You may have a dog that won't sit up, roll over or even cook breakfast, not because she's too stupid to learn how but because she's too smart to bother.
- Rick Horowitz
- Rick Horowitz
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Why Are We Obsessed With The Nazis?
Yet we have not always approached the history of nazism in this way. Indeed, the predominantly moral perspective from which Hitler and the Germany he created are currently viewed is a relatively recent one. For a long time after the end of the war he launched in September 1939 and lost five and a half years later, Hitler was a comparatively neglected topic for historians, as were the Nazi movement and the Nazi state. Evidence was piled up for the Nuremberg trials, but the focus was very much on “war crimes”, the years before 1939 were more or less out of the visual range of the prosecutors, and the death camps at Treblinka, Auschwitz and elsewhere were not the central point of the investigation.
The trials were quickly forgotten, at least for the time being. In Germany, a kind of collective amnesia followed, undermined only by resentment at the trials themselves, the intrusive process of “denazification”, the brutal expulsion of 12 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe at the end of the war and the mass bombing of German cities in its later stages. In the countries formerly occupied by Nazi Germany, such as France, people wanted to remember the resistance. In the Eastern bloc, communist governments celebrated (and exaggerated) the role of communist resisters but preferred to try to integrate ex-Nazis into the new society they were building rather than come to a reckoning with their crimes. In Britain, people remembered the war, the stoicism of the population during the blitz and the achievements of the British armed forces, but not much besides.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that things began to change. For Germans, the key question was how and why the Nazis had come to power. The Federal Republic, with its capital in the Rhenish university town of Bonn, had gained legitimacy through the “economic miracle” of the 1950s, but was still not much older than Germany’s first democracy, the Weimar Republic, had been when it had given way to Hitler’s Third Reich. People asked nervously “Is Bonn Weimar?” Political scientists and historians examined the reasons for the vulnerability of Weimar’s institutions and found, reassuringly, that the answer was “No”.
- Excerpts from The Third Reich in History and Memory by Richard J Evans
The trials were quickly forgotten, at least for the time being. In Germany, a kind of collective amnesia followed, undermined only by resentment at the trials themselves, the intrusive process of “denazification”, the brutal expulsion of 12 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe at the end of the war and the mass bombing of German cities in its later stages. In the countries formerly occupied by Nazi Germany, such as France, people wanted to remember the resistance. In the Eastern bloc, communist governments celebrated (and exaggerated) the role of communist resisters but preferred to try to integrate ex-Nazis into the new society they were building rather than come to a reckoning with their crimes. In Britain, people remembered the war, the stoicism of the population during the blitz and the achievements of the British armed forces, but not much besides.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s that things began to change. For Germans, the key question was how and why the Nazis had come to power. The Federal Republic, with its capital in the Rhenish university town of Bonn, had gained legitimacy through the “economic miracle” of the 1950s, but was still not much older than Germany’s first democracy, the Weimar Republic, had been when it had given way to Hitler’s Third Reich. People asked nervously “Is Bonn Weimar?” Political scientists and historians examined the reasons for the vulnerability of Weimar’s institutions and found, reassuringly, that the answer was “No”.
- Excerpts from The Third Reich in History and Memory by Richard J Evans
Quote of the Day
Molecular biology has shown that even the simplest of all living
systems on the earth today, bacterial cells, are exceedingly complex
objects. Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small,
weighing less than 10-12 gms, each is in effect a veritable
micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed
pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one
hundred thousand million atoms, far more complicated than any machine
built by man and absolutely without parallel in the nonliving world.
- Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory In Crisis
- Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory In Crisis
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Quote of the Day
Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will provide plenty of time for silence.
- Christopher Hitchens
- Christopher Hitchens
Monday, February 9, 2015
Quote of the Day
A passion to make the world a better place is a fine reason to study social psychology. Sometimes, however, researchers let their ideals or their political beliefs cloud their judgment, such as in how they interpret their research findings. Social psychology can only be a science if it puts the pursuit of truth above all other goals. When researchers focus on a topic that is politically charged, such as race relations or whether divorce is bad for children, it is important to be extra careful in making sure that all views (perhaps especially disagreeable ones, or ones that go against established prejudices) are considered and that the conclusions from research are truly warranted.
- Roy Baumeister & Brad Bushman, Social Psychology and Human Nature
- Roy Baumeister & Brad Bushman, Social Psychology and Human Nature
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Microbes May Use CRISPR As A Weapon In Their Millions-Year-Old Struggle Against Viruses
Thanks to the speed of CRISPR research, the accolades have come quickly. Last year MIT Technology Review
called CRISPR “the biggest biotech discovery of the century.” The
Breakthrough Prize is just one of several prominent awards Doudna has
won in recent months for her work on CRISPR; National Public Radio
recently reported whispers of a possible Nobel in her future.
[---]
Doudna and other researchers did not pluck the molecules they use for gene editing from thin air. In fact, they stumbled across the CRISPR molecules in nature. Microbes have been using them to edit their own DNA for millions of years, and today they continue to do so all over the planet, from the bottom of the sea to the recesses of our own bodies..
We’ve barely begun to understand how CRISPR works in the natural world. Microbes use it as a sophisticated immune system, allowing them to learn to recognize their enemies. Now scientists are discovering that microbes use CRISPR for other jobs as well. The natural history of CRISPR poses many questions to scientists, for which they don’t have very good answers yet. But it also holds great promise. Doudna and her colleagues harnessed one type of CRISPR, but scientists are finding a vast menagerie of different types. Tapping that diversity could lead to more effective gene editing technology, or open the way to applications no one has thought of yet.
[---]
At the time, Koonin, an evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Md., had been puzzling over CRISPR and Cas genes for a few years. As soon as he learned of the discovery of bits of virus DNA in CRISPR spacers, he realized that microbes were using CRISPR as a weapon against viruses.
Koonin knew that microbes are not passive victims of virus attacks. They have several lines of defense. Koonin thought that CRISPR and Cas enzymes provide one more. In Koonin’s hypothesis, bacteria use Cas enzymes to grab fragments of viral DNA. They then insert the virus fragments into their own CRISPR sequences. Later, when another virus comes along, the bacteria can use the CRISPR sequence as a cheat sheet to recognize the invader.
Scientists didn’t know enough about the function of CRISPR and Cas enzymes for Koonin to make a detailed hypothesis. But his thinking was provocative enough for a microbiologist named Rodolphe Barrangou to test it. To Barrangou, Koonin’s idea was not just fascinating, but potentially a huge deal for his employer at the time, the yogurt maker Danisco. Danisco depended on bacteria to convert milk into yogurt, and sometimes entire cultures would be lost to outbreaks of bacteria-killing viruses. Now Koonin was suggesting that bacteria could use CRISPR as a weapon against these enemies.
To test Koonin’s hypothesis, Barrangou and his colleagues infected the milk-fermenting microbe Streptococcus thermophilus with two strains of viruses. The viruses killed many of the bacteria, but some survived. When those resistant bacteria multiplied, their descendants turned out to be resistant too. Some genetic change had occurred. Barrangou and his colleagues found that the bacteria had stuffed DNA fragments from the two viruses into their spacers. When the scientists chopped out the new spacers, the bacteria lost their resistance.
Barrangou, now an associate professor at North Carolina State University, said that this discovery led many manufacturers to select for customized CRISPR sequences in their cultures, so that the bacteria could withstand virus outbreaks. “If you’ve eaten yogurt or cheese, chances are you’ve eaten CRISPR-ized cells,” he said.
- More Here from Carl Zimmer
[---]
Doudna and other researchers did not pluck the molecules they use for gene editing from thin air. In fact, they stumbled across the CRISPR molecules in nature. Microbes have been using them to edit their own DNA for millions of years, and today they continue to do so all over the planet, from the bottom of the sea to the recesses of our own bodies..
We’ve barely begun to understand how CRISPR works in the natural world. Microbes use it as a sophisticated immune system, allowing them to learn to recognize their enemies. Now scientists are discovering that microbes use CRISPR for other jobs as well. The natural history of CRISPR poses many questions to scientists, for which they don’t have very good answers yet. But it also holds great promise. Doudna and her colleagues harnessed one type of CRISPR, but scientists are finding a vast menagerie of different types. Tapping that diversity could lead to more effective gene editing technology, or open the way to applications no one has thought of yet.
[---]
At the time, Koonin, an evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Md., had been puzzling over CRISPR and Cas genes for a few years. As soon as he learned of the discovery of bits of virus DNA in CRISPR spacers, he realized that microbes were using CRISPR as a weapon against viruses.
Koonin knew that microbes are not passive victims of virus attacks. They have several lines of defense. Koonin thought that CRISPR and Cas enzymes provide one more. In Koonin’s hypothesis, bacteria use Cas enzymes to grab fragments of viral DNA. They then insert the virus fragments into their own CRISPR sequences. Later, when another virus comes along, the bacteria can use the CRISPR sequence as a cheat sheet to recognize the invader.
Scientists didn’t know enough about the function of CRISPR and Cas enzymes for Koonin to make a detailed hypothesis. But his thinking was provocative enough for a microbiologist named Rodolphe Barrangou to test it. To Barrangou, Koonin’s idea was not just fascinating, but potentially a huge deal for his employer at the time, the yogurt maker Danisco. Danisco depended on bacteria to convert milk into yogurt, and sometimes entire cultures would be lost to outbreaks of bacteria-killing viruses. Now Koonin was suggesting that bacteria could use CRISPR as a weapon against these enemies.
To test Koonin’s hypothesis, Barrangou and his colleagues infected the milk-fermenting microbe Streptococcus thermophilus with two strains of viruses. The viruses killed many of the bacteria, but some survived. When those resistant bacteria multiplied, their descendants turned out to be resistant too. Some genetic change had occurred. Barrangou and his colleagues found that the bacteria had stuffed DNA fragments from the two viruses into their spacers. When the scientists chopped out the new spacers, the bacteria lost their resistance.
Barrangou, now an associate professor at North Carolina State University, said that this discovery led many manufacturers to select for customized CRISPR sequences in their cultures, so that the bacteria could withstand virus outbreaks. “If you’ve eaten yogurt or cheese, chances are you’ve eaten CRISPR-ized cells,” he said.
- More Here from Carl Zimmer
Quote of the Day
Life has a way of overgrowing its achievements as well as its ruins.
- Edith Wharton
- Edith Wharton
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Wisdom Of The Week
What’s the difference between computer science, computational science, and software development?
When Kim the computer scientist writes a program, her aim is to learn something about the underlying algorithm. The object of study in computer science is the computing process itself, detached from any particular hardware or software. When Kim publishes her conclusions, they will be formulated in terms of an idealized, abstract computing machine. Indeed, the more theoretical aspects of her work could be done without any access to actual computers.
When Chris the computational scientist writes a program, the goal is to simulate the behavior of some physical system. For her, the computer is not an object of study but a scientific instrument, a device for answering questions about the natural world. Running a program is directly analogous to conducting an experiment, and the output of the program is the result of the experiment.
When Dana the developer writes a program, the program itself is the product of his labors. The software he creates is meant to be a useful tool for colleagues or customers—an artifact of tangible value. Dana’s programming is not science but art or craft or engineering. It is all about making things, not answering questions.
Should these three activities be treated as separate fields of endeavor, or are they really just subdivisions of a single computing enterprise? The historian Michael Mahoney, an astute observer of computing communities, suggested that a key concept for addressing such questions is the “agenda.” The agenda of a field consists of what its practitioners agree ought to be done, a consensus concerning the problems of the field, their order of importance or priority, the means of solving them (the tools of the trade), and perhaps most importantly, what constitutes a solution…. The standing of the field may be measured by its capacity to set its own agenda. New disciplines emerge by acquiring that autonomy. Conflicts within a discipline often come down to disagreements over the agenda: what are the really important problems?
[---]
The grizzled curmudgeon in me wants to object that this instant cartography is not real programming, it’s just a “mashup” of prefabricated program modules and Internet resources. But building atop the achievements of others is exactly how science and engineering are supposed to advance.
Still, a worry remains. How will the members of this exuberant new cohort distribute themselves over the three continents of computer science, computational science, and software development? What tasks will they put on their agendas? At the moment, most of the energy flows into the culture of software development or programming. The excitement is about applying computational methods, not inventing new ones or investigating their properties. In the long run, though, someone needs to care about LR(1) parsers.
Guy Lewis Steele, Jr., one of the original MIT hackers, worried in the 1980s that hackerdom might be killed off “as programming education became more formalized.” The present predicament is just the opposite. Everyone wants to pick up the knack of coding, but the more abstract and mathematical concepts at the core of computer science attract a smaller audience. The big enrollments are in courses on Python, Ruby, and JavaScript, not automata theory or denotational semantics.
I would not contend that mastery of the more theoretical topics is a prerequisite to becoming a good programmer. There’s abundant evidence to the contrary. But it is a necessary step in absorbing the culture of computer science. I am sentimental enough to believe that an interdisciplinary and intergenerational conversation would enrich both sides, and help in knitting together the communities.
- Cultures of Code
When Kim the computer scientist writes a program, her aim is to learn something about the underlying algorithm. The object of study in computer science is the computing process itself, detached from any particular hardware or software. When Kim publishes her conclusions, they will be formulated in terms of an idealized, abstract computing machine. Indeed, the more theoretical aspects of her work could be done without any access to actual computers.
When Chris the computational scientist writes a program, the goal is to simulate the behavior of some physical system. For her, the computer is not an object of study but a scientific instrument, a device for answering questions about the natural world. Running a program is directly analogous to conducting an experiment, and the output of the program is the result of the experiment.
When Dana the developer writes a program, the program itself is the product of his labors. The software he creates is meant to be a useful tool for colleagues or customers—an artifact of tangible value. Dana’s programming is not science but art or craft or engineering. It is all about making things, not answering questions.
Should these three activities be treated as separate fields of endeavor, or are they really just subdivisions of a single computing enterprise? The historian Michael Mahoney, an astute observer of computing communities, suggested that a key concept for addressing such questions is the “agenda.” The agenda of a field consists of what its practitioners agree ought to be done, a consensus concerning the problems of the field, their order of importance or priority, the means of solving them (the tools of the trade), and perhaps most importantly, what constitutes a solution…. The standing of the field may be measured by its capacity to set its own agenda. New disciplines emerge by acquiring that autonomy. Conflicts within a discipline often come down to disagreements over the agenda: what are the really important problems?
[---]
The grizzled curmudgeon in me wants to object that this instant cartography is not real programming, it’s just a “mashup” of prefabricated program modules and Internet resources. But building atop the achievements of others is exactly how science and engineering are supposed to advance.
Still, a worry remains. How will the members of this exuberant new cohort distribute themselves over the three continents of computer science, computational science, and software development? What tasks will they put on their agendas? At the moment, most of the energy flows into the culture of software development or programming. The excitement is about applying computational methods, not inventing new ones or investigating their properties. In the long run, though, someone needs to care about LR(1) parsers.
Guy Lewis Steele, Jr., one of the original MIT hackers, worried in the 1980s that hackerdom might be killed off “as programming education became more formalized.” The present predicament is just the opposite. Everyone wants to pick up the knack of coding, but the more abstract and mathematical concepts at the core of computer science attract a smaller audience. The big enrollments are in courses on Python, Ruby, and JavaScript, not automata theory or denotational semantics.
I would not contend that mastery of the more theoretical topics is a prerequisite to becoming a good programmer. There’s abundant evidence to the contrary. But it is a necessary step in absorbing the culture of computer science. I am sentimental enough to believe that an interdisciplinary and intergenerational conversation would enrich both sides, and help in knitting together the communities.
- Cultures of Code
Quote of the Day
On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
- Charles Babbage
- Charles Babbage
Friday, February 6, 2015
Teens These Days, Always Changing Their Gray Matter
Differences in these parts of the brain can account for some variability between individuals, but what about differences that seem to be defined by age?
Many areas of the brain grow and develop as you age, and the areas responsible for social emotions are no different. Between the ages of four and five, you start to develop the ability to understand that people around you could be having thoughts or emotions that are different than your own. Further important changes occur during a period that society often seems to single out as the pinnacle for being different: adolescence.
Adolescence – the period extending from puberty to the point of independent stability – is often portrayed as a very dramatic time with a new emphasis placed on the importance of friendships and social input. Researchers have even found during this period that many adolescents value the input of their peers even over the input of their family.
[---]
Move up just a few years to young adults and there is already a shift, with this group watching five times as much television as online video. At least some part of that difference can perhaps be accounted for with changes that occur in this period to the brain itself.
One of the areas going through important structural changes in this period – with additions of gray matter and changes in shape – is the area that deals with “social emotions.” Social emotions are those that require you to consider what others might be thinking – like guilt or embarrassment – rather than your own emotional experience – like fear. When researchers ask adolescents and adults to explain certain emotions, both groups feel and describe them in the same way. But the activity that is happening in the brain, and the way that information is being processed, differs between the two groups.
- More Here
Many areas of the brain grow and develop as you age, and the areas responsible for social emotions are no different. Between the ages of four and five, you start to develop the ability to understand that people around you could be having thoughts or emotions that are different than your own. Further important changes occur during a period that society often seems to single out as the pinnacle for being different: adolescence.
Adolescence – the period extending from puberty to the point of independent stability – is often portrayed as a very dramatic time with a new emphasis placed on the importance of friendships and social input. Researchers have even found during this period that many adolescents value the input of their peers even over the input of their family.
[---]
Move up just a few years to young adults and there is already a shift, with this group watching five times as much television as online video. At least some part of that difference can perhaps be accounted for with changes that occur in this period to the brain itself.
One of the areas going through important structural changes in this period – with additions of gray matter and changes in shape – is the area that deals with “social emotions.” Social emotions are those that require you to consider what others might be thinking – like guilt or embarrassment – rather than your own emotional experience – like fear. When researchers ask adolescents and adults to explain certain emotions, both groups feel and describe them in the same way. But the activity that is happening in the brain, and the way that information is being processed, differs between the two groups.
- More Here
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