Editorial notes: To understand the Meta paragraph below you need to read Shai’s Priorities post where he discusses his own methodology for researching and acquiring knowledge. The Meta description below is an instance where Shai follows his own – previously documented – methodology. Meta: This is a pseudo-diary of my impressions readings Science 09/08. This was initiated by a...
Source: [TREND_G] The desired outcome after having ‘known‘ this concept is a novel perception. The seed for this perception is the concept of bioproxies, that I can define as ‘xyz’, and in the literature includes the following distinctions ‘a,b,c’. Example: Madagascar which was settled in the mid-first millennium: The local language is Malagasy which is...
I’m currently – 03/05/13 – in the process of updating this. I’ve added the section “Update (May 2013)”, which is still a work in process (i.e. otherwise I would delete this note here). The title of this node comes from a Nature communication in which recent research linking the prion protein (PrP) and the amyloid-beta (Abeta) protein was discussed. This is a...
Concept: De-extinction Source: A Policy Forum piece in Science (April 5, 2013), titled: “What If Extinction Is Not Forever?“ Technology: Three approaches. Back-breeding is possible where genetic variants homologous to extinct species exist in surviving species. Cloning, as by using somatic cell nuclear transfer from an extinct subspecies (i.e. with other extant subspecies). Genetic...
Background: GPCRs known to signal from surface and to be internalized. Fact: Prove that GPCRs signal from endosomes. Interest: Adds complexity to particulars (ie. location) of GPCR signalling. Source: Research Highlights in Nat Rev MCB (May 2013) on Nature article (2013). Fact: RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription kinetics are modulated by signalling pathways that affect the rate of...
There is a Research Highlights piece (in Nat Rev Gen [Nature Review Genetics]) on a paper entitled Parallel evolutionary dynamics of adaptive diversification in Escherichia coli (in PLoS Biol), which studies the principle of sympatric diversification, which is the “organismal diversification or speciation that occurs without […] geographical separation of [the] diverging...
De-extinction is the restoration into the world of living specimens of animals that had once been extinct. There are three technologies for de-extinction currently being explored, each one with a target species its project hopes to de-extinct. A. Back-breeding. This is only possible where there exist living species with genetic homologues to the target extinct species. By this method, the desired...
Source: Original research Letter in Nature (April 11, 2013). Background: Although it has been known that Northern latitudes have had extreme temperature highs, it is difficult to prove that those are higher than any in the past. Methods: Use hierarchical Bayesian approach…(?) Results: Recent years have the highest extremes, and approx. 0 lowest extremes. The past 20yrs are 1.16C higher than...
Concept: Animal self-medication. Source: Perspective in Science (April 12, 2013). Background: Self-medication (incl. prophylactic) can be administered to self, inter-generational (e.g. fruit flies lay preferentially in high ethanol foods following detection of parasitoid* wasps), social (e.g. anti-microbial resin incorporated by wood ants into nest). Criteria include that it must be costly (thus...
A Spotlight article[I] that considers the concept of the brain’s chronoarchitecture; the timeline of happenings across the brain as seen from the neurons’ perspective. Different neuronal components (neurons, areas, etc) hear about (get information from) different components at a different (external) time, resulting in different temporal hierarchies. [I] The full title of the 2013...
