From engelbert_buxbaum from hotmail.com Fri Apr 6 10:17:10 2007 From: engelbert_buxbaum from hotmail.com (Dr Engelbert Buxbaum) Date: Fri Apr 6 12:07:14 2007 Subject: [Biophysics] Re: Enthalpy of proteins References: <1174824065.721759.217440@l77g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> Message-ID: <57n6hfF29m0ddU1@mid.individual.net> Jafari wrote: > My simple question is: is Ha>Hb? or Hb>Ha? Without further knowledge on what you have to do to get from state A to state B this question can not be answered. Perhaps you have to break another ionic bond, or get two equal charges uncomfortably close together? From morpheal from yahoo.com Sat Apr 14 10:52:04 2007 From: morpheal from yahoo.com (Morpheal) Date: Sat Apr 14 13:38:34 2007 Subject: [Biophysics] A Thought Experiment: Implications of Quantum Physics in Genetics - A New Paradigm Message-ID: <1176565924.921293.226500@p77g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> Implications of Quantum Physics in Genetics - A New Paradigm This is a thought experiment with broad implications for the understanding of genetics and the relation of genetics to quantum physics. The fundamental question we are going to consider is whether amino acids are a sufficient basis for storing all of the necessary information for the reproduction of an organism. Those who know what it takes to convey all of the information to build a relatively simple machine, such as an automobile will have a better appreciation of the analogy we are going to utilize in attempting to answer the fundamental question. Every part that comprises the automobile requries fully detailed drawings. Nowadays parts are often modeled in three dimensional representations showing all of the necessary features, to scale, so that the component can be reproduced accurately. Then the process for its production has to be described in sufficient detail to enable the component to be produced. Information about what types of material it is to be made from, and what is to be done to that material is included along with the representational model, drawing of digital file. We also have to consider all of the information necessary for making the machines, and operating them. This becomes a very large amount of data. Those who work in engineering, or manufacturing, know how much data, in digital form, can be required for even the simplest part to be described. It is staggering as to how much data would be required to describe all of the machines and processes going into making that part. It is even more staggering if one has to add the human element. Whether the part is made by robots, or with human involvement we have to allow for the software required to run all of the necessary processes. Now, compare the complexity of one organ, the human eye, and its function, with the complexity of our manufactured machines. The eye and its function is incredibly more complex, in both structure and function. We now need the representations for every manufacturing detail and every process necessary to make every component of the eye, and its related structures enabling effective sensory, perceptual, and visual memory functions. Not only do we have to detail every component but we have to write all of the software to make the system function. Although we cannot put a meaningful number to the number of bytes of data that would be required, we know that it is very large. The software programs necessary to emulate human vision would themselves be extremely large, and would challenge most computers. Understanding visual information is not a simple process. Storing visual memory is not a simple process either. The eye is infinitely more complex than the most complex automobile. Its function is similarly infinitely more complex than the function of an automobile. What we then have to do is to extrapolate that understanding to include all of the structures and functions of the entire body and the mind-brain. If we had the means we could attempt a computer simulation of how much data would be required to define a specific structure and a function, then extrapolate that to give us a rough idea of how much data might really be involved. I am arguing here that amino acid sequences are insufficient means to store the necessary data required to build a functioning organism. Similarly, we are faced with the problem of data transmission which at least cannot fully explain the transfer of sufficient software to enable function. It is not simply a question of putting the right molecules into place, the way bricks are mortared together onto a newly built wall. What I would suggest is that the amino acid sequences in the DNA helix are in fact only the filing cabinets for the balance of the necessary information, which is stored at the quantum level. What we have is the equivalent of a vast hard drive that stores information at the subatomic, quantum, level. When we look at the DNA helix, at the molecular level we look at the file folders, without being able to see the contents that is stored within those file folders. It is only at the quantum level that we can find what I suggest must be best described as a quantum holographic model of structure, linked to its "software" programs, required for function. A quantum holographic model would be the most probable paradigm because it appears to be the only way to reduce the total data requirement for the complete package of structure and function. Nevertheless, more complex functions certainly do require complex "software" programs that a traditional, purely mechanistic, paradigm cannot accomodate. A further implication includes inherent knowledge, learned by predecessor organisms, providing information for survival, not having to be relearned with each new, successive, generation. Plato's anamnesis, recollection of knowledge outside of immediate experience, is then a reality, as some information could be conveyed on the DNA helix beyond what is necessary to provide for basic structure and function. (As a footnote, citing unpublished experiments performed almost two decades ago, we have experimental indications that provide some strong indications that inherent information of that type does exist and plays a role in human reactions to their lived environments. This accounts for such phenomena as "collective unconscious" mind, where there is a sharing of some common threads of similar information inherent from past generations indicating historic socio-cultural group affinities as being definitive of its variants. We may also have the answer to some instances of alleged "reincarnation" where entire, historically verifiable, memories can be idenfitied without that information being learned within an individual's own lifetime. Our expectation is that such instances do occur, and that experiences that are deemed more significant to survival, having had what is felt to be a strong impact on the previous generation organism's survival, and potentially an impact on species survival, tend to be the type of experiences that are recorded onto the DNA helix. Studies of "reincarnation" anomalies support that contention.) Bob Ezergailis Hamilton, Canada April 13, 2007 From reanimater_2000 from yahoo.com Sat Apr 14 12:45:32 2007 From: reanimater_2000 from yahoo.com (Immortalist) Date: Sat Apr 14 13:38:35 2007 Subject: [Biophysics] Re: A Thought Experiment: Impications of Quantum Physics in Genetics - A New Paradigm In-Reply-To: <1176565505.232893.196150@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> References: <1176565505.232893.196150@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> Message-ID: <1176572732.049877.148630@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com> On Apr 14, 8:45 am, "Morpheal" wrote: > Implications of Quantum Physics in Genetics - A New Paradigm > > This is a thought experiment with broad implications for the > understanding of genetics > and the relation of genetics to quantum physics. > > The fundamental question we are going to consider is whether amino > acids are a sufficient basis for storing all of the necessary > information for the reproduction of an organism. > > Those who know what it takes to convey all of the information to build > a relatively simple machine, such as an automobile will have a better > appreciation of the analogy we are going to utilize in attempting to > answer the fundamental question. Every part that comprises the > automobile requries fully detailed drawings. If we take a sand castle and somehow could measure the quantum distribution of effects and fields, and then scattered the structure, leaving different arrangements of distribution and effects, then brought it back together, would this arrangement of sand micro rocks, subsume the same field arrangment as before? If we gather matter together could it be possible to remotely arrange quantum fields and particle through subsumption architecture by influence scaler phenonemon? A subsumption architecture is a way of decomposing complicated intelligent behaviour into many "simple" behaviour modules, which are in turn orgnized into layers. Each layer implements a particular goal of the agent, and higher layers are increasingly more abstract. Each layer's goal subsumes that of the underlying layers, e.g. the decision to move forward by the eat-food layer takes into account the decision of the lowest obstacle-avoidance layer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsumption_architecture Genghis - Subsumption Architecture. ...Brooks's ideas gelled in a cockroachlike contraption the size of a football called "Genghis." Brooks had pushed his downsizing to an extreme. Genghis had six legs but no "brain" at all. All of its 12 motors and 21 sensors were distributed in a decomposable network without a centralized controller. Yet the interaction of these 12 muscles and 21 sensors yielded an amazingly complex and lifelike behavior. Each of Genghis's six tiny legs worked on its own, independent of the others. Each leg had its own ganglion of neural cells-a tiny microprocessor-that controlled the leg's actions. Each leg thought for itself! Walking for Genghis then became a group project with at least six small minds at work. Other small semiminds within its body coordinated communication between the legs. Entomologists say this is how ants and real cockroaches cope-they have neurons in their legs that do the leg's thinking. In the mobot Genghis, walking emerges out of the collective behavior of the 12 motors. Two motors at each leg lift, or not, depending on what the other legs around them are doing. If they activate in the right sequence-Okay, hup! One, three, six, two, five, four!-walking "happens." No one place in the contraption governs walking. Without a smart central controller, control can trickle up from the bottom. Brooks called it "bottom-up control." Bottom-up walking. Bottom-up smartness. If you snip off one leg of a cockroach, it will shift gaits with the other five without losing a stride. The shift is not learned; it is an immediate self-reorganization. If you disable one leg of Genghis, the other legs organize walking around the five that work. They find a new gait as easily as the cockroach. In one of his papers, Rod Brooks first laid out his instructions on how to make a creature walk without knowing how: There is no central controller which directs the body where to put each foot or how high to lift a leg should there be an obstacle ahead. Instead, each leg is granted a few simple behaviors and each independently knows what to do under various circumstances. For instance, two basic behaviors can be thought of as "If I'm a leg and I'm up, put myself down, " or "If I'm a leg and I'm forward, put the other five legs back a little." These processes exist independently, run at all times, and fire whenever the sensory preconditions are true. To create walking then, there just needs to be a sequencing of lifting legs (this is the only instance where any central control is evident). As soon as a leg is raised it automatically swings itself forward, and also down. But the act of swinging forward triggers all the other legs to move back a little. Since those legs happen to be touching the ground, the body moves forward. Once the beast can walk on a flat smooth floor without tripping, other behaviors can be added to improve the walk. For Genghis to get up and over a mound of phone books on the floor, it needs a pair of sensing whiskers to send information from the floor to the first set of legs. A signal from a whisker can suppress a motor's action. The rule might be, "If you feel something, I'll stop; if you don't, I'll keep going." While Genghis learns to climb over an obstacle, the foundational walking routine is never fiddled with. This is a universal biological principle that Brooks helped illuminate-a law of god: When something works, don't mess with it; build on top of it. In natural systems, improvements are "pasted" over an existing debugged system. The original layer continues to operate without even being (or needing to be) aware that it has another layer above it. http://www.kk.org/outofcontrol?/ch3-b.html There are three kinds of "scopes" we can look through at one time and one scale of observation; Microscope Mesoscope Macroscope Pretext: will become "mico-scale" Text: will become "root-scale" or "middle-scale" Context: will become "macr-scale" THREE SCALES: (-1) - Micro-scale: A prefix denoting very small size; e.g. microgamete, micronucleus. ( 0) - Meso-scale: In meteorology, describing systems, or patterns of systems between small and synoptic [The term means 'simultaneous'] scale; dimensions of between about 10 and 100 km across, in the horizontal, have been suggested. (+1) - Macro-scale: Large-scale. Thus, a macroclimate is the general climate of a region extending across several hundred kilometres, such as the Great Plains of North America, macrometeorology is the study of large scale meteorological phenomena which can cover hundreds of kilometres or may encompass the whole globe, from monsoons to the general circulation of the atmosphere, and macro-economics is the study of an economy as a whole. Shifting focus upon different "scales" (attention to one area of a hierarchy) can be illustrated with an analogy from grammatical stucture and hierarchy. [In music theory a scale is those notes within a group that don't repeat the same tone at a higher of lower octives. When the same note is reached in a different scale of a higher or lower pitch then it is another octive. (you can ignore this part)] If we focus upon a word it becomes the "meso-scale" in which the micro- scale is letters it consists (reductionism) and the macro-scale is the sentence in which it might fit (productionism or synductionism). At the next level up the scale the sentence would become the "meso- scale" with words being micro-scale in which the sentence consists (reductionism) and a paragraph would be a macro-scale, where a sentence is a part (productionism or synductionism). ------------------------------ If a morpheme is the smallest language unit that carries a semantic interpretation I am wondering what the morpheme_root "duction" means. The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. Duction: The act of leading, bringing, or conducting. re: backa, gain, repeatedly meso: middle syn: together, united, at the same time Making this up today but I need the meaning of the ; re-duction-ism meso-duction-ism syn-duction-ism micro-analysis meso-analysis macro-analysis super-structure root-structure sub-structure Why hasn't this awesome perspective elaborated in current metaphysics? http://www.virtualsalt.com/roots.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prefixes_in_the_English_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme http://xrefer.com/entry/462106 http://xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=610070 http://xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=609978 Microtubules are cylindrical molecules made by gluing together 13 strands of the protein, tubulin, to make a tube 25 nanometres across, with a central channel about 15 nanometres wide. Each microtubule is covered by a fuzz of protein stubs, known as MAPs (microtubule associated proteins), and these can be used to hook clusters of microtubules together into larger lattices. Both microtubules and MAPs seem to be capable of a certain amount of movement, meaning that they can be woven into plastic structures, able to give and bend. The structural properties of microtubule assemblies make them a valuable building material within cells. For example, a bundle of 20 microtubules form the beating, hair-like cilia that coat the surface of many small single-celled animals, allowing them to swim. However the main use for microtubules appears to be to make an internal skeleton for cells-an intricate scaffolding that gives a cell its shape but also can deform and bend enough to allow it to move. The existence of the microtubule cytoskeleton was discovered only relatively recently in the 1970s-previously the fixative chemicals used in electron microscopy was having the unfortunate effect of dissolving the tubules-so biologists still have much to learn about what the cytoskeleton does and how it operates. Yet biologists believe that it not only holds a cell in shape but also plays an important role in cell metabolism, acting as a piping system or an internal highway to move plasma and other essential cell products about the cell. Some have suggested microtubules might do this by using their MAP spurs to drag cell protoplasm along, hand over hand, in a miniature bucket brigade running up the sides of a tubule. There is also evidence that the cytoskeleton could serve as a primitive brain. Biologists have long been puzzled how a simple single- celled animal, like the slipper-shaped paramecium, could behave so intelligently when it has no nervous system. A paramecium is surprisingly nimble as it swims about in pond-bottom detritus, twisting in and out of tight spaces in search of its dinner. Somehow the protozoan manages to respond swiftly to information coming in from a light-sensitive eyespot and its touch-sensitive cilia to co-ordinate its swimming action. Several biologists have speculated that the cytoskeleton could serve as the communication and information processing link needed to organise such relatively complex behaviour. This suggestion that the cytoskeleton could be a "brain within a brain" has particularly excited the quantum theorists. In casting around for a suitable cell structure to operate as a go-between, connecting the sub-atomic realm with the macroscopic world of firing brain cells, some theorists had considered that the membranes at the synaptic junctions between nerve cells might be the site of quantum interactions. Others had wondered whether the ion channels down the flanks of neurons could be ruled by quantum effects. But quickly, microtubules began to look a far better bet. While microtubules are not unique to neurons, they are found there in particular abundance (a fact that does not surprise neurologists given that nerve cells are so metabolically-active and microtubules seem essential to metabolic activity). Furthermore, the speed at which microtubules can switch state between relaxation and contraction is believed to be of the order of a nanosecond. This may be slow by the usual time scales of quantum events, but it is about a million times faster than the cell firing events usually believed to underlie consciousness and so at least appears to get the biology of the system within striking distance of a quantum explanation. http://www.btinternet.com/~neuronaut/webtwo_articles.html > Nowadays parts are often > modeled in three dimensional representations showing all of the > necessary features, to scale, so that the component can be reproduced > accurately. Then the process for its production has to be described in > sufficient detail to enable the component to be produced. Information > about what types of material it is to be made from, and what is to be > done to that material is included along with the representational > model, drawing of digital file. We also have to consider all of the > information necessary for making the machines, and operating them. > This becomes a very large amount of data. Those who work in > engineering, or manufacturing, know how much data, in digital form, > can be required for even the simplest part to be described. It is > staggering as to how much data would be required to describe all of > the machines and processes going into making that part. It is even > more staggering if one has to add the human element. Whether the part > is made by robots, or with human involvement we have to allow for the > software required to run all of the necessary processes. > > Now, compare the complexity of one organ, the human eye, and its > function, with the complexity of our manufactured machines. The eye > and its function is incredibly more complex, in both structure and > function. We now need the representations for every manufacturing > detail and every process necessary to make every component of the eye, > and its related structures enabling effective sensory, perceptual, and > visual memory functions. Not only do we have to detail every > component but we have to write all of the software to make the system > function. Although we cannot put a meaningful number to the number of > bytes of data that would be required, we know that it is very large. > The software programs necessary to emulate human vision would > themselves be extremely large, and would challenge most computers. > Understanding visual information is not a simple process. Storing > visual memory is not a simple process either. The eye is infinitely > more complex than the most complex automobile. Its function is > similarly infinitely more complex than the function of an automobile. > > What we then have to do is to extrapolate that understanding to > include all of the structures and functions of the entire body and the > mind-brain. If we had the means we could attempt a computer simulation > of how much data would be required to define a specific structure and > a function, then extrapolate that to give us a rough idea of how much > data might really be involved. > > I am arguing here that amino acid sequences are insufficient means to > store the necessary data required to build a functioning organism. > Similarly, we are faced with the problem of data transmission which at > least cannot fully explain the transfer of sufficient software to > enable function. It is not simply a question of putting the right > molecules into place, the way bricks are mortared together onto a > newly built wall. > > What I would suggest is that the amino acid sequences in the DNA helix > are in fact only the filing cabinets for the balance of the necessary > information, which is stored at the quantum level. What we have is the > equivalent of a vast hard drive that stores information at the > subatomic, quantum, level. When we look at the DNA helix, at the > molecular level we look at the file folders, without being able to see > the contents that is stored within those file folders. It is only at > the quantum level that we can find what I suggest must be best > described as a quantum holographic model of structure, linked to its > "software" programs, required for function. A quantum holographic > model would be the most probable paradigm because it appears to be the > only way to reduce the total data requirement for the complete package > of structure and function. Nevertheless, more complex functions > certainly do require complex "software" programs that a traditional, > purely mechanistic, paradigm cannot accomodate. > > A further implication includes inherent knowledge, learned by > predecessor organisms, providing information for survival, not having > to be relearned with each new, successive, generation. Plato's > anamnesis, recollection of knowledge outside of immediate experience, > is then a reality, as some information could be conveyed on the DNA > helix beyond what is necessary to provide for basic structure and > function. (As a footnote, citing unpublished experiments performed > almost two decades ago, we have experimental indications that provide > some strong indications that inherent information of that type does > exist and plays a role in human reactions to their lived environments. > This accounts for such phenomena as "collective unconscious" mind, > where there is a sharing of some common threads of similar information > inherent from past generations indicating historic socio-cultural > group affinities as being definitive of its variants. We may also have > the answer to some instances of alleged "reincarnation" where entire, > historically verifiable, memories can be idenfitied without that > information being learned within an individual's own lifetime. Our > expectation is that such instances do occur, and that experiences that > are deemed more significant to survival, having had what is felt to be > a strong impact on the previous generation organism's survival, and > potentially an impact on species survival, tend to be the type of > experiences that are recorded onto the DNA helix. Studies of > "reincarnation" anomalies support that contention.) > > Bob Ezergailis > Hamilton, Canada > April 13, 2007 From shijun from bic-ta.org Thu Apr 19 09:54:41 2007 From: shijun from bic-ta.org (bicta2007) Date: Thu Apr 19 13:08:14 2007 Subject: [Biophysics] Final Call for Papers--BIC-TA2007 Message-ID: <200704191659.l3JGxKc07734@net.bio.net> I'd like to apologize if you receive multiple emails. **************************************************************************** CALL FOR PAPERS 2nd International Conference on BIO-INSPIRED COMPUTING: THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS (BIC-TA2007) Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, China September 14-17, 2007 **************************************************************************** BIC-TA2007 paper submission Deadline has been extended to May 10, 2007 **************************************************************************** Organized by Peking University, China Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, China Huazhong University of Science & Technology, China Hosted by Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, China Co-Hosted by Zhengzhou University, China Zhongyuan University of Technology, China Sponsors National Natural Science Foundation of China Henan Engineering Research Center for Biotechnology **************************************************************************** BIC-TA2007 aims to provide a high-level international forum for researchers working in the main areas of natural computing inspired from biology to present their recent results and exchange ideas. The conference includes, but not limited to the following topics: A. Theories and Methodologies A1 Neural Networks A2 Evolutionary Computing and Genetic Algorithms A3 DNA and Molecular Computing A4 Membrane Computing A5 Biological Computing A6 Swarm Intelligence A7 Autonomy-Oriented Computing A8 Cellular and Molecular Automata B. Applications B1 Bioinformatics and Cheminformatics B2 Computational Biology and Drug Design B3 Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology B4 Computational Genomics and Proteomics B5 Computational Neuroscience B6 Artificial Life and Artificial Immune Systems B7 Signal Processing and Pattern Recognition B8 Financial Engineering and Electronic Commerce B9 Data Fusion, Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining B10 Natural Language Processing and Expert Systems B11 Computer Security and Computer Vision B12 Circuit Design and Signal Processing B13 Biological Implementation and Molecular Implementation B14 DNA Nanotechnology B15 Web and Network Application B16 Multi-Objective Optimization B17 Other Applications **************************************************************************** Deadlines Submission Deadline: 10 May, 2007 Notification of Acceptance: 10 June, 2007 Final Version for the Pre-proceedings: 25 June, 2007 **************************************************************************** Authors should submit a soft copy of their manuscripts with pdf format only to the conference via the online submission systems. The submission of a paper implies that the paper is original and has not been submitted to elsewhere for possible publication. All submissions will be peer-reviewed by experts in the field based on originality, significance, quality and clarity. The papers will be prepared in LNCS style (available at http://www.springer.de or our website) with no more than 12 pages. A pre-proceedings volume will be available during the conference. The expanded and revised version of all accepted papers at BIC-TA 2007 will be published after the conference in international journals indexed by SCI-Expanded. The latest information on BIC-TA2007 and related Special Issues of journals are available at: http://www.bic-ta.org **************************************************************************** Tel: +86-371-63627289 Fax: +86-371-63556791 Email: bicta2007@gmail.com; sec@bic-ta.org