ratchikndogmous

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090402/sc_nm/us_science_robots

LONDON (Reuters) – Watch out scientists -- you may be replaced by a robot.

Two teams of researchers said on Thursday they had created machines that could reason, formulate theories and discover scientific knowledge on their own, marking a major advance in the field of artificial intelligence. Such robo-scientists could be put to work unraveling complex biological systems, designing new drugs, modeling the world's climate or understanding the cosmos. For the moment, though, they are performing more humble tasks.

At Aberystwyth University in Wales, Ross King and colleagues have created a robot called Adam that can not only carry out experiments on yeast metabolism but also reason about the results and plan the next experiment. It is the world's first example of a machine that has made an independent scientific discovery -- in this case, new facts about the genetic make-up of baker's yeast. "On its own it can think of hypotheses and then do the experiments, and we've checked that it's got the results correct," King said in an interview. "People have been working on this since the 1960s. When we first sent robots to Mars, they really dreamt of the robots doing their own experiments on Mars. After 40 or 50 years, we've now got the capability to do that."

Their next robot, Eve, will have much more brain power and will be put to work searching for new medicines. King hopes the application of intelligent robotic thinking to the process of sifting tens of thousands of compounds for potential new drugs will be particularly valuable in the hunt for treatments for neglected tropical diseases like malaria.

...Gromia sphaerica! A grape-sized, single-celled protozoan who scoots around the sea floor! Yuck! But also: Cool!



For news story, see:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090328-nhm-gromia-sphaerica.html

TV show on Portland public access..."The Big Kitchen with Food", featuring Julan the 5-year-old chef.

The kid's got promise, but I've never seen a TV chef lick their fingers quite so much.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE, EVERYBODEEEEEEE!!!

(Hey, now that winter has officially begun, maybe it'll snow or something. Um.)

This footage was taken right across the street from the fitness center I teach at:

NESKOWIN, Ore. – A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea. Scott Napper had taken 22-year-old Leafil Alforque to Proposal Rock near Neskowin Beach to pop the question at a place that got its name from couples ready to marry. Napper and Alforque had been dating since they met on the Internet in 2005. But Alforque had arrived in Oregon on a visa from the Philippines just three days before the fateful trip to the coast. Napper said the tide had receded around Proposal Rock on Saturday when the couple began to walk to it. He planned to propose and give her the ring he carried in his pocket. About 10 feet from the rock, a wave about 3 feet high suddenly came toward them. "I turned into it to keep from getting pulled under it," Napper said. By the time he turned to find Alforque, only 4-foot-11 and 93 pounds, she had been caught by the receding waters. "She was about 30 feet away, getting swept away," Napper said. The 45-year-old Silverton man tore off his jacket to get rid of any extra weight, and when he looked up again she was gone. "That's the last I saw of her," he said in an interview Wednesday, breaking into tears. Emergency personnel called by a someone on the beach arrived within minutes. His own phone no longer worked after being exposed to the water. Along with rescuers, he searched for any sign of Alforque. "I yelled for her," he said. "I was praying to God." Thick fog and dangerous water conditions hampered the rescue efforts before the search was suspended on Monday.

My employer just sent out an all-employee email to wish us all a happy holiday weekend. It says (direct quote):

"Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is a state and federal holiday, so it's safe to wish you a happy one."

We are going to become like the blob people in Wall-E.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/07/robotic.walker.ap/index.html

Also, I'm sure that some of you heard about this a long time ago, but I just have to publicly express my horror to find out that the equation BudLight + Clamato = Chelada Cocktail is true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelada

This ad makes me laugh every time I see it:



The South Waterfront is a new neighborhood in Portland where there's lots of very shiny high rise condos going up. I prefer to call it Isengard, considering the rate they're building at. Those yuppies are going to have to start spawning fast if they want to fill up all those condos.

Being a neurobiologist, and a behavioral geneticist to be more precise, I get asked quite often: "How can the mind be contained within the brain? How can behavior be genetic? If consciousness, emotions, dreams, etc, comes down to 'just' chemicals in the brain, then what's the point? What's the big picture? Doesn't it get you down to believe that?"

So I'm listening to the WNYC RadioLab podcast the other day (which is totally rad, and you should all check it out if you haven't yet)...the host (Robert Krulwich) is interviewing Brian Greene, a mathematician/physicist. They're talking about the concept of a "multiverse" (which I won't get into in detail, you should listen to the show), and they get to a point where the existence of free will is called into question. Brian Greene says that according to the laws of physics, free will is an illusion...a very pleasant and useful illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. The host asks him, "Doesn't that get you down?" And his reply:

"No, I think it's incredibly exciting. To me, the most wondrous thing about science (and physics in particular) is that through the power of thought, calculation, and observation, you can be led to conclusions vastly at odds with what you would think based upon experience. I don't think there's anything more wondrous than that moment when you think the world is one way and your equations, your math, your theories begin to convince you that it is another way. ... It's such a paradigm-shaking way of thinking about reality. It's not something that gets you down, it's something that pumps you up. ... It's wonderful to get your sense of reality kicked, to get that kick in the head, and be able to contemplate the idea that the laws of physics are suggesting that reality is not what you think it is."

Ramen, brother.

This is in response to a conversation had over breakfast with a few of you over the weekend, but it may be helpful to spread the info to others as well. I guess there's a widely propagated urban myth that olive oil is good for you if you eat it cold, but if cooked it becomes unhealthy or dangerous. Our server actually butted into the conversation to 'confirm' this idea and tell us that safflower oil is the only healthy oil to cook with, because olive oil supposedly produces free radicals when heated.

Rest easy, people. Before you throw out your extra virgin, see here:
http://www.oliveoilsource.com/cooking_olive_oil.htm

The summary:
Olive oil loses it's fine flavor when you heat it, so if you're using it for the taste, you may wish to go for a different oil when cooking. However, the oil is not made dangerous in any way by heating. Any oil heated past its smoke point should be tossed, and you should start over with fresh oil. There are oils with a higher smoke point than olive oil, so if you are doing very high heat cooking, another oil would be a more appropriate choice. But for most home cooking applications, you are working below the smoke point of olive oil anyway. I buy fairly cheap olive oil, which has enough flavor to be tasty eaten cold, but cheap enough that I don't mind 'wasting' the flavor by using it to saute.

Ever look at a stranger's purchases in line at the grocery store and try to get a tiny glimpse into their personal life?

OK, here's a good one:
Woman in her 30's is buying a cheap bottle of white wine, four scented candles, a frozen pizza, and...wait for it...two jars of baby food. Oh noes!

I ate a very exciting new (to me) food today... Ice Lettuce! Or, to be more precise, Ficoide Glaciale. It's a succulent, so the leaves are pretty thick, crunchy and juicy. And the leaves have sort of clear bumpy things all over, so at first you think it's covered in ice crystals...hence the name. The texture was like cucumber in the shape of lettuce. But it had this really interesting kind of citrus-y flavor to it. Amazing! Thank you, farm share!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755336096303089.html

An excerpt:
"Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping. Sen. Obama's chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry's press secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Mr. Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to campaign staffers: "Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand -- now!" Sen. Obama drew cringes on a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, in July 2007, when he asked a crowd of farmers: "Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?" The upscale supermarket specializing in organic food doesn't have a single store in Iowa."

And just in case the nation's obese needed more help deciding for whom to vote...Wal-Mart to the rescue!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html

An excerpt:
""The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union,'" said a Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri. "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," she said."

An ad from a popular research supply company. I have to say the blonde curly haired guy is my favorite. His enthusiasm is...disturbing.

Here ya go, kids. Don't hurt yourselves with this one.

Last week's farm share taught me a few things:

1) Never save strawberries till tomorrow that you could eat today. They can go mushy at any moment.
2) White asparagus makes your pee smell just the same as green asparagus.
3) If you mash rose petals into some butter, you have a pretty pink toast topping fit for a princess.
4) "Generally too bitter for the American palette" is code for "this is inedible in six different ways, but now you can't complain about it lest you lose your gourmand street cred".

Octopus shares are about to skyrocket. BUY BUY BUY!!!

If you have not yet heard about this guy, or seen him run, you must watch this video. He was almost banned from the Olympics for having an "unfair advantage" due to his prosthetic legs. But I guess now they have decided to let him compete...assuming he can make the qualifying time. He's the fastest man alive (with no feet), but his personal best is still a couple seconds off the Olympic requirement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv46b0NULFs