Wonder Bone II

[Sternwallow]

Coolest guy since Sagan: http://mkaku.org/

[Tenspace]

Wow. Just wow.

Windpipe Transplant Breakthrough

To make the new airway, the doctors took a donor windpipe, or trachea, from a patient who had recently died.

Then they used strong chemicals and enzymes to wash away all of the cells from the donor trachea, leaving only a tissue scaffold made of the fibrous protein collagen.

This gave them a structure to repopulate with cells from Ms Castillo herself, which could then be used in an operation to repair her damaged left bronchus - a branch of the windpipe.

By using Ms Castillo's own cells the doctors were able to trick her body into thinking the donated trachea was part of it, thus avoiding rejection.

The old wonderbone sure is tingling from that, Tenspace.

Also, as a side note, I thought "windpipe" was gangsta slang.

[Tenspace]

Moving Pictures... at the Nanoscale

Like the frames in a film, the sequential images generated by many millions of such images can be assembled into a digital movie of motion at the atomic scale.

[just questions]

Tenspace wrote

C'mon, people! Let's post some really cool shit. Stuff that makes you go "Wow!", or gets you to think and wonder about how much greater this world is than a bunch of old texts from long-dead nomads would have you believe. What tickles your wonder bone? For me, it's stuff like this:

UniverScale

Charles and Ray Eams' version is still good after 30 years.

http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1025863

[Kate]

Dancing scientists!

[Tenspace]

Memories may be stored on DNA

[Sternwallow]

Tenspace wrote

Memories may be stored on DNA

This interesting possible explanation for a memory function does not refer to reproductive DNA and, despite the juicy headline, does not suggest that any memories are inheritable.

Nature has a long history of using body parts for other purposes than they were originally evolved to provide. [casual expression not intended to imply any plan or goal for evolution] Specialized hairs for thermal protection became feathers enabling flight, extra mandible bones became inner ear parts and the extra brain capability to foresee and plan for avoiding real danger is used to find patterns where none exist and to fear non-existent forces.

No wonder that a rich information carrying resource like DNA would be put to use as a memory medium when it wasn't being used to guide the development of a new person (or mouse).

[DrunkMonkey]

Tenspace wrote

Memories may be stored on DNA

I would like to see if they could introduce a memory by artificially methylating DNA before I fully believe the proposed mechanism behind this one.

Sternwallow wrote

--- and the extra brain capability to foresee and plan for avoiding real danger is used to find patterns where none exist and to fear non-existent forces.

Really? I didn't know that.Now that you mention it,makes perfect sense to me. Did you deduce this or is it from a study?

[calpurnpiso]

Nothing is lost in our DNA, specially the molecules instructed to construct our brains 1/2 billion years ago. The information is there including memories IMHO. After all we were not zapped into existence as the retarded believe.

A DNA memory hypothesis could answer the question. Where was I ( potential brain construct) 150 million years ago? Perhaps when we have those weird dreams that make no sense created by the Universes Within ( our brains), a DNA receding memory has made its presence known.

[Sternwallow]

BOF wrote

Really? I didn't know that.Now that you mention it,makes perfect sense to me. Did you deduce this or is it from a study?

It is the ordinary method of nature to bulk up for major environmental challenges and later have a surplus of whatever it is that can be used for a different purpose altogether. An unfortunate example of this is our craving for sugar, which stood us in good stead when food was scarce, but which now only ensures the survival of dentists and obesity clinics.

I did not deduce this or get it from a study; I synthesized it for myself from fragments of information gathered informally.

[Sternwallow]

calpurnpiso wrote

Nothing is lost in our DNA, specially the molecules instructed to construct our brains 1/2 billion years ago. The information is there including memories IMHO. After all we were not zapped into existence as the retarded believe.

A DNA memory hypothesis could answer the question. Where was I ( potential brain construct) 150 million years ago? Perhaps when we have those weird dreams that make no sense created by the Universes Within ( our brains), a DNA receding memory has made its presence known.

If inherited DNA included your memories, your balls would have to be a big as your brains. Ooops, no offense intended either way you might take that.

Sternwallow wrote

I did not deduce this or get it from a study; I synthesized it for myself from fragments of information gathered informally.

Oh,it may still be correct.I think it IS a rational explanation,and quite elegant in it's simplicity.

Puts me in mind of how we deal with our flight/flight impulse in an urban industrial society. Or are you talking about something entirely different?

[Sternwallow]

BOF wrote

Oh,it may still be correct.I think it IS a rational explanation,and quite elegant in it's simplicity.

Puts me in mind of how we deal with our flight/flight impulse in an urban industrial society. Or are you talking about something entirely different?

I think you are very close to my idea. I would say that skydiving and roller-coaster fun are off-script uses of the flight/fight mechanism. Our ability to physically deal with risk has developed so far that it exceeds that needed for simple survival and so we can use it in ways that would kill our distant ancestors to even think about.

"Want to have some great fun, Og? Just jump off that thousand-foot cliff while holding a napkin; it'll let you down easy."
Og replies: "You say this ties in with the fight/flight impulse? Then I'll just have fun beating the crap out of you instead. Now, that's fun!"