Two World-Altering Chemical Processes Point To Possible Origin Of Life

10:33:23 PM    

Signs of water hint at possibility of life on Mars. International Herald Tribune - NEW YORK A new theory and a revised interpretation of observations have bolstered the idea that Mars has more water than was thought and have encouraged speculation about the possibility of life on the planet.
Life on Mars might lurk in gullies, say scientists Indian Express
NASA's Mars Odyssey Points To Melting Snow As Cause Of Gullies Science Daily
Betterhumans - Scientific American - The Australian - Space.com - and 57 related » [Google Technology News]

Where there is liquid water, there will be life. We will find it in my lifetime, I hope.  10:26:05 PM    

Public Release: 20-Feb-2003
Journal of Materials Chemistry
Scientists develop 'super peptide' that kills Candida albicans
Zengen, Inc. has developed a 'super' peptide that kills Candida albicans, the fungus responsible for nearly all yeast infections, including vaginitis. This organism can invade tissues and produce fatal infections in individuals with compromised immune systems. The new Alpha-MSH analog was so powerful that one particular peptide killed nearly 100 percent of Candida cells over repeated experiments. The study is scheduled to appear in the February 20th issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

Contact: Cattaliya Snider
sniderc@ruderfinn.com
310-479-9929
Zengen

[Eurekalert - Biology]

Candida is the major cause of yeast infections. While peptide therapy might be different than other anti-fungal approaches, I would think they might hold some real promise, since most anti-fungals are pretty nasty. In constrast to viruses and bacteria, Candida are eukaryotes, with a nucleus and other organells, making them simillar enough to us to present problems fighting off. New therapies would be welcomed.  10:24:51 PM    

Ridge Offers New 'Pre-Emptive' Steps to Combat Terrorism. (2003-02-20) -- At his second news conference in as many days, Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge today announced another three-step... [ScrappleFace]

Scrappleface is always good for a laugh. Particularly quoting Harrison Ford from 'Air Force One.'  10:21:01 PM    

Summit: DMCA Blocks Tech Progress. Silicon Valley executives and other insiders meet with lawmakers to discuss how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act adversely impacts technology innovation -- and what they can do about it. Katie Dean reports from Santa Clara, California. [Wired News]

Duh. The whole point of copyright and patents is to restrict others ability to innovate. At least in today's world. Many commercial research labs are not permitted by their lawyers to work on molecules patented by others, even for research purposes. How can you innovate, how can you come up with a new way of doing something if you are not able to understand what it is you are trying to improve? So, we have companies saying that devising an ink cartridge violated the DMCA. Copyroghts are to protect IDEAS. Patents to protect THINGS. Yet, a copyright act is being used to protect a company's business making things. This is wrong.  10:19:12 PM    

Patakis budget plan a threat to libraries [LISNews.com]

I am afraid that, due to many budget cuts over the next few years by a lot of states, that the vision of a public library may be coming to an end. Perhaps we will have to come up with a new model than one designed at the end of the 19th century.  10:15:25 PM    

Memes - Social Marketing. More on the underpinning of Tipping Points and Viral Marketing [Robert Paterson's Radio Weblog]

A nice pdf for me to read.  10:12:26 PM    

An introduction to wikis.

From Open Magazine, a (not especially well-written) article introducing Wikis, with a pro and a con view appended. Wikis are still getting 0.01% of the press that weblogs do, so it's refreshing to see pieces like this.

For the hordes of people all over the world who use Wiki, they are apt to argue that Wiki is the best [OE]shared space[base '] going. Wiki is an Open Source tool for collaboration. With Wiki, everyone has edit access to everything. Wiki allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

[base "]Open editing" means that everyday users create and edit any page in a web site. Anyone can go into a document, make additions, amendments, deletions, edits, and reformats[sigma].Scary! Doesn[base ']t that lead to chaos[~]or, even worse, garbage? There is a counter-response for those who think Wiki might be an information disaster waiting to happen. Wiki users say, What disaster?

[Seb's Open Research]

Wikis are an intriguing idea. I still wonder why they would have better signal:noise ratios than bulletin boards but they seem not to.It may be that while it is easy to 'graffitti' a site, it is easily removed. Perhpas only those that want to add signal will overcome the activation energy to do so. Anyway, it is a tool that I have been watching. Sometimes not as persoanl as a blog but maybe a better tool in other ways.  10:11:52 PM