Skye

It would have an effect on migratory animals that use the magnetic field you'd think, any palaeontological (now thats a word!) studies done on the effects on them?

What is the basis of information transfer in memes? I think this is why it's hard to accept memes as a replicator, at least in a Darwinian context. Genes are transfered via DNA, you can create other replicators on, say binary code. These are precise and and unambiguous codes. Without errors in replication they will be passed on indefinately in their exact form. The method of storing the information is the same as that used in transfer, only expression of them does. The germ line cells in living organisms continue indefinitely, branching off into mortal somatic cells, which never themselves are replicated. Memes can represent concepts, ideas, technologies, etc. I can learn how to light a fire, be told or shown or copy someone. I take that information into my brain in one manner and store in an entirely different manner. Then if someone else gets that information from me they obtain it in a different manner to the manner they store it as well. So there isn't anything that is passed down from generation to generation, there are no 'meme germ particles.' Without these precise and unambiguous information storers, that are both the method of storage and transmission, and that are maintained in the host between replications, memes become subject to modification during the lifetime of the host. These modifications aren't simply random mutations, but learning, improving on the meme. These beneficial, learned modification are passed onto the next generation. So you have descent with modification. Just a little ironic that a theory of Richard Dawkins is Lamarkian. Another thing, we can't learn things we don't have the capacity to learn. You can't argure with that:D I bend my brain trying to think in 4D but it ain't happening. Thinking of things we don't know is tricky, so it's easier to use animals to illustrate this, which don't know some things we do. Octopuses are unable to determine patterns by touch. The classic study on this used perspex cylinders with grooves cut into them either along the length or around it. Using food rewards and electric shock punishments, the researchers were unable to improve the octopuses success rate at distinguishing between the two. A change in the neurology of octopuses is needed in order for them to learn this meme. So I would say that memes are quite limited by neuroanatomy, and by our genes. Being limited in this way would have coupled memes to genes more effectively, those unable to learn language wouldn't be able to derive any benefit from the meme. In this way memes could more accurately drive the evolution of intelligence.

I think my main problem with it is that I don't think america has the capacity to control the situation in Iraq. They may be able to get rid of Saddam, that's not a given, but after that influence would only continue as long as they occupied it. Saying it will be different from Afghanistan, or Vietnam or Cuba or Libya or North Korea or Iran or anywhere else they have had issues with, isn't enough considering how difficult it obviously is. Destabilising a country without knowing if you can control it afterwards just doesn't seem to be acting in the interests of national security. Iraq seems to be one of the few Islamic countries that has had little to do with al Quaeda, I would think that Saddam would almost be an ally.

There's usually not a jackpot every week either, unfortunately.

Well all our sensations are wrong to a certain extent, if you assume being erroneous to an extent means it is a creation then everything just falls apart. If time has already gone crazy at the Planck length than does that mean the smallest possble unit of it is at a higher value?

What is UN policy on these breaches?

Mmmm donuts... Maybe a smoke ring is easier to visualise. They are made of an ever expanding ring of particles. Either way the donut idea is based on irregularities in the data from that WMAP, which might just be errors.

Interesting but a little dodgy with... How credible is a paper posted to a Web site? Computers used by scientists need a 'more research needed button', it would save so much time.

No, I'd say you were silly to attack a country you knew would use WOMD against you if you attacked them:confused:

I have a few questions on the balloon idea... Assuming it's relatively flat is the universe something like a balloon the fat person Aman mentioned sat on? How thick is the skin of this balloon, if everything is moving at c it must be getting close to nothing. Could something stretch the skin by moving perpendicular to it, or must you move along/within it? Can the balloon burst?

Can you limit yourself to being either stupid or bitter? The combination is overwhelming.

Umm the question was if there is life on Mars, and if there is any evidence of it, not are extraterrestrials visiting Earth. New Mexico is making a decision based on the economics rather than evidence.

People are smarter (based on the level of education) and prettier (at least we don't stink as much) than we were before. You can agree with the idea based on a logical extension of that progression, or disagree based on the futility of it. The inherent flaw is that if we make women both smarter AND prettier then they'll be pretty but they'll have the good sense not to sleep with me. And if all these smarter people become students then there'll be no shortage of fast food workers.

I'd like to know so I could really enjoy those last few moments...imagine drinking without the fear of getting a hangover.

Entropy is disorder, when anything isn't organised into groups or patterns. If you drop a stack of paper (which was organised into a nice, neat stack) and watch them fly everywhere thats the trend of the universe to progress towards entropy. Entropy is based on chance though, there's a chance they could all fall into a nice neat pile or into a complex pattern like a word. The chances are that they won't though. You can of course force things into organisation, the energy your body expends is on forcing things into particular organisations. Unfortunately this produces heat and heat is very disorganised energy. If you put it in numbers (which I can't do) then the organisation produced by your body is outweighed by the disorganisation you give off by heat. So we need a constant supply of organised energy which we get from the sun.

Take a look in the back of some science mags, alot of them have a jobs section. This will give you an idea of what you will be paid, and what areas actually have regular vacancies.

'Lots a nuclear bombs' comes to mind:D There could be some nasty things created if we get better at this gene therapy business. A virus that inserts itself into the DNA of the lung cells (I think it's a proposed treatment for cystic fibrosis) could be modified to reproduce in the cell and lyse it, and so be exhaled and could reinfect others. The lysing of the lung cells would probably kill the host. If we can go a step further and get a virus to infect the DNA of germ line cells then we have a contagious heritable disease. It wouldn't be detected untill the symptoms showed up in the children of those infected.

It's called Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity Disorder now I heard, but of course you have to shorten it to ADHD because they lose interest after you say 'Attention...' I kind of see it as the psychological term for 'stupid' but even if it is, then wouldn't it be great if we could treat it with a drug?

Well we don't know much because there's no end of post grads writing their thesis on something never known before.

I guess you mean that the child has an extra X sex chromosome (XXY, though XXXY, etc are also possible). This leads Klinefelters syndrome, which is easy to recognise...some development of the breasts and hips, underdeveloped testes, little facial hair. It also makes someone afflicted by it sterile, due to the underdevelopment of the testes. By memory it occurs in about 1 in a thousand or two thousand births, not enough for them to take over the world. The pop stars mentioned are all (relatively) normal males, based on appearances. There may be a heritable basis for homosexuality (maybe for heterosexuality too:) ) but it sure isn't chromosomal.

Lets say happiness is measure of the 'fitness' of a species of organism, called Happius fascia. Normal Happius critters ( ) have the gene 'hh' which codes for their smiley face. They produce a single identical offspring each generation. So a population of ten Happius critters would remain this number throughout time. Generation 1 :) :) :) :) :) Generation 2 :) :) :) :) :) Now then occasionally an unfortunate Happius mutates, it's gene for it's smiley face changes to 'uh' which causes it to have the unhappy face . These mutants are unable to reproduce because they are too unhappy, so they leave no descendents. Generation 3 :) :) :) :) <---mutant Generation 4 :) :) :) :) <---only nine Happius left So unhappy mutants cause the population to fall in number. If this process continued over long periods of time than the Happius population would become exstinct. Fortunately an occasional Happius mutates to have the gene 'Hh' which causes it to be very happy like this: . Because they are so happy these Happius produce TWO offspring each generation so that the population increases, and the proportion of Happius with the 'Hh' gene increases. Generation 5 :) :) :) :) <--mutant Generation 6 :) :) :) :) :-p <---offspring of the mutant Generation 7 :) :) :) :) :-p :-p The population can't keep growing forever. This Happius populations territory can only sustain 12 Happius. Since the (carrying the Hh gene) Happius are 'fitter' than the (carrying the hh gene) they outcompete them. So each generation the number of Hh Happius increases. Generation 8 :) :) :) :-p :-p Generation 9 :) :) :) :-p :-p :-p ....untill the hh Happius gene becomes extinct and the population is made up entirely of Hh Happius.... Generation 15 :-p :-p :-p :-p :-p :-p And a population of hh Happius have evolved into a population of Hh Happius.

Genetic mutations don't respond to environmental changes, other than things that directly interfere with the process, like UV rays hitting the atoms involved. Mutations are much like changing or removing or adding a word to a sentence so it rarely makes any improvements. If I removed the word 'rarely' from the previous sentence it would probably be just confusing to you. If I changed the words 'much like' to 'nothing like' it makes a comprehensible difference. I hope it's not an improvement though, or else I've been writing drivel.

Cool idea Ardvark, all you need to do now is create a cyborg, send him back in time to kill James Cameron and then make it into a cool movie (or three) You'll be rich! What about photosynthetic organisms though, aren't we already reliant on them? I would say simple replicating and evolving machines would be more of a problem than thinking machines, they would perhaps change the environment to something we can't live in through whatever metabolism they had. Little thing on Japans suicide rate

I think it's important to note the difference between black as people having dark skin caused by high levels of melanin, as opposed to people from Africa with a variety of traits including dark skin. If you assume that Africa was where the first Homo sapiens occured than it would make sense that they would be black due to the latitude. But that doesn't mean they shared other traits with the current Africans. An African has had as long to evolve as any other person so they could be as much or more divergent as white, yellow, red or green people.

I read in a bio book the other day that auxins are routinely sprayed onto fruit trees to increase fruit growth.