Month: February 2012
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So it looks like Alan Mathison Turing will have to wait for his pardon, perhaps as long as Gallileo waited, but Nature has done a nice job of collecting a special issue for the hundredth year from his birth. Turing raised so many profound questions in so many sciences. Here are just a few: “The…
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We recently discussed how DNA construction, also known as “DNA origami” can be used to build all kinds of nano-scale structures whose folded shape is determined by the DNA sequence. Now in Science we see a report from George Church’s lab of a cancer-detecting nanorobot made from DNA origami. This is the first I’ve seen…
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In India, and on certain faraway planets, snakes are revered. In the West, however snakes don’t get much respect. When they’re not offering forbidden fruit, or terrorizing planes, they’re consuming everything that moves in Florida. (Maybe a few snakes in New England would take care of Lyme disease?) But snakes were here on Earth long…
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It is often claimed that evolution is not a science because it cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. In fact, however, as we discussed at Boskone, evolution is now a laboratory science–and a growing tool of industry. The most famous example of experimental evolution is the domesticated silver fox bred from wild foxes by Russian…
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So they’re finally sounding alarms about Kessler debris. The Kessler effect, for those new to the idea, is that as orbiting space junk collides it generates a large number of pieces, which will increase exponentially until it makes near-Earth space unusable. Space junk was the big problem for Homeworld Security (besides fighting aliens) in The…
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Thanks for all the sage advice on the five-second rule. The Boskone program person just came for me, but I have a minute to ask what you all think of worm therapy. Now I hasten to add, as the saying goes, “Kids, don’t try this at home.” Picking up food after more than five seconds…
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Every once in a while a scientist/SF writer needs to get down to Earth. The other day a couple of Kenyon biology students stopped by my office to propose a term project in food safety. They plan to test an apparently well-known maxim known as the five second rule. This rule (well known, apparently, to…
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Besides the self-assembling structures we discussed recently, DNA’s base-pairing lets it function in a weird kind of computation. Most versions of such computation involve DNA strands containing short sequences that can base-pair to complementary sequences on other DNA strands. “Computation” occurs when the DNA strands are put together in solution, and rapidly “find” all their…
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So what else is DNA good for besides evolving meddlesome creatures that cover the planet with reactive oxygen, then others that breathe the oxygen and start looking for other planets? DNA–and its predecessor, RNA–are the most amazing building sets ever known. A recent article in Science shows how DNA can build self-programmed 3D structures. The…
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The news that Prop 8 went down in California is certainly welcome, although tempered by the split decision and the concurrent rise of wingnuts in local beauty contests. Some of us are old enough to recall when the GOP stood for financial probity and the common good. Sigh. Same-sex couples have been a subject of…
Joan Slonczewski 