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mefi
While evolution is one of the best-supported theories in science, one lay criticism is that it doesn't explain the creation of life from non-life, or
abiogenesis. This is a different problem domain, of course, as survival of the fittest hardly applies if there's nothing alive yet. There have been many guesses over the years: the most commonly accepted is "the primordial soup". That's probably what you learned in school, the Frankenstein's Monster approach to cell creation. Start with a random chemical bath, throw enough lightning at it, and mysterious magic happens, somehow resulting in life.
Dr. William Martin of the University of Düsseldorf, working with geochemist Mike Russell, has presented an actual theory of abiogenesis. It neatly explains both bacteria and
archaea, describes fairly closely why they function the way they do, and shows why we don't see new life being created now. Their suggestion: our original ancestor wasn't lightning-zapped soup, but rather
a proton-powered rock.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 10:48 PM on October 19, 2009
(75 comments)
Chronotron is a Flash game in the same vein as the earlier
Cursor*10, which was deliberately triple-posted. (Sadly, the mods didn't see the humor value....) This is a very clever game mechanic, in which you cooperate with
yourself to try to solve puzzles. Lots of fun.
(I also found it slightly depressing to realize just how predictable I am.) [via]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 4:04 PM on May 13, 2008
(14 comments)
Hacking the Senses: The brain is far more plastic than we commonly realize. Presenting new 'senses' via the old inputs works extremely well, to the point that long-term volunteers are a little lost without their new abilities to feel magnetic north or absolute orientation. Tasting direction; feeling pictures. Fascinating stuff. In a loosely related article,
genetically modified mice are able to see the full color range visible to humans, even though the last natural mouse able to see this way died out a hundred million years ago. Add the new sensors, and the brain reconfigures.
[via]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 2:27 AM on April 5, 2007
(68 comments)
The Navy's detention facility at Hanrahan has a created a secret prison-within-a-prison and, per the article, developed elaborate plans to dodge public scrutiny of its operations to detain enemy combatants. "In detaining American citizens, full constitutional rights are afforded except where curtailed by higher guidance or accepted prison practice,"
the report said.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 6:02 AM on February 25, 2007
(23 comments)
itulip.com has returned. Back in the go-go days when Internet stocks ruled the world, iTulip was one of a very few voices warning about the Nasdaq bubble and the likely fallout. (
Prudent Bear was another.) As bad as things got, the overall financial bubble never really popped, it just shifted into debt and real estate after furious slashing of interest rates and money-printing by the Fed. Financial manias are terrible; their unraveling has been compared with economic nuclear weapons. (cf:
The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble [amazon book link] and the
Dutch Tulip Mania.) The only good solution to a bubble is not to have one in the first place. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 6:46 AM on March 15, 2006
(13 comments)
The Earth is Not Moving. From the foreword: "The second [goal] is to establish a real understanding of how the theory which says that the Earth turns on an axis and orbits the sun has triumphed in spite of having no evidence whatsoever to support it." The explanation of
why tides can't possibly be due to the Moon's gravity is particularly enlightening. As Wikipedia's page on
modern geocentrism points out, General Relativity says that all frames of reference are equally valid, so at least some of these people aren't
completely wrong. Will the return of geocentrism be the next step after creationism? When do we get to burn witches again?
First link [via].
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 8:29 PM on March 13, 2006
(36 comments)
Why
we have a Martin Luther King Day. What an amazing speech.
[Coral cache][via]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 6:02 PM on January 15, 2006
(48 comments)
You see a large shipping crate. It has been wrapped in chains and secured with a stout padlock. Curiously, each link is engraved with the letters "BSA." (more inside)
posted to MetaFilter by Malor
at 2:07 PM on October 5, 2005
(24 comments)
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