Different Directions

Different Directions

Archive for August, 2009

Game Inspired by Swine Flu

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

A flash-based game, influenced by the current swine flu pandemic, offers players a simulator/strategy-type taste of real-world outbreak management.

game-inspired-by-swine-flu

Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Since Charles Darwin sketched out evolution’s process 150 years ago, a landslide of data has swept scientists into a more detailed understanding of how life’s variety emerged.


life_ascending_the_ten_great_inventions_of_evolution_by_nick_lane

Sometimes, something kills nearly all life on the entire planet.

Monday, August 17th, 2009

But is there a regular cycle to this creation and destruction of Earth’s biodiversity?

– Somber reading –

… But even with all our intelligence and technology, we still don’t really understand what causes extinctions or radiations…

from SEED

Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT)

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Keeping you posted.

From — Patrick Keeling and Jeffrey Palmer

“The importance of HGT in evolution is a basic prediction of cosmic ancestry. It comes as a surprise for darwinism. The surprise is especially jarring when transferred genes arrive with functions for which their donors have no obvious use. Nonetheless, in a silent paradigm shift, HGT among prokaryotes has become the accepted rule. And now HGT into and among eukaryotes is being recognized. We hope the implications of this possible paradigm shift will not be ignored.”

organismalgenetree2
Analysed in isolation, a gene transferred between distant species [or into both!] will make the species seem closely related.

Eukaryote
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A eukaryote (pronounced /juːˈkæriɒt/ or /juːˈkærioʊt/) is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. Almost all species of large organisms are eukaryotes, including animals, plants and fungi, although most species of eukaryotic protists are microorganisms. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus. The presence of a nucleus gives eukaryotes their name, which comes from the Greek ευ (eu, “good”, “noble” & “true”) and κάρυον (karyon, “nut” & “kernal”). Most eukaryotic cells contain other membrane-bound organelles such as mitochondria, chloroplasts and the Golgi apparatus.

Here’s an example from an animal cell:

553px-animal_cell_structure_ensvg
Prokaryote
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The prokaryotes (singular pronounced /proʊˈkæriət/) are a group of organisms that lack a cell nucleus (= karyon), or any other membrane-bound organelles. They differ from the eukaryotes, which have a cell nucleus. Most are unicellular, but a few prokaryotes such as myxobacteria have multicellular stages in their life cycles.[1] The word prokaryote comes from the Greek πρό- (pro-) “before” + καρυόν (karyon) “nut or kernel”, referring to the cell nucleus, + suffix -ώτης (-ōtēs) (pl. -ώτες (-ōtes)).

Here’s an example:

494px-average_prokaryote_cell-_ensvg

Meteorites, Dinosaurs, and Fried Chicken

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Saturday 15 of August 09

Meteorites, Dinosaurs, and Fried Chicken

at the Nashua Senior Center
70 Temple Street, Nashua, NH

Call: 603.889.6155

Handle Meteorites & hear the latest about Dinos
and Chicken.

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