There have now been two separate reports of analyses of samples recovered from two different asteroids. Here is the link to the most recent publication in Nature:...
AMINO ACIDS AND NUCLEOTIDES ON ASTEROIDS
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ALL CATEGORIES
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Science
WHAT IS A MAN?
It seems so simple. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman. We know the sex of the baby immediately at birth and we write that down on the birth certificate. Done. No questions, no issues, that is the “fact”. However…. Like most things in the real world, it...
WHAT ARE MUTATIONS IN VIRUSES?
This essay was prompted by a friend who asked some really important questions about how COVID-19 is mutating and trying to evade our immune response. Viruses have no “brain”, they have no volition to “evade”. Viruses are very simple organisms with a very small set of...
ALBERT ALEXANDER
December 1940. Hitler had finalized his plans for Vichy, France, the German invasion of Russia and the invasion of Greece. Dionne Warwick, Frank Zappa, Richard Pryor, Nick Buoniconti and Phil Ochs were born. In Oxford, England a police constable named Albert...
THE HEALTHCARE ENIGMA
This example is based on fact and is designed to provide a discussion framework for looking at the complexities of managing healthcare costs. The Disease: Hemophilia A [1] The Cause: A...
RESECTING AMERICAN SCIENCE
In my previous note I tried to layout the importance of basic research as a fuel for commercial companies and their development of new products. Although the ROI on basic research and discovery is huge, it is unpredictable specifically because discoveries are...
DISCOVERY AND INVENTION
Discovery is finding out something that already exists, but that was unknown.Invention is taking what is known and creating something that has not existed before. For example, while looking for a new route to China, Columbus discovered America; or Newton discovering...
BASIC RESEARCH STARS
WHAT IS THE ROI ON BASIC RESEARCH? Why do we need the NIH, the NSF, or the CDC and why do we fund University research centers? Wouldn’t we be better off if they were all closed and the research was funded by industry? Wouldn’t that save the taxpayer a lot of money and...
BIRD FLU UNCHECKED
BIRD FLU: A BAD PLAN Yesterday, RFK Jr. said that instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune...
BOTOX
A story: In the late 18th century in Germany, a disease caused by tainted sausages was recognized. In 1895 musicians performing at a funeral in Belgium fell sick after eating some smoked ham. Dr. Emile Erengem at the University of Ghent found that the ham was...
AI USES
In 1803, Richard Trevithick demonstrated a new product in London. Over the next century that product was further developed and refined until it was introduced commercially. People all over the world were terrified of this new product and particularly worried that...
ENHANCED INFECTION RESEARCH
Have you ever built a sandcastle near the ocean? As the tide begins to come in you can try to repair the sections of the wall that begin to crumble with new sand; yet the water keeps coming in and finds a new section to collapse. Eventually the wall gives way no...