|
The most incomprehensible thing about
the universe is that it is comprehensible.
- Albert Einstein
May 15, 2014
The Many Deaths of Vitalism
Still looking for the mysterious spark of life
by Scott C. Anderson
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
Recently, in a little-remarked but completely remarkable paper, researchers at Stanford published the secret to life. Well, the paper was just an overview: the actual secret resides in an open-source program they wrote called E-CELL...
Click
here for the rest of the article.
July 26, 2012
God in the Details: the Whole Cell Simulator
By Scott Charles Anderson
 Researchers simulate a living cell down to the last molecule
In the July 20 issue of Cell, Markus Covert and researchers from Stanford and the J. Craig Venter Institute describe a computer program that simulates every aspect of a living cell, down to the last molecule. Their signal achievement is to stitch together all the models of cellular activity, including protein generation, metabolism and cell division, into a single executable. This has been a holy grail of computational biology, and it is now in our hands. Literally. You can download the program...
Click
here for the rest of the article.
July 25, 2010
The Importance of Goo
By Scott Charles Anderson
 First DNA, then Cytoplasm, then Freak Out
In May, 2010, Craig Venter and his team at JCVI proudly announced that they had created the world's first entirely synthetic genome. Along with Ham Smith, Clyde Hutchison, Dan Gibson and a couple dozen other top-notch researchers, Venter assembled a strand of DNA piece by piece, complete with vanity license plates, and then inserted it into another bacteria to give it the spark of life. This new addition to the thick schmutz of life already blanketing the planet emerged from a computerized gene machine.
Is it time to freak out?
Click
here for the rest of the article.
September 12, 2009
Here Comes Science, by They Might be Giants
By Scott Charles Anderson
 A Review of a Rocking Science CD/DVD.
When I was a kid – in the last century – we were occasionally entertained by science. We had Mr. Wizard, the late Don Herbert, who would suck eggs into a bottle and show us how siphons and diesel engines worked....
Click
here for the rest of the article.
August 9, 2009
Why does E=mc2 ?
By Scott Charles Anderson
 A review of a fresh book on Einstein's famous equation.
Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw have summoned up the audacity to write a book on relativity for lay people. Although this has been attempted before, it has rarely been done so well. Stranger still is the inclusion of a few actual equations. In the title, no less! These are brave lads, indeed....
Click
here for the rest of the article.
January 25, 2008
Nano Computers, Part 1
By Scott Charles Anderson
 You
think your iPod is small? How about a computer the size of
a molecule?
A computer the size of a molecule? Okay, a fairly simple-minded
computer and a pretty gnarly molecule, but it’s still a nice
trick. Some of these nano-computers are being designed to be injected
into your bloodstream. Based on what it finds there, it will make
a medical diagnosis and then deliver the appropriate remedy in the
form of a drug or a protein – a doctor and a pharmacy all
wrapped up in a single molecule. No more waiting rooms, freezing
exam tables, rude poking or long lines at the drugstore. Make way
for a new world of really smart drugs...
Click
here for the rest of the article.
November 13, 2008
Nano Computers, Part 2
By Scott Charles Anderson
What do tiles have to do with molecules?
So what about the molecular computers I promised in Part 1 of this article?
For that we take a break from tiles, math, computers and crystals to talk a little about DNA. Don’t leave yet! You’ve made it this far, and we’re only going to use DNA as a building block, not for any tricky genetic stuff. In the same year that Dan Shechtman found his ten-fold crystal, Nadrian Seeman was playing with bits of DNA as if they were tinker toys...
Click here for the rest of the article.
June 13, 2004
The Attack of the Killer Nanobacteria
By Scott Charles Anderson
 Tiny
creatures so small that they've been overlooked by scientists may
be slinking around your body right now - and they're probably up
to no good.
In the 1970s, while doing field work in his beloved
Italy, a geologist named Dr. Robert Folk discovered that bacteria
seemed to be precipitating - excreting, really - an unusual type
of limestone. Known as travertine, it's been used for thousands
of years in statuary and buildings all around the world, from the
Coliseum in Rome to the Lincoln Center in New York. Why study travertine?
As Dr. Folk puts it, "I was simply looking for a good excuse
to continue doing field work in Italy because I loved the food and
lifestyle, and hit upon the idea of working on the travertines of
Rome."
Click
here for the rest of the article.
May 20, 2004
Who Needs Sex?
By Scott C. Anderson
 Is
there another way to mix genes besides sex?
An intriguing idea percolating through the scientific
community has the power to upend a lot of biology, genetics and
evolution. For that reason, scientists are treating it delicately.
They are poking at the theory (because they must), but from a respectable
distance. The idea, called "horizontal gene transfer,"
makes a terrific sci-fi premise - but it may also be true....
Click
here for the rest of the article.
May 5, 2004
The Mathematics of the Internet
By
Scott C. Anderson
The Internet can
be viewed as a graph, and that means you can do math with it.
The Internet is connected by links that point to other
web pages that have links, etc. If you look at the links as "edges"
and the pages as "nodes," you can view the Internet as
a giant graph. A graph can be manipulated by the rules of mathematics
and that means you can do some very clever things. This article
describes one of those clever things...
Click here for the
rest of the article.
April 16, 2004
A Baby's Hair
by Scott C. Anderson
 The
first animal cloning was performed with a baby's hair and tweezers.
Hans Spemann was in a foul mood as he rearranged his
blankets. The beginning of the twentieth century should be vastly
more exciting than this, he thought. Being swaddled in a lounge
chair on the sanatorium porch was not his idea of a glorious way
to ring in the new century. Getting tuberculosis was damned inconvenient,
and the recovery was almost as bad as the disease. He hoped the
book he had just bought would keep him from going comatose....
Click here for the rest of the
article.
March 22, 2004
Observing the Deep Sky
by Chuck Fuller
 The
deeper you look into space, the more amazing the view.
People often ask, "What do you look at with that telescope?"
Well, of course there are the moon and planets, not to mention all
those stars. But it turns out that the sky is packed with interesting
objects of many types - nebulae, clusters, galaxies, and more. We
call them "Deep Sky Objects" because they physically reside far
outside of our solar system, and even outside of our own Milky Way
galaxy. There are thousands of such objects within reach of modest
amateur telescopes, and many would argue they are the most interesting
and beautiful objects to observe...
Click here for the
rest of the article.
February 16, 2004
Understanding Telescopes
By Chuck Fuller
 Buying
a telescope can be overwhelming. This article will help ease the
pain.
The primary goals of this article are to explain how
telescopes work, what the major types and categories are, and how
you can best choose a telescope for yourself or a budding young
astronomer in your midst. We'll look at some baseline principles,
the major types of optical systems, mountings, manufacturers, and
of course, what you can actually see and do with any given telescope...
Click
here for the rest of the article.
February 1, 2004
Choice Words
By Scott Anderson
Can you really suffer from too many
choices? Yes, if one of the choices is psychobabble.
Recent articles by Barry Schwartz,
professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College, have propounded a
most remarkable argument: that Americans have too many choices,
leading them to feel harried and depressed. To encapsulate this
interesting theory, a new term has been coined, the "Tyranny of
Choice" ...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
January 22, 2004
The Mad Cow Jumps Over the Moon
By Scott C.
Anderson
Mad cow disease
has led to an extraordinary new view of learning and memory.
The genesis of our national mad
cow obsession is a fascinating story of adventure, discovery, ghoulishness
and even happy endings. The story starts in 1955 with young Carleton
Gajdusek, ten years out of Harvard, who was constantly on the lookout
for new and unusual diseases. He found a remarkable one in New Guinea...
Click here for the
rest of the article.
December 20, 2003
Natural Complexity
By Scott C. Anderson
 Simple
chemistry can provide some surprisingly complex shapes.
Living things are so extraordinarily complex, it's
hard to imagine how the happenstance mechanics of Darwinian theory
could have brought them into being. We know that the natural order
of things -- loosely speaking -- is to get old, break down and turn
to crap. So how is it that mere protoplasm has been able to organize
itself so successfully that there has been an unbroken chain of
life on this planet for over 500 million years?
Click here for
the rest of the article.
December 16, 2003
Electrifying News
By Scott C. Anderson
 A
long-held theory comes to a shocking end.
Many young people who study science come away
with the impression that all the important questions have been answered,
and that it would be difficult or impossible to contribute to such
a well-researched body of knowledge. But it ain't necessarily so...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
October 20, 2003
We Know What You're Thinking
By Scott C. Anderson
Scientists can see your thoughts. You won't believe
what's on your mind.
You no longer have to go to Madame LeFoni's to have
a mind-reading session. Scientists can read your mind too, at least
a little. And what they see when they look into your mind is, well,
thought-provoking...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
August 10, 2003
Ears Looking at You, Kid
By Scott C. Anderson
Some people see with their ears and hear with
their eyes. These "crossed wires" may expose the workings of the
brain.
Have you ever had the feeling that the person you're
talking to has a loose wire or two in their brain? Turns out, you
might be right. An amazing cross-wired brain syndrome called synesthesia
(for joined sensations) may explain a lot of weirdness and poetry
in the world - at the same time that it sheds light on so-called
normal brains...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
August 2, 2003
Small Talk
by Scott C. Anderson
 Turns
out, bacteria can communicate. Are they talking behind our backs?
A few years ago, Bonnie Bassler discovered something
fishy about the bacteria she was studying. Actually, they were already
pretty fishy, since these diminutive critters lived in the bodies
of deep-sea fish and squid. Weirder still, these bacteria could
glow a most beguiling moonlight blue...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
May 7, 2003
Aristotle's Chickens
By Scott C. Anderson
Aristotle
came close to discovering stem cells more than two thousand years
ago. Will we have to wait another two millennia for a therapy?
Aristotle strode slowly in the
shade of the covered walkway, gesturing as he spoke. In his wake
was an excited group of young students, straining to hear his every
word. "Welcome to the Lyceum!" he shouted, spreading his arms expansively
at the surrounding campus...
Click here
for the rest of the article.
February 15, 2003
A Light Touch
By Scott C. Anderson
Because astronauts
like to eat salad in space, life is getting easier for bone marrow
transplant patients. An enlightening story of serendipity.
NASA is justifiably proud of its Technology Transfer
Program, which spins off its space-age inventions -- from Tang and
Teflon to rechargeable batteries - for use in the private sector.
But they recently outdid themselves with a remarkable "healing light"
that is starting to make life much easier for patients with hard-to-heal
wounds, including those who have had bone marrow transplants (BMTs)...
Click here for
the rest of the article.
January 5, 2003
The New Bone Marrow Transplants
By Scott C. Anderson
Today's Bone Marrow Transplants are saving the
lives of cancer patients in unexpected ways.
By the time he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic
leukemia, (CLL) Michael Billig's cancer had already taken over 90
percent of his blood. His doctors lost no time in getting the 43-year-old
into chemotherapy...
Click here for the
rest of the article. |
