Past Lessons, Future Theories
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Swoon 177 - February 26, 2007
Joy Division - Isolation (Warner Bros)
Mstrkrft - She's Good For Business (Last Gang)
Bloc Party - Banquet (Boys Noize dub)
Missing Link - Unkle Bill's Cabin (Wagon repair)
Audion - Just a Man (Ellen Allien mix) (Spectral)
Cortney Tidwell - Don't Let Stars Keep Us Apart (Ewan Pearson mix)
Robag Wruhme - Hamburg (Musik Krause)
Orbital - Chime (Ffrr)
Orbital - Impact (Ffrr)
Gui Boratto - Scene (Kompakt)
Chymera - Murmur (Mezzotinto)
Thomas Fehlmann - Dusted (Kompakt)
Tam Cooper - Galactica (Jimpster mix) (Simple)
Midnight Operator - Midnight Operator (Wagon Repair)
Missing Link - Bur (Wagon Repair)
Antena - Camino del Sol (Joakim mix) (Permanent Vacation)
Matzak - Girl in Water (Dan Berkson and James What mix) (Boxer)
Popnoname - Pearl (Italic)
Kupon - Zoom In (Curfew)
Lazy Fat People - Farra
download here
Mstrkrft - She's Good For Business (Last Gang)
Bloc Party - Banquet (Boys Noize dub)
Missing Link - Unkle Bill's Cabin (Wagon repair)
Audion - Just a Man (Ellen Allien mix) (Spectral)
Cortney Tidwell - Don't Let Stars Keep Us Apart (Ewan Pearson mix)
Robag Wruhme - Hamburg (Musik Krause)
Orbital - Chime (Ffrr)
Orbital - Impact (Ffrr)
Gui Boratto - Scene (Kompakt)
Chymera - Murmur (Mezzotinto)
Thomas Fehlmann - Dusted (Kompakt)
Tam Cooper - Galactica (Jimpster mix) (Simple)
Midnight Operator - Midnight Operator (Wagon Repair)
Missing Link - Bur (Wagon Repair)
Antena - Camino del Sol (Joakim mix) (Permanent Vacation)
Matzak - Girl in Water (Dan Berkson and James What mix) (Boxer)
Popnoname - Pearl (Italic)
Kupon - Zoom In (Curfew)
Lazy Fat People - Farra
download here
Labels: Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist
¶ 4:31 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, February 26, 2007
Gui Boratto - Chromophobia
Gui Boratto's Chromophobia comes out today, and it is an album that is certainly worth checking out. The Brazilian producer has released many noteworthy eps, singles and remixes in the past two years.
This album, his debut full-length, has plenty of variety and fits together well as a complete album. It's not just a bunch of dance tracks slammed together.
The album begins with "Scene", a tinkly ambient opening. It moves quickly into "Mr. Decay", a minimal techno track. "Terminal" comes next with a little more electro-funk, followed by "Gate 7", a pure techno track I have never been able to get into.
The techno continues, with "Shebang" another good track with a looped melody and shuffly percussion. "Chromophobia" follows with more techno, and less melody. "The Blessing" keeps the techno coming, with more complicated percussion.
"Mala Strana" then divides the album, with a short ambient interlude. After this, things calm down. "Acrostico" is gentle electronica, and after that is "Xilo", a short trip back into slower, bleepy techno.
Then comes "Beautiful Life", which is an excellent vocal track. I hope it will be played in many, many dance clubs, because it's great.
The album is then wrapped up with "Hera", a fine electrohouse track, and "The Verdict", a spacy, slow, electronica ending.
If you want to cherry-pick tracks, "Beautiful Life", "Hera" and "Shebang" are my favourites. But it's all good. It's also out today on Kompakt.
Labels: dance, Music, Tech-house, Techno
¶ 9:29 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Swoon 175 - February 12, 2007
Cobblestone Jazz - India In Me (Wagon Repair)
The Mole - Jingover (Wagon Repair)
Mike Shannon - (Cynosure)
The Mole - CONSCIENCE DOWN BY THE Tracks Near the 80 (Karat)
Gui Boratto - Mr. Decay (Kompakt)
Noze - Remember Love (My Best Friend)
Sasha and Charlie May - Seal Clubbing (James Zabiela mix) (Renaissance)
Audiojack - Coastline (20:20 Vision)
Skat - Nightwalk (Karat)
Scratch Massive - Girls On Top (Chateaurouge)
Legion of Green Men - Floating in Shallow Water (Post Contemporary)
1-Speed Bike - Cats Don't Judge, People Do (Broklyn Beats)
Caribou - Brahminy Kite (Domino)
Mike Shannon - Devotional (Cynosure)
Heidi vs. Riton - Vejer (Jesse Rose mix) (Get Physical)
Jeremy P. Caulfield - Nude Beach (Dumb Unit)
Plastikman - Hypokondriak (Plus8)
Delerium - Tectonic Shift (Nettwerk)
The Mole - Jingover (Wagon Repair)
Mike Shannon - (Cynosure)
The Mole - CONSCIENCE DOWN BY THE Tracks Near the 80 (Karat)
Gui Boratto - Mr. Decay (Kompakt)
Noze - Remember Love (My Best Friend)
Sasha and Charlie May - Seal Clubbing (James Zabiela mix) (Renaissance)
Audiojack - Coastline (20:20 Vision)
Skat - Nightwalk (Karat)
Scratch Massive - Girls On Top (Chateaurouge)
Legion of Green Men - Floating in Shallow Water (Post Contemporary)
1-Speed Bike - Cats Don't Judge, People Do (Broklyn Beats)
Caribou - Brahminy Kite (Domino)
Mike Shannon - Devotional (Cynosure)
Heidi vs. Riton - Vejer (Jesse Rose mix) (Get Physical)
Jeremy P. Caulfield - Nude Beach (Dumb Unit)
Plastikman - Hypokondriak (Plus8)
Delerium - Tectonic Shift (Nettwerk)
Labels: Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist
¶ 8:51 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, February 12, 2007
Swoon 174 - February 5, 2007
The Black Dog - Shadehead (Warp)
Amorphous Androgynous - Mountain Goat (Virgin)
Amorphous Androgynous - In Mind (Virgin)
Tim Tetlow - Written In My Soul (Planet mu)
Autechre - Montreal (Warp)
Trentemoller - Serenetii Part 3 (Poker Flat)
Mike Shannon - 8 bit rojo (Cynosure)
Minilogue - Birdsong (Wagon Repair)
Bukkador and Fishbeck - Less (My Best Friend)
Sweet n Candy - Bash the Bishop (Dumb Unit)
Audiojack - Coastline
Tim Fuller - Show Me Right (Bombay)
Two Lone Swordsmen - teasdale mix (Rotters Golf Club)
Kinder Atom - Car Audio (nice and smooth)
The Heavy Petters - Correspondence part 1 (Freaky Flow)
The Heavy Petters - The Real (Freaky Flow)
Rocky G - Piano Mover (Fool Skool)
Tiga - Good as Gold (Turbo)
Sandro Perri - Romeo Heart (Constellation)
Amorphous Androgynous - Mountain Goat (Virgin)
Amorphous Androgynous - In Mind (Virgin)
Tim Tetlow - Written In My Soul (Planet mu)
Autechre - Montreal (Warp)
Trentemoller - Serenetii Part 3 (Poker Flat)
Mike Shannon - 8 bit rojo (Cynosure)
Minilogue - Birdsong (Wagon Repair)
Bukkador and Fishbeck - Less (My Best Friend)
Sweet n Candy - Bash the Bishop (Dumb Unit)
Audiojack - Coastline
Tim Fuller - Show Me Right (Bombay)
Two Lone Swordsmen - teasdale mix (Rotters Golf Club)
Kinder Atom - Car Audio (nice and smooth)
The Heavy Petters - Correspondence part 1 (Freaky Flow)
The Heavy Petters - The Real (Freaky Flow)
Rocky G - Piano Mover (Fool Skool)
Tiga - Good as Gold (Turbo)
Sandro Perri - Romeo Heart (Constellation)
Labels: House, Music, Swoon, Techno, Tracklist
¶ 11:23 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
Friday, February 09, 2007
Mapping the earliest quasars
This is my fifth post for the weeklong orgy of science blogging, Just Science. There hasn't been much astronomy, so here goes with a discovery from the early universe.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has been taking pictures of nearly the entire sky, mapping the universe bit by bit. the project is in its second phase.
Astronomers have been mining this for data. A group reports on new findings concerning the clustering of quasars in the universe's first billion years. Quasars are the superbright cores of active galaxies and are probably powered by black holes at the galaxy's nucleus. We only see them at far distances, which implies we are seeing them in their youth.
A map of 4000 quasars shows they are much more tightly clustered than expected. "Previous maps showed that more nearby quasars cluster like 'normal'galaxies," explained Princeton University graduate student Yue Shen, wholed the study. "But the clustering in our map is ten times stronger, the difference between a high contrast photograph and a washed out xerox."
Quasars and their galaxies cluster together, bringing together normal and dark matter. Dark matter is thought to far outweight the amount of normal matter in the universe. (See here for interesting simulations showing the distribution of the two types of matter.)
The strong clumping of the quasars suggests dark matter is also especially thick in these clumps. These kind of calculations help astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists figure out why our universe is the way it is now. ¶ 1:20 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has been taking pictures of nearly the entire sky, mapping the universe bit by bit. the project is in its second phase.
Astronomers have been mining this for data. A group reports on new findings concerning the clustering of quasars in the universe's first billion years. Quasars are the superbright cores of active galaxies and are probably powered by black holes at the galaxy's nucleus. We only see them at far distances, which implies we are seeing them in their youth.
A map of 4000 quasars shows they are much more tightly clustered than expected. "Previous maps showed that more nearby quasars cluster like 'normal'galaxies," explained Princeton University graduate student Yue Shen, wholed the study. "But the clustering in our map is ten times stronger, the difference between a high contrast photograph and a washed out xerox."
Quasars and their galaxies cluster together, bringing together normal and dark matter. Dark matter is thought to far outweight the amount of normal matter in the universe. (See here for interesting simulations showing the distribution of the two types of matter.)
The strong clumping of the quasars suggests dark matter is also especially thick in these clumps. These kind of calculations help astronomers, astrophysicists and cosmologists figure out why our universe is the way it is now. ¶ 1:20 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Rational, scientific assessments of drugs and narcotics
This chart above is the best thing I have seen in months. (I first saw it in mixmag.) It is from England's Science Select Committee, who were charged last year with finding out if England's policies on illegal drugs made any sense. The short is answer is no.
They reviewed the ABC classification scheme, A being worst, C being least worst, and found that the way the drugs had been ranked did not match scientific assessments on their effects and impacts on society and health.
So, they rearranged the impacts of drugs based on scientific assessments. The graph above, from this report, is what they ended up with. They left the old A, B, C labels on. It gives a good idea of how the political and societal judgments on drugs don't match the scientific assessment. For instance, alcohol and tobacco are both much higher than permitted by governments. Marijuana is much higher than its advocates like to admit, but lower than its detractor paint it. Ecstasy and LSD are much lower risks than any policy treats them.
Ponder the graph, for it is wonderful, and chock full of information.
¶ 8:44 AM 0 Comments
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This chart above is the best thing I have seen in months. (I first saw it in mixmag.) It is from England's Science Select Committee, who were charged last year with finding out if England's policies on illegal drugs made any sense. The short is answer is no.
They reviewed the ABC classification scheme, A being worst, C being least worst, and found that the way the drugs had been ranked did not match scientific assessments on their effects and impacts on society and health.
So, they rearranged the impacts of drugs based on scientific assessments. The graph above, from this report, is what they ended up with. They left the old A, B, C labels on. It gives a good idea of how the political and societal judgments on drugs don't match the scientific assessment. For instance, alcohol and tobacco are both much higher than permitted by governments. Marijuana is much higher than its advocates like to admit, but lower than its detractor paint it. Ecstasy and LSD are much lower risks than any policy treats them.
Ponder the graph, for it is wonderful, and chock full of information.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
When Inbreeding Isn't So Bad
My third Just Science post:
German researchers have found a fish that prefers to mate with its relatives, rather than strangers. The result, published in Current Biology, suggests inbreeding can be a good evolutionary strategy. Timo Thünken et al. studied African cichlids (Pelvicachromis taetiatus), a river fish. They found that the fish preferred to mate with unfamiliar close kin over unrelated kin. To put it in human terms, they'd rather mate with a distant cousin than a stranger.
Why would this be a good strategy? Well, your kin are more likely to help you than a complete stranger. In this species the male and female care for the young. They have to cooperate to care and feed their young broods, which requires time and energy. The researchers measured the degree of cooperation between related and unrelated parents, and found that related parents invested significantly more time in caring for the young. The desired result is to produce more, stronger offspring.
The scientists also found that there was no inbreeding depression, which is the fancy way of saying the children weren't talking one-eyed mutants with 18 flippers.
The scientists suggest there may be other instances of inbreeding waiting to be discovered.
To be crystal clear, this is not an endorsement of human inbreeding!
Thünken et al.: “Active Inbreeding in a Cichlid Fish and Its Adaptive Significance”. Publishing in Current Biology 17, 225–229, February 6, 2007 DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2006.11.053.
German researchers have found a fish that prefers to mate with its relatives, rather than strangers. The result, published in Current Biology, suggests inbreeding can be a good evolutionary strategy. Timo Thünken et al. studied African cichlids (Pelvicachromis taetiatus), a river fish. They found that the fish preferred to mate with unfamiliar close kin over unrelated kin. To put it in human terms, they'd rather mate with a distant cousin than a stranger.
Why would this be a good strategy? Well, your kin are more likely to help you than a complete stranger. In this species the male and female care for the young. They have to cooperate to care and feed their young broods, which requires time and energy. The researchers measured the degree of cooperation between related and unrelated parents, and found that related parents invested significantly more time in caring for the young. The desired result is to produce more, stronger offspring.
The scientists also found that there was no inbreeding depression, which is the fancy way of saying the children weren't talking one-eyed mutants with 18 flippers.
The scientists suggest there may be other instances of inbreeding waiting to be discovered.
To be crystal clear, this is not an endorsement of human inbreeding!
Thünken et al.: “Active Inbreeding in a Cichlid Fish and Its Adaptive Significance”. Publishing in Current Biology 17, 225–229, February 6, 2007 DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2006.11.053.
Labels: biology, evolution, science
¶ 11:48 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Erase and Rebuild to Program Stem Cells
My second Just Science post:
Biologists from Shanghai have discovered that cloned cells follow an "erase and rebuild" strategy to return to a state where they can begin dividing again. This isn't much of a surprise, since it's long been suspected that something like this happens. But it's nice to put a mechanism to things.
Huizhen Shang and colleagues report in a special stem cell issue of Cell Research that the developing (single) egg cells of mice erase many of the transcription factors and other modifications that control protein expression. The erasure strips away most of the programming done by the mouse's cells, leaving the cell in a "blank" state. (More technically, the chromatin, a mixture of DNA and proteins, factors are nearly all removed.) Then the egg cell gets rebuilt/reprogrammed after fertilization by sperm, and is ready to develop as a stem cell that forms a complete mouse.
In the early days of cloning (ten years ago), this reprogramming was done by electrocuting cells after a nucleus had been transferred into a denucleated oocyte. Nobody knew why this worked, but it did. With this new discovery, biologists can now determine how and what control factors are erased and reset.
Needless to say, but worth mentioning, is that this finding was not discovered in the U.S., due to the federal government's failure to support stem cell research.
Biologists from Shanghai have discovered that cloned cells follow an "erase and rebuild" strategy to return to a state where they can begin dividing again. This isn't much of a surprise, since it's long been suspected that something like this happens. But it's nice to put a mechanism to things.
Huizhen Shang and colleagues report in a special stem cell issue of Cell Research that the developing (single) egg cells of mice erase many of the transcription factors and other modifications that control protein expression. The erasure strips away most of the programming done by the mouse's cells, leaving the cell in a "blank" state. (More technically, the chromatin, a mixture of DNA and proteins, factors are nearly all removed.) Then the egg cell gets rebuilt/reprogrammed after fertilization by sperm, and is ready to develop as a stem cell that forms a complete mouse.
In the early days of cloning (ten years ago), this reprogramming was done by electrocuting cells after a nucleus had been transferred into a denucleated oocyte. Nobody knew why this worked, but it did. With this new discovery, biologists can now determine how and what control factors are erased and reset.
Needless to say, but worth mentioning, is that this finding was not discovered in the U.S., due to the federal government's failure to support stem cell research.
Labels: biology, development, internet, science, stem cells
¶ 4:58 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Nitrogenase
Nitrogen is a fundamental element for life. There are no living organisms which do not depend on it, because it is found in DNA, RNA and protein. Therefore, obtaining it is absolutely essential.
The ultimate source of nitrogen is the atmosphere, which is 80% nitrogen gas, composed of two nitrogen atoms bound by three strong bonds. In this form, it is absolutely useless to life. It must be broken apart, and there are only a few ways of doing this. (Oxygen gas, which is composed of two oxygen atoms with two bonds, has been broken down every second of your life by enzymes.)
If we relied on lightning we'd be dead, since it doesn't produce enough freed nitrogen. The Haber process was only invented in the early 20th century, and is the source of fertilizer. That leaves enzymes, which are the source of nearly all the nitrogen in your body.
The enzyme that does this is nitrogenase. It is found in bacteria that live in the roots of plants. If you ever pull up a plant by its roots and find the roots covered in small nodules, those bumps are probably filled with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. There, they break atmospheric nitrogen and form ammonia and hydrogen gas.
This equation says take nitrogen gas, electricity, energy, protons, and convert them into ammonia, hydrogen gas, and spent fuel. Ammonia is easier to convert into nitrate, which is now biologically useful.
The enzyme is one of the most difficult ones to study. What happens "inside" it as it breaks nitrogen has been nearly impossible to observe by traditional methods, because the delivery of electrons can't be controlled. Biochemists know that the bonds are broken one at a time. A new paper by Dmitriy Lukoyanov et al. (subscription required) has unravelled much of the first part of the reaction. They find that no bonds are broken, and that nitrogenase accumulates four of the eight electrons before breaking a single bond. Their discovery finally links electronic states of the enzyme to hypothesized intermediates, and gives a better idea of the order of events performed by nitrogenase.
The ultimate source of nitrogen is the atmosphere, which is 80% nitrogen gas, composed of two nitrogen atoms bound by three strong bonds. In this form, it is absolutely useless to life. It must be broken apart, and there are only a few ways of doing this. (Oxygen gas, which is composed of two oxygen atoms with two bonds, has been broken down every second of your life by enzymes.)
- Lightning.
- The Haber process.
- Enzymes.
If we relied on lightning we'd be dead, since it doesn't produce enough freed nitrogen. The Haber process was only invented in the early 20th century, and is the source of fertilizer. That leaves enzymes, which are the source of nearly all the nitrogen in your body.
The enzyme that does this is nitrogenase. It is found in bacteria that live in the roots of plants. If you ever pull up a plant by its roots and find the roots covered in small nodules, those bumps are probably filled with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. There, they break atmospheric nitrogen and form ammonia and hydrogen gas.
N2 + 8e + 16MgATP + 8H+ = 2NH3 + H2 + 16MgADP + 16Pi.
This equation says take nitrogen gas, electricity, energy, protons, and convert them into ammonia, hydrogen gas, and spent fuel. Ammonia is easier to convert into nitrate, which is now biologically useful.
The enzyme is one of the most difficult ones to study. What happens "inside" it as it breaks nitrogen has been nearly impossible to observe by traditional methods, because the delivery of electrons can't be controlled. Biochemists know that the bonds are broken one at a time. A new paper by Dmitriy Lukoyanov et al. (subscription required) has unravelled much of the first part of the reaction. They find that no bonds are broken, and that nitrogenase accumulates four of the eight electrons before breaking a single bond. Their discovery finally links electronic states of the enzyme to hypothesized intermediates, and gives a better idea of the order of events performed by nitrogenase.
Labels: biology, internet, science
¶ 10:03 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Just Science blogging week
I will be blogging this week for Just Science, where a bunch of science bloggers will be posting on science every day from February 5th to the 11th. Stay tuned. Should be a lot of great posts, maybe even some from me.
¶ 9:57 AM 1 Comments
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