Month: September 2022

MULTIVALENT DISADVANTAGES. "Multivalent formation is often associated with mis-segregation of chromosomes as well as chromosomal rearrangements arising from recombination within multivalents, leading to reduced fertility and low-fitness offspring." https://lnkd.in/e2tp_G5 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last week’s meditation on the place of life as we know it in the universe. Right now we are only sure of life on earth, but the probabilities are high that this obscure and tiny planet is not the only location of life in the universe. Our challenge is to look up and out, and be like the pilgrim in the Flammarion engraving of 1888 peering into the heavens. https://lnkd.in/eRnh42A View in LinkedIn

SCALE OF LIFE. “Life is almost certainly the most complex and diverse physical system in the universe, covering more than 27 orders of magnitude in mass, from the molecules of the genetic code and metabolic process up to whales and sequoias. Organisms themselves span a mass range of over 21 orders of magnitude, ranging from the smallest microbes from 10(-13) g to the largest mammals and plants 10(8) g.” https://lnkd.in/eCs7eyu View in LinkedIn

BIG SLITHER OF LIFE. “This vast range exceeds that of the Earth’s mass relative to that of the galaxy (which is ‘only’ 18 orders of magnitude) and is comparable to the mass of an electron relative to that of a cat.” http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/208/9/1575.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

HOW MANY GALAXIES ARE THERE? 120 billion times ten galaxies, each with a billion stars like our sun, and at least half of those suns have planets orbiting them. The early universe had more galaxies, which merged over time to the present number. And so far, Hubble has only seen 10% of the observable universe. Beyond the observable universe, who knows? https://lnkd.in/eQTzDpi View in LinkedIn

OUR HOME SUPERCLUSTER that includes the Milky Way on its edge, with most galaxies being pulled towards the great gravitational attractor. The cluster of clusters is part of an even more massive aggregate of superclusters, Laniakea (“immeasurable heaven” in Hawaiian). The model of the supercluster looks remarkably and coincidentally like a neural structure with filamentous form. https://lnkd.in/e6JmqHf View in LinkedIn

SIMULATION OF COSMIC EVOLUTION during the past 13 billion years. “A universe that is dynamic and complex on all scales of space and time.” https://lnkd.in/eMzuCFa View in LinkedIn

A SPECK OF DUST SUSPENDED IN SPACE. Galaxy superclusters complexes in vast cosmic web that looks filamentous, composed of galaxies. https://lnkd.in/eeNGwRH View in LinkedIn

EDGE OF NOTHING. “We are cocooned from observing other universes or other dimensions, and there may even be a boundary to the cosmos. But no boundary to the cosmos has been observed. The universe looks evenly distributed with galaxies. As the universe ages, it is continuing to expand, creating new empty space-time between galaxies. What is the universe expanding into? In an infinite universe, it is expanding into nothing. An expanding universe means that any boundary will always be beyond our detection. Only 100 years ago we had no idea that there were other galaxies besides our own.” https://lnkd.in/eZ___f4 View in LinkedIn

WE CAN CONCEPTUALIZE the universe within as biologists, especially when riding an axis of time. We are abundantly on home turf here: “The protein universe, a concept first mentioned in 1992, is the collection of all proteins of every biological species that lives or has lived on earth.” https://lnkd.in/evmEhB5 View in LinkedIn