Month: April 2015

DNA rewriting for memory

We used to think that once a cell reaches full maturation, its DNA is totally stable, including the molecular tags attached to it to control its genes and maintain the cell’s identity. Some cells actually alter their DNA all the time, just to perform everyday functions

2021-08-30: DNA breaks for memory consolidation

When the team mapped genes undergoing double-strand breaks in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of mice that had been shocked, they found breaks occurring near 100s of genes, many of which were involved in synaptic processes related to memory. DNA breakage might be a regulatory mechanism in many other cell types. But even if breaking DNA is a particularly fast way to induce crucial gene expression, whether for memory consolidation or for other cellular functions, it’s also risky. If the double-strand breaks occur at the same locations over and over again and aren’t properly repaired, genetic information could be lost. Moreover, “this type of gene regulation could render neurons vulnerable to genomic lesions, especially during aging and under neurotoxic conditions. It is interesting that it’s used so intensively in the brain, and that the cells can get away with it without incurring damage that’s devastating.”

Low housing supply

Rent Will Remain Too Damn High for the Foreseeable Future

But as the US economy has improved, people have been bursting out of their parents’ basements. Estimates of new household formation have surged in recent months. The thing is, these folks don’t go from 0-to-homeowner in a matter of months. They rent. And that’s why rental vacancy rates also have fallen back to levels last seen in the early 1990s.

After religion

Polls and studies show that people in the developed world are increasingly moving away from religion. Given the rapid trend towards more secular societies in parts of Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, it’s possible that in just a few decades, many cultures will have no central religious tradition at all. But where will that leave us? Happily in pursuit of romantic love and material wealth, or still desiring a deeper form of fulfillment? In What Comes After Religion?, the UK-based author and philosopher Alain de Botton argues that the human needs which religion has fulfilled for centuries – community, a longing for transcendent beauty, a deeper sense of purpose – will still exist in the absence of religious belief. How we replace it will be an ongoing challenge in the brave new secular world.

Cyclic universe

Is Our Universe a One-Off Fluke, or an Endless Cycle?

If we throw out inflation theory, what other explanations do we have?

It’s possible that what we think of as the “bang” that started everything was really just another bounce—a transition from a preexisting phase of contraction into one of rapid expansion. With that idea, there’s a whole new domain of time, before the bounce, before the bang, with which you can introduce processes that would naturally smooth and flatten the universe. The contraction would be very gentle and slow compared to the very rapid inflationary expansion, but it would still go at a non-uniform rate. This would translate into fluctuations of temperature and density after the bounce consistent with the fluctuations we see in the cosmic microwave background. This leads to a picture of a cyclical universe. Could there have been a series of bounces in the past? It’s a natural possibility. With each bounce, there’s always going to be this smoothing, flattening process that ends up erasing information, or spreading out information so thinly from what preceded it, that there is almost no trace of it in the universe that you can directly find. The way you get around the problem of beginning is that there is no beginning. It was always there doing this, forever in the past and forever in the future.

Grave wax

This “grave wax” buildup has disturbed the natural cycle of decay — and created a horror scenario for burial authorities. When bodies don’t decompose, their graves can’t be reused — a common practice in Germany. This widespread problem has given rise to an entire industry that aims to save the day with new methods of rot. The latest innovation on this morbid market is the Swiss-engineered Linder reconditioning system — a severe method that involves deep incursions into cemeteries. After excavating the unusable soil, Linder fills the area with a “custom mixture of topsoil, woodchips and gravel.”

Bioethics will kill us all

We have ideological biases that say, “we shouldn’t be meddling with nature” In China, 95% of an audience would say, “Obviously you should make babies genetically healthier, happier, and brighter!” There’s a big cultural difference

As of 2021-07-01, things are even worse:

Probably the biggest mistake was not intentionally infecting vaccinated volunteers. This could be done in 1 month, vs 6.5 months for the ecological trials that the entire world did out of misguided PR ethics. (2.5 is probably more realistic given signups, approvals, and big pharma’s slow data analysis and reporting. That’s still 100K of lives.)

1DaySooner wrote a letter. The world’s foremost consequentialist signed. The world’s foremost deontologist signed. 2 of the most prominent bioethicists in the world signed. 15 Nobelists signed. 10s of philosophers who otherwise agree on extremely little signed. But they’re unethical.

Rarely do I so strongly feel the boot of others on my neck, and humanity’s neck.

The one distinctively courageous thing about the UK – the human challenge trials which got 40K volunteers – actually eventually started!.. In January 2021, with n=90.