Reflectorites
Below are web articles for the period 19 - 29 March, with my comments in
square brackets.
Steve
========================================================
http://cnn.com/2000/NATURE/03/29/neanderthal.dna.ap/index.html CNN
... March 29, 2000 Neanderthal DNA shows strong differences from
modern humans March 29, 2000 ... Researchers say DNA extracted from
a 29,000-year- old bone has cast doubt on the theory that modern
humans evolved in part from squat, heavy-browed Neanderthals. ... While
the two Neanderthal samples turned out to be just 3.5 percent different
from one another, they were roughly 7 percent different from DNA in
modern humans. Scientists consider that to be a substantial gap. "It all
points away from the Neanderthal," ... The researchers challenge the
theory that modern humans evolved at least partly from Neanderthals,
which some believe mated in large numbers with modern Europeans
before disappearing 25,000 years ago. If that had happened... today's
Europeans would show stronger genetic similarities to Neanderthals than
other humans do. Yet the latest DNA analysis shows Neanderthal DNA to
be no closer to Europeans than to other modern humans. ... the research
appears to support the theory that Neanderthals were an evolutionary
dead end. ... The study does support an opposing theory known as "out-
of- Africa," .... This theory says modern humans descended from the true
Homo sapiens, who originated in Africa and came to replace other early
humans worldwide without great mixing. ... However, some experts
question the ... conclusions ... "Maybe 40,000 years ago, everybody's
mitochondrial DNA is very different from humans of today," said Fred H.
Smith. ... Also: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000328/sc/neanderthal_study_1.html
... March 28 ... Study: Humans Not Descended From Neanderthals ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Modern humans are not descended from
Neanderthals but co-existed with them about 40,000 years ago... The fact
that these two Neanderthals are closely related and not related to modern
humans implies that they don't have the diversity to encompass a modern
human gene pool" .... ; http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_694000/694467.stm
...29 March, 2000 ... The new work, published in the journal Nature,
contradicts recent evidence from ancient remains of a child found in
Portugal, which appeared to combine Neanderthal and human features.
Those researchers concluded that some interbreeding must have taken
place. ... The bones from the Neanderthal infant were very well preserved
and the child must have been among the last of the Neanderthals ... &
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/neanderthal000328.html
ABCNEWS ... there are no examples of humans having Neanderthal-
type DNA."... Loring Brace ... a proponent of the idea that people
descended from Neanderthals - ... argues that features of skulls show a
steady progression from Neanderthal to human - says the DNA evidence
does not sway him. Different patterns of movement may have caused
mitochondrial DNA to diverge more quickly in the past ... Erik Trinkaus ...
says the DNA evidence does not disprove his assertion that the 25,000-
year- old skeleton of a child unearthed in Portugal is the descendent of a
human- Neanderthal hybrid. ... just shows interbreeding was not common.
.... Goodwin also says his finding isn't the final word. Perhaps
Neanderthals and humans mated and produced sterile offspring, similar
to mules, the crossbreed of horses and donkeys. "It's very hard to prove
any negative," Goodwin says. "I wouldn't claim this to be conclusive." ...
[While Goodwin is being admirably objective, the fact is that the
cumulative evidence is becoming overwhelming that Neandertals and
modern humans did not interbreed and therefore were separate species.
Arguments from skeletal similarities are notoriously subjective. One would
expect a wide, overlapping range of skeletal similarities between closely
related species, who share a very high proportion of genes in common.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000329/sc/space_planets_1.html
Yahoo! ... March 29 ... Astronomers Find Saturn- Size Planets in Other
Systems ... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Astronomers searching the
skies for distant planets have detected two Saturn-sized worlds orbiting
distant suns, the smallest planets found thus far outside our solar system.
The discovery boosted the likelihood that even smaller planets -- perhaps
the size of Earth -- exist elsewhere in the universe..."It indicates that there
are probably a lot of smaller planets out there," .... "It will go all the way
down to planets the size of the Earth or the moon. That's what this is
telling us." ... We still don't have the capability of detecting Earth-like
planets, which would be equivalent to seeing pebbles on the beach." ...
One of the new planets, which weighed in at about 80 percent of the mass
of Saturn, was found orbiting 3.8 million miles (six million km) from the
star HD46375, ... The second, about 70 percent the mass of Saturn, was
found orbiting 32.5 million miles (52 million km) around the star 79
Ceti...in order to find possible Earth- like worlds, the team will need a
whole new order of magnification, ...See also:
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/03/29/newplanets.ap/index.html ... Both
planets are close to their stars, which means they have short orbits. The
HD46375 planet circles its star in just three days, while the 79 Ceti planet
takes 75 days to orbit. Both are thought to be gas planets, like Saturn and
Jupiter. Both are so close to their stars that they would reach
temperatures of more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, far too hot to
sustain ordinary forms of life, the researchers say. [There isn't much joy in
this for exobiologists. The planets found are probably gas giants and are
too close to their Sun to be life-supporting. Until they actually find Earth-
like planets they won't know for sure how rare they are.]
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/03/27/dark.matter.ap/index.html CNN ...
Scientists beginning to shed light on dark matter March 27, 2000 ...(AP) --
The invisible and so far unidentified dark matter that accounts for 90
percent of the universe could soon be brought to light as scientists
develop sensitive detectors capable of sniffing out tiny particles predicted
by theory but not yet proven to exist. ... But if the weakly interacting
massive particles -- WIMPs -- are detected, the finding could solve
fundamental mysteries of the universe: how it formed after the Big Bang,
the nature of its structure and whether it will all end in a Big Crunch. ...
Astronomers have known for 70 years that visible matter is only a small
part of the universe. Something that exerts a strong gravitational tug, for
instance, causes the outer stars of a spiral galaxy to revolve faster than
they should, given what is visible. .... Weighty but ghostly WIMPs are
currently the prime suspects. ... 10 trillion WIMPs may be zipping through
every 2 pounds of matter here on Earth every second. .. If found, the
weight of WIMPs -- estimated to be 50 times heavier than a proton --
would help physicists determine the mass of the universe, a figure that
could mean the difference between a cosmos that expands forever or
collapses on itself. But confirmation also would validate a popular and
elegant theory that predicts a yet- to-be-found partner for every known
particle. ...because WIMPs are not the ordinary particles that make up
people, planets and stars, it would make everything that is known today a
very small minority member of the cosmos. "What's fascinating, if we're
right, is that most of the stuff of the universe is other than the protons and
neutrons that we're used to," .... "The implication is that most of the
universe is something else. This is the ultimate Copernican revolution." ...
[AFAIK there is now no possibility that the universe will end in a Big
Crunch - it would require many times the observed force of gravity to do
that and detecting WIMPs won't change that. And since they already
know that something like WIMPS must exist, finally identifying them is
hardly going to be a "Copernican revolution".]
http://cnn.com/2000/NATURE/03/27/water.award/index.html CNN ...
Chemist's work on understanding water nets national award ... March 27,
2000 ... SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- Water is where 99 percent of all
chemistry on Earth takes place.... But because water is so familiar, its
highly unusual and extreme properties are easily overlooked. .... Saykally,
52, and his associates are working to model water on a computer -- in
essence, recreating water in virtual space to track and predict the
behavior and influences of the compound known as H2O. "The essential
question is, what makes water wet?" he said. "Why does it have such
extremely high melting and boiling points compared with similar
compounds? Why is it less dense when it becomes solid than when it is
liquid? And its solvent properties are unique. That's just the beginning."
The fundamental nature of water occurs because of what Saykally calls
"strong tetrahedral hydrogen bonding." That means the two hydrogen
atoms of one molecule are attracted to the oxygen atom of another.
Further complicating this property of water, a single water molecule tends
to interact not just with its neighbors but with others, tens -- even
hundreds - - of molecules away. ...[The unique properties of water is a
powerful argument for design. It is just another one of those `cosmic
coincidences', without which life as we know it would be impossible. My
atheist Biology lecturer a month ago sounded like Michael Denton
rhapsodising on about the properties of water. The other day she had to
admonish herself by saying something like: "I shouldn't say that-it sounds
like it was designed!]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000113078204876&rtmo=02brGesq&atmo=lllllljx&pg=/et/00/3/23ecnlab23.html
Electronic Telegraph 23.03.00 Three in 10 think talking robots are human
... THE WORLD'S largest test of artificial intelligence suggests that "chat
robots" can fool three people in every 10 asked to distinguish the
conversation of a human from that of a machine. The result backs a
prediction by the British father of artificial intelligence, Alan Turing, that by
the end of the 20th century a computer would be mistaken as human 30
per cent of the time, if what he called the "imitation game" was limited to
five- minute conversations. Although computers remain some way from
winning the battle between man and machine for supremacy, they are
moving in the right direction, according to the test conducted by around
20,000 people, ... exchanged typed messages with an individual and were
asked to say whether they were dealing with a human or an artificial
intelligence program .... 19 per cent of votes cast thought Ali was human.
I..., 29 per cent thought Mel was human. " Talking with Ali: You: Hello Ali:
Hi there You: My girlfriend cheated on me, what will I do? Ali: How long
have you two been together? You: 38573 years Ali: Only 38573? You are
quite mature. [This dialogue suggests that the increase in humans
mistaking computer `conversation' for the real thing might be more a
commentary on humans' decline as conversationalists than the
computers' improvement?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000322/sc/science_genome_1.html
Yahoo! ...March 22 ... Scientists Back Call for Open Access to Gene Map
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists ... backed a call by the leaders of the
United States and Britain for open access to research on the mapping of
human genes. In a joint statement ... Bruce Alberts, the president of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Sir Aaron Klug, the president of
Britain's Royal Society, said the human genome information must be
available without charge or impediment. ... They gave their full support to
a statement issued by President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair
last week which called for information about the human genetic sequence
to be rapidly released into the public domain. .. following the apparent
breakdown of an agreement by publicly and privately funded scientists
working on genome research. Celera Genomics, ... was pushing for
exclusive commercial rights of distribution to the merged products, a
condition which the scientists working on the publicly- funded Human
Genome Project cannot accept. ... they endorsed patent laws to reward
creators of inventions that will benefit society, but criticised the practice of
striking a claim to a large number of genes without having an idea of what
their functions are. ... The Human Genome Project plans to sequence a
draft map of the human genetic map by the spring and the full sequence
the entire human genome ... by 2003. ... [More pressure on Celera. IMHO
no one should be able to patent genes, since they are part of the natural
world. It is like patenting the sun!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000323/sc/fly_uses_2.html Yahoo! ...
... March 23 ... Fly Gene Map May Have Many Uses, Scientists Say ...
ROCKVILLE, Md. (Reuters) - They are so uncoordinated that they fall
over and get stuck in their own food, with fatal results, but new genetically
engineered fruit flies may help scientists understand how humans enjoy
symphonies and even manage to walk down the street. The study... is one
more example of just how useful the humble fruit fly is to scientists. Easy
to breed and experiment on, the tiny flies have helped scientists
understand aging, diseases such as Parkinson's and basic functions such
as hearing, smelling and sleep. A coalition of public and private scientists
including the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and Celera
Genomics ... announced ... they had sequenced the genome of the fly.
Known scientifically as Drosophila melanogaster, it is the largest animal
yet to have its genes sequenced. Researchers hope understanding its
genes will help them understand more about what makes us human, and
how diseases work. "In essence, we are nothing but a big fly," Charles
Zuker, a professor of biology ...said ... [Now that's what I call reductionist
thinking!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000323/sc/science_celera_2.html
Yahoo! ... ... March 23 ... Gene Mapping Company Says Intentions
Misunderstood ... ROCKVILLE, Md. (Reuters) - Celera Genomics feels
mightily misunderstood these days... it was accused of planning to keep
all this information to itself, patenting the genes to prevent anyone else
from benefiting from the knowledge. ...President Clinton and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair to issue a joint statement .. saying scientists around
the world should have free access to research on the mapping of human
genes. Celera's stock dove on the news ... Celera announced ... that
much of its information would soon be available on the Internet. ...
Celera... does not intend to make money on the sequences themselves.
... we're going to give the information away ... What will make money for
the company, he said, is the analysis of just what those sequences mean
.... He gave as an example database giant Lexis-Nexis, which sells its
online service as a way of searching publicly available information. Its
power lies not in the actual newspaper articles and legal documents,
which anyone could find with a little bit of effort, but in the shortcuts it
provides to finding that information. "We want to be the next Lexis- Nexis
of biology," ... [The problem for Celera is that others could do the same if
the genome map is made public.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000323/sc/space_gammarays_2.html
Yahoo! ... March 23 ... Mysterious Gamma Ray Sources Found in Milky
Way ... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A swarm of strange and powerful
gamma ray sources have been discovered in Earth's cosmic
neighborhood, and scientists are still trying to figure out just what they
are. This new class of gamma ray emitters, as they are called, might be
small black holes scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy, the
remnants of exploded stars or some kind of weird pulsars ... What ever
they are, they account for about half of the 170 unidentified sources of
gamma rays in the universe. ... Also at:
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/03/23/gamma.ray/index.html CNN ...
New class of gamma rays discovered in Milky Way ... March 23, 2000 ....
GREENBELT , Maryland (CNN) -- Astronomers have detected a new
class of gamma rays coming from a mysterious source or sources within
our own galaxy. Gamma rays are invisible to the eye, but are the most
powerful form of light, far exceeding visible light, ultraviolet radiation and
X-rays. There are 271 known sources of gamma rays in the universe,
which before this discovery were thought to originate in the distant
reaches of the universe, far beyond the Milky Way. Those distant sources
emit gamma rays in sudden bursts. ... But research ... suggests the 170 of
the gamma ray sources are located within our Milky Way galaxy. Many
could reside in Gould Belt ..Scientists are still struggling to understand
what types of objects emit these gamma rays. Potential candidates
include black holes, massive stars, neutron stars and clusters of pulsars.
But more research is required to determine the sources... [It will be
interesting to see what these turn out to be and what effect, if any, it will
have on physics and cosmology.]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000113078204876&rtmo=VwGlxxux&atmo=tttttttd&pg=/et/00/3/16/ecnqua16.html
Electronic Telegraph 16.03.00 Quantum jumbo found ... A NEW law of
physics has been discovered that suggests the next generation of
computer will be the elephant of the electronic world - never mislaying or
deleting data. Scientists worldwide are working on "quantum computers",
a novel kind of computer that promises much greater number- crunching
power by exploiting the strange properties of quantum mechanics, the
theory which works at the dimensions of atoms and molecules that
microchip components are fast approaching. Quantum computers are
able to carry out vast numbers of calculations in parallel. However, one
unforseen consequence of quantum theory is that information can never
be deleted.... While this may protect users from accidental or deliberate
deletion of programs and data, it also suggests that quantum computers
will require vast amounts of memory. ... [It sounds to me that if they can't
delete the information while making their calculations, it might severely
limit the applicability of quantum computing.]
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/03/23/time.machine.ap/index.html CNN
... Particle collider to recreate universe's first moments ... March 23, 2000
... UPTON, New York (AP) -- ... physicists are preparing to travel back to
the dawn of the universe. In a few weeks their time machine, buried
beneath the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, will
begin stripping gold atoms of their electrons and accelerating them to
99.995 percent of the speed of light. Then it will smash pairs of the atoms
together with such violence that the collisions will generate temperatures
10,000 times hotter than the sun. ... the total energy in each collision will
be comparable to that of a mosquito landing on a screen door. But that
energy will be ... concentrated enough to tear apart an atomic nucleus. ...
Current theory indicates that the first atoms first appeared about a second
after the universe itself -- so tearing them apart means re-creating what
came before. Physicists picture that realm, which would have formed just
microseconds after the Big Bang, as a trillion-degree cauldron known as
the quark- gluon plasma. ... "What we hope to do is to make the quark-
gluon plasma and then to actually probe and understand its properties," ...
Nuclear physics is built on a theory known as quantum chromodynamics.
Ever since it was developed in the 1960s the theory has been predicting
the outcomes of experiments with incredible precision. As proud as they
are of it, physicists can't wait for the day when they find some hole, some
special circumstance where their theory fails completely. The last time
something like that happened, early in the 20th century, relativity and
quantum dynamics came to the rescue. The new ideas revolutionized
physics and made things like computers, lasers and nuclear weapons
possible. So physicists actually welcome things they don't understand.
"Finding and nailing the plasma would be fantastic," ... "The only thing
more fantastic would be some totally unexpected surprise that defies our
predictions." ... [This illustrates the difference between physics and
evolutionary biology. In general, the physicists seek to falsify their
theories, but the evolutionary biologists seek to protect their theories from
falsification.]
http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/03/22/buckyballs/index.html .. Outer
space gas trapped on Earth in 'buckyballs' .... March 22, 2000 ... .
HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) -- Extraterrestrial gases have been trapped
on Earth for millions of years by complex molecular structures known as
buckyballs, scientists reported this week. The discovery offers a new
method to trace geological and biological events linked to colossal
meteorite and comet strikes and strengthens the theory that some
terrestrial atmospheric gases and organic compounds originated in space.
"This finding opens new possibilities in looking at the problem of how
planetary atmospheres evolved and maybe even how life evolved on
Earth and perhaps other moons and planets," ... Becker and two
colleagues found the trapped extraterrestrial gases in samples ... taken
from a one-inch (2.5- cm) layer of sedimentary clay that divides the
Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. The clay layer formed about 65 million
years ago from the fallout of a massive impact crater that many scientists
think set off mass extinctions, including that of the dinosaurs.... The
trapped gases contain high concentrations of helium 3, a type of helium
with only three subatomic particles that's found mostly in space. ..Becker
also seeks to find out if fullerenes delivered carbon compounds and other
substances necessary for life to emerge. "... A third form of pure carbon
after diamonds and graphite, so-called buckyballs are composed of
dozens or hundreds of carbon molecules that have bonded together into
hollow, geodesic "cages.". ... [Interesting but I fail to see how the
discovery of gases trapped inside fullarenes would shed much light on
"how life evolved on Earth". The article says they were formed "under
dense pressures and extreme temperatures ...in a high energy plasma".
Presumably that means that anything they once contained would have
been vapourised]
HIV/AIDS:
http://library.newsday.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=38e3d07b627cbMshakeP11000&doc=hdresults.html ...
Added Foe in AIDS War: Skeptics ... 03-29-2000 ...The leader of the most
influential African nation has opened debate in recent months on whether
or not HIV causes AIDS, has issued a blistering attack against the
international pharmaceutica l industry and has ordered formation of a
commission that will review all of the primary assumptions about the
global AIDS epidemic- including whether it even exists. South African
President Thabo Mbeki ... office issued a statement last week
condemning drug companies that "propagate fear to increase profits; the
profit-takers who are benefiting from the scourge of HIV/AIDS will
disappear to the affluent beaches of the world to enjoy wealth
accumulated from a humankind ravaged by a dreaded disease." Then ...
his office issued [a] ... statement denying that Mbeki had ever stated that
HIV was not the cause of AIDS. ... Dr. Mark Wainberg, president of the
International AIDS Societies, ... denounced Dr. Peter Duesberg, a
professor in the molecular biology department of the University of
California at Berkeley, and his followers who insist that HIV is a harmless
virus and AIDS a nonexistent disease. ... Wainberg suggested that their
actions warrant criminal prosecution. AIDS vaccine researcher John
Moore ... goes further, saying that "a charge of genocide would not be
inappropriate .. Berkley, head of the New York- based International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative, likened the nonbelief in HIV "to those that believe that
the Holocaust did not occur." ... Duesberg first raised his theory in 1987.
But Mbeki's public support for the skeptics' point of view is the first such
action taken by a head of state. ...an "expert panel" would convene to
review evidence that HIV causes AIDS and allegations that the AIDS drug
AZT is poisonous... Among those invited to participate in the commission
are Duesberg and Dr. Sam Mhlongo ... Mhlongo has said the epidemic
was concocted by drug companies to hook South Africa on costly anti-
HIV drugs.. we cannot confine our response to the problem of HIV/AIDS
to an injunction not to speak to [HIV skeptics] or telling people how to
think." The skeptics come from a broad range of backgrounds and
political affiliations. There are political conservatives who dispute the
notion that HIV is transmitted heterosexually , [and] gay radicals from San
Francisco ... All share one common article of faith: that HIV is harmless. ...
skeptics argue that AZT is a poison; AIDS, they insist, is actually caused
by the drug used in its treatment. South African skeptic Anthony Brink ...
insisted that "no one has ever been cured by AZT, but it sells like
hotcakes all the same...and it reaps profits counted in billions."
...Geshekter also disputes the use of the system called the Banqui
Definition to make HIV diagnoses. Formulated by the World Health
Organization ... Banqui, commonly used in Africa, offers doctors a list of
symptoms- some combination of which must be present to diagnose
AIDS. Geshekter argues that the symptoms- including rapid weight loss,
diarrhea and specific types of skin cancers-are more likely to be
reflections of economic underdevelopment. ... Duesberg insists that AIDS
in the African context is "nothing more than a new name for old diseases,"
... Tom Bethell ..., "People are not dying of AIDS but of the diseases that
have always afflicted those parts of the globe where water is not clean
and sewage is not properly disposed of"... Gayle, who heads up AIDS
programs for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...
denounced the skeptics and said that "there is no merit in questioning
conventional wisdom" about HIV.... [The reactions of the pro-drug
establishment: " criminal prosecution", "genocide", "Holocaust did not
occur" and "no merit in questioning conventional wisdom" is disturbingly
unscientific. They sound just like people with something to hide. if they
were confident of their case they should *welcome* the chance to finally
prove the AIDS skeptics like Duesberg wrong. BTW if this "Banqui
Definition" of AIDS is not the same as the definition used in Western
countries, then the African statistics might be inflated with non-HIV/AIDS
cases.]
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"We have repeatedly emphasized the fundamental problems posed for the
biologist by the fact of life's complex organization. We have seen that
organization requires work for its maintenance and that the universal quest for
food is in part to provide the energy needed for this work. But the simple
expenditure of energy is not sufficient to develop and maintain order. A bull in
a china shop performs work, but he neither creates nor maintains organization.
The work needed is particular work; it must follow specifications; it requires
information on how to proceed." (Simpson G.G., & Beck W.S., "Life: An
Introduction To Biology," [1957], Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, Second
Edition, 1965, p.466)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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