Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Friday, October 18, 2002

-- Comment()
Gecko feet in-hair-ently sticky: "Geckos have the ability to run straight up a polished glass wall with no more effort than they use when running straight up a rough tree trunk or upside down on a ceiling, and we finally know why: their feet bond on a molecular level to the surface using van der Waals forces, the weak electrostatic attraction between molecules. This hypothesis was first suggested in the 1960s, when a German researcher discovered that geckos stick better to surfaces with higher surface energy. When the electrons on an overall neutrally charged molecule move at random around the molecule, one end can be briefly more negative and the other more positive. In close proximity to other molecules, these charge fluctuations become synchronized and produce a steady electrostatic attraction between the molecules." [kuro5hin.org]

Beginning Python for Bioinformatics -- Comment()
Matt Croydon::postneo points to OnLamp:

Bioinformatics, the use of computers in biological research, is the newest wrinkle on one of the oldest pursuits--trying to uncover the secret of life. While we may not know all of life's secrets, at the very least computers are helping us understand many of the biological processes that take place inside of living things. In fact, the use of computers in biological research has risen to such a degree that computer programming has now become an important and almost essential skill for today's biologists.