<< These scenarios describe [..] predictions in what will be an algorithmic and smart machine driven world where people and machines must define harmonious relationships >>
Heather Levy. Gartner Predicts Our Digital Future. Gartner’s Top 10 Predictions herald what it means to be human in a digital world. October 6, 2015.
http://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-predicts-our-digital-future
<< DNA content of our genomes resembles a complex biological language, composed of coding regions and regulatory regions. Although protein-coding regions in DNA could be compared to a traffic signal – utilizing a simple stop or go message – the regulatory regions in DNA are more like poetry. “The regulatory sites in DNA operate like a light switch to turn a gene on and off. In animals, it’s extremely complex,” said David Arnosti (..) “There might be hundreds of protein factors in the cell that bind to the gene and impact activity. And there might be hundreds of binding places.” He compares the “language” used in these regulatory sites to poetry. “It may be Emily Dickinson, or Shakespeare or Allen Ginsberg; but all are using ‘words’ to evoke thoughts and emotions, to control the message” >>
Val Osowski, Layne Cameron. DO GENES EXPRESS THEMSELVES THROUGH POETRY? A new study from Michigan State University makes inroads in learning to “read” the genome, a key goal of modern biology. Published: May 9, 2016
http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/do-genes-express-themselves-through-poetry/
To understand transcription factor interactions on enhancers << (..) an extensive, quantitative perturbation analysis targeting the dorsal-ventral patterning gene regulatory network (GRN) controlled by Drosophila NF-κB homolog Dorsal [was used to test] the effects of cooperativity, repression, and factor potency >>
Rupinder Sayal, Jacqueline M Dresch, et al. Quantitative perturbation-based analysis of gene expression predicts enhancer activity in early Drosophila embryo. eLife 2016;5:e08445. Published May 6, 2016
<< beetles use the light of the Milky Way to navigate in the world >>
<< when the beetles dance on top of a ball of dung, they simultaneously take a photograph - a snapshot - of how celestial bodies are positioned. Then they know where they are going and roll off with their ball of dung in a straight line across the savannah >>
When dung beetles dance, they photograph the firmament. Lund University, 12 May 2016.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=164092&CultureCode=en
<< This is a dung beetle (Carabaeus lamarcki) dancing on top of its ball while reading the sky >> image, caption.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160512125422.htm
Basil el Jundi, James J. Foster, et al. A Snapshot-Based Mechanism for Celestial Orientation. Current Biology, 2016, in press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.03.030
FonT: l'immagine della blatta sulla sua pallina di sterco che danza e contemporaneamente, attraverso la danza, fotografa la volta celeste per orientarsi e' davvero suggestiva, poetica; mi ricorda un'altra immagine:
<< ... trasformati in uno scarabeo stercorario gigante >>
di Salman Rushdie ("I romanzi e la vita [..] Il mito di Proteo". La Rep., 16/06/2006, pp. 48-9) dalla quale avevo composto una breve rima (quasistocastica):
2022 - si risvegliano stercorari
Saturday, June 17, 2006
http://inkpi.blogspot.it/2006/06/2022-si-risvegliano-stercorari.html
<< Choosing what shirt to buy, what to order for lunch or whether to go with the hearty red wine or the lighter white all involve assigning values to the options. A small brain structure plays a central role in the many decisions like this we make each day. >>
<< (..) some of the neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) assign value to the options, while other neurons are related to making final choices. All of these neurons can re-map to make different decisions when circumstances change. >>
<< “If we look at individual cells, neurons are very flexible,” said Padoa-Schioppa. “However, if we consider the whole network, the decision circuit is remarkably stable. This combination of circuit stability and neuronal flexibility makes it possible for the same brain region to generate decisions between any two goods.” >>
Small Brain Area Plays Key Role in Making Everyday Decisions. 9-May-2016 12:05 PM EDT
http://www.newswise.com/articles/small-brain-area-plays-key-role-in-making-everyday-decisions
Jue Xie, Camillo Padoa-Schioppa. Neuronal remapping and circuit persistence in economic decisions. Nature Neuroscience (2016) doi:10.1038/nn.4300. Published online 09 May 2016.
<< Sorry, E.T. lovers, but the results of a new study make it far less likely that KIC 8462852, popularly known as Tabby's star, is the home of industrious aliens who are gradually enclosing it in a vast shell called a Dyson sphere. >>
ScienceDaily, 9 May 2016.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160509153708.htm
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2016/05/new-study-supports-natural-causes-not-alien-activity-explain-mystery-stars-behavior/
Michael Hippke, Daniel Angerhausen, et al. A statistical analysis of the accuracy of the digitized magnitudes of photometric plates on the time scale of decades with an application to the century-long light curve of KIC 8462852. Astrophysical Journal, May 2016. preprint: arXiv:1601.07314 [astro-ph.EP]
https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.07314
more:
<< “People have always assumed that within the green-plant lineage, all the early branches were unicellular,” says Frederik Leliaert, an evolutionary biologist at Ghent University in Belgium. “It is quite surprising that among those, a macroscopic seaweed pops up.” >>
Emma Marris. Strange seaweed rewrites history of green plants. Ancient alga developed large size and complex structure independently of other plants. 09 May 2016.
http://www.nature.com/news/strange-seaweed-rewrites-history-of-green-plants-1.19863?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
Frederik Leliaert, Ana Tronholm, et al. Chloroplast phylogenomic analyses revealthe deepest-branching lineage of the Chlorophyta, Palmophyllophyceae class.nov. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 25367 (2016) doi:10.1038/srep25367. 09 May 2016
<< The Late Show team also had a surprise for viewers ... >>
<< At the top of his show, Colbert also illustrated how most people reacted to Trump's presidential candidacy: laughing at his initial announcement, drinking heavily after news of his big primary wins and laughing maniacally when Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee. >>
Hilary Lewis. Cartoon Donald Trump, Stephen Colbert Deliver 'Hunger Games'-Inspired Farewell to Ted Cruz, John Kasich. 9:44 AM PDT 5/5/2016
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/stephen-colberts-hungry-power-games-890957
