John Updike-obituary

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/books/28appr.html?_r=1&ref=arts

How to spend our time (mostly with ourselves)

Having very demanding and busy professional lives, we use to complain often - if not all the time, perhaps as an excuse for not being able to find other topic to address with other fellow humans, apparently eager to see - we don't have time, social life, beyond our scheduled devoted, at least 5 days the week, to the life in our offices.

But, when it's possible to meet other people, not sharing the same "fantastic" life targets - based, guess !, on our very demanding jobs - we cannot do anything else than to checking nervously our complicate cell phones or to send short messages. Because, in these tormented times, more than ever, we have to fight for our salary. Instead to enjoy a different conversation and pleasant presences or, simply, a different environment, we are keeping tight our connections exclusively with our offices.

During my last vacations, I'd observed (too) many young couples spending a wonderful time abroad fighting and arguing each other. Normal. It was the only time they were able to share together and they discovered the lack of any kind of communication.

I'm fully aware our daily lives these days are by far three times more complicated than it was 15 years ago. In order to survive, you need to be always ready, stubborn, strong enough to cope with stress and intellectual pollution. Also, than not all of us are doing the job they dreamed to since they were children and getting a secure salary is almost all they want before going retired. The other side of the story is that we don't have any excuse to unlearn the social language and to enjoy, even for one minute but for a one full minute, the other people's presence. Against the broad accepted image of the workaholic, I'm more and more convinced that outperforming individuals are those who have the sense of their time and could see, at a glance, what's worthy or not to focus your attention and those subjects could be not-at-all professionally related. If somebody is telling me he/she's not having time to do anything else than the office life, I'll be extremely reluctant to deal with, because the resources are limited and the lack of social imagination and intelligence are good predictors that, sooner or late this person will be a very devoted robot, but an extremely limited human.

My newest discovery is

Andrew Crumey

How Did Life Begin? RNA That Replicates Itself Indefinitely Developed For First Time

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2009) — One of the most enduring questions is how life could have begun on Earth. Molecules that can make copies of themselves are thought to be crucial to understanding this process as they provide the basis for heritability, a critical characteristic of living systems. New findings could inform biochemical questions about how life began.

Now, a pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists has taken a significant step toward answering that question. The scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely.

The work was recently published in the journal Science.

In the modern world, DNA carries the genetic sequence for advanced organisms, while RNA is dependent on DNA for performing its roles such as building proteins. But one prominent theory about the origins of life, called the RNA World model, postulates that because RNA can function as both a gene and an enzyme, RNA might have come before DNA and protein and acted as the ancestral molecule of life. However, the process of copying a genetic molecule, which is considered a basic qualification for life, appears to be exceedingly complex, involving many proteins and other cellular components.

For years, researchers have wondered whether there might be some simpler way to copy RNA, brought about by the RNA itself. Some tentative steps along this road had previously been taken by the Joyce lab and others, but no one could demonstrate that RNA replication could be self-propagating, that is, result in new copies of RNA that also could copy themselves.

In Vitro Evolution

A few years after Tracey Lincoln arrived at Scripps Research from Jamaica to pursue her Ph.D., she began exploring the RNA-only replication concept along with her advisor, Professor Gerald Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., who is also Dean of the Faculty at Scripps Research. Their work began with a method of forced adaptation known as in vitro evolution. The goal was to take one of the RNA enzymes already developed in the lab that could perform the basic chemistry of replication, and improve it to the point that it could drive efficient, perpetual self-replication.

Lincoln synthesized in the laboratory a large population of variants of the RNA enzyme that would be challenged to do the job, and carried out a test-tube evolution procedure to obtain those variants that were most adept at joining together pieces of RNA.

Ultimately, this process enabled the team to isolate an evolved version of the original enzyme that is a very efficient replicator, something that many research groups, including Joyce's, had struggled for years to obtain. The improved enzyme fulfilled the primary goal of being able to undergo perpetual replication. "It kind of blew me away," says Lincoln.

Immortalizing Molecular Information

The replicating system actually involves two enzymes, each composed of two subunits and each functioning as a catalyst that assembles the other. The replication process is cyclic, in that the first enzyme binds the two subunits that comprise the second enzyme and joins them to make a new copy of the second enzyme; while the second enzyme similarly binds and joins the two subunits that comprise the first enzyme. In this way the two enzymes assemble each other — what is termed cross-replication. To make the process proceed indefinitely requires only a small starting amount of the two enzymes and a steady supply of the subunits.

"This is the only case outside biology where molecular information has been immortalized," says Joyce.

Not content to stop there, the researchers generated a variety of enzyme pairs with similar capabilities. They mixed 12 different cross-replicating pairs, together with all of their constituent subunits, and allowed them to compete in a molecular test of survival of the fittest. Most of the time the replicating enzymes would breed true, but on occasion an enzyme would make a mistake by binding one of the subunits from one of the other replicating enzymes. When such "mutations" occurred, the resulting recombinant enzymes also were capable of sustained replication, with the most fit replicators growing in number to dominate the mixture. "To me that's actually the biggest result," says Joyce.

The research shows that the system can sustain molecular information, a form of heritability, and give rise to variations of itself in a way akin to Darwinian evolution. So, says Lincoln, "What we have is non-living, but we've been able to show that it has some life-like properties, and that was extremely interesting."

Knocking on the Door of Life

The group is pursuing potential applications of their discovery in the field of molecular diagnostics, but that work is tied to a research paper currently in review, so the researchers can't yet discuss it.

But the main value of the work, according to Joyce, is at the basic research level. "What we've found could be relevant to how life begins, at that key moment when Darwinian evolution starts." He is quick to point out that, while the self-replicating RNA enzyme systems share certain characteristics of life, they are not themselves a form of life.

The historical origin of life can never be recreated precisely, so without a reliable time machine, one must instead address the related question of whether life could ever be created in a laboratory. This could, of course, shed light on what the beginning of life might have looked like, at least in outline. "We're not trying to play back the tape," says Lincoln of their work, "but it might tell us how you go about starting the process of understanding the emergence of life in the lab."

Joyce says that only when a system is developed in the lab that has the capability of evolving novel functions on its own can it be properly called life. "We're knocking on that door," he says, "But of course we haven't achieved that."

The subunits in the enzymes the team constructed each contain many nucleotides, so they are relatively complex and not something that would have been found floating in the primordial ooze. But, while the building blocks likely would have been simpler, the work does finally show that a simpler form of RNA-based life is at least possible, which should drive further research to explore the RNA World theory of life's origins.

---

Journal reference:

1. Lincoln et al. Self-Sustained Replication of an RNA Enzyme. Science, Jan 8, 2009; DOI: 10.1126/science.1167856

Elie Wiesel: Indifference, more dangerous than hate

Persona Non Grata, by Oliver Stone

What I like from the movies of Oliver Stone? (Just had a look over a quite long list and discovered I've seen only, to be indulgent, 10%.) Natural Born Killers, and People vs. Larry Flint and Wall Street. As for documentaries, covering hot political subjects, I always think twice before seeing them, simply because I'm looking for more than common places and ignorant glamorous stars trying to fight for causes they are supporting because they could get an opportunity to be on the first page of the magazines. It's a serious reason I consider Michael Moore's propagandist works, even rising serious subject, a superficial and dangerously simplified way to see the world and he's not too far away of those he pretends to expose.

Oliver Stone is not a political literate and expert. He seized the opportunity, put a bit of curiosity and used his experience as a film director and went in 2003, in the Middle East. Where, as usual, another conflict was on the way, between - you guessed - Israel and the Palestinians. He have a high ranking distribution - Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Hamas leaders.. Including Hasan Yousef whose son become recently a Christian and revealed many of the inside-the-house secrets regarding the nature of this movement, many are purposive or not avoiding these days. Yasser Arafat could be seen only through old video recordings. And we see Ariel Sharon only on TV.

Even with a naive curiosity, Oliver Stone wants to know, to get more from his characters - more or less wise or sincere. But the lack of knowledge is not an excuse and almost childish, when Yousef is asking him :"What you gonna do if you house would be attacked?", he's answering: "Exactly like you".

Since then, the circumstances changed - Arafat died, Hamas seems to hold the lion's share among the Palestinians, but the war is still going on and on. Shimon Peres, together with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat, is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002-2003 one of the dilema of the moment was what to do with Arafat - to let him living in his Muqata headquartes or to expell so far so good. Hilarious or not, they have been voices among the Nobel Committee complaining that maybe the prize should be recalled, with an exclusive reference to Shimon Peres.

Peres, is having the last word in the "movie" warning that "teaching history is dangerous". "We have to teach our children to develop imagination not memory; to educate the children to learn the history of the future, not the history of the past".

And a doubtful taste, pathetic speculation: "Who's Persona Non Grata" in the movie? The Reason.

Mr. Nathan Zuckerman is leaving the stage

"Nathan Zuckerman is sick. I've read this, is in the book. He recently underwent a prostate surgery, perhaps Alzheimer is waiting to share its part too...". "Oh, you mean Philip Roth? Impossible. Can believe is true...And he's not even 70. It will be such an incredible loss". "Yes, they are not too many people like him these days. You know, he was involved in Operation Skylock, the Demyanuk case". "Illness don't spare anybody. I undestood him so well after reading the story of Alexander Portnoy. Psychanalitically speaking, I can understand a whole lot how his life is now".

And the dialogue could continue, be enriched and diversified. It's not an exchange of words about weather or the last events from the life of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears. It touch the abuse of biography in interpreting the fiction and yes, in many cases, the "elitist" interpretation of a piece of literature is badly and irremediably affected by a narrow focus on the life of writer. I can guess the hidden smile of Thomas Pynchon while reading - I can bet he's connected to Internet - the desperate efforts to identify him. Nobody saw him for almost 20 years, no interviews, public readings, we don't know how his personal life is going on. For sure, his works are cryptic and only the stubbornness of a detective-skills literary critic will help us to reveal the inner personal substance of his wonderful novels.


The first chapter of Exit Ghost

Long life to cartoons

Maybe we are very much used to see cartoons as humorous illustrations or movies dedicated mostly to children. In fact, they are part of the visual universe, so they could be used freely to express any kind of subjects. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis or Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir found the proper tools to illustrate political and social subjects - The life in Iran before and during the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the 1982 Lebanon War - without diminishing or disregardingly approaching the theme. After seeing them, I tryed to imagine a real movie with real actors with the same synopsis. It's possible, of course, as long any subject and any idea could be seen from an infinite perspectives, and still could remain many untold stories. But in these two cases, the focus is more on ideas than on the glamor of real-time actors. And, in fact, you don't have too many regrets for this choice of the film directors, because the movies are displaying each minute thinking products of good quality.

Originally, in fine arts, the cartoons are preparatory drawing to be covered later with color. Nowadays, cartoons, like blogs, are enjoying a high degree of access by a large number of people. You can find on the Internet many websites where it's easy to learn how to draw one and, with an easy to handle program, you can produce your own and distribute via the Internet, almost cost-free. It's not necessarily democratization, but is part of the diversification of the tools we have in order to express ourselves. Of course, not too many are using it or could give them a substantial content.

The House of the Mosque

A good piece of literature is not an abstract of the daily news. You already have newspapers. What a good writer could do is to build up a narrative, more or less connected to the immediate ground and environment, but reavealing what is humanly common. Kader Abdolah (the pen name of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghani Farahani). It is a society in change of the Iran in the 20th century, seen from a well defined location - the house of the mosque - with roles played by family members of an extended family. People are changing following the pressure of times, are taking sides, are killed or dye. If you are weak you are a flexible subject of history, if not, you could remain yourself and look wisely around you, not without disappointment and sadness. Is this book a window to another culture, not easy to grasp? Almost all the cultures, whatever open links they have - as a language worldwide spoken, or cultural marks present in the public space - have always an identity of their own you cannot understand otherwise than by getting deep into the cultural codes more or less shared. What you have to assume from the very beginning is that these other worlds are made by very real human beings, but living in various cultural and political environment. The ways in which they react at the pressures of the environment could be different. What we ofently see is the final result of these interactions. Literature, as arts in general, could make these translations smoothly.

Tales of music and the brain

http://musicophilia.com/

The musical part of the brain is evolving as any other part of the brain. More we use it, more we can have access to various degrees of abstract thinking and profoundity. The social connection / the environment we grew up - exists, but it's not compulsory. You could live in a house full of books and listen daily Mozart, but still you can adore hip-hop and chick-lit. Of course, must part of us are reduced to the simple role of listeners or readers, not authors or creators. But nothing, if all conditions of brain integrity are met, could compel us to stop thinking. We have too the choice to stop/refuse thinking by our own will. How we are is mostly a matter of our own choice. Sometimes we can change, sometimes is too late.

The Triumph of Roberto Bolaño

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22171

Hope. The momentum is lost. Then hope again

An interview with the Israeli writer Zeruya Shalev for Der Spiegel, almost three years ago.

Mystery Roar from Faraway Space Detected

By Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
posted: 07 January 2009

Space.com

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected.

The roar is from the distant cosmos. Nobody knows what causes it.

Of course, sound waves can't travel in a vacuum (which is what most of space is), or at least they can't very efficiently. But radio waves can.

Radio waves are not sound waves, but they are still electromagnetic waves, situated on the low-frequency end of the light spectrum.

Many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, emit radio waves. Even our home galaxy, the Milky Way, emits a static hiss (first detected in 1931 by physicist Karl Jansky). Other galaxies also send out a background radio hiss.

But the newly detected signal, described here today at the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, is far louder than astronomers expected.

There is "something new and interesting going on in the universe," said Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

A team led by Kogut detected the signal with a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission).

In July 2006, the instrument was launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and reached an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,500 meters), where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

ARCADE's mission was to search the sky for faint signs of heat from the first generation of stars, but instead they heard a roar from the distant reaches of the universe.

"The universe really threw us a curve," Kogut said. "Instead of the faint signal we hoped to find, here was this booming noise six times louder than anyone had predicted."

Detailed analysis of the signal ruled out primordial stars or any known radio sources, including gas in the outermost halo of our own galaxy.

Other radio galaxies also can't account for the noise – there just aren't enough of them.

"You'd have to pack them into the universe like sardines," said study team member Dale Fixsen of the University of Maryland. "There wouldn't be any space left between one galaxy and the next."

The signal is measured to be six times brighter than the combined emission of all known radio sources in the universe.

For now, the origin of the signal remains a mystery.

"We really don't know what it is,"said team member Michael Seiffert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

And not only has it presented astronomers with a new puzzle, it is obscuring the sought-for signal from the earliest stars. But the cosmic static may itself provide important clues to the development of galaxies when the universe was much younger, less than half its present age. Because the radio waves come from far away, traveling at the speed of light, they therefore represent an earlier time in the universe.

"This is what makes science so exciting," Seiffert said. "You start out on a path to measure something – in this case, the heat from the very first stars – but run into something else entirely, some unexplained."

About (this) war

Once, on a Tel Aviv beach I've met a young woman, full of life, always smiling. She come almost every day to see the see. She never swim. Once she did, since...while on her way to a shop, a bomb exploded nearby and she lost the two legs. Nobody protested for her and for any other "daily" victims. Never. She told me her story very shortly, simply on an equal voice. This is life in war zones, in any part of the world.

We are so much used to see on tv or to read it in the newspapers, after an advertising and together with the financial information that we don't acknowledge it, in fact. We go back to our lives. In 90% of the situations, if we are healthy enough, we'll be back home soon alive. And, meanwhile, we could get some news about 9/11, Madrid, Mumbai, Sarajevo, Kosovo.

How many individuals, on their own, decided these days to leave their peaceful and secure lives for helping on the ground? This is called support, real human empathy.

And we discover also it's Anti-Semitism in an Europe we, again, discover it's so diverse but unable to tackle its diversity. It was always here and elsewhere this Anti-Semitism, no excuse to deny it. We are unprepared to fight it. Again! Winter vacations are over.

Who's afraid of the atheist campaign?

The last news about the atheist campaign - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/europe/07london.html?ref=europe