The Frogger loves Disney‘s Cinderella, mainly because she thinks Cinderella’s ball gown in pretty, likes dancing, and loves all the cute animals[1,2]. As a result, I have had many opportunities over the past few months to observe this film in great detail, repeatedly. These posts resulted from subjecting the normally active mind, thirsting for stimulation, to triplicate viewings whilst traversing the wintry wastelands of the Midwest, with the first of two presented here, wherein I shall examine what we can infer about the kingdom in Cinderella is set and why you might not want to live in that land of Fairy Tales. Continue reading “Cinde-really? Part 1”
There are no ancient alien codes in our genome
Even for a physicist, this is bad: Larry Moran, in preparation for the appropriate dose of ridicule that this situation deserves, quotes physicist and pop-science author Paul Davies:
Another physical object with enormous longevity is DNA. Our bodies contain some genes that have remained little changed in 100 million years. An alien expedition to Earth might have used biotechnology to assist with mineral processing, agriculture or environmental projects. If they modified the genomes of some terrestrial organisms for this purpose, or created their own micro-organisms from scratch, the legacy of this tampering might endure to this day, hidden in the biological record.
Which leads to an even more radical proposal. Life on Earth stores genetic information in DNA. A lot of DNA seems to be junk, however. If aliens, or their robotic surrogates, long ago wanted to leave us a message, they need not have used radio waves. They could have uploaded the data into the junk DNA of terrestrial organisms. It would be the modern equivalent of a message in a bottle, with the message being encoded digitally in nucleic acid and the bottle being a living, replicating cell. (It is possible—scientists today have successfully implanted messages of as many as 100 words into the genome of bacteria.) A systematic search for gerrymandered genomes would be relatively cheap and simple. Incredibly, a handful of (unsuccessful) computer searches have already been made for the tell-tale signs of an alien greeting.
(Yes, that’s me you’re now hearing, banging my head against the desk.)
Larry uses this opportunity to pose the obvious question, for his molecular evolution students and everyone else:
Assume that the aliens inserted a 1000 bp message in the same place in the genomes of every member of our ancestral population from five million years ago… If you were to sequence that very same region of your own genome what would the message look like today?
(Go leave your answer in the comments over at Sandwalk.)
Anyone who has the slightest comprehension of natural selection ought to see that the most implausible part of Paul Davies scenario is not the bit about aliens engineering the DNA of terrestrial organisms.
From the context of the full article (go to Sandwalk for the link), it’s not clear how seriously Davies takes this. I’m really, really, really hoping that this does not reflect the biological understanding of a public scientific figure, but I’m afraid it does.
Politics matters…
… as depressing as that may be to hear. Some friends recently described their December trip to India, the first time they’ve visited in years. India’s economy is on fire, unleashing some tremendous pent-up economic demand. What was striking, my friends related, was how strongly India’s economic development is geared toward the future, towards not only catching up with wealthier, more developed nations, but also towards anticipating and meeting economic challenges that loom in the future. This is in stark contrast to the US, which seems, at best, focused on defending the status quo.
Ezra Klein of the Washington Post points us to a speech just given by John Kerry on this very topic. He asks:
Do [we] want a government too limited to have invented the Internet, now a vital part of our commerce and communications? A government too small to give America’s auto industry and all its workers a second chance to fight for their survival? Taxes too low to invest in the research that creates jobs and industries and fills the Treasury with the revenue that educates our children, cures disease, and defends our country?
Critically, Kerry points to our political ossification as our potential Achilles’ heel. While I’m disappointed that Kerry doesn’t offer specific solutions beyond “senators need to learn to work together,” this speech is a must-read for anyone interested in the role of science and tech in our societal health. (Follow the link to Klein’s blog for the whole thing.)
More below the fold to whet your appetite: Continue reading “Politics matters…”
Near Santa Maria della Salute
Santa, You Elegant Bastard
Santa and his Elves are often portrayed as the last bastion of the classic toy. You know, the solid wood thing with no parts that move on their own, no Allen wrenches for assembly, and makes Dad’s back hurt as he hauls it trans-Atlantically back home after celebrating the holidays with family back in the States because solid wood is heavy. The kind of toy that is powered not by batteries but by imagination[1]. Continue reading “Santa, You Elegant Bastard”
The Finch and Pea 