cpt_ahab's New Writeups

De-extinction (thing)

2013-04-29T07:54:16Z

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 genes are to be found in another species, and a selective breeding program, combined with gene reading (to confirm which genes are present) is studiously and strictly employed. There is a project under-way that aims to de-extinct aurochs. Aurochs are the ancestors of domestic cattle, and had inhabited Eurasia and North Africa. The last known auroch died in 1627. This technology requires not only for there to be living relatives of the extinct species, but also for them to largely contain the genetic material of the extinct species.Â …

Oregon Trail (thing)

2013-04-21T08:51:17Z

In 2011 UniverseÂ published the ghoulishly-titled book 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die¹. The obvious question then follows, "Well, what's number one?" The list's ordered chronologically, but even so, it's a game called The Oregon Trail. It's from the mid 70's. Today that makes it vintage, ten years ago it was old school, and ten years before I'd guess it was old fashion or whatever people said back then.

Oregon TrailÂ was first made c.1971 by a trio of student teachers working out of Cerleton College, wanting to make a game that would help teach kids about the Oregon Trail - a culturally emphasized trail that followed an east-west trajectory on the north American continent during the mid 19th century. The game migrated over to the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium a few years later, and was adapted various times to work on Apple II computers throughout the late 70's to early 80's. Since…

Pseudoenzyme (thing)

2013-04-18T13:56:25Z

A lot of what scientists do is curating nature. That is, describing the different bits of nature, at different scales, categorizing them, and listing their relationships, in which they look for patterns. Scientists did this when they undertook the Human Genome Project, a massive effort to describe the chemical composition and order of human DNA. Having a map of human DNA only spurred further mapping.

Some scientists, wanting to create a better map, chose to continue by introducing higher complexity into the map's pieces. For example, the first map ignored the variation between individuals. A better map could incorporate that variation. Still wanting a better map, some scientists chose to introduce a higher order of complexity into the map's scope. For example, annotating the map so that it didn't merely describe the pieces that make up DNA, but furthermore labelled those same sequences to explain that they can encode…

Phylotypic stage (thing)

2012-07-21T05:20:34Z

"I have two small embryos preserved in alcohol, that I forgot to label. At present I am unable to determine the genus to which they belong. They may be lizards, small birds, or even mammals."

Karl von Baer (1828)

The changes undergone by a developing embryo forms an hourglass: early on embryos from different species vary significantly, later on they converge to be similar, and finally they diverge again, to develop into very different animals. This middle stage - theÂ phylotypic stageÂ - is when different animals from different threads of life, whether they be zebrafish or mice or chicken all resemble each other.

Why?

Von Baer was a Christian believer, and saw the handiwork of god implicit in the similarities. The elegance of having different species appear similar before sprouting variations suggested a proto-plan to which each animal abided before going…

Lithium carbonate (essay)

2012-07-20T18:37:04Z

Molecular biology of lithium treatment for bipolar affective disorder

Bipolar is often treated with lithium...

If the bipolar lifestyle is a rollercoaster ride, then lithium is one of the more established seatbelts available.Â Lithium is considered the gold standard treatment for bipolar. While it is not as effective in treatment of acute depression, it is very effective for acute mania as well as for maintaining stability.Â

Technically lithium is just another element; number three on the periodic table. But let it lose an electron and start sharing with other molecules, and it becomes a salt with special qualities. Credit for viability and proof of this salt - Li₂CO₃ - belongs to the Australian scientist John Cade who experimented with lithium after observations he made as a POW at the Japanese…

The stress of city life (idea)

2011-11-12T20:47:27Z

People are strange, when you're a stranger

We're born into a world submerged in strangers. TheyÂ - the strangers - are everywhere, doing so many different things, and we know almost nothing about them. Looking around, we realize that we live between the cogs of an impersonal, gigantic clock work; and yet, we're social creatures, charged with the prime directive to interact with others. We go so far as to categorize those we've no intention of ever meeting; as we gaze at strangers we measure their appearance, and their role in our society.

Evaluating others is our species' raison d'etre.Â But even though we've evolved for sociability, the very scale of modern institutions and governments, strains our capacities. Our various circles - friends, family, sports, work, and others - form centres for social networks of dizzying complexities, and which we consider so important to…