GDG

We have (or can develop) a very accurate sense of rhythm and tempo -- to the point where good orchestra conductor will perform a 45 minute symphony repeatedly and come out within seconds of the same duration each time. Counting seconds is just a particular tempo (60 beats per minute).

You might be interested in R.G. Wallace and R. Wallace, Consciousness and Cognition (2009) 18:160-67 "Evolutionary radiation and the spectrum of consciousness".

The first example I think of is the bacteriophage lambda, about which a fair amount is known.

Certainly, one can think of many excuses for owning an SUV, like perhaps the sudden desire to drive off-road, but I can't agree with most of yours. Cost: The Suburban starts at $41K; Lincoln Navigator starts at $51K; Lexus SUVs range from $36.8K to $75.9K; the Porsche Cayenne ranges from $45K to $124,800. Sure you can probably find SUVs or SUV-like vehicles for cheaper, but the Tesla is well within the SUV price range, particularly considering the acceleration. Yes, you can get a Prius for less, but that isn't an SUV either, and meets even fewer of your requirements. Gas Mileage: Suburban - 14-20 mpg to 10-15 mpg, depending on model; Navigator - 14-20 (for base model); Lexus - 18-24 to 12-18, depending on model; Cayenne - 14-20 mpg (for base model), 12-19 for the Turbo. So, it looks to me like 20 mpg is the top mileage for most SUVs. In contrast, it costs $4 to completely charge a Tesla. Capacity: Seats 5 + 2 child seats, plus the trunk in front. I do have three children, and never had problems with a standard sedan: this seats even more. Or, if you're not hauling as many people, fold down the back seats. As far as I can tell, they haven't published the luggage capacity, other than to say that it is more than most sedans. Personally, if I had to haul around more stuff than that on occassion, I'd just rent a truck for that day. I can see if you were a building contractor, and had to move full sheets of plywood daily: in that case, you drive a pickup truck. Otherwise, this is just an excuse. Range: Drive 300 miles, then take a break for 45 minutes while you charge the batter back up to 80%. After driving 300 miles, you probably need a 45 minute break. How often do you drive 300 miles without seeing a gas station? Any gas station will also have an electrical outlet. It seems to me that most people who like SUVs do so either because (a) they consider them fashionable, and this fits with their image or concept of status, or (b) they enjoy the "emperor of the road" feeling of driving something that massive around on the streets. And many people justify them because they pull a boat twice a year, or spend a week in the mountains once a year. I prefer to drive something more ecological 98% of the time, and rent a truck only when needed. I have no use for an SUV at all. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged The Tesla uses lithium ion batteries; completely recyclable, and not classified as hazardous waste. Spilled gasoline, on the other hand, is much more hazardous.

Or you could just get a full plug-in electric Tesla: - 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds - 120 mph top speed - Seating for 5 adults + 2 child seats - Up to 300 mile range - 45 minute QuickCharge - Charges from 120V, 240V or 480V - 5 minute battery swap

Since you're limiting this to tactile neurons, I assume you are only talking about the "sense of touch" nerves in the skin. If you stimulate all of them, you should feel like you're being "touched" all over -- probably like you've been wrapped in a tight rubber sheet, or a full-body ACE bandage.

You won't need to: they'll take care of it on their own Seriously, I think the idea is that their natural instinct to play in the dirt, and put everything in their mouth, probably helps. Dirt (in the sense of soil) is an extremely complicated microbial environment, with many species of bacteria, fungi, and other stuff in every cm3. IIRC, having a pet is supposed to help too.

If TRAIL causes apoptosis, I would definitely wear gloves You can buy TRAIL commercially, (for example at Axxora), but your budget may scream (US$360 for 20 ug). If you are planning to isolate the protein yourself, I would suggest first tracking down the journal where it was first described. You can probably obtain the protein in the supernatant of a macrophage cell culture that has been stimulated in a particular way. The problems will be (a) making enough to detect, and (b) proving that you've made it at all. You can demonstrate that you've made it by using monoclonal antibodies, but again, they're not cheap. Best of luck!

I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but here are a few references: L. Janský et al., Pflugers Arch (1996) 432(3):368-72 ("Changes in thermal homeostasis in humans due to repeated cold water immersions"); A.Y. Gracey et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2004) 101(48):16970-75; A. Tanaka et al., Dig Dis Sci (2007) 52(2):478-87; J.M. Stocks et al., Aviat Space Environ Med (2004) 75(5):444-57. Found these through a quick search on PubMed. The links will take you to the abstracts.

Frat house

I suggest this thread may be another candidate for the pseudoscience area...

Yes, those structures are all composed of neurons. There are a number of different types of neuron, such as basket cells, pyramidal cells, Purkinje cells, etc., all of which are believed to have different functions and/or characteristics. Different brain structures may have different types of neuron. If you check the Wikipedia entry for neuron, there is a list of different types with links to explore.

Not all the way to anorexia: although you are limiting calories, you still need to make sure and obtain all of the required nutrients. There are disadvantages, too. Still controversial. There is a decent summary in Wikipedia. Sounds pretty uncomfortable to me...

As for extraction of proteins, two of the oldest examples are curdling milk (extracting the casein) with an acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc.) extracting collagen from horse hides, hooves, etc. to make gelatin

(a) traits like multi-drug resistance and pathogenicity are passed all the time; (b) whether it happens by F plasmid conjugation or not, it does occur; © if traits like antibiotic production can be passed (and they can), I don't see where THC synthesis is any more complicated (has anyone already figured out the size of the operon that would be required?); and (d) if there is no advantage to the recipient bug, how are you maintaining it in your culture? Looking back a few posts, I see that your proposal was to use transposons (which of course pop out of the chromosomes as easily as they pop in) or phage vectors... And of course, F-plasmid conjugation is not the only means for sharing DNA: see, e.g., transformation. They don't need to survive: all they need to do is release their DNA where other bacteria can pick it up. This may be in your petri dish, on your glove, on your cheek, or in your gut. And yet your gut is home to a huge population of bacteria, in a number of species. Again, your crippled strain does not have to survive to pass on its new genes. I don't recall ever eating any, yet there they are, in my gut (and I assume, in yours). Further, the population appears to be a steady state, depending on continual immigrants.

See, e.g., Wikipedia for a summary of the criticism of this work.

The word you are leaving out is "embryonic", as in "embryonic stem cells." It is unfortunate that the term "embryonic" was used at all: if these had been called "blastocystic stem cells", they likely would not have attracted any adverse attention. ESCs are taken from blastocysts, which have about 50-150 cells. Needless to say, the blastocyst does not look anything like a human fetus: more like a hollow ball. At that stage, the cells are not committed to any particular fate (i.e., they have not yet started to become neurons or erythrocytes, or osteoblasts, etc.), and can be induced to become any cell. There are those who believe that, even at this stage, this glob of cells is a human being with a soul, and that even if frozen and never destined for development, it should be treated as a person with rights. [What happens to the soul of a frozen embryo? Do they stay in limbo forever?] Anyway, given that it is still legal to obtain abortion in the US (at least in some circumstances), and that there is no law requiring one to implant every fertilized embryo obtain in in vitro fertilisation, I think the entire ESC debate was unjustified.

So laxatives are a universal cure-all? I suggest that there are a number of diseases characterized by diarhea (e.g., cholera) where it is pretty clear that constipation is not the cause. If you actually believe that constipation causes all disease, you need to seriously reexamine your sources of medical information. You should be able to recognize, even at first glance, that this cannot possibly be true.

Let me recommend that you get a copy of "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. It is now out in paperback, and may be available in your local public or school library. Although the book is mainly about neuroplasticity, it will answer a number of your questions (and undoubtedly inspire more ). The bulk of the brain is neurons and glial cells. For many years, science has considered the neurons to be the cells responsible for all signaling, and the glial cells as basically "support". It turns out that more recent research shows that glial cells also contribute to signalling and response. Most of us do not have transistors in our heads, but neurons are pretty complicated processing devices. Your typical neuron has many (possibly hundreds) of connections called "dendrites" that receive input from other neurons. The input from each connection can be either excitatory or inhibitory: the neuron integrates all of the inputs, and either fires or doesn't. If it does fire, it sends an impulse (a wave of electrical depolarization) down its axon (typically the single long main projection), which may connect to one or more (possibly dozens) of other neurons. A fertile field for more research...

Any time

A very peculiar thought experiment. After you've removed all of the components you've specified from the milk, you have basically only lactose and casein left. Although, casein might fall under "greasy non-lipid compounds", which would leave you with nothing but lactose. That might still smell mainly like milk. After you break the casein (if present) down into individual amino acids, I suspect the product stinks -- amines generally do not smell very pleasant. After your favorite bactiera have digested the remainder (and I am not aware of any bacteria that would thrive in the absence of at least a bit of iron, calcium, etc.), I imagine the result would smell like crap, in the literal sense of the word. The exact odor would depend almost entirely on the nature of your hypothetical bacteria (and the phantom bacteria). Given just how speculative this is at nearly every step, I don't think you can expect more of an answer than that. There's just not much we can extrapolate from.

Gangrene? Probably not: mast cells (and histamines) are thought to be mainly employed against multicellular invaders, like flukes and worms. Still, probably not a good idea to ablate the entire mast cell population. A current theory holds that allergy is the result of the immune system not getting enough stimulation by foreign antigens. In other words, that we live in a world that is "too clean." Instead of being exposed to a wide variety of natural (potential) parasites, you grow up exposed only to a house full of dust (with lots of dust mite antigens)...

True for humans. Apparently not true for ducks.

A quick look at PubMed shows that a similar experiment has already been performed. See C.H. Hillman et al., "The effect of acute treadmill walking on cognitive control and academic achievement in preadolescent children." Neuroscience (2009) 159(3):1044-54:

I'm just wondering what you think such an experiment would prove? Although plant viruses do exist, plants are not susceptible to animal viruses and vice versa. Plants wouldn't need to do anything to fight off swine flu: they're naturally immune just because they are plants. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged Whether your deliberate infection would help against a later infection is a matter of speculation. The most important antigens in flu are hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. These each come in different forms (and suptypes), and are the reason you see flu varieties referred to as, e.g., H5N1 (for hemagglutinin type 5, neuraminidase type 1). The H is what the virus uses to bind to the cell surface, while the N is used to escape from the cell after replication. Because these proteins are prominent on the outside of the viral particle ("virion"), these are the proteins that your immune system tends to recognize and target. If the current swine flu mutates to become more deadly or more transmissible, there is a good chance that the mutation(s) would happen in the H and/or N antigens. If so, it could be that your antibodies against the current flu would not be effective against the mutated flu. So, in a nutshell, would you take a 1 in a 100 chance of death now, for the possibility that the future flu will be worse, but still recognizable? Remember, you're also gambling that the virus will get worse, and not better: if it turned into a relatively mild flu, you'd be pretty silly to have risked your life to avoid it. I don't think you come out ahead.