comicjk

29 ms·

331.
by comicjk 9y ago
It's an answer to your question "why haven't organisms evolved which use iron in their skeletons". The physical structure of bone would not be improved by incorporating more iron, so there's no reason for evolution
332.
by comicjk 9y ago
Light therapy is not about producing Vitamin D, it's about modifying circadian rhythms using bright light, which people often don't get enough during the winter. Generally, light therapy does not use UV. https://www.may
333.
by comicjk 9y ago
Bone is a composite material, made of calcium phosphate interwoven with collagen fibers. It's not clear to me that structural bits of iron would integrate well into this structure.
334.
by comicjk 9y ago
We take in calcium as +2 ions, and use it in the same state when making calcium phosphate for bones. That helps because calcium, like most metals, takes a lot of energy to reduce to its metallic form. Titanium and iron are also naturally fo
335.
by comicjk 9y ago
But, a quantum computer would not in general solve NP-hard problems in polynomial time (as far as we know). The known exponential speedups are for "easier" problems like factoring and finding quantum ground states, which are not N
336.
by comicjk 9y ago
My job is pretty awesome. But I had to get a PhD first, something that in my experience is risky for students' mental health. I don't recommend it to people unless they show a high tolerance for repeated failure (aka "researc
337.
by comicjk 9y ago
You may be right about the use of alcohol as a sole source of entertainment. But the evidence shows that rich people (this source is the UK) drink more, not just more often: http://www.ias.org.uk/Alcohol-knowledge-centre&#x2
338.
by comicjk 9y ago
I think that the application of information theory to large systems of chemical reactions is likely to be fruitful. As your source says, it will be important for biological systems, with their myriad interlocking reactions. From my perspect
339.
by comicjk 9y ago
Empirically, wealthy Americans drink more than poor ones. http://news.gallup.com/poll/184358/drinking-highest-among-ed...
340.
by comicjk 9y ago
Computational chemist here. The phys.org article is a pretty bad rendering of the original paper. The "theoretical interpretation" described in the headline is nothing new. The actual scientific advance described in the paper is a
341.
by comicjk 9y ago
You're cherrypicking. He describes that line as a joke from 2015 that he doesn't find funny anymore, and goes on to say he wants to make "software that helps people be the best version of themselves."
342.
by comicjk 9y ago
I do this all the time. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, but I'm not on any medication for it. I think you're confusing the treatment and the disease.
343.
by comicjk 9y ago
The projects SONM and Golem are trying to do what you describe. Their plan is to use the Ethereum blockchain to sell miners' computing power in units of their coins, thus giving the coins practical value. Neither one is ready enough to
344.
by comicjk 9y ago
I like GRC a lot. I think proof-of-stake is much more efficient than proof-of-work, because it doesn't require massive ongoing calculations in perpetuity. I like the idea of giving out the coins for doing useful calculations, rather th
345.
by comicjk 9y ago
I did this with my iPhone 4S about four years ago with no problems. The kit was $10. I destroyed the old battery in the process of getting it out - too much glue - but the new one worked fine.
346.
by comicjk 9y ago
There is no way for central bankers to collude and print money without consequences (inflation). Investors can always sell central bank currencies and buy commodities. The reason we're not seeing inflation now is simply that the centra
347.
by comicjk 9y ago
If you wanted to invest in lithium, someone should warn you that individuals without special knowledge should not get involved with picking commodities. You'll be buying a lot of volatility with no increase in expected return.
348.
by comicjk 9y ago
The first 20 minutes is far below Carlin's usual standard - I skip it every time. The funny thing is, after he's done telling the assassination story, he admits that the war was already lined up and that anything could have set it
349.
by comicjk 9y ago
It is possible that there are other stable particles besides the ones we know now (like protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, neutrinos, etc). And maybe they can form stable arrangements which are not atoms, but which can still interact wi
350.
by comicjk 9y ago
From the article: "The bill would not prohibit an applicant from voluntarily and without prompting disclosing salary history information and would not prohibit an employer from considering or relying on that voluntarily disclosed salar
351.
by comicjk 9y ago
The previous salary question was also a penalty for being honest or not in-the-know. All the advice I ever heard about this question was to exaggerate. This creates an undesirable equilibrium where savvy people wink at each other while newc
352.
by comicjk 9y ago
NYC has it too: "Effective Oct. 31, 2017, it will be illegal for public and private employers of any size in New York City to ask about applicant's salary history..." https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/m
353.
by comicjk 9y ago
Who would buy it? The system has $40 billion in debt, plus pension obligations, plus union contracts. The only way to make money on this privately would be declaring bankruptcy and hoping for a good settlement.
354.
by comicjk 9y ago
I would certainly like a source. As far as I can see, the only way to sweat less over time would be to lose weight. A more-conditioned cyclist still does the same amount of work and thus produces the same amount of heat. Source: from the Wa
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by comicjk 9y ago
I actually agree with this, more or less. Finding promising molecules is only step 1, and drug development would still be expensive even if molecule discovery were easy. The other parts of what you're saying are true but don't dep
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by comicjk 9y ago
Yes, that is true! During my PhD program I used the same methods to study metalorganic solar cells. If anything, fast quantum calculations would make an even bigger difference in materials science than in drug discovery. That's because
357.
by comicjk 9y ago
In drug discovery, my field, we do a lot of quantum mechanics calculations, which are formally exponential-scaling. Using a lot of approximations, we reduce this to a polynomial, at the cost of accuracy. But a quantum computer could do the
358.
by comicjk 9y ago
I think the remark you're replying to was in jest or sarcastic.
359.
by comicjk 9y ago
When you say "a city of a million people that ultimately collapsed", your portentous "ultimately" takes over 500 years to arrive! It might be "infamous", but it's not very quick about it.
360.
by comicjk 9y ago
Let me quote you a passage about Roman gold mines: "Over the pockmarked landscape there would invariably hang a pall of smog belched out from the smelting furnaces through giant chimneys, and so heavy with chemicals that it burned the

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