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POPSHow a simple mathematic formula is starting to explain the bizarre prevalence of altruism in society This new mathematic model for society’s evolution is particularly interesting because not only it reveals a logic behind the large numbers of cooperators that we know exist in all human societies, but also it gives us a glimpse of the principles that can help “pushing” them into a better, fairer, path. Evolutionary game theory is a mathematical approach used to study (and predict) the evolution of social interactions, in which the study of conflict and decision-making is treated – like its name indicates – as a game.
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POPSEnzymes made to order Making enzymes is a tricky business. Even the names of the techniques sound mind-boggling, with the process involving a mix of 'quantum mechanical computation', 'advanced protein engineering' and 'directed evolution'. while naturally occurring enzymes speed reaction rates by many billion (or even trillion) fold, the synthetic enzymes gave more conservative boosts – around 100,000 fold. "The acceleration is really rather modest by comparison to Nature," admits Houk – but it's still incredibly exciting
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POPSLogical Fallacies of Creationists and How to Spot Them THE ACHILLES' HEAL FALLACY They carbon-dated a snail and it turned out to be 25,000 years old! Carbon dating is totally unreliable! THE AD HOMINEM ATTACK You have been blinded by Satan, and you are a creature of the devil. Neither you nor what you say can be trusted. You will rot in Hell for your ways THE RED HERRING Evolution is impossible because the Big Bang is a totally unacceptable theory because it defies the word of our loving Creator, He who sent His only Son, our Lord to...
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POPSCrossed (evolutionary) signals? Animals depend on tyrosine phosphorylation to conduct a number of important communications between their cells, including immune system responses, hormone system stimulation and other crucial functions. These phospho-tyrosine signaling pathways utilize a three-part system of molecular components to make these communications possible.
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POPSRight and wrong lessons from biology The opposite view stresses that evolution is an extremely effective way of searching parameter space, and that in consequence is that we should assume that biological design solutions are likely to be close to optimal for the environment for which they’ve evolved. Where these design solutions seem odd from our point of view, their unfamiliarity is to be ascribed to the different ways in which physics works at the nanoscale. At its most extreme, this view regards biological nanotechnology, not just as the existence proof for nanotechnology, but as an upper limit on its capabilities.
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POPSSpore - A Computer Game to Teach our Children Long Term Thinking This game is about evolution and exploring our universe at all scales from the microscopic to the galactic. It is about the 'Big Picture' of life, and how to think about it in a multilevel multiscale fashion. It will give a real grasp of the complexity and interconnectedness of life, and will educate the players holistic long term thinking and planning. Watch the fascinating presentation of Will Wright in TED. Toys may change the world by changing us. I am all for it, and can't wait playing :-)
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POPSWorm-like Marine Animal Providing Fresh Clues About Human Evolution The human genome has only about 25 percent more genes than the amphioxus genome, according to Holland. During evolution, humans have duplicated genes for different functions. Such duplication has given humans and other vertebrates a much larger "toolkit" for making various structures that are absent in amphioxus, including cells for pigment and collagen type II-based cartilage, for example.
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POPSBacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab In the meantime, the experiment stands as proof that evolution does not always lead to the best possible outcome. Instead, a chance event can sometimes open evolutionary doors for one population that remain forever closed to other populations with different histories.
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POPSBacterial Chemical Sensors on the Horizon? Bacteria is responsible for the vast majority of all fundamental life processes on this planet. Harnessing bacteria to the service of humanity will be a technological revolution allowing anything from supersensitive sensors to weather control.
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POPSOrigins of the brain - new study
"Although many studies have looked at the number of neurons, none has looked at the molecular composition of neuron connections. We found dramatic differences in the numbers of proteins in the neuron connections between different species". "We studied around 600 proteins that are found in mammalian synapses and were surprised to find that only 50 percent of these are also found in invertebrate synapses, and about 25 percent are in single-cell animals, which obviously don't have a brain." Most important for understanding of human thought, they found the expansion in proteins that occurred in vertebrates provided a pool of proteins that were used for making different parts of the brain into the specialised regions such as cortex, cerebellum and spinal cord. Since the evolution of molecularly complex, 'big' synapses occurred before the emergence of large brains, it may be that these molecular evolutionary events were necessary to allow evolution of big brains found in humans, pri
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POPSTranshumanism vs. Trans-Systemism What exactly is this “human” that we are supposed to extrapolate into the future? Is it an individual animal? A member of a species? A self-aware “software” that resides in the fore brain of an advanced mammal? Several combined pieces of software? Software combined with external knowledge and information? Does it depend on nature? Can it be distinguished form the system in which it resides? Can it exist without the broader system? ******** Perhaps the most critical challenge of transhumanist philosophy is exactly this: To offer a vision of the future human, the human of beyond. Transhumanism will not grow into a mature philosophy without defining and describing the possible favorable directions of human evolution, both as individuals and as a specie.
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POPSThe More We Know About Genes, the Less We Understand About 95 percent of the rewired bacteria did just fine with their new networks. They went on with their lives, feeding, growing and dividing. Some even performed better than microbes with the original wiring, under some conditions. The tolerance these bacteria showed reveals something important about how evolution works. Humans can randomly rewire cells, and so can mutations. There's something about gene networks that allow them to thrive despite these mutations, and, in some cases, to even gain an edge in the evolutionary race.
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