Concept: Floral electric fields, bumblebee multimodal cues Source: A (original research) Report in Science (April 5, 2013). Background: Already known that flowers often exhibit negative field potential versus pollinators’ positive field potential. Also, that multimodal floral cues enhance foraging efficiency and pollination. Also that bees transfer information back to the plant for later...
Fact: “When humans cannot tell where the gaze is focused, they assume that people are looking at them.” {Narcissistic gaze prediction}. Source: A Research Highlight in Nature (April 11, 2013) on original research in Current Biology. Fact: Not all neurons follow neurotrophic theory, some die per pre-programming independent of environment. Source: Perspective in Science (April 5, 2013)...
Concepts: Geoneutrinos Source: A News piece in Nature (April 3, 2013). History: The 2011 Fukushima disaster, and the consequent closure of Japanese nuclear reactors, silenced the barrage of particles to which the Japanese underground particle detector KamLAND was normally exposed. Thus KamLAND could clearly read the trickle of neutrinos that originate within Earth, produced by radioactive decay...
Concept: Adaptive diversification. Also: allopatric diversification; sympatric diversification; frequency-dependent selection. Source: An (original research) article published in PLoS Biology (February 19, 2013) Background: A dichotomy of diversification follows depending on whether the ancestral populations were geographically isolated from each other (allopatric diversification) or not...
Concept: Oncometabolites. Also: Dynamic interplay of metabolome and epigenome. Source: News and Views in Nature (April 3, 2013) of a study published in Science. Background: It was already known that mutations in proteins involved in metabolism may be associated with cancer, but this is the first study to show that a metabolite may be sufficient for oncogenesis. Previous studies identified...
Editorial notes: This is the first in a series of 30 Science News, documented mostly in Evernote between April 2013 and October 2014. Concepts: Neural decoding of dreams. Also: hypnagogic hallucinations. Source: A News and Analysis and an (original research) Report, both in Science (April 5, 2013). History: A 2005 study developed an algorithm that could read fMRI recordings to determine which one...
Here some Notes are taken describing books acquired, thus possibly illustrating motivations, etc., which may serve Bibliome growth. 2013_03_01: A book by Cicero and by Drabble, via the Philosophy and Literature Bibliomes. Dense Macarbe by Stephen King, which are essays on his thoughts on Horror. This serves my previous affection for his writings and respect for his authorship, and which may...
A summary of intent of practicality in Bk.I[I]: (This approach is justified by the book’s opening passages; written to his son to guide him on his education, which is an achievement of life, and not merely its underlying theory). Duty, which defines what we must do with our lives, can be reduced into its essential elements: profit and honesty, and their interaction. Everything that we do...
Some essential part of stories lies in their telling. Here is a story: Kant has the idea of the sublime, whereby the aesthetic is significantly determined by its ability to transcend (and hence terrify) our senses. For instance the magnitude of a mountain or a storm – both threaten our sense of self and perception by impressing upon us fact that there is always more, forcing us to teeter...
Summary: The rediscovery of Lucretius’ text by Italian scribe (Poggio Bracciolini) and its impact on contemporary / renaissance thinking. Quote: “[With Lucretius] it became possible – never easy, but possible – in the poet Auden’s phrase to find the mortal world enough.” {Preface} “Acediosus, sometimes translated as “apathetic,” refers to an illness...
