biology 4

Are scientific discoveries more a product of the person or their time? It’s usually their time, but in my conversation with ChatGPT, I found four that were mostly person-driven: Newton’s laws of gravitation Einstein’s general relativity I knew these. Both were far ahead of their times. In contrast, Newton’s laws of motion and Einstein’s special relativity weren’t. McClintock’s discovery of Transposable Elements: genes that can turn physical characteristics on and off. Her work was dismissed for decades. Mullis’ invention of the PCR that makes billions of DNA copies rapidly. Other scientists were using very different methods. I didn’t know these. Both are in biology - a rapidly advancing field. ...

Why onions make you cry. via Potti

On a similar note to movie physics, the science of superheroes

The Machiavellian Intelligence hypothesis says that the brain evolved more for its social purpose, than for finding food and things like that. Incidentally, Google’s collection on evolution is as comprehensive as ever.