Today I learned:
1) …that writing parsers can get pretty
mind-numbing. I mean, writing a parser or two is good fun, but I’m on my
fourth for the same weird, heterogeneous dataset in two days, and it’s
getting annoying.
2) Double-stranded DNA is highly conductive…
but a single base pair mismatch makes it much, much more insulating.
This is a pretty new discovery — it turns out to be pretty difficult to
figure out the conductance of a molecule in dilute solution. The lab of
Jacqueline Barton at Caltech recently figured out how to do it — you
string a filament of carbon nanotube through a solution of DNA, then
snip out a little bit of the nanotube such that it leaves reactive
functional groups in the gap. You *somehow* attach the DNA to the
functional groups, which basically lets the DNA act as a resistor in the
middle of a carbon nanotube wire.
3) …reddit.com/r/hybridanimals.
My amazement at human artistic ingenuity knows no bounds. Seriously, go
look it up. If you’re not impressed, check out the top posts (of all
time). A few gems:
http://i.imgur.com/sCFFks5.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VI9Jhll.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lJdMFM9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iFd90un.jpg
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