Recent content by intx13

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Can't remember the show but it said memories are stored in DNA

I don't see that the latter follows the former. A paintbrush is a necessary part of the normal painting process. The painting process has a definite effect on the paintbrush, via the build up of paint on the bristles and color mixing, which in turn contributes to the nature of the painting. But...
- intx13
- Post #28
- May 30, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Can't remember the show but it said memories are stored in DNA

I am definitely neither a biologist nor a chemist, but... I read this abstract as saying three things. The expression of Gadd45b limits the (mouse) brain's memory abilities and synaptic plasticity. Expression of Gadd45b is induced through the use of the brain, creating a regulatory...
- intx13
- Post #25
- May 30, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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robust cryptography

Things I will not be thinking as the fireball from a nuclear detonation envelops my house: "Oh no, my laptop!" :P
- intx13
- Post #23
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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robust cryptography

Short discussion of lifetimes of optical media Looks like they ballpark 20-200 years depending on type of media. That assumes "correct" storage. There's a NIST paper out there somewhere that goes into more detail about humidity levels, light levels, etc. Edit: Here it is. It's dated back...
- intx13
- Post #21
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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how hot a temp can space handle?

Don't be obtuse. The OP's question reflected a lack of understanding of the meaning of temperature. My comment addressed why humans often have trouble imagining temperature in space; we're wired to think of temperature as some object's response (such as our body), not as an abstract measure of...
- intx13
- Post #7
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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Math question

Depending on the context, there are two different ways to think about scaling with percentages. The first method is the multiplicative method. This is the method used by the "scale" command in most computer graphics programs, like Photoshop. You provide a percentage and the new image is that...
- intx13
- Post #15
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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how hot a temp can space handle?

I find temperature in space to be a tricky thing to imagine. To me, temperature means "will I feel hot and sticky or cold and shivery?" That's a subjective feeling that comes from my body's physiological response to internal temperature. When DrPizza says that a quasar can get up to 10^6 K...
- intx13
- Post #5
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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(How) Do divining rods work?

This is what we call an observation, not evidence. An individual observation can be accurate, inaccurate, misleading, or flat-out fake. To weigh the value of somebody's observation we have to weigh the strength of their personal testimony, compare their observation to the body of validated...
- intx13
- Post #139
- May 28, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
I
Can't remember the show but it said memories are stored in DNA

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman? Edit: Maybe it was this episode, , entitled "What Makes Us Who We are"?
- intx13
- Post #17
- May 24, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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A magnetar meets a black hole

No wonder my watch is slow... I've been setting it by G2 for years!
- intx13
- Post #3
- May 23, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
I
Can't remember the show but it said memories are stored in DNA

I'd be interested in hearing about this too. I could imagine that the construction of a spider's webs might improve over time in accordance with physical growth (strength, endurance) of the spider, but I wonder if the design improves as the spider becomes more familiar with the target prey...
- intx13
- Post #12
- May 22, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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How much faster can single-core CPUs be

Yes - an important distinction; I was being sloppy. I'll try to clarify this for people interested in the OP's question. In a CPU, binary signals are represented by voltage levels. The clock signal is a square wave at a particular frequency: it's a signal that alternates between 0 and 1, or...
- intx13
- Post #8
- May 21, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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(How) Do divining rods work?

Well it's splitting hairs, but in psychology you are typically studying a subject's behavior under various conditions. The subject's observations are some of those conditions, which must be controlled appropriately. Once the experiment is properly controlled, the presence of an outside observer...
- intx13
- Post #122
- May 20, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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(How) Do divining rods work?

That's not how science works. A watched pot actually does boil. Physical phenomena do not stop working just because somebody cares whether or not it works.
- intx13
- Post #120
- May 20, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional
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How much faster can single-core CPUs be

What Oric meant was that higher frequencies require smaller distances or clock skew becomes an insurmountable issue. In a low-frequency circuit, propagation times (dependent on the speed of electrons in copper and the distance between circuit elements) are insignificant compared to the delay...
- intx13
- Post #5
- May 20, 2013
- Forum: Ask a Technical Professional

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