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THE LEAP. “This surprising result--that information capacity depends on surface area--has a natural explanation if the holographic principle (proposed by t Hooft and elaborated by Susskind) is true.” https://lnkd.in/draqjTW View in LinkedIn

NUCLEAR VS CYTOPLASMIC. “Other biologists, notably Haldane (1932) and Goldschmidt (1939) were also postulating that genes acted at different times during development; but they did not place so much value on the cytoplasmic feedback. This may be a pleasant hypothesis, but there was no evidence in its favor.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

PILE OF COMPUTER CHIPS. “It would seem that either the GSL or our commonsense ideas of entropy and information capacity must fail. In fact, what fails is the pile itself: it would collapse under its own gravity and form a black hole before that impasse was reached. Thereafter each additional memory chip would increase the mass and surface area of the black hole in a way that would continue to preserve the GSL.” (GSL = generalized second law). https://lnkd.in/draqjTW View in LinkedIn

MORGAN OVERCAME THE HURDLE. “Cells that contain different types of cytoplasm would be able to activate different batteries of genes.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

THE HURDLE. “Genes could not be relevant to embryology until geneticists could explain how identical genes could generate different types of cells. In 1934, T. H. Morgan speculated that every gene, even though present in every cell, might not be active in every cell.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

THE PROBLEM OF PERMEABILITY. “However, the nuclear envelope proved to be a permeable barrier. More and more, geneticists began to see some form of differential gene activity as the cause for embryogenesis. Jumping over the nuclear boundary, they claimed embryology as part of their domain as well.” https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes this weekend on a wonderful article about the history of the differences in philosophy between geneticists and embryologists that led to conflicts before the two disciplines came together. The two groups were founded in reductionism and holism respectively, and the two viewpoints were largely unreconcilable. Because of this they took up different camps in the cell and followed different theories. https://lnkd.in/dQuxg6Y View in LinkedIn

The gorgeous lime tree flowers, framed by their silver undersided leaves, are scenting the roads of Girona. View in LinkedIn

BUILDING COMPLEXITY FROM SIMPLICITY. “I argued with him, saying that hierarchically organized stereochemistry, acting according to the key-lock rule, plus electrochemistry as an ornament is an ample basis for the realization of life processes (just like any of the most primitive alphabet is an ample base for expressing the most complex thoughts)". A.D. Sakharov (2011) https://lnkd.in/da7dRTF View in LinkedIn

3D PHYSICS. “We do not yet know of any such 3-D theory that works in that way. Indeed, what surface should we use as the boundary of the universe? One step toward realizing these ideas is to study models that are simpler than our real universe.” https://lnkd.in/draqjTW View in LinkedIn