The central dogma of biology says that DNA encodes RNA which encodes proteins In the beginning, you were a single cell made up from a fused sperm and egg. This cell had 23 pairs of chromosomes which together made up all your DNA – chromosomes are what DNA looks like when it’s tightly wrapped. DNA is a long code made up of four nucleotides that form a four-letter alphabet – ACGT...
Editorial notes: Shai was always fascinated with cartoon characters and, at least as his written coverage is concerned, mostly with Superman. Between March 2011 and December 2014, Shai writes nine articles dedicated to this superhero and in November 2014 he starts a blog dedicated to reviewing Superman novels. Superman came first, anyone else came later. It all started with...
The Ancient Greeks who presaged our philosophies, political systems, and arts emerged in a land that had already been settled by mankind for tens of thousands of years. Despite what some of them believed the Greeks were not been born out of the Earth, but rather from the ashes of earlier societies. In Greece’s prehistory – the time before writing – entire societies, including...
Gibson and hipster consumerism in Zero History Successful as he’s been, William Gibson has always been something of a misfit. Gibson is best known for his first novel and cyberpunk classic Neuromancer. But the extent to which Gibson is a cyberpunk author is debatable. Sometimes it feels like the intersection between Gibson and cyberpunk is incidental. There’s no doubt that Gibson has...
Plutarch was a priest, magistrate, ambassador, and essayist born in Chaeronea in Greece around 46CE (d. 120CE). The Greek states had already been part of the Roman Empire for two centuries by the time of his birth, and it is no surprise that at some point Plutarch became a citizen of Rome, changing his name to Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. Plutarch (or Lucy, as I’m sure his friends called...
The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction is a book written by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr, a professor of English at DePauw University and published in 2008. I wanted to have a bird’s eye view; I ended up in outer space. (Preface) There’s something inexpressible about SF[1]. This inexpressible something, the author suggests, reflects the role of SF in helping us parse and express the role...
Taking a Fresh Look at Antiochus’ Criterion of Certainty Introduction to Antiochus With Antiochus of Ascalon (c.125-88 BCE), Platonism took a dive back to its roots – or at least, it claimed to do so. Antiochus’ teacher was Philo of Larissa, who was the last of the Academics who were associated with the actual Academy of Plato. Antiochus is considered to be the first major philosopher of...
Pirahã[I] is a language which will make you rethink everything about the role of language in forming culture, perception, and even consciousness. If you’ve ever thought about the link between language and mind, then the basis for the implications will not be extraordinarily new. What will be new is how far those implications are stretched, and how possibly alien a human language could be. This...
Hide and Seek is the third episode of the franchisee show Stargate Atlantis[1]. It first aired in July 2004. Spoilers? Yes. Synopsis: An energy-feeding shadow is freed and a shield stone is found. They get rid of the shadow and can’t use the stone any more. Fin. DVD Commentary Instructions: (1) Print off this commentary. (2) Hire a voice actor – someone with a deep voice and who is well...
This is a log of my experiences here to date. Today I was pushed over the line and have won myself the right to vote; seems a good an occasion as any to do this. This log is not meant to be anything more than what it is: A record of some recollections that perhaps later may be of interest. If it’s ordering appears random that is because it is. My first post was Rituals of marijuana...
