Clipmarks | Silkweaver's Interesting Stuff collection

A Plan to Add 12 Points to Everyone's IQ with Food Additives

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:21:31 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Of course, the next enhancer to come along might be distributed as unequally as iodized salt has. Right now, most developed countries have iodized salt, and many developing ones don't. Once the whole world has been iodine-enhanced, it's very possible that the richest nations will get salt that contains nutrients that boost IQs by 50 points, and therefore increases incomes respectively

Clip Source: io9.com

Right now, people all over the world are being made smarter through a simple food additive. The plan to unleash this additive on the world, called "the micronutrient initiative," has already boosted IQs in Pakistan by as much as 12-13 points. Is it really a good idea to put brain-changing additives in the food supply like this, even if it's for a good cause?

Most countries in the world have already answered that question with a resounding "yes." The additive in question here is iodine, and you probably eat it all the time in your enhanced, iodized salt. Canada's micronutrient initiative is trying to bring iodized salt to countries like Pakistan and elsewhere, where iodine deficiency creates a range of problems from severe developmental disorders to lowered IQs

researcher Anders Sandberg points out at Oxford University's Practical Ethics blog that there is really very little difference between "enhancement" and "normalization" in this case:

Tags: iq, iodine, salt, nutrition, cognitive enhancement

Memories may be stored on your DNA

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:45:01 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: This is a very interesting hypothesis. Pointing the possible effects ones immediate experiences on ones own genetic composition!

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Memories may be stored on your DNA

REMEMBER your first kiss? Experiments in mice suggest that patterns of chemical "caps" on our DNA may be responsible for preserving such memories.

To remember a particular event, a specific sequence of neurons must fire at just the right time. For this to happen, neurons must be connected in a certain way by chemical junctions called synapses. But how they last over decades, given that proteins in the brain, including those that form synapses, are destroyed and replaced constantly, is a mystery.

Many genes are already coated with methyl groups. When a cell divides, this "cellular memory" is passed on and tells the new cell what type it is - a kidney cell, for example. Miller and Sweatt argue that in neurons, methyl groups also help to control the exact pattern of protein expression needed to maintain the synapses that make up memories.

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

the brain could be borrowing a form of cellular memory from developmental biology to use for what we think of as memory

Tags: memory, dna

Time names the 23andMe retail DNA test 'Invention of the Year'

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:50:05 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.engadget.com

Time Magazine has released its annual Best Inventions issue, and topping the list is the 23andMe retail DNA test, a kit which which offers consumers 23 clinical reports on their genetic risk for everything from Psoriasis to Prostate Cancer. It may not be as well known as last year's iPhone (or YouTube the year before that), but the $399 package might signal a significant revolution in preventative medicine... or it might bring mankind a disturbing new form of eugenics. Whatever you use it for, the process couldn't be easier: the kit comes with a tube that you spit in and mail back to the company, which in a mere 4 - 6 weeks will notify you that testing is complete. As you wait for the results to be posted online you might want to spend some time contemplating the ethical dilemmas posed by this technology.

Tags: dna, dna testing

Mapping the Bio Cosmos

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:09:37 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Microbes are responsible for many biogeochemical cycles and are crucial to the continued function of the , Woese's efforts to clarify the evolution and diversity of microbes provided an invaluable service to ecologists and conservationists.

Woese’s big idea is that primitive life existed as a community of cells that freely exchanged genes. They shared a basic translation system for making proteins, but had little else in common. These cells evolved as a community and not as distinct lineages. Before Woese, the tree of life had two main branches called prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the prokaryotes composed of cells without nuclei and the eukaryotes composed of cells with nuclei.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The Third Domain, by Tim Friend, is the untold story of how the discovery of a new form of life, archaea - biochemically and genetically unique organisms that live and thrive in some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth - was first ridiculed, then ignored for thirty years by mainstream scientists - is revolutionizing science, industry, and even our search for extraterrestrial life.

But in 1977, a lone scientist named Carl Woese determined that archaea were a distinct form of life, unlike anything seen on Earth before. This shocking discovery was entirely incompatible with the long-standing classification of life as we know it. But as it turned out, archaea were not life as we know it, and the tree of life had to be uprooted once again. Now, archaea are being hailed as one of the most important scientific revelations of the 20th century.

Tags: life, organisms

50 Great Free Online Libraries

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:44:51 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.fotolia.com

Clip Source: www.attiaspace.com

50 Great Free Online Libraries

1. California Digital Library

2. The Online Books Page

3. Free Books

4. Project Gutenberg

5. Research Assistance

6. BookRags - E-Books and Book Notes

7. All Bookstores.com

8. FreeTech Books

10. Free E-Books.net

12. The eBook Directory

13. University of Virginia's E-Book library

14. BizzyDays Ebook Publications

15. Web Source

16. free-ebooks-4u.com

18. Free eBooks and Best Sites

19. Free Electronic Books

20. CIW Free E-Books

21. My Free EBooks

22. Free E-Books

25. EBookstand

26. Bibliomania

27. Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts

28. The eText Archive

29. Free Books 5000

33. Page by Page Books

34. bartleby.com

35. Free Books 4 Doctors

37. Chapter-a-Day - Free Books in Your E-Mail!

38. Free-Book.co.uk: The directory of free online books

39. FreeBooknotes.com - Free study guides for over 250 books

42. BeyondBooks.com

46. eBooks4free.net - Download free books and manuscripts

48. Free Joke Books

56. Be Successful!

57. Daily Literature

58. Bookyards: library to the world

4shared.com

ReadPrint.com

No Time to Think (As We May)

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:46:52 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

No Time to Think

[Video]

March, 5 2008

Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide Web. Less attention, however, has been paid to Bush's motivation for imagining a new generation of information technologies; it was his hope that more powerful tools, by automating the routine aspects of information processing, would leave researchers and other professionals more time for creative thought. But now, more than sixty years later, it seems clear that the opposite has happened, that the use of the new technologies has contributed to an accelerated mode of working and living that leaves us less to think, not more. In this talk I will explore how this state of affairs has come about and what we can do about it.

Tags: david levy, levy, vannevar bush, thinking, creativity, knowledge, technology, science, video, google