Influx

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Giant cell leaves tracks

Amazing discovery throws light on ancient fossils.

Life and thermodynamics

I still haven't read this article myself but a scan indicates it may be a good wrap up of the facsinating intersection between biology and thermodynamics from Scientific American.

This paper by Dan Styer attempts to calculate the entropy of evolution. An interesting discussion ensues at Pharyngula. I comment at #275, without significant impact on the discussion unfortunately, which by that time had gotten a bit sidetracked anyway.

Update overdue

Nearly 2 months since last update, its almost a relief to get my traffic reports which confirm that absolutely nobody ever reads this blog. Anyway, heres my latest grab bag:

Aboriginal cave paintings documenting history of outside contact discovered.

Viruses that infect viruses found

Extremophile breathes arsenic

Highly conserved yet apparently useless DNA sequences puzzle researchers

Electrical engineers attepting to invoke Maxwells Demon

Beyond the universe, unknown structures exert influence

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

LHC booted up

Only one sunset so far tonight so it seems the LHC start up hasn't brought about the end of the world yet.

Water bears: not big, not pretty, but pretty tough

Another IT approach to solving biological enigmas. We're starting to untangle the deep informational structure of the global genome. I can't help thinking again that these tools will also lead to AI breakthoroughs, the potential is breathtaking.