phallus-shaped creature they found in Canada's Burgess Shale fossil beds, located in Yoho National Park. Their study, to be published online in the journal Nature on March 13, 2013, confirms Spartobranchus tenuis is a member of the acorn worms group which are seldom-seen animals that thrive today in the fine sands and mud of shallow and deeper waters.
Since their discovery in the 19th-century, some of the biggest questions in hemichordate evolution have focused on the group's origins and the relationship between its two main branches: the enteropneusts and the pterobranchs, including graptolites. {1/80} Beyond Belief 2006 (Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Neil Tyson) Ministry of Curious Stuff - Immortal Jellyfish. Adam Lanza Taking Antipsychotics. By now the whole country is fully embroiled in the Gun Control debate, spurred by the grisly murder of 27 people, mostly kids, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school last Friday. Guns might not be the only problem though. New York Magazine wrote a piece about shooter Adam Lanza's supposed "aspergers" syndrome as a "red herring" meant to distract from the real problem (guns, of course, the subject goes without mentioning). Inside the piece though they report Adam Lanza's uncle said the boy was prescribed Fanapt, a controversial anti-psychotic medicine.
UPDATE: Since the publishing of this article, New York Daily News has removed the reference, the originator of the quote from Lanza's "uncle," because they believed him to be an "imposter. " Fanapt was the subject of a Bloomberg report when it passed regulators, after previously getting the "nonapproval" stamp.
There are many reasons, some of which have to do with competing entities in a competitive market. Psychiatric. Quackwatch. Understanding the Fourier transform » #AltDevBlogADay. Yes, I realize that after reading the title of this post, 99% of potential readers just kept scrolling. So to the few of you who clicked on it, welcome! Don’t worry, this won’t take long. A very long time ago, I was curious how to detect the strength of the bass and treble in music, in order to synchronize some graphical effects. I had no idea how to do such a thing, so I tried to figure it out, but I didn’t get very far. What I found was the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), which looks like this: This formula, as anyone can see, makes no sense at all.
Eventually, I was able to visualize how it works, which was a bit of a lightbulb for me. Disclaimer: my math skills are pitch-patch at best, and this is just intended to be an informal article, so please don’t expect a rigorous treatment. A quick bit of background – what does the Fourier transform do? The picture on the left shows 3 cycles of a sine wave, and the picture on the right shows the Fourier transform of those samples. Bayes' Theorem. A Calculus Primer Part V- Techniques For Integration - Software Development Tutorials.
Calculus Video Tutorials | integralCALC.com. First documented case of child cured of HIV. Weather model gfs europe lifted index 18 gmt + 0 convection weatheronline. The Vulcan Project | Plots. Winter Temperatures and the Arctic Oscillation. Pole of inaccessibility. Understanding scientific studies. Illiesia. Cell Size and Scale. Amino Acid Abbreviations. The Periodic Table of Videos - University of Nottingham. WebElements Periodic Table of the Elements.
BEN FRANKLIN SHOULD HAVE SAID ELECTRONS ARE POSITIVE. First-ever high-resolution images of a molecule as it breaks and reforms chemical bonds. Visualizing Bayes’ theorem | oscarbonilla.com. How to Hang Yourself with Statistics. BAYES' THEOREM IN THE COURT OF APPEAL. Hyenas Cooperate, Problem-solve Better Than Primates. Sled Dog Blog. Are you smarter than a Hyena? « Laelaps. Kay E. Holekamp Laboratory - Welcome!
MSU Hyena Research: Are you going to eat that? Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) Webpage of Andy Flies. In run-up to Easter, fasting Ethiopians force hyenas to kill donkeys | Not Exactly Rocket Science. NASA MSFC on USTREAM: . Science. White Coat Underground.