Month: September 2022

UPPER LIMIT ISSUE. “However, at the beginning of a search, typical upper limits are far from dispositive and can even seem absurdly high. For instance, the first upper limits on the flux of solar neutrinos were much higher than the expected flux, and indeed a reviewer of the paper describing the experiment amusingly commented:” https://lnkd.in/dKzsrBv View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends focused on an interesting article about how thoroughly we have searched for signs of life in the cosmos, concluding that our searches have been minuscule compared to the search space needed to be explored. And this article only deals with searches for advanced life forms capable of emanating obvious signals, rather than biological life forms, where the search history has been even more woeful. We are left with the obvious question: why has mankind been so willfully uncurious? View in LinkedIn

SUPERORGANISM. “It is argued here that bacteria are essentially modular organisms where the bacterial cell, microcolony, and macrocolony are modules of different levels of complexity analogous to modules of macroorganisms.” https://lnkd.in/dS-m-D7 View in LinkedIn

Modularity is deeply intriguing, and nature employs this strategy very widely, from genes, to metabolism, to cellular construction, and even to populations in ecosystems. Modularity has an underlying unseen pegboard. View in LinkedIn