HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory
Subject: Re: Animate Nature and Noise
Keywords: info theory isothermal noise physical limit receptors
Date: 28 Jan 93 22:57:56 GMT
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1k9lsvINNosr@MINERVA.CIS.YALE.EDU> smith-una@yale.edu (Una Smith) writes:

I hope you are kidding us Una!  The three phenomena you were discussing are
quite different.  Gravitational "bending" of light or matter is really that the
space is distorted and they move "straight".  The ping pong ball is held in the
stream of air because when a ball is half out, the air travels parallel to its
surface inside the stream and so the molecules don't hit the surface as often
as they do on the other side of the ball.  Hence there is a differential
pressure on the two sides of the ball (just like an airplane wing) and the ball
goes into the stream.  The ball is also balanced against gravity in the
weakening air flow.  If you have never seen this phenomenon, it is really worth
reversing your vacuum cleaner for!  The optical tweezer works by a focused beam
of light.  The light is refracted by the object (it does NOT go around, it goes
through!!).  The refraction of the light requires a momentum shift of the
photons and the particle gets the opposite reaction.  The diagram would show
that when a particle is placed at various positions relative to the focus of
the light beam, the particle experiences a force that is always toward the
focal point.

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms@ncifcrf.gov
From: smith-una@yale.edu (Una Smith)
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory
Subject: Re: Animate Nature and Noise
Summary: Microcosm like macrocosm (or vice versa)
Keywords: info theory isothermal noise physical limit receptors
Date: 28 Jan 93 22:14:55 GMT
Organization: Yale University Science & Engineering UNIX(tm), New Haven, CT 06520-2158
NNTP-Posting-Host: minerva.cis.yale.edu

>Optical tweezers are truely amazing.  If one takes a laser and focuses it, a
>particle sitting at the focus will stay there!  The reason is that the particle
>refracts the laser light, and there is a force on the particle to compensate
>for the momentum shift of the light.  Anybody care to work out a diagram?

Imagine the particle is a star like our sun.  Each photon wears its own
"particle" hat, and like a spaceship using a star or planet to change
course and gain velocity, an individual photon whips around the particle.
The particle also changes its momentum a little bit (conservation of
energy).  When there are lots of photons whipping around the particle's
minute gravity well, the net momentum of the particle goes to 0, relative
to the light stream.  Have you ever elevated a ping-pong ball by sticking
the intake hose on a vacuum cleaner on the outtake (?) so air blows out?
The ping-pong ball acts as though it were stuck on the end of an invisible
wire in the airstream from the hose.  The physics are similar, except that
the transfer of force is accomplished through friction, not gravity.  Or
is it an atomic friction after all?  What is gravity?  What is friction?


-- 

      Una Smith      Biology Department       smith-una@yale.edu
                     Yale University
                     New Haven, CT  06511
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory,bionet.women-in-bio
From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Subject: Re: Who is the real Claude Elwood Shannon?
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:13:51 GMT

Horgan seems to be into Shannon; here's another:

@article{Horgan1990,
author = "J. Horgan",
title = "Profile: {Claude E. Shannon}",
journal = "Sci. Am.",
volume = "262",
number = "1",
pages = "22-22B",
month = "January",
year = "1990"}

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms@ncifcrf.gov
From: gda@creare.com (Gray Abbott)
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory
Subject: Re: Animate Nature and Noise
Date: 28 Jan 93 13:50:40 GMT
Distribution: bionet



On 28 Jan 1993, S. A. Modena wrote:

> Well, Gray, I'm supposing that when one puts a large sea shell to the
> ear, that roar of the ocean one hears is either Brownian motion or the
> noise of blood cells being pumped through the capillaries within the 
> ear.  :^)
> 
> Steve

I think it's the latter (blood flow), but I never came across a definitive
explanation.  I've always assumed that you don't hear blood flow because
of some active cancellation process, not because it's too quiet.  The sea
shell could provide enough time delay to throw off the cancellation.  (For
a related effect, try eating sometime while wearing headphones, even the
lightweight walkman type.  You'll be surprised at how much noise your jaws
make that you don't normally hear.)

Gray
From: venk@stein.u.washington.edu (Venkatesh Murthy)
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory
Subject: Re: Animate Nature and Noise
Keywords: info theory isothermal noise physical limit receptors
Date: 27 Jan 93 17:58:55 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu

In article <1993Jan27.062112.13859@ncsu.edu> samodena@csemail.cropsci.ncsu.edu (S. A. Modena) writes:

	[a lot of stuff deleted.......]

>
>
>     ...Biophysical Principles of Sensory Transduction
>        Steven M. Block
>
>IN "Sensory TRansduction"
>   Society of General Physiologists Series Vol. 47 (46th Ann. 
>Symp.)
>   Edited by D.P. Corey & S.D. Roper
>   New York: Rockefeller University Press,  1991
>   ISBN 0-87470-051-5
>
>Steve
>---


This subject is quite fascinating.  Much of the ideas that Steve Block
talks about in that nice little review were presented in another review
by Bill Bialek in 1987:

Bialek, W.  1987.  Physical limits to sensation and perception.
Annual Reviews in Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry. 16:455-478.

Bialek's review is good, as is Block's.  Both seem to be fascinated by
tiny things in biology.  Bialek has also done some nice stuff in the
efficiency of information transfer (in the Shannon sense) in the fly
visual system, frog sacculus.  I can fish out the references if anyone
is interested.  He claims that in a lot of sensory systems, the coding
is close to being maximally efficient given the noise and the statistics
of naturally occurring stimuli.  As for Block, I think he currently works
on molecular motors.  I believe they are attempting to use "optical
tweezers" to hold on to microtubules and such to measure the force 
exerted by single motor molecules such as kinesin.  Fascinating stuff...
but I hardly have the background to expound on it :-)  Maybe Tom or
Steve or someone else would care to tell us a bit about it.  

I didn't intend this posting to be so fragmentary.  Mostly it was to
try and get people to start posting stuff again.  Things have been
uncomfortably quiet lately :-)

-Venki Murthy
Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195

venk@u.washington.edu
From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Newsgroups: bionet.info-theory
Subject: Re: Animate Nature and Noise
Keywords: info theory isothermal noise physical limit receptors
Date: 28 Jan 93 01:03:30 GMT
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <1k6igvINNeg0@shelley.u.washington.edu>
venk@stein.u.washington.edu (Venkatesh Murthy) writes:

|Bialek has also done some nice stuff in the
|efficiency of information transfer (in the Shannon sense) in the fly
|visual system, frog sacculus.  I can fish out the references if anyone
|is interested.

Yes, please.

|"optical tweezers" to hold on to microtubules and such to measure the force 

Optical tweezers are truely amazing.  If one takes a laser and focuses it, a
particle sitting at the focus will stay there!  The reason is that the particle
refracts the laser light, and there is a force on the particle to compensate
for the momentum shift of the light.  Anybody care to work out a diagram?

I'd like to see one of those attached to a Virtual Reality device -

In front of you float the chromosomes of a cell.  You reach out with your two
hands and grab one of the chromosomes.  You pull, and the chromosome snaps in
half... Data on the forces and energetics float on a virtual terminal to one
side...

With STM or AFM one might have...

You zoom down to the gold surface.  You can see and feel the individual gold
atoms.  There are some graphite chains lying on the surface.  You reach over
and pull one off...

Please Please Please let me play with this if you build one!!

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms@ncifcrf.gov
From: danj@WELCHGATE.WELCH.JHU.EDU (Dan Jacobson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Searching for Biologists? - Give it a try
Date: 25 Jan 93 00:12:13 GMT
Distribution: bionet





                    Searching For Biologists


Looking for someone to collaborate with?
Looking for someone with expertise in a specific field?
Looking for someone's address?

Well here's a good place to start - you can search for people
by name, location, and an abstract describing their research 
interests.

Just point gopher at merlot.welch.jhu.edu (128.220.59.18)
and go into the following directory:

  -->    15. Searching For Biologists/  


What appears here is the pilot project for a database which
will help you to find other scientists. 

At present you can search for scientists who are funded by the

1) U.S. Department of Energy - to work on the Genome project;
2) U.S. National Institutes of Health - to work on the Genome project;  
3) U.S. National Science Foundation;
4) U.S. Department of Agriculture and;
5) Researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

The searches for Genome researchers are run locally while the others
are at present run remotely.  The term "Genome" is a very general 
categorization - you will find people from a wide range of disciplines 
and interests represented in these searches.

Search Capabilities:
--------------------

Searches (1, 2, and 4) support booleans (and, or, not), wildcards (*), and 
phrase searches (" "). (Kudos go to Don Gilbert for the boolean Wais code.) 
Search (5) supports two booleans (and, or), but not wildcards or phrase 
searches. Search (3) has only simple keyword searching.

Now if that last section was a bit confusing - just try it out, 'tis easier
to do than to explain' :-).


Happy Searching,


Dan Jacobson

danj@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu

Johns Hopkins University
From: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Spider ID?
Date: 21 Jan 1993 13:29:44 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: br105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeffrey A. Del Col)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


There doesn't seem to be any net group devoted to entomolgy, or
at least I can't find one, so I thought I'd post this here.
This summer I saw a very odd spider that I think may be an example
of some kind of mimicry meant to lure prey within range.  

The spider was an orb-weaver.  When I first saw it, I could have
sworn it was a small paper-wasp nest suspended in mid air.  The spider
was perhaps 3/4 inch overall length, and its abdomen was shaped like
an irregular cone with the apex on the ventral side of the animal. Its
coloration and shape were so much like those of a Polistes spp. nest, that
I was immediately struck by the thought that it had to be some kind of
mimicry, perhaps to lure prey, perhaps to ward off enemies.

Can anyone help me identify this species?  I live in north central West 
Virginia.

J. Del Col
-- 
Jeff Del Col      *   DECONSTRUCTION--- the critical method invented      
A-B College       *                      by Procrustes  
Philippi, WV      *                             
                  *
From: ajb@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk (Alan Bleasby)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: BIOSCI UK: new address where the buck stops
Date: 23 Jan 93 09:06:23 GMT
Distribution: bionet
Organization: SERC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, UK
NNTP-Posting-Host: seqnet.dl.ac.uk


The address biosci@daresbury.ac.uk should ALWAYS be used for any sub/unsub
or technical queries for email subscribers in Asia/Africa/Europe.

However, for any comments, suggestions or complaints (or as a point of
contact for desperate pleas of help) I, like Dave K., can always be
contacted. But please note that, as of Monday 25th, the address
ajb@dlvh.daresbury.ac.uk will no longer work. My email address is now
either
         bleasby@daresbury.ac.uk      or
         ajb@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk

Again, please do not contact me directly for subs/unsubs; use
   biosci@daresbury.ac.uk

Rgds

Alan Bleasby
SEQNET/BIOSCI manager
SERC Daresbury Laboratory
Warrington WA4 4AD
UK

Email: ajb@s-crim1.dl.ac.uk
From: anadeem@ampere.alt.graphics.pixutils (Ahmed Nadeem)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: MRI and CT-SCAN Images For Dogs?
Date: 27 Jan 93 07:18:20 GMT
Distribution: bionet.general
Organization: /home/ampere1/anadeem/.organization

Netters,
      I am currently working on a research project that involves construction 
of realistic, solid or geometric models for dogs.
      Does anyone know where I can get serial section images( MRI, CT-SCAN, 
etc ) for dogs?
                                                       Thanks,
                                                              Ahmed Nadeem
From: lpcasson@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Lawrence P. Casson)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Nucleotide analogs and PCR mutagenesis
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:37:27 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

I am investigating various mutagenesis methods with the goal of
randomly introducing multiple changes into a cloned gene.
In particular, I am interested in the PCR (am I allowed to say PCR?)
based technique described by Leung, D.W., et al. (Technique 1:11-15)
and Cadwell, R.W., and Joyce, G.F. (PCR Methods and Applications 2:28-33).

I am interested in the use of nucleotide analogs in combination with
this technique.  For example, DNA sequencing is often done with dITP
or 7-deaza-dGTP because the weaker base pairing interactions eliminate
certain gel artifacts.  Since the PCR mutagenesis technique reduces
the fidelity of the Taq polymerase,  these nucleotides might be
incorporated at a high rate.  Perhaps this could be extended to other
nucleotide analogs.  The major benefit would be a larger number of
mutations in fewer PCR cycles.

The ideal "universal" nucleotide analog will pair with any other
nucleotide and be randomly incorporated and not cause a large number
of frame shift mutations.  However, I am willing to settle for
second best.

Does anyone know of any work regarding nucleotide analogs and base
pairing?  Has anyone used analogs to investigate kinetics of various
DNA or RNA polymerases?


Larry Casson
lpcasson@phoenix.princeton.edu
From: wijsman@max.u.washington.edu
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Thanks for K-12 science education responses
Date: 21 Jan 93 22:20:05 PST
Organization: 
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: max.u.washington.edu

To all of you who have taken the time to reply to my queries
about pre-college science education - Thank you very much!
I have gotten lots of personal email replies, plus all the
posts to the newgroups.  I will be following up on some of
the information soon, with direct email replies to some of
you, and a more general posting.  Right now I have some work
of my own which needs doing, but I will try to return to this
topic over the weekend.
 
Ellen Wijsman
Div. of Medical Genetics, RG-25
and Dept. of Biostatistics
University of Washington
Seattle, WA  98195
wijsman@u.washington.edu
Newsgroups: bionet.general
From: ecec@quads.uchicago.edu (Eric Cabot)
Subject: Seeking info on Eurpean Fly meetings
Followup-To: ecec@midway.uchicago.edu 
Keywords: European Drosophila fly meetings 
Reply-To: ecec@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:06:53 GMT

Dear Virtual Colleagues,
  
  A colleague has asked me to post to see if I could
get any information on the upcoming European Fly Meetings.
I know that there were some posts on this recently but
I only read them cursorily and didn't save them.

  Specifically: when and where is the meeting,
and who's the person to contact for more information?


Eric Cabot
ecec@midway.uchicago.edu
-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=v=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
    Eric Cabot                         |       "Non Nobis Nati Solum" 
ecec@midway.uchicago.edu               | 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=v=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
From: news@DARTMOUTH.EDU (The News Manager)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: (none)
Date: 24 Jan 93 05:54:57 GMT
Distribution: bionet

Newsgroups: bionet.announce
From: Robert.H.Gross@dartmouth.edu (Robert H. Gross)
Subject: Re: Disk Drive for IUBIO
X-Posted-From: InterNews1.0b7@newshost.dartmouth.edu
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 05:54:50 GMT

I agree with Harry's sentiments. It worked for Info-Mac and is should
work for the Biology community as well.

Bob Gross
Dept. of Biology, Dartmouth College
bob.gross@dartmouth.edu
From: nextug@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Entomology
Date: 24 Jan 93 15:22:39 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Anyone know if there is a Usenet group devoted to entomology?
My preliminary perusals have not turned up anything.
Please reply by Email.
	Thanks very much!
Christopher Majka
nextug@ac.dal.ca
From: lcostarr@uncu.edu.ar (COSTARROSA Lucio)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Oil refineries sludge
Date: 28 Jan 93 14:05:31 GMT
Distribution: bionet
Original-To: bioforum@uk.ac.daresbury
X-Mailer: SCO System V Mail (version 3.2)

Hello:  

        We are a group of research of the University National of Cuyo

(Mendoza - Argentina) working under the direction of Doctor Eduardo Ercoli.

        We are facing a work about "Technologies for the biological treatment 

of oil refineries sludge"

        We are just at the begining that is why we have not many information. 

We would like to be comunicate with peolple working in this subject.

        Thanks for any help.

              ------------------------------



                Lucio Costarrosa

                lcostarr@raiz.uncu.edu.ar

                lucioc@logos.edu.ar



              ------------------------------
Xref: sparky bionet.general:2125 bionet.women-in-bio:150
From: hkaplan@UDCVAX.BITNET (Howard Kaplan)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Old Journals
Date: 22 Jan 93 01:27:56 GMT
Distribution: bionet

Inner city schools with their notoriously low budgets are worthy repositories
for any current books/periodicals.  Best, to contact a science teacher
instead of a librarian as the latter is probably overworked and has no place or
way of storing the volumes.  Next best would be 2rd world embassies.   Wherever
you donate them, though, try to make sure that they're going to be used and not
just stored, or put on a pile that will disappear in short order.
                                        Howard Kaplan
From: jhayward@neumann.une.edu.au (Jason Hayward)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Genetics info wanted
Date: 24 Jan 93 05:02:01 GMT


looking for information on inter-species fostering.
Would like information on following, e-mailed if possible.
How closely related would two species have to be before one could
carry the implanted embryo of the other species to full term.
I know that this has been done where poulations (eg some zebras) have 
been nearing extinction and common species have acted as foster mothers to 
the implanted embryo and subsequent offspring.
 Particularly interested in the camel family (llamas, camels etc).
  Thanks for any information available, or any help on a more suitable 
newsgroup to ask for this information.

Thanks,
     Dean Haley.
 
Newsgroups: bionet.general,bionet.women-in-bio
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Ph.D in Genetics
From: ssbethal@wsuhub.uc.twsu.edu
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:49:23 CST
Organization: Wichita State University, Wichita, Ks

HI,

I am interested in pursuing my Ph.D in genetics at Univ. of Utah.

Could someone help me with it?

I need some info. about the programs they offer and the research interests.

Or just provide me with an email address for that univ.

Thanks alot,

S
From: anadeem@ampere.alt.graphics.pixutils (Ahmed Nadeem)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Edge Detection And Segmentation Using Khoros And PV-WAVE
Date: 27 Jan 93 07:20:09 GMT
Distribution: bionet.general
Organization: /home/ampere1/anadeem/.organization

Netters,
        I am currently working on a research project that involves generating
solid or geometric models from MRI images. Part of the procedure will require 
me to possibly perform Thresholding & Edge Detection on my MRI images in order
to find out which pixels lie on boundaries between two different regions. 
Thus, I would like to have an Image Processing Software package that has good 
Edge Detection and Classification ( Segmentation ) modules/routines.  
        I have heard a lot about Khoros ( University Of New Mexico) and 
PV-WAVE (Precision Visuals) and was curious if other professionals or students
had any experience on how good they are for the above purposes. Suggestions 
on other software packages are also much welcome.
                                                       Thanks,
                                                              Ahmed Nadeem
From: hcollier@mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu (H.A. Collier)
Newsgroups: bionet.general
Subject: Re:  Biomedical Shareware
Date: 26 Jan 93 22:21:19 GMT
Distribution: bionet
Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
NNTP-Posting-Host: mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu

This is what I've found for biomedical shareware, so far:

telnet to gopher.bcm.tmc.edu
choose the indicated directories...
--> 7. Other Gophers/
--> 13. University Of Texas Health Science Center at Houston/
--> 7. Other Information Servers/
--> 3. Biomedical Information Servers/
--> 3. Biomedical and Related Gophers/
--> 3. Biomedical Shareware/

Heidi
-- 
Heidi Collier                     Internet: hcollier@mbcr.bcm.tmc.edu
Dept of Otolaryngology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX  77030