the Journal of Marcello Cecilio

Sea Monsters #2

2008-04-15T06:20:58Z

Sea serpents are a common enough sighting among sailors, but you don't have to be drunk and horny to have seen them, there have even been fantastic sightings by entire villages. In 1817 a sea serpent was spotted off the harbor of Gloucester Massachusetts nearly everyday for a month. First sighted by some fishermen, who described it as a creature whose head (the size of a horse's) stuck 8 feet out of the water and its body thought to be 45-50 feet in length. Their account was largely disregarded until 10 days later when a couple of women and more fishermen (women, famous for never lying are to lend credibility to this particular event) saw the same creature entering their harbor. Six days later a man named Timothy Hodgkins and three friends saw what they initially believed to be a school of pilot whales but as they got closer they came to the conclusion that it was the humps of a giant serpent. Mr. Hodgkins relates: "His head was elevated from three to five feet; the distance was about six feet from the neck to the first bunch; we counted twenty bunches, and we suppose them on average about five feet apart, and the whole length could not be less than 120 feet." Though it would seem to have grown considerably in size since our the first sighting by the fishermen, most accounts of the Gloucester Serpent would mark it at about 100 feet long. It is interesting that among its characteristics were the peculiar 'caterpillar' like movement which is often found in sea serpent accounts. Rather than wiggling from side to side, as sea snakes do, these serpents are reported to contract up and down, as an inch worm might. As such sea serpent stories are often dismissed as misidentified schools of porpoises or such. Hodgkins might be able to be excused from such a dismissal as levelheaded gentlemen they first supposed it to be such until they got a sufficient look at it to be able to remark that it had "nothing that appeared like fin or gills". Six days after this sighting it was seen again near the Squam Lighthouse by a number of people and was given chase by some whaleboats, to no avail. on the 19th, 3 days after the Squam Lighthouse sighting, Captain Richard Rich (parents were cruel in that age) who was in his whaleboat in the harbor claimed it damn near swam under his boat. "There can be no doubt that the animal is a serpent, in kind' that he is at least eighty, and more probably a hundred feet long... He does not wind laterally along, as serpents commonly do, but his motion is undulatory, or consisting of alternating rising and depression... Capt. Beach, who appears to have examined him says his head is the size of a common bucket. He has seen him with his mouth open, his under jaw and teeth like a sharks, his head round, with apparently very thick scales and its whole appearance very terrific."

Because the area was so rife with sea serpent sightings the Linnaean Society of New England formed a special investigating committee. The Linnaean Society of New England was a satellite association of the Linnaean Society of England which is "the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history". They interviewed many of the witnesses under oath, they recieved 11 sworn affidavits including several in Boston which also clocked in some sightings. In August the sightings continued, including one sighting by 12 people at once, the rest are too numerous to mention, but the description of vertical movement and about 100FT in length remain constant. The sighting would cease after August 22, but it was reported to be seen again the following year where it remained in the harbor for another 3 weeks.
The story of Gloucester is unique mostly in the large number of people who claimed to have witnessed the beast, in one area, over such a long period of time. Sightings of sea serpents are not exceedingly rare though, certainly not in the second half of this millennium, with the blossoming of sea travel.

Even in the latter half of this century, such accounts still persist. In 1969 the zoologists Paul LeBlond and John Sibert went investigating in the British Columbia and interviewed many lighthouse keepers, marina workers, fishing clubs members and various locals and came up with 23 eyewitness reports. The separately collected reports are consistent in their descriptions of a horse shaped head with hair or mane and 3 'humps' indicating similar movement patterns. A mane and horse shaped head also are common characteristics used to describe sea serpents, from Olaus Magnus the 16th century Catholic Archbishop of Sweden and writer of Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the People of Northern Regions). Describing sea serpents he claims they have "a growth of hairs of two feet in length hanging from the neck, sharp scales of a dark brown color, and brilliant flaming eyes". (The Gloucester serpent was described as chocolate colored) to various other scattered sightings. The movement pattern it should be noted, has never been observed before in any other marine animal, and seems quite an unlikely mode of propulsion.

In 1933 a serpent like creature in Cadboro bay British Columbia when a Lawyer and his wife while out boating noticed an immense serpent with a camel-like head swimming around the bay. Later that year two government officals reported seeing the same thing, and the sightings continued through the years. For instance Bernard Heuvelman records: "On 13 February 1953 some ten people saw him from different points of view, as he swam for more than an hour in Qualicum Bay". In 1953 Mrs. E. Stout a trained marine biologist reported seeing a creature with "a large flattish head [and] three humps behind the long neck. If not for the humps we would have said it resembled pictures of the herbivorous marsh-living dinosaurs. The animal was a rich deep brown with large reticulations of bright burnt orange". The creature/creatures which frequented the coast of British Columbia were eventually granted the scientific name Cadborosaurus Willsi by LeBlond and Sibert.
Proof was delivered in October 1937 when a digested juvenile Cadborosaurus Willsi was found in the stomach of a sperm whale. Here is its picture:

It was described as having "a head like that of a horse, a snake-like body, and a finned spiny tale".

The Origins of Halloween

2005-10-30T07:31:57Z

"Historians" will tell you that Halloween comes from the old Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts believed with the approaching wintertime the underwold and the overworld start to mingle as humans were more routinly dragged off to the netherealm (died). Then druids burned food sacrifices in the form of crops and livestock so they would be granted permission to commuion with the dead and tell the future.

uh next i was going to try and discredit the druids and their beliefs in spirits and fairies but i guess we just needed to look on the right section of the electromagnetic spectrum

manofscience @ 2005-07-05T03:54:00

2005-07-05T08:03:57Z

For some reason, never has the 1% of DNA seperating us and chimpanzees seemed like such a vast, uncrossable gulf, as when I watch this video.

PS: I have seen the devil and i want him for a pet

Regarding Death Intro

2005-07-01T08:57:07Z

If you've had your finger on the pulse to the internet or the science section of newspapers, you've probably heard of reanimated dogs. Despite the fun title, your beloved canine companion of old won't be rising from the grave (of course the option is currently open to clone him, recreate his childhood, and presto!).
These aren't mad scientists experimenting on dogs: Three fourths of patients who suffer from cardiac arrest die even though advances in emergency medicine have made it possible to introduce the first reanimation measures long before irreversible organ damage starts. Wide-ranging basic research is absolutely necessary... We've long fought death through medication, hell even chimpanzees treat their own infections. However, increasingly we can manipulate our bodies to stay alive.

So what is death? The "zombie dog" article claims ceasing respiration, heartbeat, and brain activity as "scientificially dead". Sounds good, but that definition passed with the advent of mechanical ventilation and cardiac mimicry. Also in this case some in science would dispute it on the grounds that the corner stone of death is its irreversibility. Part of the trick in defining Death is that we are a large complex organism, and our parts more often die than our whole. Brain death ( a fun game to play with your brother/sister) became the usually accepted criterion for marking the demarkation between Life and Death. Of course figuring out if the brain can recover is not always an easy task.

So semantically speaking and perhaps one could say medically speaking, Death is changing. The agents of death, disease and trauma, are being stymied in the richer parts of the world. How far can we take it? When will the line of Death be drawn not at brain death, but at atomic dissociation??(or something)??

Interception of a Guardian Angel

2005-06-18T07:06:11Z

I'm feeling Lazy today...

2005-06-16T22:34:46Z

... so I'll just post the periodic table.

PS Sex with a sombrero on... kinda hot if you ask me.

manofscience @ 2005-06-14T05:19:00

2005-06-14T09:24:44Z

I'll be hiding under a rock from now on.

EDIT: why? oh I dunno...

Fabulous Pets #2

2005-06-12T20:42:35Z

Candirú or
Vampire Fish

We would find our next Fabulous Pet in the Amazon River. The Amazon River is choking with exotic wildlife, such as the freshwater pink dolphin, manatee's, and anacondas. Resembling a tiny eel, the candiru is typically 2 inches in length, but feels like 20ft of pure terror! Candiru are constantly tasting the water, trying to find water coming out of the gills of other fish. Once detected, they swim inside to feast on the blood of the larger fish. However, when humans enter their habitat, and are as foolish as to pee, the candiru famously tastes the chemicals in the urine (some of which are similar to the chemicals coming out of the gills of other fish) they trace it back to the human and swim into their anus, where they burrow into the urinary tract. It then extends spikes from its spines to remain lodged in there. Even if you were to find it and pull on its tail, you would not be able to remove it. The Candiru will now begin to feed on your blood, and as a consequence, grow in size. This is often fatal. One common option is Penectomy. It is said if you drink the juice from the fruit of the Jagua tree, you will disolve the candiru.

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Fabulous Pets #1

2005-06-10T21:52:01Z

Myxomycota or
Slime Mold

Long confusing scientist as a sort of Rorschach Test among mycologists and protozoologists, slime mold has been classified in quite a few different taxonomic catagories. Not to confuse it with its evolutionarily divergent cousins, we concentrate today on plasmodial slime mold. It is found in environments pretty much like what you would expect for something called "slime mold": Damp, organically rich, shady areas. What is interesting about slime mold, other than it comes in charming names like Dog Vomit slime mold is its ability to morph into different states. While they may start out as separate distinct slime mold cells, when they have exhausted their food source, individual amoebae begin to bind together in a network of protoplasm. They form, essentially, giant slugs capable of moving, (a blur at one millimeter/hour). As this giant superorganism (some have been reported to be 2 square meters!) they move to a more food rich environment (often rotting wood).

manofscience @ 2005-06-03T18:04:00

2005-06-03T22:05:52Z

Three former caretakers for Koko the "talking" gorilla contend in a lawsuit that they were ordered to flash their breasts at the ape to satisfy a simian nipple fetish.

On one occasion, the lawsuit says, Gorilla Foundation president Francine "Penny" Patterson told the gorilla, "Koko, you see my nipples all the time. You are probably bored with my nipples. You need to see new nipples."

Sea monster's #1

2005-05-31T19:21:31Z

It's been said we've explored much less than One millionth of the ocean. Life under the sea remains largely a mystery to us. We know more about the surface of Mars than we do the bottom of the ocean. Creatures as large as giant squid (which oft times measure 70ft or so) and are plentiful (as proven by the number of their beaks found in the stomachs of whales), remain unseen alive by humans. To begin a look at "sea monsters" here is a photograph of what they found in Santa Cruz and an artist rendering of a plesiosaur.

In 1925, photographs were published of what appeared to be a plesiosaur washed up on the rocks of Moore's Beach (now Natural Bridges State Beach) several miles northwest of Santa Cruz, California. The bizarre carcass was front page news in central California newspapers, and curiosity seekers as well as scientists flocked to see the mystery beast. Descriptions of the creature varied so much that it is hard to be certain of any details, but it is agreed that the animal had a huge head, a beaklike snout, and tiny eyes. Variously described as 35 to 50 feet long, it seemed to have a narrow 20-foot-long neck. The California Academy of Sciences Museum studied the creature's skull and concluded that it was an extremely rare type of beaked whale--a whale so rare that it has only a Latin name, Berardius bairdi. Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans doubts whether any zoologist in the world would have been able to identify the carcass, since few, if any, have ever seen the animal alive.

Not everyone agreed with the beaked whale explanation. Many witnesses, including some scientists, felt strongly that the animal was not a whale or any known sea animal. For starters, the rare Berardius bairdi was not known outside of British Columbian waters. The renowned naturalist E. L. Wallace, after thoroughly examining the carcass, concluded that it was a plesiosaur which had been preserved in glacial ice that had melted and moved south. With no teeth and a bill, Wallace reasoned, the animal must have lived on vegetation in a swamp.

Wallace felt strongly that there were a number of factors that mitigated in favor of the plesiosaur and against the beaked whale explanation. Wallace noted that there was no bone in the Santa Cruz carcass as large as the backbone of a whale. This fact contradicted the whale theory, as did the fact that the tail of the unknown animal was only three feet long, too short and weak--Wallace felt--for an animal of the deep.

It has been suggested that the body may have separated from the skin and that the skin rolled up giving the effect of a long plesiosaurlike neck. The body washed up nearby and was either still connected to the skin or was placed into position by a person or persons trying to reconstruct the monster.

Randall Reinstedt, in Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast, writes that the monster was the talk of California's central coast for some time. The Santa Cruz Sentinel ran an eyewitness story of a horrific battle between a dozen or more sea lions and a gigantic fish that occurred shortly before the carcass was found on the beach.

The Monterey Peninsula Herald described it as having a duck-shaped head and a tail like a whale. A Santa Cruz News story spoke of a head bigger than a barrel and eyes larger than abalones. Some pretty strange details crop up in eyewitness descriptions of the ambiguous monstrosity. One witness described the creature as having several pairs of elephantine legs on the body, including ivory toenails. In this regard, Mysterious California author Mike Marinacci suggests that close-up photographs show what appears to be an elephant leg on the neck of the beast. Another odd detail is one witness' statement that the body was covered with a coat of both hair and feathers.

If only for the conclusions of E. L. Wallace--the one zoologist who was able to closely examine the carcass--the case remains intriguing.

Its neck was reported at 20 feet long, which seems to support plesiosaur theory, but lacking teeth, which the plesiosaur is supposed to have (though its rare to find fossils with teeth) makes both the whale and dinosaur theory shakey.

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manofscience @ 2005-05-26T17:42:00

2005-05-26T21:46:51Z

Physics is a retarded mess these days. I hope Schrodinger's cat died.

on the upside: http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/pen-l/2002w45/msg00266.htm

Favorite Scientist #2

2005-05-22T06:01:48Z

Born in 1898, in Missouri, (United States of America) Edwin Hubble was, as he would tell you, an extraordinary man. He was an athelete of dangerous prowess. knocking out champion boxers, winning first place in pole vault, shot put, discus , hammer throw, and standing high jump competitions, (all in one afternoon). With athleticism came bravery, and he was known to rescue drowning swimmers and lead men to safety in World War I. And his looks?... "Handsome to a fault" "an Adonis" fawned his contemporaries. But Hubble found true greatness in Science. Up until the time Hubble entered an observatory and peered into telescope there was only one known galaxy, the Milky way. Hubble was to find there was much more than one galaxy, as he put forth in his paper "Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae" making him the first to conjugate galaxy into plural, in a serious manner. Hubble's second great discovery, was that the universe was expanding and these galaxies were drifting apart. Some 30 years after he expanded our universe to great depths, he died. Upon his death his wife, sans funeral, stole away with his body. It remains a mystery where it is today, and the closest he has to a memorial or grave is the Telescope which floats in space, bearing his name.

Favorite Scientist #1

2005-05-17T05:44:04Z

Karl Scheele. A poor Swedish pharmacist who moonlighted as a chemist, Scheele would have rocked the world of science if he spoke english. Instead, he discovered eight elements (and some of them real superstar elements including Chlorine, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and the ever popular Tungsten) without getting any credit. Scheele also pioneered the use of phosphorus matches and chlorine as a bleach. Karl's real tragic flaw wasn't his lack of ability to publish his findings in english, his true foible was his desire to taste a little of all the chemicals he worked with... Including mercury, and several kinds of acid. At the age of 43 (in 1786) he was found dead in his makeshift lab, surrounded by a plethora of chemicals, any one of which could have done him in as they were each lethal to the drop.

Look out world, here comes trouble

2005-05-14T16:17:10Z

Last night i had a box of cookies for dinner, drank, and watched Short Circuit 2, all completely alone.

Seriously.

I'm left, you're right she's gone.

2005-05-11T12:59:37Z

I was wondering something recently...

We all have inner monologue, but is everyone's just one voice? I know mine isn't, I have two voices. They often present differnet view points and they make fun of each other a lot. It seems kinda like the old metaphor of an Angel on one shoulder and a Devil on the other, except neither seems particularly evil or good, just different. So what could account for this?

One of the most startling disorders known to man provides some clues i think. Sometimes as kids our parents would stick their hands up through their shirt collars and pretend that their hands were strangling their necks. Im not saying our parents are brain disordered, but there is something called alien hand syndrome These "alien hands" are quite remarkable. They often seem strangely malevolent, attacking the person that the hand is attachted to. They do tend to strangle their "hosts" or pick up and spill drinks of their own accord. They break things and tear off clothes. Sadly, as the medical dictionary states: "There is currently no treatment for alien hand. All a patient can do to control the problem is to keep the hand busy by having it hold an object". The thing about this oddity is that its not that the hand is disconnected from the brain. Far from it, they are privy to all the sensory input that the hand under conscious control has. They aren't wildly flailing about in grotesque spasms, they are confidantly interacting with the envorinment. The rub is that they are doing so beneath the notice and command of our "consciousness". Yet as i said these are organized actions. I believe this is because we have a second consciousness.
Alien Hand Syndrome results typically from damage to the corpus callosum, which connects our two cerebral hemisheres. Much has been said about the differnces of our two hemispheres, one of more fascinating differences is that of emotional asymmetry. Empirical evidence has supported the hypothesis that the Right Hemisphere is dominant for processing negative emotions, and the left for processing positive emotions. The Right has been called "gloomy" and the Left "happy".
Lateralization is important for two other reasons. Consider unconsious activation of the visual cortex (blindsight). In patients with right parietal lobe extinction, they can look at a stimulus and "see" only half of it, (the left side). That is to say, they claim they cannot make out anything on the left side. However if tested or asked to guess what is there, they know or guess right 100% of the time. one of the functions of the parietal lobe is to integrate sensory information to form a single perception, i.e. form a cognitive sensory experience... but yet these people know what is there and it gets processed complexly. For instance, a patient with right parietal lobe extinction is presented with two identical drawing of a house. the only difference is that in the second picture the left side of the house is on fire. They claim to be able to see no difference between the pictures. However when asked which house they would rather live in, they invariably answer the house in the first picture.
Could it be that this sensory information is getting processed by a second consciouness operating under the notice of our primary one? Could it have developed evolutionarily as a failsafe? In extremely rare cases of brain injury their have been cases of "Zombies" people with knocked out consciouness who still move around and function.

So perhaps when i hear the two voices in my head, one is the gloomy right hemisphere consciouness and the other is my happy left hemisphere, I'll have to try and get them to ask each other how they are feeling.

EDIT: Not to say that these "Zombies" would do well evolutionarily, but in cases like blindsight, a second consciousness would be useful.

manofscience @ 2005-05-04T07:02:00

2005-05-04T11:02:21Z

Do you have a friend like Ben?

I can't read him... the perfect poker face

2005-04-18T11:23:25Z

manofscience @ 2005-02-03T15:40:00

2005-02-03T21:02:50Z

IL CONTADINO ASTROLOGO C'era una volta un re che aveva perduto un anello prezioso. Cerca qua, cerca là, non si trova. Mise fuori un bando che se un astrologo gli sa dire dov'è, lo fa ricco per tutta la vita. C'era un contadino senza un soldo, che non sapeva né leggere né scrivere, e si chiamava Gàmbara. "Sarà tanto difficile fare l'astrologo? -si disse- Mi ci voglio provare". E andò dal Re. Il Re lo prese in parola, e lo chiuse a studiare in una stanza. Nella stanza c'era solo un letto e un tavolo con un gran libraccio d'astrologia, e penna carta e calamaio. Gambara si sedette al tavolo e cominciò a scartabellare il libro senza capirci niente e a farci dei segni con la penna. Siccome non sapeva scrivere, venivano fuori dei segni ben strani, e i servi che entravano due volte al giorno a portarglì da mangiare, si fecero l'idea che fosse un astrologo molto sapiente. Questi servi erano stati loro a rubare l'anello, e con la coscienza sporca che avevano, quelle occhiatacce che loro rivolgeva Gambara ogni volta che entravano, per darsi aria d'uomo d'autorità, parevano loro occhiate di sospetto. Cominciarono ad aver paura d'essere scoperti e, non la finivano più con le riverenze, le attenzioni: "Si, signor astrologo! Comandi, signor astrologo!" Gambara, che astrologo non era, ma contadino, e perciò malizioso, subito aveva pensato che i servi dovessero saperne qualcosa dell'anello. E pensò di farli cascare in un inganno. Un giorno, all'ora in cui gli portavano il pranzo, si nascose sotto il letto. Entrò il primo dei servi e non vide nessuno. Di sotto il letto Gambara disse forte: - E uno!- il servo lasciò il piatto e si ritirò spaventato. Entrò il secondo servo, e sentì quella voce che pareva venisse di sotto terra: - E due! - e scappò via anche lui. Entrò il terzo, - E tre! - I servi si consultarono: - Ormai siamo scoperti, se l'astrologo ci accusa al Re, siamo spacciati. Cosi decisero d'andare dall'astrologo e confessargli il furto. - Noi siamo povera gente, - gli fecero, - e se dite al Re quello che avete scoperto, siamo perduti. Eccovi questa borsa d'oro: vi preghiamo di non tradirci. Gambara prese la borsa e disse: - lo non vi tradirò, però voi fate quel che vi dico. Prendete l'anello e fatelo inghiottire a quel tacchino che c'è laggiù in cortile. Poi lasciate fare a me. Il giorno dopo Gambara si presentò al Re e gli disse che dopo lunghi studi era riuscito a sapere dov'era l'anello. - E dov'è? – - L'ha inghiottito un tacchino. - Fu sventrato il tacchino e si trovò l'anello. Il Re colmò di ricchezze l'astrologo e diede un pranzo in suo onore, con tutti i Conti, i Marchesi, i Baroni e Grandi del Regno. Fra le tante pietanze fu portato in tavola un piatto di gamberi. Bisogna sapere che in quel paese non si conoscevano i gamberi e quella era la prima volta che se ne vedevano, regalo di un re d'altro paese. - Tu che sei astrologo, - disse il Re al contadino, - dovresti sapermi dire come si chiamano questi che sono qui nel piatto. Il poveretto di bestie così non ne aveva maiviste né sentite nominare. E disse tra sé, a mezza voce: - Ah, Gambara, Gambara… sei finito male! – Bravo! - disse il Re che non sapeva il vero nome del contadino. - Hai indovinato: quello è il nome: gamberi! Sei il più grande astrologo dei mondo. ******************************************************************************************************* THE PEASANT ASTROLOGER **** A king had lost a precious ring. He looked all over for it, but nowhere was it to be found. He issued a proclamation stating that the astrologer who could tell him where it was would be rich for the rest of his life. Now there was a peasant by the name of Gàmbara, who was penniless and could neither read nor write. "Would it be so hard to play the astrologer?" he wondered. "I think I'll try." So he went to the king. The king took him at his word, and shut him up in a room to study. There was nothing in the room but a bed and a table with a great big astrology book on it, and paper, pen, and ink. Gàmbara sat down at the table and began leafing through the book without understanding a word. Every now and then he made marks on the paper with the pen. As he didn't know how to write, he produced some very strange marks indeed, and the servants bringing him his lunch and his dinner got the idea he was an extremely wise astrologer. Those servants had been the very ones to steal the ring. With their guilty conscience, they imagined from the knowing looks Gàmbara gave them whenever they went in that he suspected them, although the astrologer was only trying to look like an authority in his field. Fearful of being found out, they couldn't bow and scrape enough. "Yes, honourable astrologer! Your least wishes, honourable astrologer, are orders!" Gàmbara, who was no astrologer, but a peasant and therefore cunning, suspected right away the servants knew something about the ring. So he set a trap for them. One day, at the hour they brought in his lunch, he hid under the bed. The head servant came in and found no one in the room. Under the bed Gàmbara said in a loud voice, "That's one of them!" The servant put the dish down and withdrew in fright. The second servant came in and heard a voice that seemed to come from underground. "That's two of them!" He too ran off. Then the third came in. "That's three of them!" The servants talked things over. "We have been found out, and if the astrologer accuses us to the king, we are done for." So they decided to go to the astrologer and confess their theft. "We are poor men," they began; "if you tell the king what you have learned, we are lost. Please take this purse of gold and don't betray us." Gàmbara took the purse and replied, "I won't betray you, provided you do as I say. Take the ring and make that turkey out in the farmyard swallow it. Then leave everything to me." The next day Gàmbara went to the king and said that after much study he had learned where the ring was. "Where is it?" "A turkey has swallowed it." They cut the turkey open and discovered the ring. The king heaped riches on the astrologer and honoured him with a banquet attended by all the counts, marquis, barons, and grandees in the kingdom. Among the many dishes served was a platter of gamberi, which means crayfish. Now crayfish were unknown to that country. Those served at the banquet were a present from the king of another country, and it was the first time people here had seen them. "Since you are an astrologer," said the king to the peasant, "you must know the name of these things on the platter here." The poor soul, who'd never seen or heard of them, mumbled to himself, "Ah, Gàmbara, you're done for at last." "Bravo!" said the king, who didn't know the peasant's real name. "You guessed it, the name is gamberi! You're the greatest astrologer in the world."

manofscience @ 2005-02-02T01:55:00

2005-02-02T07:09:14Z

When i was a student i remember hearing about a frenchmans who worked on math during his spare time (he was a lawyer, but as a french lawyer he not much occupied). What's called his last theorem is stated simply as:

"x^n + y^n = z^n has no non-zero integer solutions for x, y and z when n > 2."

although my metier is by no means mathmatics, it has intrigued me for some time. Its a problem that easy enough to confront, but nearly impossible to execute. the excellent mathmatician Leonhard Euler thought he had solved it for n = 3. He solved by treating imaginary numbers as integers, which people cannot do in mathmatics. I'd be interested if anyone could solve it.

simple as it seems.

2005-02-01T15:21:59Z

Things have been slow going. My mind muddled and I can't grasp some of the fundamentals of the problem. I've given up for the morning on trying to finish this project and will try again in the afternoon when refreshed.

manofscience @ 2005-02-01T09:29:00

2005-02-01T14:40:48Z

To measure synaptic receptor density you need

1)an uncaging laser
2)freeze-fracture replica labeling

use the laser to uncage the glutamate derived currents,activating the AMPA receptors. Now use stationary fluctuation analysis to measure the number of channels opened by the laser. use freeze-fracture replic labeling anylasis on the AMPA particles to calculate the synaptic receptor density.