O DNA móvel e a evolução no século 21

terça-feira, maio 31, 2011

Mob DNA. 2010; 1: 4.
Published online 2010 January 25. doi: 10.1186/1759-8753-1-4.
PMCID: PMC2836002

Copyright ©2010 Shapiro; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Mobile DNA and evolution in the 21st century

James A Shapiro1

1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Gordon Center for Integrative Science W123B, 929 E 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Corresponding author.
James A Shapiro: jsha@uchicago.edu

Received August 14, 2009; Accepted January 25, 2010.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Scientific history has had a profound effect on the theories of evolution. At the beginning of the 21st century, molecular cell biology has revealed a dense structure of information-processing networks that use the genome as an interactive read-write (RW) memory system rather than an organism blueprint. Genome sequencing has documented the importance of mobile DNA activities and major genome restructuring events at key junctures in evolution: exon shuffling, changes in cis-regulatory sites, horizontal transfer, cell fusions and whole genome doublings (WGDs). The natural genetic engineering functions that mediate genome restructuring are activated by multiple stimuli, in particular by events similar to those found in the DNA record: microbial infection and interspecific hybridization leading to the formation of allotetraploids. These molecular genetic discoveries, plus a consideration of how mobile DNA rearrangements increase the efficiency of generating functional genomic novelties, make it possible to formulate a 21st century view of interactive evolutionary processes. This view integrates contemporary knowledge of the molecular basis of genetic change, major genome events in evolution, and stimuli that activate DNA restructuring with classical cytogenetic understanding about the role of hybridization in species diversification.

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ABGLT: Vai queimar Bíblia em frente da Catedral de Brasília 01/06/2011


ATENÇÃO SR. MINISTRO DA JUSTIÇA: ISSO É CRIME!!!

Imaginem, o PL-122 ainda nem foi aprovado e esses indivíduos querem porque querem implantar a Ditadura Gayzista no Brasil, e põem as manguinhas de fora do que são capazes esses intolerantes!!!

Se o PL-122 for aprovado do jeito que está redigido, este blogger conclama os heterossexuais brasileiros para DESOBEDIÊNCIA CIVIL pacificamente a la Gandhi e Luther King!!!

RESISTIR É EXISTIR!!!

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Os covardes da ABGLT mudaram rapidamente o texto:

Data
Cidade
Estado
País
Evento
Contato
28/11/2008Porto AlegreRio Grande do Sul13° EB LGBT – Encontro Brasileiro de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais (28 a 30 de novembro)As fichas de inscrições já estão disponíveis no http://13eblgbt.blogspot.com
Você deve acessar a ficha, preencher e enviar para o e-mail somos@somos.org.br com o título ficha de inscriçã
02/10/2009FortalezaCearáI Encontro Nacional de Jovens Gays, 02 a 04/10/2009grab@uol.com.br
01/06/2011BrasíliaDFBrasil"Queimando a homofobia" - Aglomeração as 14:00 na porta da catedral. Tragem livros religiosos, por uma sociedade em prol da diversidadeJoão Henrique Boing - xboingx@hotmail.com
Wesley Frederico - webmaster@diariotlover.com

Agora a ABGLT está dizendo que o seu site foi hackeado! Não tem macho nesta ABGLT para assumir o crime que perpetraram??? Notem a presteza do site do UOL em publicar a nota às 20h48!!!

Como os cães bebem água


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Source/Fonte: New Scientist

Estudante da Universidade Monash descobre a massa perdida do universo

Monash student finds Universe’s missing mass

23 May 2011

A Monash student has made a breakthrough in the field of astrophysics, discovering what has until now been described as the Universe’s ‘missing mass’. Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, working within a team at the Monash School of Physics, conducted a targeted X-ray search for the matter and within just three months found it – or at least some of it.

Dr Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway, Amelia Fraser-McKelvie and Dr Kevin Pimbblet


What makes the discovery all the more noteworthy is the fact that Ms Fraser-McKelvie is not a career researcher, or even studying at a postgraduate level. She is a 22-year-old undergraduate Aerospace Engineering/Science student who pinpointed the missing mass during a summer scholarship, working with two astrophysicists at the School of Physics, Dr Kevin Pimbblet and Dr Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway.

The School of Physics put out a call for students interested in a six-week paid astrophysics research internship during a recent vacation period, and chose Ms Fraser-McKelvie from a large number of applicants. Dr Pimbblet, lecturer in the School of Physics put the magnitude of the discovery in context by explaining that scientists had been hunting for the Universe’s missing mass for decades.

“It was thought from a theoretical viewpoint that there should be about double the amount of matter in the local Universe compared to what was observed. It was predicted that the majority of this missing mass should be located in large-scale cosmic structures called filaments - a bit like thick shoelaces,” said Dr Pimbblet.
...

Read more here: Monash University

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An estimate of the electron density in filaments of galaxies at z~0.1

Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, Kevin A. Pimbblet, Jasmina S. Lazendic

(Submitted on 4 Apr 2011 (v1), last revised 6 Apr 2011 (this version, v2))

Most of the baryons in the Universe are thought to be contained within filaments of galaxies, but as yet, no single study has published the observed properties of a large sample of known filaments to determine typical physical characteristics such as temperature and electron density. This paper presents a comprehensive large-scale search conducted for X-ray emission from a population of 41 bona fide filaments of galaxies to determine their X-ray flux and electron density. The sample is generated from Pimbblet et al.'s (2004) filament catalogue, which is in turn sourced from the 2 degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). Since the filaments are expected to be very faint and of very low density, we used stacked ROSAT All-Sky Survey data. We detect a net surface brightness from our sample of filaments of (1.6 +/- 0.1) x 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} arcmin^{-2} in the 0.9-1.3 keV energy band for 1 keV plasma, which implies an electron density of n_{e} = (4.7 +/- 0.2) x 10^{-4} h_{100}^{1/2} cm^{-3}. Finally, we examine if a filament's membership to a supercluster leads to an enhanced electron density as reported by Kull & Bohringer (1999). We suggest it remains unclear if supercluster membership causes such an enhancement.

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. v2: typos corrected
Subjects: Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
Cite as: arXiv:1104.0711v2 [astro-ph.CO]


Submission historyFrom: Kevin A. Pimbblet [view email
[v1] Mon, 4 Apr 2011 23:41:24 GMT (280kb)
[v2] Wed, 6 Apr 2011 23:04:26 GMT (280kb)

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Aptidão relativa, teleologia, e o cenário adaptativo: uma visão teleológica evolucionária

segunda-feira, maio 30, 2011

Relative Fitness, Teleology, and the Adaptive Landscape

John O. Reiss

Received: 16 January 2007 / Accepted: 19 January 2007 / Published online: 14 July 2007

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Abstract 

The metaphor of the adaptive landscape, introduced by Sewall Wright in 1932, has played, and continues to play, a central role in much evolutionary thought. I argue that the use of this metaphor is tied to teleological view of the evolutionary process, in which natural selection directs evolution toward an improved future state. I argue further that the use of ‘‘relative fitnesses’’ standardized to an arbitrary value, which is closely connected with the metaphor of an adaptive landscape, produces a disconnect between the mean fitness of a population and any real property of that population. This allows for a vague and ill-defined improvement to occur under the influence of selection. Instead, I suggest that relative fitnesses should be standardized by the mean absolute fitness (expected population growth rate), so that they express the expected rate of increase in frequency,rather than number. Under this definition, the mean relative fitness of all populations is always 1.0, and never changes as long as the population continues to exist.

Keywords Fitness landscape Adaptation Fisher Fundamental theorem of natural selection

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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:

O cenário adaptativo de Sewall Wright has played, and continues to play, a central role in much evolutionary thought. I argue that the use of this metaphor is tied to teleological view of the evolutionary process, in which natural selection directs evolution toward an improved future state.

Gente, alguém me belisque, mas se for realmente assim, a evolução é um processo teleológico!!! Argh, isso é como ressuscitar Darwin e assassiná-lo sem dó nem piedade!!!

Fui, não sei por que, pensando -- não se faz mais seleção natural como antigamente em 1859... Pobre Darwin, Kaput!!!

Circuitos biológicos para biologia sintética

Biological Circuits for Synthetic Biology

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2011) — "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own," said Wes "Scoop" Nisker. Taking a page from the book of San Francisco radio legend Scoop Nisker, biologists who find themselves dissatisfied with the microbes nature has provided are going out and making some of their own. Members of the fast-growing "synthetic biology" research community are designing and constructing novel organisms and biologically-inspired systems -- or redesigning existing organisms and systems -- to solve problems that natural systems cannot. The range of potential applications for synthetic biological systems runs broad and deep, and includes such profoundly important ventures as the microbial-based production of advanced biofuels and inexpensive versions of critical therapeutic drugs.

Berkeley Lab researchers are using RNA molecules to engineer genetic networks – analogous to microcircuits - into E. coli. (Credit: Image courtesy of DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Synthetic biology, however, is still a relatively new scientific field plagued with the trial and error inefficiencies that hamper most technologies in their early stages of development. To help address these problems, synthetic biologists aim to create biological circuits that can be used for the safer and more efficient construction of increasingly complex functions in microorganisms. A central component of such circuits is RNA, the multipurpose workhorse molecule of biology.

"A widespread natural ability to sense small molecules and regulate genes has made the RNA molecule an important tool for synthetic biology in applications as diverse as environmental sensing and metabolic engineering," says Adam Arkin, a computational biologist with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where he serves as director of the Physical Biosciences Division. Arkin is also a professor at the University of California (UC) Berkeley where he directs the Synthetic Biology Institute, a partnership between UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab.

In his multiple capacities, Arkin is leading a major effort to use RNA molecules for the engineering of programmable genetic networks. In recent years, scientists have learned that the behavior of cells is often governed by multiple different genes working together in networked teams that are regulated through RNA-based mechanisms. Synthetic biologists have been using RNA regulatory mechanisms to program genetic networks in cells to achieve specific results. However, to date these programming efforts have required proteins to propagate RNA regulatory signals. This can pose problems because one of the primary goals of synthetic biology is to create families of standard genetic parts that can be combined to create biological circuits with behaviors that are to some extent predictable. Proteins can be difficult to design and predict. They also add a layer of complexity to biological circuits that can delay and slow the dynamics of the circuit's responses.

"We're now able to eliminate the protein requirement and directly propagate regulatory signals as RNA molecules," Arkin says.

Working with their own variations of RNA transcription attenuators -- nucleotide sequences that under a specific set of conditions will stop the RNA transcription process -- Arkin and his colleagues engineered a system in which these independent attenuators can be configured to sense RNA input and synthesize RNA output signals. These variant RNA attenuators can also be configured to regulate multiple genes in the same cell and -- through the controlled expression of these genes -- perform logic operations.
...

Read more here/Leia mais aqui: Science Daily

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Versatile RNA-sensing transcriptional regulators for engineering genetic networks

Julius B. Lucksa, b,1,2, Lei Qia,1, Vivek K. Mutalik c, Denise Wang a, and Adam P. Arkin a,c,d,3

Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
bMiller Institute for Basic Research in Science, Berkeley, CA 94720;
cPhysical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720; and
dCalifornia Institute for Quantitative Sciences (QB3), Berkeley, CA 94720

Edited* by Jennifer A. Doudna, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved April 11, 2011 (received for review October 19, 2010)

Abstract

The widespread natural ability of RNA to sense small molecules and regulate genes has become an important tool for synthetic biology in applications as diverse as environmental sensing and metabolic engineering. Previous work in RNA synthetic biology has engineered RNA mechanisms that independently regulate multiple targets and integrate regulatory signals. However, intracellular regulatory networks built with these systems have required proteins to propagate regulatory signals. In this work, we remove this requirement and expand the RNA synthetic biology toolkit by engineering three unique features of the plasmid pT181 antisense-RNA-mediated transcription attenuation mechanism. First, because the antisense RNA mechanism relies on RNA-RNA interactions, we show how the specificity of the natural system can be engineered to create variants that independently regulate multiple targets in the same cell. Second, because the pT181 mechanism controls transcription, we show how independently acting variants can be configured in tandem to integrate regulatory signals and perform genetic logic. Finally, because both the input and output of the attenuator is RNA, we show how these variants can be configured to directly propagate RNA regulatory signals by constructing an RNA-meditated transcriptional cascade. The combination of these three features within a single RNA-based regulatory mechanism has the potential to simplify the design and construction of genetic networks by directly propagating signals as RNA molecules.

gene networks, regulatory systems, orthogonal regulators

Footnotes

1J.B.L. and L.Q. contributed equally to this work.

2Present address: School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, 120 Olin Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850.

3To whom correspondence should be addressed at: E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS Stanley-922, Berkeley, CA 94720. E-mail: aparkin@lbl.gov.

Author contributions: J.B.L., L.Q., V.K.M., D.W., and A.P.A. designed research; J.B.L., L.Q., V.K.M., and D.W. performed research; J.B.L., L.Q., V.K.M., and A.P.A. analyzed data; and J.B.L., L.Q., V.K.M., and A.P.A. wrote the paper.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.

This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1015741108/-/DCSupplemental.

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

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Robustez: uma chave para o design evolucionário

Biological Theory/1/1/2006

Robustness: A Key to Evolutionary Design

Peter Hammerstein,∗ Edward H. Hagen, Andreas V. M. Herz, and Hanspeter Herzel

Institute for Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

p.hammerstein@biologie.hu-berlin.de

Received October 20, 2005; accepted October 24, 2005

Why Bother About Robustness?

Engineers wish to create systems that are both functional and robust. Robustness is the ability of a system to maintain its functionality across a wide range of operational conditions.

Different conditions arise, for example, from environmental variation, input perturbation, sloppiness of system components, and subversion (e.g., computer viruses). In the life sciences, robustness has been an implicit theme for more than a century. For instance, biologists have long understood mechanisms of thermoregulation that enable homeothermic organisms to operate throughout an impressive range of ambient temperatures. It would thus seem like selling old wine in new bottles if one claimed robustness to be a new theme of the life sciences. New, however, is the recognition that robustness is a key to understanding the evolutionary design of virtually all living systems (see Kitano 2004 for an excellent review). This is why it is now worthwhile to further develop the biological concept of robustness and to reflect on its role in the life sciences.

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Charles Darwin: gênio ou um cara simplesmente esforçado???

Genetics. 2009 November; 183(3): 773–777.
PMCID: PMC2778975

Copyright © 2009 by the Genetics Society of America

Anecdotal, Historical and Critical Commentaries on Genetics

Charles Darwin: Genius or Plodder?

Adam S. Wilkins1
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 14193 Berlin, Germany
1Address for correspondence: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Wallotstrasse 19, 14193 Berlin, Germany. E-mail: wilkins316@btinternet.com

This article has been corrected. See Genetics. 2010 February; 184(2): 607.


Abstract

There is no doubt about the magnitude of Charles Darwin's contributions to science. There has, however, been a long-running debate about how brilliant he was. His kind of intelligence was clearly different from that of the great physicists who are deemed geniuses. Here, the nature of Darwin's intelligence is examined in the light of Darwin's actual style of working. Surprisingly, the world of literature and the field of neurobiology might supply more clues to resolving the puzzle than conventional scientific history. Those clues suggest that the apparent discrepancy between Darwin's achievements and his seemingly pedestrian way of thinking reveals nothing to Darwin's discredit but rather a too narrow and inappropriate set of criteria for "genius." The implications of Darwin's particular creative gifts with respect to the development of scientific genius in general are briefly discussed.

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O gene egoísta revisitado: a reconciliação de Williams-Dawkins as definições convencionais

The Selfish Gene Revisited: Reconciliation of Williams–Dawkins and Conventional Definitions

Donald R. Forsdyke

Department of Biochemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. forsdyke@queensu.ca

Abstract

Sightings of the revolutionary comet that appeared in the skies of evolutionary biology in 1976—the selfish gene—date back to the 19th and early 20th centuries. It became generally recognized that genes were located on chromosomes and compete with each other in a manner consistent with the later appellation “selfish.” Chromosomes were seen as disruptable by the apparently random “cut and paste” process known as recombination. However, each gene was only a small part of its chromosome. On a statistical basis a gene should escape disruption for many generations. This led George Williams and Richard Dawkins to a new definition of the gene, differing from conventional biochemical definitions in that there were no consistent genic boundaries. There had been no previous sightings of another revolutionary, albeit less verbally spectacular, comet that appeared in 1975—the homostability principle of Akiyoshi Wada. Each gene has a base composition “accent” that distinguishes it from its neighbors. We now see that recombination can be triggered by the shift in base composition at genic boundaries. Hence, the Williams–Dawkins definition approaches the conventional definitions.

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A tão-chamada Síntese Ampliada e a Genética de Populações

The So-Called Extended Synthesis and Population Genetics

Lindsay R. Craig
Department of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma
Lindsay.R.Craig-1@ou.edu

Abstract: 

In recent years, several prominent biologists have pointed to the relatively new field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) as evidence of an Extended Synthesis in evolutionary biology. More particularly, these biologists claim that theoretical and empirical evo-devo research is extending the Modern Synthesis framework of evolutionary theory through investigation of evolutionarily important concepts that are not part of the framework developed during the 20 th century. To describe the current changes in evolutionary biology as an Extended Synthesis, however, is incorrect. Through review of Extended Synthesis arguments and analysis of the same biological concepts used to support these arguments, I argue that the foundation of the Modern Synthesis framework, theoretical population genetics, faces significant, perhaps insurmountable challenges from the concepts highlighted by evo-devo research. Because the foundation of the Modern Synthesis framework will require considerable remodeling—if possible—in light of the concepts emphasized by evo-devo, it is incorrect to describe the ongoing changes in evolutionary biology as an Extended Synthesis.

Keywords: evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo); evolutionary theory; Extended Synthesis; population genetics

** In Press for 2010 in Biological Theory: Integrating Development, Evolution, and Cognition, 5(2)

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NOTA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Eu queria ver a cara de alguns professores e pesquisadores de universidades públicas e privadas, espero que ainda sejam meus amigos, que quando eu dizia existir uma crise heurística na Síntese Evolutiva Moderna (SEM), ou riam de mim ou me censuravam dizendo que nao havia nenhuma crise com a teoria da evolução. Isso, apesar de embasar minhas críticas na literatura especializada e chamar a atenção deles para essas anomalias que a SEM está sem (eu não pude resistir) cacife no contexto de justificação teórica. 

Como eu escrevia até um tempo atrás -- aqui neste blog, a gente mata a cobra e mostra o pau!!!

E nós vamos ter que esperar a nova teoria geral da evolução -- a SÍNTESE EVOLUTIVA AMPLIADA ser elaborada e apresentada à comunidade científica em 2020. Caracas, mano, como é que fica então a prática da ciência normal? Eu aprendi que a ciência abomina o vácuo epistêmico... mas, quando a questão é Darwin é tutti cosa nostra, capice???

A essência das teorias científicas

The Essence of Scientific Theories

David L. Hull

Emeritus Professor, Department of Philosophy

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA

david.lee.hull@etss.net

The goal of the new journal, Biological Theory, is to integrate development, evolution, and cognition, emphasizing the conceptual integration afforded by evolutionary and developmental approaches. What interactions have taken place between these areas of scientific research in the past? What interactions can we expect from them in the future? Answering these questions is quite difficult, in large part because such notions as scientific theories and conceptual systems are not all that clear. Can Darwin’s theory be characterized from Darwin’s earliest formulation to the present by a set of essential propositions? Did neo-Darwinism comprise a new theory or was it just a reworking of Darwinism? How about the new synthesis, the neutral theory of evolution, punctuated equilibrium, molecular drive, and EvoDevo, not to mention developmental systems theory, nongenetic systems of inheritance, and niche construction?

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Alô CAPES: Esta importante publicação científica não pode ficar de fora da lista de periódicos gratuitamente disponíveis para os professores, pesquisadores e alunos de universidades públicas e privadas com acesso ao site CAPES/Periódicos.

Agora eu posso entender o por que de a Nomenklatura científica tupiniquim ter ficado em silêncio sobre o status epistêmico da teoria da evolução de Darwin através da seleção natural e n mecanismos evolucionários (de A a Z): não tem acesso a uma publicação científica que está considerando a necessidade de uma mudança paradigmática em biologia evolutiva!!!

Fato, fenômeno, e teoria na tradição de pesquisa darwiniana

Biological Theory 2(2) 2007, 168–178.

Fact, Phenomenon, and Theory in the Darwinian Research Tradition

Bruce H. Weber

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
California State University Fullerton
Fullerton, CA, USA

bhweber@fullerton.edu

&

Robert H. Woodworth Chair in Science and Natural Philosophy
Bennington College
Bennington, VT, USA

Abstract

From its inception Darwinian evolutionary biology has been seen as having a problematic relationship of fact and theory. While the forging of the modern evolutionary synthesis resolved most of these issues for biologists, critics continue to argue that natural selection and common descent are “only theories.” Much of the confusion engendered by the “evolution wars” can be clarified by applying the concept of phenomena, inferred from fact, and explained by theories, thus locating where legitimate dissent may still exist. By setting such analysis in the context of research traditions, it is possible to gain further insight into the complex interplay of facts, phenomena, and theories. Two case studies are explored to assess the value of such approaches, one from within evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect, and one from outside, intelligent design.

Keywords

Baldwin effect, Darwinian research tradition, Darwinism, evolution, fact, intelligent design, neo-Darwinism, phenomenon, research program, research tradition, theory

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FREE PDF GRATIS

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PERGUNTA DESTE BLOGGER:


Alô CAPES/Periódicos: 


Por que a Biological Theory, uma importante publicação científica está fora das publicações científicas deste portal???

O Sr. História explica

Authorized use/Uso autorizado: Yaakov Kirschen Dry Bones Blog

1. Os incansáveis ataques das Nações Unidas sobre Israel...

2. ... eventualmente provocou sua deslegitimização.

3. De Israel? Não!

4. Das Nações Unidas.

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Para, por e com Israel, sempre!!! Apesar de [preencher as lacunas como essas atitudes contrárias à existência de Israel como Estado].

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NOTA DE ESCLARECIMENTO DESTE BLOGGER:

Embora seja favorável a um estado palestino, politicamente sou HAWK e sionista. Para um bom entendedor essas poucas palavras bastam. Isso também se aplica à política externa brasileira em relação a Israel!!! SOU CONTRA!!!

Veha'arev - Yaakov Shwekey

domingo, maio 29, 2011



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Para, por e com Israel, sempre! Apesar de [preencher as lacunas...]

Craig Venter nega a ideia de ancestralidade comum e Richard Dawkins fica pasmo


Craig Venter on evolution

Holocausto silencioso



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HOLOCAUSTO SILENCIOSO AUTORIZADO PELOS HERODES PÓS-MODERNOS!!!

A relevância do entrelaçamento variável contínuo no DNA

sexta-feira, maio 27, 2011

The relevance of continuous variable entanglement in DNA

Elisabeth Rieper, Janet Anders, Vlatko Vedral
(Submitted on 21 Jun 2010 (this version), latest version 23 Feb 2011 (v2)

We consider a chain of harmonic oscillators with dipole-dipole interaction between nearest neighbours resulting in a van der Waals type bonding. The binding energies between entangled and classically correlated states are compared. We apply our model to DNA. By comparing our model with numerical simulations we conclude that entanglement may play a crucial role in explaining the stability of the DNA double helix.

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures
Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1006.4053v1 [quant-ph]

Submission historyFrom: Elisabeth Rieper [view email
[v1] Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:32:59 GMT (573kb)
[v2] Wed, 23 Feb 2011 04:30:41 GMT (615kb)

Praxmand e Ditchkins falam sobre ciência



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NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:


Qualquer semelhança com Richard Dawkins não é mera coincidência não, é ele mesmo!!! Rachei de rir quando vi este vídeo!!! Alguém se lembra qual foi o último artigo ou pesquisa científica deste zóologo neo-ateu pós-moderno chique e prefumado??? Eu nem sei quando foi que ele escreveu algo científico. Se alguém souber de algum, favor me enviar um e-mail: neddybr@gmail.com

Ditadura da Nomenklatura científica com apoio de laureados com o Prêmio Nobel?

Thursday 26 May 2011

Putting humanity in a kangaroo court

When Nobel laureates staged a mock eco-trial in Stockholm last week, they were really demanding to rule the world.

Ben Pile 

You may not have noticed, but last week you were a co-defendant in a court case. In Stockholm, the Third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability met at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The event website proclaimed that ‘hjumanity [sic] will be on trial as the Third Nobel Laureate Symposium brings together almost 20 Nobel Laureates, a number of leading policy makers and some of the world’s most renowned thinkers and experts on global sustainability.’

The charge against us, humanity, was that ‘our vast imprint on the planet’s environment has shifted the Earth into a new geological period labelled the “Anthropocene” – the Age of Man’. But this was a showtrial. The guilty verdict had been written before the court had even assembled. ‘The prosecution will therefore maintain that humanity must work towards global stewardship around the planet’s intrinsic boundaries, a scientifically defined space within which we can continue to develop’, claimed Professor Will Steffen, showtrial ‘prosecutor’ and executive director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University. The website and literature accompanying the symposium made no mention of the defence’s argument. Indeed, why would a Symposium on Global Sustainability invite a defence that challenged the premises it intended to promote?

The ‘trial’ was merely a stunt, of course, designed to make a stuffy, pompous and self-serving enterprise such as this more appealing to the media and the hoi polloi it sought to prosecute. It was one of a number of sessions at the event, each intended to qualify the sustainability agenda with the expertise of its participants. But this circle-jerk, show-trial symposium revealed far more about its members and the hollowness of the sustainability agenda than it revealed about humanity.

A trial implies a question mark over the guilt of the accused. A showtrial on the other hand, is a performance designed to serve some agenda or purpose, to make political capital from the trumped-up crimes of the defendant, whose ‘guilt’ has already been established. And so it is with the litany of charges served against humanity: we are ‘influencing critical Earth system processes’, ‘pushing the planet out of the 10,000-year Holocene environment’, causing ‘irreversible and abrupt changes’. These are our transgressions. They were recited in the courtroom melodrama, not to encourage scrutiny of ourselves, of society, or even really our relationship with nature, but to elevate the judges and their agenda. After all, without criminals, there can be no judges.

There is a strange irony to the spectacle of the world’s best thinkers putting humanity on trial. At the same time as they sit in judgement of humanity, those who seemingly best represent its virtues distance themselves from it. This act reflects a disconnect between the world’s elite – the establishment, in other words – and the rest of humanity. It is a practical demonstration of the extent to which contempt for humanity has been absorbed into establishment thinking.

Environmentalists often find it hard to understand why their arguments and actions are taken as a reflection of deep anti-humanism. But the symposium epitomises the degradation of the concept of humanity. It’s not merely the symbolic act of the Great and Good sitting above the rest of us and passing judgement; anti-humanism runs through their discussion. The showtrial diminishes the defendant – humanity – by making the plaintiff the Earth. There are only two ways this can be made sensible: either the Earth has characteristics that qualify it as a ‘person’ deserving of legal status, or humanity does not have characteristics that make it exceptional, distinct from nature. Sure enough, across the bottom of the symposium’s brochurein large print are the words ‘The world is facing a tangle of entwined challenges. It is time to recognize that we are part of nature.’

More depth on this central message of the symposium is given in the outline of its themes: ‘A central challenge for the twenty-first century is to respect the dynamic environmental boundaries that define a safe planetary operating space for humanity and to guide the human enterprise onto trajectories that develop within these boundaries. Collective action, flexible institutions and active stewardship of our globally interconnected social-ecological system is required to ensure a prosperous future for humanity.’ The themes also declare: ‘It is time to fully realize that our societies and economies are integrated parts of the biosphere, and start accounting for and governing natural capital.’

The attack on humanity would not leave such a bad taste in the mouth, were it not so nebulous. What does it mean to ‘respect dynamic environmental boundaries’, let alone identify them? Sustainability advocates claim ground for their argument in science, but the imperative that we ‘respect’ environmental boundaries precedes any real understanding of what these boundaries are, or whether they even exist. ‘Dynamic boundaries’ are in fact goalposts that can shift according to the needs of the sustainability agenda and its advocates, not a fact about the material world. Anything, including a caveman lifestyle, could be deemed ‘unsustainable’. But most importantly, what is forgotten by the symposium’s concatenation of incoherent and pseudo-scientific eco-concepts is the dynamism of humanity.

Instead of seeing humans as creative, and able to respond to ‘a changing world’ without their guidance, the laureates presuppose that we exist within a tightly ‘entwined’ relationship with nature. Our unguided movement within this relationship unsettles the mythological balance that nature’s providence rests on; nature is dynamic, but we are not. Thus we bring disequilibrium into the world at our own peril, like Adam and Eve thrust out of Eden for bringing sin to paradise. Humanity has brought chaos into creation, and we are now burdened with the consequences. And it is from this idea of a perilous relationship with nature that the members of the symposium hope to create a basis for reorganising society, with themselves as its stewards.
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NOTA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Resistir é existir! Abaixo a ditadura da Nomenklatura científica!!!