> Human Genome: About 20,000 protein coding genes.
> E. Coli: A lab strain of the E. Coli bacterium use for research has 4,460 genes.
> SpudCell: This new synthetic cell only has 36 genes.
Wow, so little genes even compared to E. Coli! Things like this make me wonder what the minimum number of genes is required to maintain functionality for cells in species we have all around us. There isn't much evolutionary pressure to do the genetic equivalent of dead code removal (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_arvense) besides the ability to copy the genes.
My other first impression is the potential similarities to alien contact. What if these cells, once given the ability to reproduce autonomously, become widespread around the globe, with no way for our, and other species', immune systems to prevent their consumption of biomatter, or whatever is made to be their "food".
The fact that there are cameras is fine. But the issue is who owns the data, what is done with it, and what the end goal is. And with Flock cameras, DHS gets backend access and shares that infomation with ICE, for example: https://komonews.com/news/local/redmond-pd-completely-suspen...
I am in favor of traditional traffic cameras, I just don't think analytics and facial recognition systems should be hooked up to them. They should be used for archival purposes, scrubbing back to a date of a crime to get the full picture.
> After printing the line, a popup opened and my camera was activated. The app wanted me to submit my information, presumably to decide what to do with me next time I enter China.
Was this on your personal device? I'm just wondering how it activated your camera. I would love more details!
That made me very weary about this service. But I like the connections they have with other trusted organizations like the EFF and GrapheneOS. Still sketchy though.
Every 90 days? Wow. Can you elaborate on how that logically works? Like what about for doctors offices having your number on file and other similar situations.
I like the progress China is making on clean energy.
I don't know how to put it, but the narrative around "cancelling out" (in the article, not the title) carbon makes me uncomfortable. Language such like this makes the problem of global co2 emissions seem less dire than it really is. I mean it's good work (not in the US) is being done on the problem, but nature doesn't care about "cancelling out" co2. It's just so frustrating seeing such a dirty source of energy being continued to be used.
Yea, old server hardware can be super cheap! In my opinion though, the core counts are misleading. Those 24 cores are not compareable to the cores of today. Plus IPC+power usage are wildly different. YMMV on if those tradeoffs are worth it.
> E. Coli: A lab strain of the E. Coli bacterium use for research has 4,460 genes.
> SpudCell: This new synthetic cell only has 36 genes.
Wow, so little genes even compared to E. Coli! Things like this make me wonder what the minimum number of genes is required to maintain functionality for cells in species we have all around us. There isn't much evolutionary pressure to do the genetic equivalent of dead code removal (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_arvense) besides the ability to copy the genes.
My other first impression is the potential similarities to alien contact. What if these cells, once given the ability to reproduce autonomously, become widespread around the globe, with no way for our, and other species', immune systems to prevent their consumption of biomatter, or whatever is made to be their "food".