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WARNING. “Spawn of the devil, computer viruses may help us realize the full potential of the Net.” http://www.wired.com/1995/02/viruses/ View in LinkedIn

DEEPLY SENTIENT PLANTS. “During fertilization, cell–cell communication events take place to achieve and maximize reproductive success. Additional layers of crosstalk exist, including self-recognition and specialized processes to prevent self-fertilization and consequent inbreeding.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205214608996 View in LinkedIn

CENTRAL CORE. “One important difference between these polymorphic viruses, as these adaptive variants are known, is that computer viruses only changes form. "Only the package is changed;" the code is not rewritten.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/252103/computer_viruses_could_cross_frontier_into_biological_realm_researchers_say.html View in LinkedIn

THE POLLEN TUBE. “Sperm cells of flowering plants are non-motile and thus require transportation to the egg apparatus via the pollen tube to execute double fertilization. During its journey, the pollen tube interacts with various sporophytic cell types that support its growth and guide it towards the surface of the ovule. The final steps of tube guidance and sperm delivery are controlled by the cells of the female gametophyte.” https://lnkd.in/d9zxv6K View in LinkedIn

PROVOCATIVE QUESTION. “We came to wonder if there can be some kind of convergence between human viruses and computer viruses...It may sound like a scenario for a bad Hollywood movie, but it is not such a stupid question." https://lnkd.in/ddTvp9R View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend on double fertilization in flowering plants. After millennia of random experimentation and brutal winnowing, the reproductive pieces that survived in this group look more like a functional train crash rather than an elegant and streamlined process of passing on genes and generating diversity by outbreeding. This is a poster child of evolution as a blind band-aid process where incompatible systems are bolted together after lineage fusions in a make-do manner. And still, they somehow work against all odds. View in LinkedIn

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. “During this journey, the pollen tube of Arabidopsis, for example, interacts with at least seven different pistil cell types prior to arrival at its final destination inside the ovule. To add complexity, further layers of recognition exist. These include self-recognition and specialized processes to prevent self-fertilization and consequent inbreeding, as well as interspecific barriers, which are poorly understood at the molecular/cellular level.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205214608996 View in LinkedIn

DISCRIMINATION. “During the various phases of pollination...angiosperms distinguish self from non-self-pollen and direct and control pollen tube growth through the maternal tissues towards the egg apparatus.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205214608996 View in LinkedIn

CONSTANT CROSS-TALK. “During its journey, the angiosperm pollen tube communicates with its environment, allowing the maternal reproductive tissues to recognize and support compatible pollen in order to avoid fertilization failure. The acceptance of compatible pollen and the subsequent steps leading to successful fertilization comprise complex and cooperative processes between the pollen and the receptive pistil.” http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674205214608996 View in LinkedIn

TWO PRODUCTS. “The receptive synergid cell degenerates following this interaction, whereas the other synergid cell persists. After their ejection from the pollen tube, the two sperm cells stay immobile between the two female gametes for several minutes and subsequently fuse with the egg and central cells, respectively. These two fusion events give rise to the embryo and to the endosperm, respectively, and the process is therefore termed double fertilization.” http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5722?WT.ec_id=NCOMMS-20140829 View in LinkedIn