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DEATH IS PRUNING. “Taking the characteristic lifetime of a bacterium as 10(3) seconds, in a million years (3 × 10(13) seconds), the total number of living organisms would be approximately 10(42) -10(43), and for a billion years, this number would be 10(45) - 10(46).” https://lnkd.in/da7dRTF View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this second and last weekend on a fascinating historical vignette on the struggles of embryologists to see eye-to-eye with geneticists. This illustrates an emotional component to science that many people may not realize runs deep, and that science is not just the logical advance of new ideas, but is largely governed by the same features that govern most human enterprises. https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

THE UNION. “The year 1963 also saw the first experiments using transcription inhibitors to demonstrate the importance of differential gene transcription in the embryo. The molecularization of embryology had begun.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

SYNERGY AT LAST. “A decade from now it may be difficult to distinguish between a geneticist and an embryologist, as they advance their science beyond what each might independently achieve.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

FROM LEFT FIELD. “A generation ago, few embryologists or geneticists would have predicted that a synthesis of their fields would be made possible by studies on the bacterium Escherichia coli. But this microscopic creature, with no embryology of its own, has shown a way.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

The fertilized gynaecium has metamorphosed into the specks of the next generation; plants never stop working. View in LinkedIn

THE GREAT UNDOCUMENTED KINGDOM. “All the viruses in the ocean end-to-end would stretch further than the nearest 60 galaxies.” They produce half of Earth’s oxygen, and microbial life (mostly viruses) is 96% by weight of all oceanic life, far exceeding the larger creatures. They are also the largest pool of genetic novelty on Earth. Lovely article. https://lnkd.in/d-nEKzQ View in LinkedIn

Early summer is also a time when dead flowers and seeds accumulate like autumn leaves. View in LinkedIn

PRE-EXISTING KNOWN TRUTHS. “The mind itself comprehends all ideas and mathematical forms; experience only reminds it of what it knew before” (Johannes Kepler, letter to Hohenburg, 1606) https://lnkd.in/da7dRTF View in LinkedIn

CONSENSUS DOUBTS. “Does such a universe conform to the holographic principle or the holographic bound? Susskind's argument based on collapse to a black hole is of no help here. Indeed, the holographic bound deduced from black holes must break down in a uniform expanding universe.” https://lnkd.in/draqjTW View in LinkedIn