Flatpak Updated 2025-07-16
Dizi (instrument) Updated 2025-07-16
Django (web-framework) Updated 2025-07-16
React setups:
DNA sequencing milestone Updated 2025-07-16
Most of these are going to be Whole-genome sequencing of some model organism:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_genome_sequencing#History lists them all. Basically th big "firsts" all happened in the 1990s and early 2000s.
- 1975 by Sanger et al.: 5 kbp of the single-stranded bacteriophage ΦX174 using Sanger's radiolabelling method
- 1981 by Sanger et al.: 17 kbp of human mitochondrial DNA via Sanger method, known as the Cambridge Reference Sequence
- 2003: Human Genome Project (3 Gbp)
Smartphone Updated 2025-07-16
Structure of the mitochondria Updated 2025-07-16
Cellular respiration Updated 2025-07-16
diff Updated 2025-07-16 Minkowski inner product Updated 2025-07-16
This form is not really an inner product in the common modern definition, because it is not positive definite, only a symmetric bilinear form.
Mitochondrial DNA Updated 2025-07-16
Mitochondrial endosymbiosis Updated 2025-07-16
Mobile app Updated 2025-07-16
Non-POSIX command line utility Updated 2025-07-16
Nucleoid Updated 2025-07-16
Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane (2006) Updated 2025-07-16
All pages below are from the second edition from 2018. It seems that there weren't any changes in the text, the updated preface mentions
As it happens, nearly 15 years have passed since the 1st edition of Power, Sex, Suicide was published, and I am resisting the temptation to make any lame revisions. Some say that even Darwin lessened the power of his arguments in the Origin of Species through his multiple revisions, in which he dealt with criticisms and sometimes shifted his views in the wrong direction. I prefer my original to speak for itself, even if it turns out to be wrong.
This is partly addressed in the preface of the second edition from 2018.
Central thesis:
- there are two sexes because of mitochondria
- the acquisition of mitochondria was one of the most important steps in the evolution of eukaryotes.There are no known eukaryotes which never had mitochondria. Having mitochondria appears to be a requisite for being an eukaryote.Contrast this for example with multicellularity, which is highly polyphyletic.
- Apoptosis is largely regulated by mitochondria
- there are two main theories for how the mitochondria endosymbiosis started:
- parsitic hypothesis of mitochondrial endosymbiosis: a parasitic option rather than cooperative
- hydrogen hypothesis: a cooperative option rather than parasitic
Smaller points:
- 10% of our body weight (dry presumably?) is mitochondria. Also quoted at: www.nature.com/scitable/blog/student-voices/mighty_mitochondria. TODO confirm.
- eukaryotes can do phatocytosis due to their cytoskeleton
- paints a colorful picture of Peter Mitchell. Some Wikipedia edits are warranted!
- it is hard for complex organisms to evolve because longer DNA means longer replication time
- cancer is natural selection gone wrong
- multicellular organisms are not utopias where every cell lives happily. Rather, they are dictatorships, where any dissident is forced to commit seppuku. Lu Xun's petition quote comes to mind.
Nitpicks:
- the book calls ATP synthase "ATPase" in several points, which is confusing because -ase means "something that breaks", and in 2020 parlance, there are ATPases which actually break ATP: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATPase. The book itself acknowledges that on page 135:
The ATPase is freely reversible. Under some circumstances it can go into reverse, whereupon it splits ATP, and uses the energy released to pump protons up the drive shaft, back across the membrane against the pressure of the reservoir. In fact the very name ATPase (rather than ATP synthase) signifies this action, which was discovered first. This bizarre trait hides a deep secret of life, and we’ll return to it in a moment.
Some criticisms:
- some of the later chapters are a bit more boring, like the stuff about warm-blooded animals. Perhaps is it that Ciro Santilli is more interested in the molecular aspects than macro
- the author talks about some very recent research at the time. While this does highlight his expertise, some of the points mentioned might still be in a state of flow. This is acknowledged by the author himself on the 2018 updated preface however.
SoundFont Updated 2025-07-16
Contains instructions on how to synthesize MIDI.
Extension: sf2.
Can be imported for example by:
- vmpk
- Csound with
sfload: www.csounds.com/manual/html/sfload.html
Uniqueness theorem for Poisson's equation Updated 2025-07-16
Why can't you send voice without modulation? Updated 2025-07-16
Basically, the antenna has to be very, very large, more comparable to wavelength. E.g. even for the higher pitches, we fall in very low frequency, so have a look at the size of some of the submarine VLF antennas! They are like football pitch sized.
Electronic voting Updated 2025-07-16
I would also increase voter percentage due to convenience, and reduce the weight of voting fraud cases, as everyone would be able to check that their own vote was counted correctly.
And then, we would be able to have referendums for basically any important decision being made. No need to go out on the streets and waste your time in a mass protest! Just vote!
It is possible to implement anonymous electronic voting with ring signatures, an algorithm also used by Monero, an anonymity focused cryptocurrency, as mentioned e.g. on this 2004 paper eprint.iacr.org/2004/281.pdf. The system can be set in a way such that you can only deanonymize someone if everyone else, or a very large number of people, conspire against that person.
The same system could also be used to setup forums where only citizens of the country could comment and propose changes and vote on them.
With electronic voting, we could have a system where you can let someone you trust vote for you automatically, or vote automatically for certain subjects alone, a bit like we do by electing senators. But then you would also be able to override specific votes if you wanted to.
In this system therefore, anyone who can proxy vote has to have their vote public, and placed in a decent website that shows clearly who voted for what.
Related:
- www.vote-coin.com/ allows you to delegate your voting power to someone else, that's perfect!
Elementary particle Updated 2025-07-16
The opposite of quasiparticle, see notaby: quasiparticles vs elementary particles.
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