Year: 2022

ON SLIME MOLDS AND ANTS. “Path optimization in Physarum when traversing a maze is related to ant algorithmics. Ants in a formicary undertake coordinated behavior for the location and transportation of food.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends focused on the not-so-humble slime mold family. Victorians liked flea circuses. Slime molds would have been better under time lapse. The human time scale misses the details of lives living on different time scales. Next weekend we see the slime molds at their best. View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING RNA. "Pairing and recombination of homologous chromosomes are essential for ensuring reductional segregation in meiosis. However, the mechanisms by which chromosomes recognize their homologous partners are poorly understood. Here, we report that the sme2 gene encodes a meiosis-specific noncoding RNA that mediates homologous recognition in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe." https://lnkd.in/gNZmnGV View in LinkedIn

PAIRING. "We propose that RNA transcripts retained on the chromosome play an active role in recognition of homologous chromosomes for pairing." http://science.sciencemag.org/content/336/6082/732 View in LinkedIn

IMMORTAL GERMLINE. "At fertilization, the haploid egg and sperm genomes unite and produce an entirely new organism, and the everlasting germline cycle continues from one generation to the next. The germline thus escapes the mortality that all somatic cells of an organism ultimately confront." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286740800202X View in LinkedIn

FOOTNOTE. "Germ cells are often described as the ultimate totipotent stem cell. However, germ cells give rise to only sperm or eggs, and it is not until the fertilization of the egg or parthenogenesis that an entirely new organism arises. Therefore, germ cells are unipotent cells that retain a totipotent potential that is eventually transferred to the zygote at fertilization." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286740800202X View in LinkedIn

SPECIAL CELLS. "Germ cells possess a dual identity: they are both highly specialized and uniquely capable of forming an entirely new organism." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009286740800202X View in LinkedIn

IMMORTAL LINK. "Animal germline cells ultimately produce eggs and sperm, providing an immortal link to the next generation." https://lnkd.in/gWaCZiv View in LinkedIn

UNBROKEN CONTINUITY. "The germ-line of species is immortal, at least in the sense that an unbroken continuity extends backwards in time to the origin of terrestrial life and forwards in time to an indeterminate future. This observation is a truism." https://lnkd.in/gVUuUB6 View in LinkedIn

BURNT NORTON by TSE." ""Time present and time past" "Are both perhaps present in time future" "And time future contained in time past." "If all time is eternally present" "All time is unredeemable." https://lnkd.in/gWpeKKa View in LinkedIn