CharonY

Indeed. I pretty much find ties to be the silliest part of the attire. But wouldn't ideas just drip through the holes? That is why I prefer self-releasing knots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_swallowing

Eh, this is more a evolution/ecological topic, but I have to point out that the assumption of a baseline, over which the whole ecosystem oscillates is rarely true. There are often oscillations, but the baseline tends to shift, often much more rapid than geological time scales. If you want to find something that oscillates around a stable baseline for any given time you really cherry-pick your parameters (i.e. population size, area, time frame etc.).

I am not quite sure that I grasp the problem entirely (also, it is not precisely my field), assuming the SNP is nuclear, why shouldn't it be homozygous?

I hope you also wear a top hat.

Well getting dirt on a suit is annoying. And repeated dry cleaning really messes it up over time. I have not yet seen washable suits in stores yet, though. But what about ties? It is almost impossible to get stains off the silk! But then suits are not supposed to be practical. They are like high-heels for men with lower risk of spine injury.

Upon re-reading I realized that my wording was too strong. What I meant is that a girl was less worth to her family than a boy under certain laws, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. Often all possessions would be transferred to the husband and thus be lost to her family. A marrying male would in contrast bring goods to the family. Marriage for political purposes is a valid point, but I would think it is more limited to the ruling class. Essentially a family lines ends with the last male child.

Neurons are optimized towards long-distance information transfer (via APs). Without any information to relay anywhere else they are not able to do much (as bombus implied). Chemical memory is quite a different thing, and even bacteria have it. In chemotaxis postranslational modification of a sensor system provides information on the chemical gradient the cell was facing, for instance. In short: existing chemical situations modify future biochemical reactions (or rather, their rate).

There is also reason in the evolutionary history of development. For developmental reason certain elements may be replicated with others it is not possible.

From a human point of perspective it could be bad if the resulting system is unsuitable to sustain human life.

I do not understand how the number of people having a major in an area is going to make it worthless. The only thing you get with a major is some first theoretical insights in it. It is not really a technical training at that stage. Again, the major alone is unlikely to set you on a certain career path.

Simply put, the major is not really terribly important. A strong focus on premeds is a bit unfortunate, but if they teach a decent foundation in ecology you should be good. The decision of the major will only have a relatively small impact, especially considering that you have not a particular career path in mind.

Natural selection is neither good nor bad. It is just a mechanism that exists.

There are many assertions that are unfounded. In many rural areas of China women are working the fields side-by-side with men. The rest is even more ridiculous and self-contradictory (females are treated better because they are worthless? Males want to kill babies, too, but are not allowed to- what?).

Actually in many societies (although it also depends on the specific subgroup) females are treated as expendable. For instance many inheritance law only allowed the sons to inherit properties. Thus, females were groomed to become brides to someone else at best. Under certain combinations, as e.g. the one-child policy in China in conjunction with the preference for males, sometimes female babies are simply killed (if not aborted earlier, depending on level of health care, I presume).

Also, without a counterpart on which blame can be loaded on, how can a single party survive? And another question is whether the divide is real or made up. I.e. are actually enacted policies significantly different between either party?

Good points. Some may require whole threads on their own to explore them even marginally. On topic: I think there are several concepts that have to be discussed here as well. The first that has already been touched upon is the prevalence (or lack thereof) of family planning. There is a wide difference in a number of sub-Saharan countries. One could explore why that is the case. Another one is the economic instability of the countries facing famine (and the roots thereof). And finally there are environmental challenges. Somalia for instance is facing one the largest droughts since 50 years. And I am pretty sure that there is much more. Simple answers to complex situations are almost always lacking in explanatory power. A nice talk to this topic Rosling

As I said, it depends on the prokaryote. The majority of anaerobic subsurface bacteria for instance utilize acetate and propionate because they are lower in the degradation chain, so to speak. Bacteria living in more biomass rich environments (including our bodies) obviously are better adapted to glucose utilization. But even there you can find differences. A number of skin-colonizing bacteria utilize fatty acids rather than C6-sugars. I.e. even within the same overall habitat different specializations exist. Edit: maybe I should be a bit more specific. Because glucose is such a rich energy source, there is selective advantage in utilizing it. As a result once released, it will be relatively quickly utilized and will not be available in larger distances from its source. As a result, many bacteria that have not direct access to these sources (e.g. simply by living more distant to it) specialize in using degradation/fermentation compounds of these sugars as C-source and/or electron donors.

Well, the system the Mosuo set up is interesting in many aspects. The fact that non of the genders actually are "destined" to leave the household apparently reduces unequal treatment. A girls can be deemed less worth in many cultures, because they are lost to the family and do not continue to carry on the family name. While societies have changed in recent times, these believes are much harder to change. In walking marriages of course there is no binding obligation for any of the partners to maintain the relationship, especially since the child unequivocally belongs to the mother's family. One should note that rape still occurs in the Mosuo society, (which is punishable by death IIRC) however I have no idea how high the rate is.

Continuous ketone formation (ketosis) is an undesirable condition, leading to a number of adverse health effects. There is a reason why glucose is the preferred energy source.

Yes, complete polymerization and also degassing are good ways to avoid artifacts and gel irregularities (e.g. slightly wavy bands).

Also, there is homegrown terror. Unfortunately sometimes it just takes one to create a tragedy. BBC

Quality of reporters has gone down the drain. Anything above celebrity news is just too hard work.

Depends really on what problems you have. One could increase the C value, for instance, to further reduce pore size. While it is mostly done for DNA or RNA gels, it may resolve 20 kDa proteins slightly better (at around 12 %). However, the sharpness does not only depends on that. Depending on the chamber you use, several other factors are likely to be more important. Among these heating, SDS depletion and inhomogenous electric fields are very common (again, depending on the system). Counter measures are usually cooling, adjusting the Voltage (or, alternatively, current), run time and buffer reservoir (or use two-buffer chambers), and seal gel caskets (when applicable). But it really depends on what the issue is in detail (i.e. are the bands diffuse and large?).

Here is btw. an article which describes aspects of family planning in Africa Effective family planning is, in general, strongly connected with education and especially the empowerment of women. My link Also, I have a hard time to interpret Ophiolite's post as racist. Also relevant