Interesting reads
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Face facts. The west that won the cold war no longer exists
Face facts. The west that won the cold war no longer exists | Rafael Behr
Capitalism conquered the eastern bloc. That’s why liberal politics alone won’t defeat today’s populism, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
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@bones said in Interesting reads:
@jegga haven't read this yet, but reminded me of the fascinating Dollop episode on Uber.
Cheers, never heard of dollop before will check it out.
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@rocky-rockbottom I've read a couple of his other articles. They were pretty good. Not saying i agreed with everything he had to say, but certainly made me think about why i didn't agree.
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The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica
At fifty-five, Henry Worsley began a solitary trek that became a singular test of character.
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@jegga That's a cracking read, cheers.
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@antipodean I was working at a place that was playing his interviews on the radio every week or so. Seemed like a top bloke, good to read the full story .
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@jegga said in Interesting reads:
@Stockcar86 have you seen this?
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html?referer=https://longform.org/Thanks for that - really interesting
Cloning works well, but not forever - ask the Asgardians in the Stargate universe...
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@stockcar86 said in Interesting reads:
@jegga said in Interesting reads:
@Stockcar86 have you seen this?
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/science/mutant-crayfish-clones-europe.html?referer=https://longform.org/Thanks for that - really interesting
Cloning works well, but not forever - ask the Asgardians in the Stargate universe...
One virus and they’re gone? I was wondering if someone was working on one if they are plaguing waterways.
Sharks are capable of reproducing asexually as well, they’d be clone too wouldn’t they?
'Virgin Birth' By Shark Confirmed: Second Case Ever
Scientists have confirmed the second-ever case of a "virgin birth" in a shark, indicating once again that female sharks can reproduce without mating and raising the possibility that many female sharks have this incredible capacity.
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This weeks podcast by Nature magazine has a section on these crayfish (10 minutes 36 seconds in)
https://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index-2018-02-08.html
I like their podcasts because they segment them, and also link to the relevant research papers and summary articles from the mag
Reading the research abstract I got to learn about Mullers Rachet - the effects of deleterious genetic mutations incurred in a population over time
Also, the value in this related to cancer research:
Our results unambiguously demonstrate the clonality of the marbled crayfish genome, consistent with the proposed mode of reproduction by apomictic parthenogenesis. The generation of genetic diversity will be shaped by a complex set of factors, including the intrinsic mutability of the genome, environmental mutagens, genetic drift and selective pressure. All these factors are known to play an important role in the evolution of tumour genomes. The analysis of mutations in marbled crayfish populations provides an opportunity to detect the generation, fixation and elimination of genetic changes with particularly high sensitivity and robustness and could therefore disentangle the specific contributions of individual factors. As such, it will be interesting to further explore marbled crayfish as a model system for clonal genome evolution in cancer -
@stockcar86 also if you can catch 150 of the things in a couple of hours the question needs to be asked “ what do they taste like?”
I’d imagine prawn farms would love to have an animal like that continually reproduces itself in huge numbers .Btw cheers for the link, I’ll listen to those on the way home.
