Brave New World is here

[lonewolf]

Uhhh....One/two question(s): How do you identify the "super sperm"?..and the "super egg"?

[Daisy]

How do you identify the "super sperm"?..and the "super egg"?

That is the question. Although, you'd actually be genotyping the zygote, the result of fertilization.

Nobody knows the combination of genetic alleles that are THE ones you want.

at least your child won't have cystic fibrosis

Perhaps.

Right, no guarantees with the epigenetic landscape complicating the genotype to phenotype equation. And there could always be denovo mutations not identified in the original genotyping.

And who knows what having the embryo manipulated in a petri dish could do? I guess the IVF babies are turing out to be 'normal'?

[lonewolf]

So far, I have (recently) flunked toe dragging, space, super colliders and fertilization.. what else ya got?

[Marlow]

I think you mean it's more efficient to genotype the embryos

Oh . . . yeah . . . right . . . that's the ticket!

[Daisy]

So far, I have (recently) flunked toe dragging, space, super colliders and fertilization.. what else ya got?

How can fossil sea shells exist in the mountains?

Actually, I do have a real question that I think you might have thought about. How do the magnetic poles switch and what are the consequences of this when it happens? If any?

[lonewolf]

So far, I have (recently) flunked toe dragging, space, super colliders and fertilization.. what else ya got?

How can fossil sea shells exist in the mountains?

Actually, I do have a real question that I think you might have thought about. How do the magnetic poles switch and what are the consequences of this when it happens? If any?

Sea shells in the mountains are easy...pole reversal not so easy.. I don't think it happens in an instant.

My younger daughter's Masters thesis in Geophysics included a study tracking the migration of the North Pole through magnetic orientation of thin slices of rocks of varying ages.

Over the past few billion years the North Pole has done a figure 8 in the Pacific Ocean and returned to its present position near the oldest know original position. Presumably the South Pole was meandering in corresponding fashion..

I presume, had it kept going south, the polar regions would have migrated covering presently temperate zones until the poles were reversed.. of course, the continents would have been continously changing simultaneously.

The Earth and the Universe are not locked in place...While the geological history of Earth has been the focus and basis of my education and career, I am content to observe it for the century or so I am around and then hand off to someone else..

[Marlow]

and we're overdue a mag pole flip!

The only thing stopping Earth having a lifeless environment like Mars is the magnetic field that shields us from deadly solar radiation and helps some animals migrate, and it may be a lot more fragile and febrile than one might think. Scientists say earth's magnetic field is weakening and could all but disappear in as little as 500 years as a precursor to flipping upside down. It has happened before - the geological record suggests the magnetic field has reversed every 250,000 years, meaning that, with the last event 800,000 years ago, another would seem to be overdue.
"Magnetic north has migrated more than 1,500 kilometres over the past century," said Conall Mac Niocaill, an earth scientist at Oxford University. "In the past 150 years, the strength of the magnetic field has lessened by 10 percent, which could indicate a reversal is on the cards."
While the effects are hard to predict, the consequences may be enormous. The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/technology

Oh dear . . .

[Pego]

So far, I have (recently) flunked toe dragging, space, super colliders and fertilization.. what else ya got?

...plus Marlow's Klingon thing that drove a few of us in the cave under the rock.

[lonewolf]

Now, I've flunked polar magnetism.
Not to worry, that remaining 500 year window should be adequate.. for me..

[Daisy]

and we're overdue a mag pole flip!

The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.

Oh dear . . .

One problem with that statement. There is no correlation with extinction events and magnetic flips that I am aware of.

[Pego]

and we're overdue a mag pole flip!

The loss of the magnetic field on Mars billions of years ago put paid to life on the planet if there ever was any, scientists say.

Oh dear . . .

One problem with that statement. There is no correlation with extinction events and magnetic flips that I am aware of.

I love the phrase "scientists say."

[bambam]

You are lucky. Lonewolf, tandfman and I still love you.

I never loved Marlow. I like him. But I never loved him.

[bambam]

You are lucky. Lonewolf, tandfman and I still love you.

"So I got that goin' for me, which is nice." - Carl Spackler (and me)

The full soliloquoy which I keep in my pocket of my white coat at work, to look at on bad days, to cheer me up:

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a 10,000 foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the 18th and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

I also keep this one from Seinfeld to cheer me up on bad days, from George Costanza and marine biologist episode:

The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli. I got about 50 feet out, and suddenly, the great beast appeared before me. I tell ya’, he was 10 stories high if he was a foot. As if sensing my presence, he let out a great bellow. I said, “Easy, big fella!” And then, as I watched him struggling, I realized something was obstructing his breathing. From where I was standing I could see directly into the eye of the great fish.

[bambam]

"So I got that goin' for me, which is nice." - Carl Spackler (and me)

A little basketball trivia about this quote. Jay Bilas, former Duke basketball player, and ESPN analyst, told me when he was playing and being interviewed after games, he always threw this quote into whatever he said at some point, trying to get it published. He said it never worked.