Last time [LINK] I talked about cells and DNA and we covered some amazing facts like how many cells there are in the body (100 trillion) and how in each the human genome there are 3 billion instructions or base pairs. Amazing stuff.  This time I want to cover what DNA does. Why it the building block of all life? Again, this info is relatively new to me and some of it is probably wrong.
So DNA is sitting in the nucleus. It’s organized into chromosomes. A chromosome is essentially …

I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I don’t have a medical background but I have done a lot of reading in an effort to better understand how medicine and disease work, mostly with a view to better understanding cancer.
At this point I understand only the basics. I still don’t know what I don’t know, but I have more of an understanding than when I started and that’s enough to go on. This post is more for my own benefit to test if I understand …

The following article describes how scientists analyzed an entire human genome from a lady with cancer and found 10 mutations which they believe may have contributed to her disease [LINK].
Cancer is not a single disease, it’s a very personal one. I will write more in a future post on what exactly is meant by this. The human genome consists of approximately 3 billion instructions (DNA base pairs). That’s a LOT of instructions and hence a requires a lot of analysis. When the scientists say they’ve found 10 mutations, they …

Checkout this amazing photo of the Milky Way seen from inside a cave. This is the latest work from Wally Pacholka. [LINK]
“Pacholka, 59, an architect from Long Beach, California, relied on the light of a crescent moon to illuminate the subject and chose the area because of the near-absence of ambient light.
He said: ‘I had to drive 800 miles each way five times to get the shot right. And I had to hike two miles to the cave and back again at night, getting lost each time I came out.’
His …

Well it had to happen. Call it "boson peer pressure". The Large Hadron Collider has broken and needs repair[LINK]. What’s worse is it’ll have to heat up so the repairs can take place, otherwise the workmen would DIE in the cold.  The collider will be out of commission until spring 2009. So the secrets of the Universe, the Higgs boson a.k.a. god particle, strangelets etc. will all have to wait.
Maybe they can get it turned on in time for the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan …

Nice job on the rap and science here which pretty much sums up the Large Hadron Collider
 
The beams start flying EARLY Wednesday morning…[LINK]

In a recent Channel 4 documentary on evolution, presented by Richard Dawkins, he makes the following statement:
"The total amount of suffering in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to say these words, thousands of animals are running for their lives whimpering with fear, feeling teeth sink into their throats. Thousands are dying from starvation or disease or feeling a parasite rasping away from within. There is no central authority, no safety net. For most animals the reality of life …

A terrific article on the "Quackometer" here [LINK]. It talks about the lack of clinical testing and scientific evidence to backup the incredible claims made by the alternative medicine community.
Why do I care about this? Actually normally I wouldn’t care. Just that Karen has cancer.
When a loved one is ill, you’ll do anything to improve the situation. When Karen was diagnosed (over a year ago), I quickly set about researching her form of cancer, trying to uncover a potential cure or complimentary therapy.
I quickly became overwhelmed with …

I’ve started a new blog here [LINK] http://coloncancerbites.blogspot.com http://karenscancer.blogspot.com where I’ll post the various updates on Karen’s Cancer (until such time as she is free and clear). Upon initial diagnosis we were both nothing short of devastated. Cancer has a way of beating you up, slowly. Being diagnosed throws you into a world that you never want to be in. You are hit with a wave of unpleasant information. Yet there is hope and the blog is one way we’ll spread that hope to other people who may be scared …

I learned something new today: A singularity (small s) is not the same as The Singularity. So the general definition of a singularity as we all know is the point at the center of a black hole where everything converges, common laws of physics break down and everything goes to hell in a hand-basket.
The Singularity is a term coined in the Artificial Intelligence community.
"The Singularity is defined as the point in time where Superior Artificial Intelligence (SAI) is created. An SAI can, by definition, think thoughts that …