Good Science

[psychodiva]

[Ed-M]

[lostsheep]

Winning genes commonly act as team-players.
Their winning plays are salvations of an aliveness of which they are a part.
A fraction of genes are parasitic (they parasitize teams).

Cool! Where did you get this?

[Kate]

Not sure if this fits in with "good science", but...

fucking magnets!

Using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation - in which magnets are used to disrupt neural activity in specific parts of the brain - scientists managed to "turn off" people's moral centers.

...In other words, if you need an army of minions willing to kill for you, you're going to need a whole lot of magnets.

[ILOVEJESUS]

Kate wrote

Not sure if this fits in with "good science", but...

fucking magnets!

Kind of like zombies????? Wow 28 days later really was a premoniotion.

[Steel]

Woohoo! Now I can have all the bad girls I want!

[PanAtheist]

Winning genes commonly act as team-players.
Their winning plays are salvations of an aliveness of which they are a part.
A fraction of genes are parasitic (they parasitize teams).

lostsheep wrote

Cool! Where did you get this?

Thank you!
I am glad you like it! That’s me talking!
Still, the space-constraints of the “signature box” did make me be a tad simplistic.
If I had more space, I’d say >>

Vital genes act as a team,
which sustains the aliveness of which they are a part.

Beneficial genes act as part of that team,
helping the alivenesses of which they are a part.

All these genes are teamish!

They are team-players, and their winning-plays are salvations and/or promotions of the alivenesses of which they are a part.

Detrimental genes act against such a team of aliveness-sustaining genes, and damage (or damage the chances of) the aliveness which is sustaining them. They may damage it so much that the aliveness dies, and they too are lost!

Neutral genes neither help nor harm.

Parasitic genes, such as jumping-genes, parasitize an organism’s team of genes.

Viral genes are themselves members of a team – the viral genome.

Even kin-killing genetic elements (which some call “selfish genes” ‡), that target and kill siblings which lack that genetic element, are teamish in the sense that they aid the teams of genes which contain copies of them.



The reason beneficial genes are teamish, is that one gene can accomplish very little on its own.

Aliveness is a team effort!

An organism's genes survive via aliveness
(or “viability” in the case of viruses, and seeds, etc).

Dawkins says that we are “gene-survival machines”.
But this is a myopic, blinkered view of aliveness.
The truth is :
aliveness acts as an aliveness-sustaining “machine”



Aliveness is a multi-reactant physico-chemical chain-reaction
which (with a dash of luck!) sustains itself!



A human child holds neither all the genes of its mother, nor all the genes of its father.
So much for gene survival!
But it *is* a continuation and salvation of both their alivenesses.


Biology, is (surprisingly for some!) about ...
LIFE ! :-)



‡ I am well aware that many apply this phrase more widely that that.

[lostsheep]

Pantheist, I am going to take this to my intro genetics class professor, if you don't mind, thanks!

[PanAtheist]

lostsheep wrote

Pantheist, I am going to take this to my intro genetics class professor, if you don't mind, thanks!

I don't mind at all. It's a public forum after all!
Just watch your A's and B's, hey?
PanAtheist.

[psychodiva]

He's not gonna take it any more!

also a bit of Pharyngula

"We are grossly intolerant, and properly so, of racism. We are grossly intolerant, and properly so, of people who [are] anti-homosexuality... We are not—and I genuinely think we should think about how we do this—grossly intolerant of pseudo-science, the building up of what purports to be science by the cherry-picking of the facts and the failure to use scientific evidence and the failure to use scientific method."

remind you of anybody?

[psychodiva]

I've been fucking modded again!!! - it was just a post about research !!

Beddington also had harsh words for journalists who treat the opinions of non-scientist commentators as being equivalent to the opinions of what he called "properly trained, properly assessed" scientists. "The media see the discussions about really important scientific events as if it’s a bloody football match. It is ridiculous."

[psychodiva]

Another one of those 'tunnel vision' scientists who is an expert in their field talks about how good it is to be an expert in a field

In defense of elites

The findings and conclusions of scientists and engineers who have devoted years and years to the mastery of their fields of inquiry should be accorded the respect they deserve, and not dismissed for ideological reasons. Few people second-guess the political motivations of their dentist when informed that they have a cavity - why would they do the same with atmospheric scientists when they discuss a hole in the ozone layer? Strong science, elaborated by experts, is the foundation for sound policy.

[psychodiva]

It happened again I'll wait for it to be unlocked

[Victus]

psychodiva wrote

It happened again I'll wait for it to be unlocked

Yeah, I've had that happen for some of my heroically-long posts, at which point I regret not having saved them somewhere before trying to post.

[psychodiva]

lol- at least mine aren't long