[sudo-discuss] defying biology

[Alan Post]

Hello everyone!

I visited sudoroom on the weekend of Mar 16-17 2013 as part of a
research trip on DIYbio/citizen science.  I may have met some of
you then.  During that same weekend I drove down to visit Eric to
specifically discuss his work and condition.  We've since then been
slowly working through the data Ryan mentions, of roughly the sort
of longitudinal analysis alluded to below.

I'm happy to be introduced to all of you.  I have a longer
introduction to myself at: http://c0redump.org/

-Alan

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 08:30:26AM -0700, Ryan Bethencourt wrote:
>    Hi All,
>    We are playing on the edges of our medical knowledge with one project (all
>    are welcome to help if interested). Eric, Alan and I have one project
>    which is taking ALS (Lou Gerig's) patient data and we're trying to find
>    trends in the data (perhaps hospitalization linked with certain activities
>    or other correlations). Eric was able to get a large data set of ALS
>    patient data and Alan's started to analyze it. This is very much just a
>    citizen science project and you never know, it might lead to Grok'ing
>    something new :)
>    If you're interested, Eric (who is both an ALS patient and citizen
>    scientist) and Alan are leading the project and our contact points for the
>    project!
>    All the best,
>    Ryan
> 
>    On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 9:39 PM, GtwoG PublicOhOne
>    <[1]g2g-public01 at att.net> wrote:
> 
>      YOs-
> 
>      It would be more impressive if they had defied physics, for example by
>      exceeding c.
> 
>      Or if they had cross-bred the outcome of the first experiment, with a
>      polar bear, and announced the outcome with a press release titled "Lions
>      and Tigers and Bears, oh my!"
> 
>      Realistically though, there is no "defying" biology any more than
>      "defying" chemistry, physics, or maths.* What there is, is humans
>      experimenting with biology and creating new organisms that haven't
>      existed before.* That, in and of itself, is interesting as science and
>      omnious* as technology.
> 
>      Though, we should encourage the media to not use language that suggests
>      that scientific accomplishments are in some way supernatural (by which I
>      mean, "above or outside of nature or empirical methods").* By definition
>      the only thing that can exist "above" nature would be a deity that can
>      create an entire universe at will.* And any such entity is also outside
>      the scope of empirical methods to verify or falsify, which is why
>      science is necessarily agnostic.
> 
>      * Omnious: accidental neologism.* I had meant to type "ominous, for both
>      good and bad," in the sense that our newly gained powers in experimental
>      biology hold out the hope for new cures for diseases and new weaponized
>      germs alike.* All the way up the phylogenetic scale, to the prospect of
>      neo-eugenics (who wouldn't want to tweak their own sperm cells or egg
>      cells in order to have a kid who is more capable in whatever way?).
> 
>      But a typo rendered "ominous" as "omnious," which turns out to be
>      interesting: the root "omni" means "all," thus, something that is
>      "omnious" has all-encompassing possibilities.* Experimental biology is
>      in that sense an "omnious" technology.* (And a quick online search turns
>      up nothing, so apparently I'm the first to coin that term, heh;-)
> 
>      -G.
> 
>      =-=-=-=
> 
>      On 13-05-10-Fri 7:00 PM, Leonid Kozhukh wrote:
> 
>        hybrid of a lion & a
>        liger:*[2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zmch-qpBu4
>        --
>        len
>        founder, ligertail
>        [3]http://ligertail.com
> 
>  _______________________________________________
>  sudo-discuss mailing list
>  [4]sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>  [5]http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
> 
>      _______________________________________________
>      sudo-discuss mailing list
>      [6]sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>      [7]http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
> 
>    --
>    Ryan Bethencourt
> 
>    Tel: (415) 794 6463
>    [8]ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com
> 
>    [9]www.bamh1.com
>    [10]www.linkedin.com/in/bethencourt
>    [11]www.logos-press.com/books/biotechnology_business_development.php
> 
> References
> 
>    Visible links
>    1. mailto:g2g-public01 at att.net
>    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zmch-qpBu4
>    3. http://ligertail.com/
>    4. mailto:sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>    5. http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>    6. mailto:sudo-discuss at lists.sudoroom.org
>    7. http://lists.sudoroom.org/listinfo/sudo-discuss
>    8. mailto:ryan.bethencourt at gmail.com
>    9. http://www.bamh1.com/
>   10. http://www.linkedin.com/in/bethencourt
>   11. http://www.logos-press.com/books/biotechnology_business_development.php

-- 
my personal website: http://c0redump.org/