Life Definition and 965 Threads

Hey guys, I know that PF posters often say to search, so I did that. I found that like 99% of the forum listed engineering as a major that required a lot of the students time. However, I was wondering if we could put some numbers to this idea, I don't think that will be much of a problem since...

Here in Georgia we are awaiting action by authorities to execute a young black man, Troy Davis for murder to which he has never been linked by any hard evidence of any kind. Although 9 eyewitnesses once implicated him, 7 of them now say otherwise, some say they were pressured by police to lie...

A smaller number of entries this week, which is expected considering the difficult nature of the theme. This week, the theme is on live performance by performing artists. Please vote for the picture that best represents our theme. 1. Integral 2. turbo-1 3. ZapperZ 4. Marzena...

I've been this way for several months now. A year ago, I'd have splurged my money on everything. Mostly electronics and science gadgets. Now the only thing I really want, and barely, is knowledge. My money is starting to build up more than I've ever had before. Which I can put away for the...

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="5"]Life Is A Stage This week, the theme is on performers. Your picture must have, as its main subject, performing artists. This can be musicians, actors, dancers, etc. performing for the public or an audience. Please note that if the photo came from a...

Homework Statement How does life violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics? Homework Equations The 2nd law states that with ever energy transformation entropy increases. The Attempt at a Solution I am not sure where to begin with this. All I can think of is as we evolve our system...

Hi, I had made an inquiry about regression last week and am still working on understanding the whole concept.This week my question is different. How would I use the a and b values of the regression to indicate how something is growing. Like I'm having problems interpreting data because I do not...

This promises to be a difficult contest to vote on since there are so many wonderful pictures. Still, please pick the picture that best represents our theme, which is on trees. Note that the participants were asked to submit a photo that has the tree/s as THE main subject, and not the scenery...

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="5"]The Tree Of Life This one should be easy. Pictures this week must be on trees. Trees (or a tree) must be the main subject of your picture, not the background scenery, the people in front of it, or anything else. Please note that fake trees do not qualify...

QoL,Location,Pay,especially what do you do for work? I'll listen for now and will chime in later..

I bought a fairly cheap wireless mouse a while back. With the batteries it came with it lasted quite some time, at least a few months, before it died. I bought new batteries from the store that were on sale and put one in. About a week later I found that the usb plug had come detached from...

Hi All, We have manufactured a custom bolt (similar to standard bolt). Now we need to calculate the fatigue life of the bolt. Could you please guide me in calculating the fatigue life? Thanks, Ana

Rather bored, so I was just wondering - only considered generalizations with the underling principle here, but I'm looking for specifics: have your interests in physics/mathematics altered your love life in any way? Say, have you pissed your significant other off with your obsession with...

Hi, I was having a discussion with a friend about the probability of life in the universe outside of earth. From what i know, there are 70 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 stars and god knows how many planets. Given the low probability of life spawning on a single planet but the huge amounts of...

Thought this would be an interesting topic. so just in everyday life, what sort of stuff have you applied the tool K = 1/2 mv squared for?

I wrote something which I believe gets to the origin of fashion and gossip in a simple and logical way. I would be happy with any comment on whether it makes sense to you or not. Why do women find it important to be in on the latest fashion trends and gossip? Fashion's use couldn't be just...

Researchers think they have found traces of ammonia in Mars' athmosphere. Since ammonia is degraded quickly there, if this were true, it would mean the presence of some ammonia-producing source on Mars. THe best bets for that would be either active volcanoes or microbes, but since active...

Interesting publication: http://www.chemie.de/news/e/84187/ In normal geology jargon, this means that they are pretty convinced to be on to something. However: What they found was depletion of heavy 13C atoms reducing the d13C ratio to values comparable to photosynthesis nowadays as...

We learned that life prefers to use glucose over other sugars (catabolite repression). 1) Why is glucose preferred? 2) Why do sperm use fructose instead of glucose?

Ok, I have been to these forums a lot in the past year or so and I have learned a lot and asked a lot. But recently my past year has just been a drag - it is my first year in university and I know that some or maybe even majority will say it is only first year. But I don't think it is that, I...

I've just finished my first year in engineering (Electronics and Electrical), and when I started out, I eventually wanted to do a Phd in mathematics because I soon realized that I loved mathematics and that I can grasp the intricacies without busting my head. I had dreamed of focusing on...

What are the little things that make you happy? I just realized one for me that seems funny to a former city kid: The day our pasture gets mowed is one of the better days of the year. The grass grows to four and five feet tall here, and as the spring progresses, the field sort of closes-in...

Where did "life" come from? There is something about this "big bang" theory that makes me not to accept it at all and that's: Life. Physicists have all tried to put together their observations and I mean observations only to come up with this big bag theory, but at the same time there exist...

When I was in college, I had some direction, even if it was just the pursuit of a diploma. Now that I'm done, I feel like I'm stranded in mid-ocean with no discernible wind or current pushing me in any direction. Admittedly, this is my fault. I had a narrow focus and was concerned only with...

Anyone lived in a timber home (house made out of weatherboard)? What is it like?

http://www.seenontv.com/prod-pages/free_money_to_change_your_life_book.html http://www.mlesko.com/g2/store.htm

After the initial shock and excitement, do we commandeer the the planet and take if for ourselves anyway? Pollute it with Earth species or extremophiles? Will an environmental impact study then be required? And if they are more advanced, do we hide and hope they didn't see us lest they do...

The soil on Mars has been found to have nutrients which would be conducive to supporting life: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25396378/ All the more reason for us to go and start farming over there.

of late i have discovered the beautiful smell that my lemon myrtle can give when i rub the leaves together between my hands. It got me thinking, what can i do to get this smell throughout my house? i have thought of two ideas so far (iam open to any others): dry the leaves and turn it into an...

What does the presence of life on Earth imply about the chance of life existing on other worlds? Can one assume, with high probability, that despite Earth's seeming singularity of life, there is life elsewhere in our (assumed finite) universe? In our (assumed infinite) universe? A...

I was wondering if there was any resource out there that had a complete tree of life for all the species.

I find myself very interested in Cosmology and would consider doing a PhD in the field, however I am not sure if I would like to be an academic or not. Given the relatively few technical applications of Cosmology, would it be wiser for me to enter a field with greater possibilities for...

How can we justify that one life is more important than Another's? I've been wondering about this for a while now. I've tried tackling this from a religious and scientific standpoint. For religion I've looked at the Indian Caste system and at the Christianity belief that we should put...

Nearly every machine in the factory decides to self destruct on my watch, i loose my Internet connection for no apparent reason, there is a pool of water in the kitchen because my fridge decided to switch itself off, and all the stuff inside looks perished. All in all a good day as no one...

I just finished my first year of a 4 year physics degree, and it made me realize that although I love physics and I am really good at it, but I do not want to be a physicist. This has a lot to do with my first taste of research life with a condensed matter group I had been helping. It made me...

questions about life of gamma ray particle question-are gamma ray particles unchanged after gamma ray burst 13 billion years ago? question-are changes detected not due to travel through normal space, scattering? changes due to dark matter/energy? question-positronium decay at end universe...

I was doing some reading on the effects of air blasts from asteroid impacts when I realized that I've never seen any data of the potential effect on marine life. Since sound travels farther and faster in a liquid, wouldn't an asteroid impact in a large ocean (liquid) have a more profound...

I work at a LAN center, and we recently got an In The Groove arcade machine. (http://www.freewebs.com/bhsddr/In%20The%20Groove%202%20dedicated%20cabinet.jpg" ) It's great, but the only problem is that there is a basement underneath us, and the building is fairly old. When people play on it...

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1669 Now that the turtle is living in a safe environment, he is really coming out of his shell.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/1775/part1ep4.jpg http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/755/part2ho2.jpg

To be.

Okay, I'm not an idiot, but can someone explain to me (in common layman's terms) what entropy is? And it's relation to life?

I especially like this part: & lastly, universal health care would probably reverse the trend: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/23/america/health.php

Could there be a civilised way to live without central government? suppose some catastrophe wiped out your countries government, would there be a priority to replace it?

I've actually been reading a number of things. First, I read Lars Eigner's "On Dumpster Diving" and afterward, a few existentialist documents paired with some Budhist doctrine. All of philosophy aims to give meaning to human life...and apparently society, at the same time, implements meaning...

In your opinion, what are my options in life based on my pedigree alone Just turned 24, graduated 1.5 years ago with a degree in physics/astronomy. I'm in between jobs. I have a 2nd interview with a financial software company that deals with hedge funds/private equity, banks, etc. I have a...

Hi everyone. I'm just wondering - I've heard lots of rumors about physics grad. school, and how hard it is, etc. I have no problem dedicating myself to studying, but am worried about family issues. What I'm wondering is - - how many hours on average per week will I be working? 40, 60, 80...

Predictability: Everything in this world has a certain amount of predictability; some call it “odds”. I’m still young at 33, but I find it boring and redundant to even bother doing a lot of things in my life now. In some cases, it irritates me when someone asks me for my advice, or if someone...

I'm thinking about studying for mechanical engineering, but I'm slightly discouraged by the amount of work people say they have to put forth. but is there really that little amount of free time to hang out with friends and do things you enjoy? i mean, will i still have to for my gf and what not...

This is not exactly physics, but I'm interested in a physicists opinion: Oxygen is considered a very active substance, very dangerous to many physiological processes of the cell. Even though or maybe as a result of this fact, we know that all life on Earth thrives on reach in oxygen...