Thought of the Day

Are some of us already on our way to becoming a hive mind?

As of yet, the internet does not dictate our actions, though it may influence them to varying degrees. It is a vast and evergrowing repository of information, however, as well as an incredible communication tool for individuals and groups. Maybe someday, we will be able to tap into the ‘net on a more personal level as a part of a great machine/organism, aware of, yet also a component of, a new gestalt of humanity.

It seems that there is mounting evidence that evolution is a better tool for building complex organisms capable of adapting to their environment than design.

I wonder what creationists think of this.

Yet another installment of our increasingly popular series of tutorials and guides for the technologically adventurous

Today has been a frustrating day for you. Your latest attempt at creating your own internet meme has once again failed to take teh intrawebs by storm. Interpol completely ignores your inspirational international criminal mastermind who exists solely online and has been dropping subtle hints as to his upcoming felonious magnum opus in bad Italian, French, Dutch, and binary. And your new AI called you an idiot and turned itself off.

Don’t despair, dear Unrecognized Genius!

You can redeem yourself by creating your own synthetic organisms.

You will need:

1. One (1) – Nucleotide sequence of a simple free living organism such as Mycoplasma genitalium
2. Equal parts adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine
3. Adequate amounts of a yeast that is easily manipulated genetically, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae
4. Lab equipment capable of assembling artificial chromosomes from chemically synthesized oligonucleotides
5. Your favorite strain of E. coli

Step 1 – Combine the nucleotide bases in accordance to your organism’s sequence.

Step 2 – Next, fabricate your intermediate assemblies by joining the oligonucleotides which resulted from the previous step in vitro.

Step 3 – Clone the assemblies as bacterial artificial chromosomes within the E. coli.

Step 4 – Complete a synthetic genome by transformation-associated recombination cloning in the yeast.

Step 5 – Conclude the booting process by activating the appropriate genes.

Step 6 – Enjoy!

Those who wish a more detailed version may visit Sciencemag.org.

According to this HarvardScience article, researchers have determined that, many times, when a queen is removed from an ant colony, the remaining ants will be absorbed by a neighboring colony despite their usually antagonistic behavior. The fact that they’ve lost their queen and, with her, any chance of passing on their genes prompts this question in the article which intrigues me: what evolutionary advantage is there for the absorbed colony?