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Planet Earth/7b. What is Life?

What is Life?
Growing up in a large family in North Carolina, Kizzmekia Corbett took an interest in understanding microbiology. She enjoyed working in science labs during her undergraduate education, where she specialized in the study of the organic chemistry and the study of some of the simplest organisms that live on Earth today in the field of microbiology. Tiny, nearly invisible, these simple organic molecules reside within the gray area of what is commonly defined as life, but to Corbett, these tiny complex organic molecules were especially important because they are responsible for large numbers of deaths. Corbett studies viruses, the simplest form of life on Earth, which sit in the weird gray area of what scientists define as life. Her research would catapult her to the international stage, as she specialized in a group of viruses called corona viruses. Her research into their chemical structure would become vital, when a pandemic of a new novel corona virus spread internationally in the spring of 2020, a lethal virus affecting hundreds of thousands of people, many in the United States and Europe; closing schools, destroying economies, resulting in the most significant threat to civilization since World War 2. At the young age of 34, Corbett found herself racing to find a vaccine during the summer of 2020 at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

What is life? And are viruses, such as the novel 2019 corona virus (Covid-19 virus), living creatures? Chemically defined viruses are complex arrangements of carbon atoms bonded to a series of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus atoms. This complexity of carbon-based molecules form the discipline of organic chemistry.

Organic Chemistry
Carbon typically covalently bonds to four, three or two other atoms, by having 4 valance electrons in the orbitals. In inorganic molecules this is typically hydrogen forming methane (CH4) or oxygen forming carbon dioxide (CO2), or could be other carbon atoms, like in graphite and diamonds. Although another common carbon molecule is the carbonate anion (CO3-2) where three oxygen atoms are bonded with carbon, with an extra two electrons (giving it a negative charge, as an -2 ion) allowing for an ionic bonding with calcium, magnesium or other cations. Hydrocarbon molecules are where carbon atoms form a short chain, surrounded by hydrogen found in common fuels such as ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), butane (C4C10), pentane (C5H12), hexane (C6H14), heptane (C7H16), and octane (C8H18) used in cooking, heating and automobiles, each with an addition carbon atom, forming increasingly longer and longer chains of carbon surrounded by hydrogen atoms. In complex organic molecules, carbon can form very long chains of carbon atoms into what is called a polymer. A polymer is complex molecule composed of many simple sets of molecules that are repeated, forming a chain. Unlike a crystalline lattice structure found in rocks and crystals, polymers are repeating chains or long strings of atoms, rather than structural blocks of molecules bonded on all sides. An example of a polymer is polyethylene plastic, which is composed of repeating carbon to carbon bonded atoms, surrounded by hydrogen atoms. Most plastics are composed of repeating structures of carbon atoms forming polymer chains, which makes them a very useful material, as they can be stringy and flexible when heated, but strong, like bound fiber when cooled. These chains of carbon can also fold in on themselves and can be bonded to other elements. Polymers can also be made up of six-membered carbon rings, individually called benzene rings, which can be bonded into polymers, forming even more complex molecules called phenyl. Pyridine is when one of the six carbons in the ring is replaced by another element, like nitrogen. Ringed organic molecules are often called aromatic as they often have odors or aromas, and some are used in artificial flavoring. While others like benzene if inhaled in large amounts can cause cancer.

The field of organic chemistry is the study of these complex organic carbon molecules formed by chains of carbon bonds with various elements. Such complex organic molecules of carbon are found in organic matter that are naturally produced by living organisms, but these molecules are not living on their own, and most can be synthesized in a lab.

The importance of water for life
The interaction of these long polymer chains of carbon atoms in an aqueous solution of water is an important physical consideration. Some ends of these chains can be hydrophilic (water loving), which means they are attracted to the polarized H2O molecules in water, while other ends of these chains are hydrophobic (water fearing) and are repelled from the polarized H2O molecule in water. If a polymer chain has one end that is hydrophilic and another end that is hydrophobic, it is what is called amphiphilic. Amphiphilic carbon molecules can form a micelle. A typical micelle in an aqueous solution forms when the hydrophilic ends of the molecule are attracted and contact the surrounding water, while the hydrophobic end of the molecule point inward toward regions in the micelle center and away from any contact with the water. This can result in spherical bubbles, that will form in the water. Many soaps are composed of long chains of carbon atoms, with one end that is hydrophilic, and the other hydrophobic. The hydrophilic end of the molecule of soap is most often a result of having sodium Na+ or potassium K+ ionically bonded to these ends of the molecule. One of the most common ingredients of soaps is sodium laureth sulfate, which is a long chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms, with a hydrophilic end composed of a sulfur atom bonded to oxygen (sulfate), with one of the oxygen atoms ionically bonded to a sodium ion (Na+). When this molecule is introduced to water, the sodium ion (Na+) dissolves, leaving behind an anionic negative charged end, that attracts the positive charged side of the surrounding water molecules (H2O). Many micelle will form, resulting in suds and bubbles, when agitated in water. Another type of soap, common in hand sanitizers is benzalkonium chloride, which has a hydrophilic end with a negative charged chloride atom, which will dissolve in water leaving a positive charged hydrophilic end or head and will attract surrounding polarized water molecules. These types of molecules are sometimes called salts of fatty acids, since they contain a salt (ionic bonds of sodium, potassium or chloride), as well as an acid (since they increase the amount of hydrogen ions in a solution), and have a fat, or a lipid end. A lipid is any long chain of carbon molecules that have hydrophobic ends, and will not dissolve in polarized liquid molecules, such as water. Many oils, fats, and cellular membranes of organisms are composed of lipids, as they repel water molecules. One of the reasons oil and water don’t mix, is that oil is composed of hydrophobic chains of carbon molecules. The reason that soaps work so well to wash oils and fats is because the hydrophobic end of a soap will dissolve into the lipid molecules, while the hydrophilic end will dissolve into the water, resulting in a micelle around the lipid molecules isolating and breaking them apart.

Phospholipid Membranes
Viruses such as the corona virus, have a lipid membrane, making them susceptible to breakage in the presence of soaps formed from these types of micelle forming molecules. The membrane will rupture, breaking apart the lipid membrane. Liberal use of soap when washing is important because it cleanses these dangerous particles away. Lipids are important however, as they are the group of molecules that typically form cellular membranes that protect the internal parts of cells in living organisms. Some cellular membranes are composed of amphiphilic molecules such phospholipids, which have hydrophobic and hydrophilic ends, with the hydrophilic end composed of a phosphate group molecule, often joined with a glycerol molecule into two tails. These phospholipids will form two layers, with the hydrophobic tails pointing inward, and hydrophilic phosphate group molecules on either side. Because most lifeforms use phospholipid cellular membranes, phosphorus is a required element for life, in addition to carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen

Amino Acids
One group of organic molecules that are important for life to exist are amino acids. Amino acids contain amine (-NH2), which is similar to ammonia (NH3), but with a covalent bond in the chain of carbon atoms, by having one less hydrogen atom. Amino acids also have a carboxyl group (-COOH), where carbon, which in addition to being bonded to the carbon chain, is also bonded to two oxygen -COO-, with one of those oxygen atoms bonded to a hydrogen atom -OH. These two key parts of amino acids indicate that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and nitrogen are all elements necessary for life, but amino acids individually are not life, and can be synthesized in a lab as well as found in nature as isolated molecules. There are about 500 variable amino acids, although most lifeforms contain about 20 varieties of amino acids.

Amino acids can be linked together when the amine ends (-NH2) contributing a single hydrogen atom, while the carboxyl end (-COOH) contributes an oxygen and hydrogen atom, together these three atoms form a molecule of water (H2O) as well as linking these two amino acids together to form a chain. Such linking of strings of amino acids together can form very large molecules called proteins. This process is called peptide bonding, and is a type of polymerization. Proteins are gigantic macromolecules that contain chains of amino acids linked together by these peptide bonds. Amino acids don’t normally bond together to form proteins by themselves individually, instead they need a catalyst, or enzyme that helps bind these links together. This intermediate molecule is called RNA (Ribonucleic acid). RNA is an extremely complex group of molecules consisting of many different types of atomic bonds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (but also nitrogen and phosphorus). There are billions and trillions of different combinations of RNA molecules, but the major types of RNA can be viewed in their role in building proteins.

Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a molecule that has a distinctive folded structure in the shape of a three-leaf clover, with one end that corresponds to a particular type of amino acid, which it will bond to, while the other end called the anticodon will be attracted to a messenger RNA (mRNA) molecule and will bind to a corresponding codon, in the presence of a third molecule called ribosome RNA (rRNA). Depending on the expression of the messenger RNA molecule, the produced protein is made by linking amino acids together, and will be different depending on the expression of the messenger RNA molecule. RNA is formed by ribose (which is a sugar or carbohydrate). A carbohydrate is a molecule that has carbon atoms (C), which in addition to being bonded to other carbon atoms are also bonded to hydrate, which is oxygen bonded to hydrogen atoms (-OH). RNA also has four types of base pairs named guanine (G), cytosine (C), uracil (U) and adenine (A), the codons, which dictate the order of amino acids paired. RNA forms an extremely complex tangle of strings of atoms bonded together, which fold in upon itself, and is sometimes supported by a protein.

Where does RNA come from?
In the modern biological rich Earth, mRNA is synthesized by DNA in the cells of all living organisms. RNA is littered in every cell in every living organism on Earth. But can RNA form from inorganic chemical ingredients? This is one of the central scientific investigations into the origin of life on Earth, and it is actively being researched. Scientists have focused on a type of RNA called ribozyme. Ribozyme is a molecule of RNA that can splice or break apart other RNA molecules. They can also catalyze their own synthesis from these fragmentary molecules. Ribozyme RNA can break apart RNA and bind those fragments into copies that resemble itself. Messenger RNA can also make copies of itself by making mirror images of the long chains of codons of nucleic acids, with reverse positive and negative copies. Since this type of replication is possible without the presence of DNA, researchers have proposed that the earliest life on Earth was composed of self-replicating RNA molecules, envisioning an RNA-world during Earth’s early history. But are these self-replicating RNA molecules life?

Are self-replicating RNA molecules life?
Many viruses, like the Covid-2019 virus that was killing so many people during 2020 and 2021, is a self-replicating RNA molecule that is packaged in a lipid membrane and bound by spike proteins. Spike proteins project from the lipid membrane giving the virus a crown when viewed under a scanning electron microscope, where the name corona, meaning crown comes from. The spike protein is unique in its chemistry to be able to enter certain cells in the respiratory tract of various mammals. Once inside the cell, the lipid breaks apart, and the protected RNA molecule is released into the cell. This molecule slices up the host cell’s RNA and DNA molecules, killing it, and using these fragmentary molecules to replicate copies of the virus RNA and spike proteins. Once a replicated copy of the virus RNA is synthesized it is expelled from the dead cell, using the dying cells lipids to form a membrane, with an arrangement of spike proteins (and other proteins) produced by the RNA molecule encircling it. Each infected cell can produce many millions of copies of the virus, which can over run the respiratory system, killing the person who becomes inflected, or making them very ill until their body can fight off the viral infection. RNA viruses exhibit two key characteristics of life. First, viruses can reproduce (make copies of themselves). Second, viruses can evolve through the heredity of traits encoded in the RNA. Each time a virus reproduces by making a copy of the RNA, it introduces a probability of novel changes in the copied RNA molecule. This process allows RNA to introduce and maintain variability in its chemical structure, this is very different than what happens in inorganic molecules like water (H2O). Despite differences in the isotopic composition of water (say in a chemical reaction), each molecule of water will be identical. RNA molecules on the other hand, because they are so large and complex each one can be chemically very unique. This is due to minor changes that are introduced into the RNA molecule. RNA molecules are like a large stack of playing cards, with a nearly endless series of different ways of ordering the position of each card in the deck. The origin of the COVID-19 virus appears to have occurred in bats, where a copied RNA strain had a new novel feature of having codons that replicate a spike protein that would allow the virus to infect human respiratory epithelial cells. Once the virus is able to infect a new host, these RNA molecules are copied, and can quickly spread from cell to cell, and from person to person. If the RNA strain produced a novel feature that prevents its entrance into a living cell, it would not replicate copies and would not spread. This ensures that RNA that successfully replicates is the type of molecule that will persist in an environment. In the unlucky case of COVID-19 the novel virus found success in being highly able to infect cells in the lungs of humans, but also produce asymptomatic cases that allowed them to spread between human individuals sharing a close physical spacing.

Life has the ability to change with time
This ability to change, or evolve is one of the key aspects of life, yet many scientists view viruses as more a chemical particle than a true living organism. This is because viruses lack many of the other characteristics of life. For example, living organisms grow. Viruses only make copies of their molecular make up, they don’t grow or change once they are produced or formed. In other words, there are no baby viruses or adult viruses. Furthermore, viruses don’t metabolize by gaining energy from chemical reactions, they only form from an initial chemical reaction, and require broken species of organic material found only in living cells. Once formed they don’t maintain homeostasis with stable inner conditions, rather viruses can easily be destroyed by heat, oxidation, or soaps that break open their lipid membrane. They are unable to respond to these events (such as swim away), and are unable to respond to changing environmental conditions. Most importantly viruses don’t have a cellular make up, most are simply formed from RNA molecules that are encased in a lipid and protein coat. Biologists however have suggested that these complex replicating molecules might be the precursors to life; imagining an early RNA World.

The origin of life, also came with the origin of death
Life at its basic level is simply self-organizing systems. That is the process of replication that favors an outcome, which in turn favors the continuation of that replication in a cycle. Imagine a deck of red and black cards, if a red card is dealt the card is discarded, if a black card is dealt, the card is kept, and a second card can be dealt, if that card is red, then both cards must be discarded, however if the first two cards are black the pile is kept, even if the next card is red. Each pile of successful cards is returned to the deck randomly. This process would over time slowly decrease the number of red cards, and increase the number of black cards in the deck. This is an example of a self-organizing system. For this to work, there must be the continued recycling of material, with short durations in regard to the molecules themselves. If RNA did not break apart easily, and instead remained for millions of years, like a crystalline structure of silicate minerals, these molecules would go from one state to another and then just stay there for long periods of time like a crystal.

One of the basic tenets for life at its simplest level is that these complex molecules must be easily broken so they can be recycled and reused for new molecules. In other words, for life to exist, it must do so alongside death. This means that the formation of these complex molecules must require the input of energy into the system, with the inevitable conclusion that these complex molecules will break apart in the environment they were created within after a short length of time. Every living creature must die at some point in its life, this short duration between the production (birth) of the molecule and its destruction (death) is short. This will ensure that the complex molecule will self-organize, but it also requires the constant input of energy.

Are viruses really life?
Not everyone agrees that viruses are living, and an alternative origin of viruses suggests that viruses originated from bacteria. Bacteria, unlike viruses have all the characteristics of life. They exhibit growth and development, reproduce (asexually and/or sexually), they pass on genetic information with the heredity of traits, the genetic information within the cells is variable and able to evolve and change through each generation, they exhibit homeostasis with stable conditions inside the cell, and can metabolize food by gaining energy from chemical reactions, including in some bacteria a very clever way of gaining energy from photons (photosynthesis), they have cellular bodies, and they respond to the external environment. Furthermore, they have very short lifecycles between birth and death, able to rapidly reproduce, but also quickly perish. And maybe most importantly they don’t depend on a host for reproduction, like viruses do.

Strains of RNA if they were to exist before the appearance of life on Earth, would need to be able to replicate from inorganic molecules, like amino acids. This is an active field of research, with some theories regarding how this might be possible early in Earth’s history. One idea is that amino acids were bonded together by ligase ribozyme RNA strains, which joins strands together by a phosphate ester linkage. This method has been used in laboratories to synthase RNA strands, where the ends of RNA molecules are held in proximity to one another by a splint, until they become linked together. The other idea is that RNA forms a template, which in the presence of RNA polymerase ribozyme attracts theses subunits to the RNA template to form a copy of the molecule, a primitive but similar way in how messenger RNA works in living cells to make proteins, but making copies of the RNA itself instead.

Basic Traits of Life

 * 1) Exhibit growth and development
 * 2) Reproduce
 * 3) Heredity of traits between generations
 * 4) Variable and individually unique characteristics
 * 5) Evolve and change through time
 * 6) Exhibit homeostasis
 * 7) Metabolize food or energy
 * 8) Exhibit cellular bodies
 * 9) Respond to the external environment
 * 10) Expire or die with time

Viroids
RNA to RNA replications have been observed both in nature and in the laboratory. In nature RNA to RNA replication has been found in a type of infectious pathogen that effects plants, called viroids. Viroids are short strands of circular, single-stranded RNA molecules that lack a protein coat. The RNA in viroids does not code for proteins, instead they are able to replicate RNA using RNA polymerase enzyme found in a host cell to synthesis new RNA. This is done by using the original viroid’s RNA as a template within a plant’s cell. Some viroids are ribozyme RNA, which can also use cleavage or split larger molecules in a host cell and use ligation to bring those fragments together to aid in replication of new strands of RNA. In a laboratory setting, the work of Tracey Lincoln and Gerald Joyce have demonstrated that RNA enzymes can self-replicate in a laboratory by RNA-template joining in perpetuity as long as they have an active supply of subunits for which to synthesize that RNA.

Vaccines
In the spring of 2020, Kizzmekia Corbett watched the head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases give daily briefings of the rising death toll as the new virus spread across the United States. By May of that year, nearly 60,000 American citizens had died of the novel corona virus, by June it had doubled to 120,000, in September it rose to 200,000 dead and two years later nearly 1 million Americans had died of the virus, a rate more rapid than many other countries in the world. The streets of New York City were parked with refrigerated trucks filled with dead bodies, waiting to be claimed by their loved ones. At no other point in the history of the United States of America have its citizens been so dependent on a clear understanding of the life sciences. The spread of the virus was a humbling reminder of the importance of science for the health of a nation. All this death, caused by an extremely tiny self-replicating particle of RNA, that scientists debate whether is a life-form or not.

The race was on to find a vaccine, a cure. Kizzmekia Corbett and her fellow scientists published a paper in the spring 2020 detailing the atomic structure of the virus spike protein, and how it gained entrance into human cells in the respiratory system using a protein in the cellular membrane called angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). The spike protein would allow the virus RNA to gain entry through this cellular door, like a key in a lock. In developing a vaccine or cure, one idea proposed by scientists was to synthesize the spike protein and inject it into a person. The spike protein would open cellular membranes, but without the RNA portion of the virus, the cell would not become infected and result in new copies of viral RNA. This would allow the cell to respond by building antibodies to prevent further holes opening in the membrane due to these spike proteins. If the person would later be exposed to the virus, the antibodies would help prevent the virus infecting cells, and prevent its replication by building a resistance to the virus. This is how vaccines often work. Such inoculations work as long as the protein spike does not change or evolve through new generations of the virus, and often needs to be updated, or followed up with booster shot of those proteins. Another more radical idea was proposed that involves injecting messenger RNA that codes for the spike protein instead. This would allow the RNA to replicate the spike protein and result in immunity to the virus for a longer time, since it would be synthesized by the body using RNA. This novel technology lead to the Moderna and Pfizer RNA vaccines that proved more successful in fighting this disease.

How we define Life
One of the key aspects of life is the rapid recycling of complex molecules, building them up and breaking them down, which results in a self-replicating cycle that becomes self-organizing toward successful modes of replication. Simplistically, life is a complex set of molecules that is continually formed and destroyed, through a system that promotes self-replication, matched with trial and error. We can think of life as anything that is born, loves (reproduces), and dies over a short time scale. You share the same cycle as the simplest virus; birth, love, and death. The reason a crystal is not living, is that it may be created through chemical reactions, but it does not reproduce itself, and only changes due to chemical, temperature and pressure change to its structure over millions of years. The rock cycle is immensely slow. Life, on the other hand, is fleeting, oscillating between life and death, and rebirth, hourly, daily, and yearly. Life gains its essence through its fragility.

title: Planet Earth/7b. What is Life?


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Talk:Modern Greek/User Language Questions

Is the word "κοιτάξου" used as an impolite order to go to sleep? I remember family arguing in the late evening when I was a youngster. They would on occasionally angrily tell each other "άει κοιτάξου". It didn't sound like "pleasant dreams" but something much darker.

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text: User:Dantheanimator

title: User:Dantheanimator


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Planet Earth/7c. How did Life Originate?

The Miller–Urey experiment
Stanley Miller arrived at the University of Chicago in 1951 despite a family tragedy of the preceding years. Miller grew up in Oakland California, and with his brother fell in love with the science of chemistry. In 1947, while in college studying chemistry, his father, who had supported his studies, suddenly passed away, leaving him to ponder his future education, without his father’s financial support. The faculty and the University of California supported his application to attend graduate school, and he was lucky enough to receive a teaching assistantship at the University of Chicago to further his education. Miller was initially assigned to the lab of Edward Teller, the Hungarian scientist who worked on the development of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s. But the lab was not a happy place for Stanley Miller, who struggled. He grew up believing he was a chemical whiz kid, but now struggled to find a research topic of interest. Edward Teller was no help, as he was often researching bigger and more destructive atomic bombs, with funds from the United States Government. Miller was disillusioned about the prospect that chemistry was a field of science only set about to build bigger bombs and create larger atoms. One day he sat in a lecture by Harold Urey, the Nobel Prize winning chemistry professor who studied isotopes, and had discovered deuterium. Urey discussed in his lecture the origin of the solar system, and hinted at the strange mystery of the origin of life on Earth. The lecture gave Miller an idea, a topic, rather than studying atomic bombs, he would study the origin of life. He convinced Harold Urey to allow him to be his advisor, and switched labs. Urey was hesitant, as he knew that the study of the origin of life from inorganic chemical reactions was likely a difficult subject to get into for the young scientist, but the eager Stanley Miller convinced his advisor to give him some space in the lab. He had an idea and wanted to test it out. Miller begin by recreating small lab versions of the atmosphere and ocean of the early Earth, which he knew from geological evidence was anoxic, lacking free oxygen gas. He used purified water (H2O), methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) and hydrogen (H2). The gasses were filled in a sealed sterile glass flask and connected by a tube to a half-filled flask of water, which he placed over a source of heat to produced water vapor, below the gas filled flask he cooled the gasses, so that precipitation of water would cycle down another tube back to the water filled flask. Along this tube he had a valve to sample the condensed liquid that formed here. One of the key introductions he made to the gas-filled flask was an electrical spark. This spark he imagined represented lighting in the gas atmosphere of Earth. Once completed the experiment was set to run in the lab. Fellow students laughed at his simple experiment, with the crackle of sparks and burning flame below the flask, it looked like a science experiment that you would see in Frankenstein’s lab, not the lab of a Nobel Winning chemist. Harold Urey was equally worried that the experiment was pointless, how could inorganic chemicals of just those ingredients generate life. Miller watched the experiment each day, making notes of the process. Soon the color in the water changed to a pinkish color, and then a darker brown color, and the gas filled flask turned black. Taking samples, Miller analyzed the mixture produced, and what he discovered amazed the world.

He found traces of hydrogen cyanide (HCN), formaldehyde (CH2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2), but also larger strings of carbon molecules like glycine (NH2-CH2-COOH), but also many types of amino acids, like adenine, a nucleobase found in DNA, as well as carbohydrates like ribose (the backbone molecule for RNA). In the nearly 70 years since Miller conducted his experiment, scientists have confirmed that these more complex organic molecules can be synthesized from such a simple experiment. Furthermore, the addition of sulfur, which was likely present in the atmosphere from volcanic activity as either hydrogen sulfide (H2S), or sulfate (SO42-), has led to other novel organic molecules being synthesized. With amino acids and a source of carbohydrates, like ribose there was at least the raw ingredients for life. All that was missing was the appearance of RNA (ribonucleic acid), to bind these amino acids and carbohydrates together into self-replicating molecules, which requires the coordination of three types of ribonucleic acids. This is where the experiments have failed.

Complex RNA molecules are much more challenging, and yet unproven to synthesize in a lab from such simple inorganic matter. These more complex molecules required an additional input of energy and raw materials as well as different processes. It is still a mystery what these steps are in the recipe of life.

Scientists have introduced electromagnetic radiation, in the form of intense light, evaporation (which appears to be a critical process), as well as sources of other materials like phosphate. It has also been shown that the mineral calcium apatite, which consists of phosphate and calcium ions, increased ribose formation from formaldehyde and glycolaldehyde in hot water (near 80 °C). Ribose is a vital ingredient for more complex RNA molecules. The pH of the water used in the experiments is also very critical, as well as the length of time the experiment is allowed to run. Running such prebiotic laboratory experiments have gotten scientists close to replicating life using the proposed conditions of an early Earth. But these experiments have yet to produce simple RNA based life form, lifeforms as simple as self-replicating viruses. The odd thing about these laboratory experiments is that scientists have created life, but they have had to cheat a little in the process of making that life, using material that may not have been present on early Earth— cellular membranes.

Synthetic Life
Most people would say that Craig Venter is a bit of rebel; insubordinate he has never shied away from his self-beliefs and intense drive. Born in 1946 in Salt Lake City, and later moved to San Francisco, he was an average student, and attended community college in California after graduating from high school. Unlike Stanley Miller, Craig Venter was not some chemistry whiz kid, and spent most of his free time surfing or sailing on the ocean, and hanging out on the beach, barely passing classes with Cs and Ds. With the outbreak of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, he realized that he would likely be drafted, and so he decided to enlist in the Navy and trained to be a medic in San Diego California. His attitude did not change while in the Navy, and he ended up shipping out after a messy court-martial, and sent to field hospital to the city of Da Nang along the coast of Vietnam.

It was a dangerous place to be, as on January 30th of 1968 North Vietnam forces launched the Tet Offensive attacking hundreds of cities along the coast, from Quang Tri in the north to Saigon at the south. The major offensive attack resulted in significant causalities of both sides of the war. Craig Venter was staffing the overwhelmed hospital as the city became the heart of a war zone. Death was all around him, as the injured and dying poured into the Navy clinic, while firefights erupted on the streets outside. Watching so many people die around him, he became deeply depressed, and one day he could take it no longer, he swam out into the sea away from the coast of death. Wondering, as he swam, if he should ever return back to shore. Return to a world where people suffered and died. As the waves of Earth’s ocean lifted and sank, his tiny floating body, up and down in the vast void between liquid ocean and gas atmosphere. He pondered his purpose in life. And in the void, he grabbed hold of a purpose— he would save people. On returning from Vietnam and the bloody war, he finished his degree at the community college, got married, and enrolled at the University of California for graduate studies in physiology and pharmacology, rather than becoming a medical doctor, he felt he could save more people by developing new medicines that cured diseases and millions of people, rather than treating individual patients. After graduate school, his talents and drive got him a job teaching at the State University of New York, but he was still brash, divorcing his wife, and marrying one of his students. In 1984, he started working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and later came under the leadership of James Watson (one of the 1962 Nobel Prize winners in Physiology and Medicine for the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA). The project of the National Institutes of Health was to sequence the various individual nuclides that compose an individual DNA molecule from a human cell. The project was the fledgling Human Genome Project, which begin in 1990, to map the individual genes that compose a human DNA molecule. Craig Venter had developed a method to slice the large molecule into smaller and smaller pieces, and analyze these sequences by entering the information into banks of computers. Each workstation looking at individual smaller and smaller pieces, like a factory. They were set up to map out each series of nuclides, the individual code of genetic material in the complex DNA molecule found in a human cell. Venter clashed with many of his supervisors, who recognized his brilliance and ambition, but struggled to contain his ego, and opinions. About a year into the project, Venter quit, and formed a private company, with the intention of filing a patent on the human genome, and beat the government funded scientists to the race. This turn of events shocked the world, with the idea that a company could own the knowledge of life. Venter’s talent at decoding the complex organic matter that makes life possible resulted in major breakthroughs in not only decoding the DNA molecules found in living animals and plants, but also in building new strands of DNA (and RNA) to synthesize new lifeforms.

In 1995, his team decoded the genetic script for the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae the bacteria that can cause deadly pneumonia and meningitis, especially in infants and babies. They followed up with a complete genome sequence of Mycoplasma genitalium, a sexually transmitted bacteria that lives on human genitals (which also lacks a cellular wall, and is the tiniest known bacteria yet discovered). These simple celled bacteria, had significantly smaller numbers of genes than the human DNA genome, and Venter wondered if he could create a cell that was even simpler, synthetically.

What is the simplest lifeform? What is the smallest amount of genetic information needed for life? Where Stanley Miller experiments asked how to create life from inorganic matter, Venter asked from the other side, what is the simplest life-form that can exist? In other words, if he could take these complex molecules apart to map and study them, could he and his team re-assemble them back together to create new lifeforms, ones that could be directed to make new medicines or vaccines? The ability to do so would revolutionize medicine. Venter and his large team set about synthesizing life in 1995. The task was deceptively simple, make a molecule of DNA, then setting it about to see if it would reproduce if fed and cared for. They would then select from of these cultured replicated cells, and map the genome to see if the synthetic life would express the same genes as they set within the initial molecule they created in the lab and inserted into the first cell. The major problem they faced, and one that countless researches have faced before is with the cellular membrane. If RNA or DNA is made, it must be protected by some type of membrane, otherwise it would quickly fall apart due to the environmental conditions, particularly in an environment with free oxygen, or slight changes in temperature. The breakage of carbon-carbon bonds by oxidation or heat can break apart these complex molecules quickly before they have a chance to replicate, thus a protective membrane is required. The researches planned to use a bacterial membrane, and insert their synthetic molecule into the empty membrane, much like how a virus infects bacteria cells to make copies of itself. Time after time, the cultured cells were not their synthesized molecule, and the ability to insert their synthesized molecule into an empty cell proved nearly impossible. They tried for 15 years, with large teams of researchers, attempting to prove to the world that it was indeed possible.

In July of 2010, the team finally announced their success, in a paper published in Science entitled “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome.” The cultured cells (which held only 582,970 base pairs) held the watermark of their names, etched into the genetic code of a synthetic lifeform. In the years since this amazing discovery, pharmaceutical companies have clamored for the technology to use for synthesizing medicine and vaccines, while the general public has come to fear the technology with an eversion to “genetically” modified food. Since 2010, we are living in a world in which humans are able to synthesize life, much like an engineer would build a car. These break throughs, as well as other experiments conducted in labs indicates that the origin of life on Earth was achieved through multiple complex steps facilitated by the unique properties of Earth’s gas chemistry of the atmosphere, liquid chemistry of the ocean, and the solid chemistry of the Earth’s rocky surface, facilitated by the lack of oxygen. The emergence of an RNA-world, where life first appeared as self-replicating macromolecules of strings of carbon, with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, is thought to have occurred very early in Earth’s history. However, with the advent of an oxygen-rich ocean and atmosphere later in Earth’s history, these early life-forms were likely destroyed and went extinct, leaving behind only those organisms that developed a protective cellular membrane, with first true life forms— bacteria. Bacteria meet all the definitions of life. They exhibit growth and development, they reproduce, they pass on variable genetic information with the heredity of traits, they are able to evolve and change through each generation, they exhibit homeostasis with stable conditions inside the cell, they can metabolize food by gaining energy from chemical reactions, they have cellular bodies with a membrane, and they respond to the external environment, and lastly, they have very short lifecycles between birth and death able to rapidly reproduce, but also quickly perish with death.


text:
User talk:Ama4001

Welcome
Welcome to Wikibooks, Ama4001!

 First steps tutorial Wikibooks is for collaborative development of free textbooks.

You do not need technical skills to contribute. You can easily change most books. Please introduce yourself, and let us know what interests you.

If you already contribute at other Wikimedia projects, our Wikimedia Orientation should quickly get you started. (Would you like to provide feedback on this message?)

  Getting help   Made a mistake?   Goodies, tips and tricks
 * Read the Using Wikibooks book for a friendly introduction to the project, or our help pages for more information.
 * You can get friendly help from the community in the user assistance room or our IRC channel.
 * Upload freely licensed files to Wikimedia Commons. You may request permission to upload fair use files locally. Please include author and source information and a non-free use rationale for non-free files.
 * You can restore a previously saved version.
 * Pages should follow the  naming convention.
 * Need to rename a page? Use the move tab (is available once your account is 4 days old - until then, ask for help).
 * To request a page be deleted, add to the top of the page.
 * Was a page you made deleted? Please read the deletion policy, and check the deletion log to find out why. Also check the RFD archives if applicable. You can request undeletion at WB:RFU, or ask the administrator who deleted the page.
 * Please fill in the edit summary and preview your edits before saving.
 * Sign your name on discussion pages by typing ~~~~
 * User scripts can make many tasks easier. Look at the Gadgets tab of my preferences; check off the boxes for the scripts you want, and hit save!

-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 22:18, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ama4001


text:
The Arab Identity/The Orient

Islam, especially Sunni Islam has shaped the Arab nations for centuries. Unlike the nascent democracy of the western nations, Islam has been around longer. Islam also has no established distinctions between religion and state affairs. An Arab doesn't find this strange, they do not think in terms of gray areas. Obedience and submissiveness to certain state and religious ideals are natural to them. To be an Arab does not necessarily mean that you have to come from the Middle East. Or that you even have to be born into an Arab speaking community. Sometimes to speak the Arabic language, to gain enough proficiency as to be accepted into Arabic speaking circles, this in itself could make you Arab. By rule of thumb if you have an Arabic name and speak or use the Arabic language, then you are an Arab. Arabs are found all around the world, especially in African nations, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Arabia, and other countries. They belong to several nationalities. Iran is not considered an Arab nation. In a sense, this is a broad definition of what it means to be an Arab. Islam, more than any other religion is subject to the geopolitical movements of modern times. Shariah, the wholly Islamic concept of the rule of Islamic law, finds itself at odds with modern democratic ideals.

Women are more reserved and dress more modestly than in Europe and certain traditional values are held on to firmly in the Arab family unit. These differences more than anything has created a divide between the East and West and continues to shape the Oriental narrative to this day. Although the concept of the 'Orient' is something of the past, Arabs are still seen as people with one foot firmly placed in the past.

title: The Arab Identity/The Orient


text:
Cookbook:Rocky Road Confectionery II

Rocky road is a type of confectionery commonly made in Australia. It is made from chunks of marshmallow in a matrix of chocolate. This is a similar recipe to Rocky Road Confectionery l.

Ingredients

 * 375 g milk chocolate
 * 30 g coconut oil
 * 350 g marshmallows

Equipment

 * Baking paper
 * Pan
 * Microwave
 * Big bowl

Procedure

 * 1) Put the chocolate in the bowl and microwave until melted. Then, once the chocolate is melted, stir in the coconut oil, which will get melted by the chocolate.
 * 2) Let cool slightly, then fold in the marshmallows.
 * 3) Spread mixture in a greased and parchment-lined pan. Let set.
 * 4) Unmold and cut into pieces.

title: Cookbook:Rocky Road Confectionery II


text:
Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2020/May

A link in a preformatted text
Inside a preformatted text, Mediawiki notation for a link is treated as content. My attempt is visible in the sandbox. When installed in the book, link text "IRQ" should anchor to Oberon/S3/irqs. Ideas? Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 22:23, 2 May 2020 (UTC)
 * this can be done, but only in a very roundabout way:
 * Add  to your sandbox.
 * Remove the pre tags, but add one extra space to each line that was formally in the pre tags.
 * If you need to, edit Template:TemplateStyles/Oberon/styles.css to change any values to the pre tag (ask me if you are unsure).
 * Explanation: unfortunately the standard pre tags strip any markup from inside them. However if you add a space before a line, it automatically adds (invisible) pre tags but without stripping out markup. So this is a useful workaround if you need the pre tags, but you want to include markup/HTML inside them.
 * If you have problems, I could edit your sandbox to show you if you wanted me to. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 00:40, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

Automatically labeling chapter references as chapter references
I would like to know how to have the print version render all the chapters' references in such a way that the heading labels for them reflect the context in which they are displayed depending on whether that is the print version or the normal chapter view.

Or, what is the way to automatically specify a relevant heading that labels each block of references as belonging to a specific chapter in the print version? That would move them to the end of the book then. I ask because when using the Print Version of the wikibook on OpenSSH the book becomes peppered with headings labelled "References". That is fine in the context of individual chapters but confusing in the context of a whole book presented all at once, especially since the are given the same semantic markup as the real headings and that makes generating an automatic table of contents impossible as they require manual intervention to fix. If I re-label each set of references in-place to give them a more descriptive title relevant for the context of the Print Version then it looks quite silly in the context of individual chapters.

Maybe there is already some feature, function, or best-practice work-around?

I ask because some years ago, I did print the book to paper but it required massive layout editing in regards to the table of contents before becoming actually ready for printing. Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 04:42, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I appreciate you breaking this down but I still can't visualize it. Can you please be very explicit? Like, "I want each chapter to have a section that says 'Chapter 1 References' at the end before Chapter 2 starts" or somesuch? If you have a graphic, that would help. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 07:08, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * If you look at the automatic table of contents at the the Print Version of the wikibook on OpenSSH you see the subheading "References" repeated throughout the book, such as 1.3, 2.5, 3.3, 7.5, and so on.  That's kind of awkward placement.  If you look at the corresponding chapters online, then they look ok individually.  Would there be a way to have them all moved to the very end of the Print Version like in many traditional printed books?  Or, if they stay in place, is there some conditional formatting that can show one type semantic markup when rendering individual, online chapters versus when the book is rendered as an all-in-one Print Version? The could show up as bold text in the print version but as heading level 2 or something in the online version.  Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 07:22, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Gotcha. Okay, so the goal is to have all references in one place at the end of the book: which is a sensible request. The solution here would be something like (thinking out loud)... using CSS to have it only display on the Web and have nodisplay in print and then include a second references table at the very end that has the opposite CSS. Seems like this should be something built into Printable but that would take some serious doing in CSS (at least for me). I definitely welcome others who have more elegant solutions but I think something like that can work. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 07:42, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I propose to just add around each "References" paragraph to do the trick. Then, only one "References" paragraph can be added at the end of OpenSSH/Print version. JackPotte (discuss • contribs) 09:06, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I tried with the markup with one chapter and then preview of the print version. Neither it nor the unadjusted references from all the other chapters show at the end of the preview of the print version.  Even if I include a  there at the end of the print version, no references show up at the end. Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 09:31, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * and what about now? JackPotte (discuss • contribs) 10:16, 3 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Nice! That does the book-level end notes for the Print Version while leaving the normal chapters as they are.  I'll take a close look over the next day or two, but that seems to be the solution.  Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 11:04, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

New Project Science
Dear All, I would like to start a Wikibook entitled:

 * Dictionary of Laboratory Terms

My idea is to have a guide to the terminology of an analytical laboratory. This Wikibook will have terms of laboratory technology and related areas and illustrations assisting understanding. The dictionary will contain terms from the following fields: fundamental of laboratory, application and use of laboratory instruments, international standards, legal requirements for laboratory instruments, accuracy. This will be organized in the form of an index, facilitating thus rapid location of the terms.

Any interest in this?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sgiani (discuss • contribs) 17:06, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

 * This could be a valuable resource; keep in mind, we should carefully tailor the concept to maximize its difference from a "general-purpose dictionary", which is the subject of an item in "What Wikibooks is not". --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 20:59, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

Thank you Pi zero for your comments: here you can have a look at the "A" entries. This shows the concept Sgiani (discuss • contribs) 20:01, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

I know I like this topic, a useful addition, if created. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 13:34, 17 May 2020 (UTC) About this topic, I actually am concerned about people with little Science experience, without a good Science background, opening Chemistry textbooks seeking dangerous information, or instruction on how-to-build-a-bombs, or make a-illegal-home-drug-lab. Consider this a general warning because people have seen problems while watching "The Sons Of Anarchy" on cable TELEVISION. I think a better approach is to teach people general Science, offer Science lessons they can practice from home, while using common laboratory techniques. Can guides teach Chemistry by teaching people about common cleaning supplies that help clean our houses, using chemicals that are commonly purchased at grocery stores? I learned about [legal, after I turned 21] recreational "drug creation" by purchasing a "beer kit" that included yeast, some lab equipment, and a Chemistry booklet. Offer people useful, common yet informative lessons, or "educational kits" that allow people to safely use lab equipment while they learn new techniques. Good idea? Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 13:45, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

New Category:Original_Creations_Of_Literature...
Hey, I acted bold, and started a new category. I hope that people do not take this bold act as a sign of a aggressive EGO, or as indications of a new ego-trip, because I don't believe I started a new category for egotistical (or self-centered) reasons. I know this category will make the process of creating a book easier for some people, this may be better, or actually worse, because if a complex process was too simple, how would people learn to pay attention to each step-of-the-process? Who may benefit most from "Original Creations of Literature?" I think people in departments like the Humanities, Art, and Literature departments, will definitely benefit, as well as people interested in Simulations, computer avatars, or Philosophy. There maybe certain branches of Religion and religious studies that can use this category. People interested in monsters, angels, demons, simulations [like The SIMs] and characters in Philosophic allegories [such as Everyman].

This may help people interested in learning, especially if other editors and writers leave better guides.

I hope this creation of a new category is open for discussion. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 13:30, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

Some CSS for Vector has been simplified
!

I'd like to make a double-check about a change that was announced in Tech/News/2020/21.

Over-qualified CSS selectors have been changed. ,,  ,  ,  ,   or   are now all removed of the   qualifier, as in for example it is. This is so the skins can use HTML5 elements. If your gadgets or user styles used them you will have to update them. This only impacts the Vector skin.

On this wiki, this impacted or still impacts the following pages:
 * User:Kogitor/vector.css
 * User:Mike.lifeguard/vector.css
 * User:Ohwang/common.css

How to proceed now? Just visit all these pages and remove  before these CSS selectors if it hasn't been removed so far.

SGrabarczuk (WMF) (discuss • contribs) 13:01, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

How to create a side bar or other bordered box?
What is the markup for putting a section inside a box with a border and a shaded background? If you look at the Table of Contents at the top of this page, that is the kind of layout I am looking for but for custom content and lower down in the page where ever I decide to place it in the chapter. Bonus if there is a way to make it float on the right or left of the page and let the rest of the text flow around it. Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 07:32, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Hi the easiest way is to use a template: see Templates/General for various box templates. I have posted an example, take a look at this message source. . -- Jules  (Mrjulesd) 11:44, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks! That is perfect! I am looking at the other templates now, too. Larsnooden (discuss • contribs) 12:02, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

1,2,3 Wikijunior Featured Book!
My first impression on 1,2,3 was good. I liked the photographs, and the indications of the subtly different ways numbers are used everyday. At first glance, I enjoyed this project. I do wonder, can this project be simplified? Yes. The value of each number can be clarified using OUR FINGERS. I propose people who enjoy teaching math to children, start a Wikibook: Finger Math. Many videos about finger Math have been made online. The next step would be to make photographs of fingers, also available to the 1, 2, 3 Wikijunior books project. Does a person holding up 1 finger associated with 1, next two fingers associated with 2, next three fingers associated with 3 clarify these numerical ideas? Yes! I believe this will help both projects.

Should we develop a section called Math without a Calculator ? Elementary school children do not have calculators, or own their own computers. This seems like a fun learning experience parents should teach their children, who will later learn formal ways of calculating, to find the right answers. Suggestions? Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 21:18, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

New book : Making a Programming Language From Scratch
Hello everyone! I previously co-wrote the book 'QBasic' and I am going to be writing a new book(title given above) which basically covers the process of language creation. It is going to cover basic decisions, advantages and disadvantages of each technique of language creation, equivalent low level statements of some common high level statements and the process of parsing and lexing. It is be written based on the C-model compiler. Any help or suggestions will be welcome.Thanks! Debanshu.Das (discuss • contribs) 16:41, 22 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Videocasting?. Only an idea.BoldLuis (discuss • contribs) 09:00, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

End-user Computer Security book, and whether it is appropriately hosted on Wikibooks
Hello all,

I've written a book on End-user Computer Security for individuals, sole traders, and small businesses. The book is more based in ongoing, never-ending, democratic collaborative research, than a treatise on an established subject. Can people please advise as to whether it is fine for it to be hosted on Wikibooks.

Thanks.

MarkJFernandes (discuss • contribs) 13:38, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

 * yes looking good I think. Looks suitable for a move to mainspace. I think you probably know how to do this, but I would recommend Special:MovePage/User:MarkJFernandes/End-user Computer Security. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 08:38, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

 * thanks for your opinion. Was just reading about the NPOV (Neutral Point Of View) Wikibooks doctrine, and was wondering whether I should tag parts of the content with the non-NPOV tag as much of the content at the moment, is on subjective issues espousing just my point of view. Perhaps at some point (and hopefully), such content can be converted to NPOV content after further discussion with others (it's why I referred to the material as ongoing research). What do you think?

MarkJFernandes (discuss • contribs) 11:05, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

 * (ping didn't work some reason) : The main thing is if you state something controversial you should try to balance with alternate ways of looking at things. I think as long as you do that it shouldn't really be too problematic. For example if you say "Ghosts might exist" you should also list reasons for believing otherwise. But if you get feedback that someone disagrees with you then tagging might help while you discuss; but it is meant to be a temporary measure while discussions are ongoing, not a long term approach. If you think your content doesn't meet NPOV you should just fix it or remove it really, only tag if you're meaning to fix it quite soon. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 17:29, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

 * thanks for your further guidance. I'm thinking that this book should be transferred to another Wiki. You see, the work is littered with subjective POVs, and trying to add other POVs would seem only to confuse the material. For example, I advocate Qubes OS 4.0.3 as being one of the most secure Linux distributions : this is "...a particular viewpoint on a subjective issue..." not balanced by any other POVs in the writing. It's unclear as to how I would add other points of view for such statements without introducing an element of confusion into the material.

 * What do you think about possibly transferring the book to the Wikiversity research portal? It seems like it might be an appropriate place for such a work.

Thanks,    MarkJFernandes (discuss • contribs) 09:29, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

 * I think you're probably being too hard on yourself. Even Wikiversity has an NPOV guideline: Wikiversity:Wikiversity:Disclosures. Offering advice isn't POV, it's more when that advice is suspect, yet no attempt has been made to balance it with alternative viewpoints. If I was you I'd hold firm, and try to get feedback, and adjust it accordingly. What I've read of it doesn't seem problematic. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 10:18, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Footnotes

The Practical Chemist Cookbook?
Hello, I maybe suggesting this book: The Practical Chemist Home Cookbook, or (after a market trend), The Violent Peaceful Anarquista Cookbook, a unusual book with recipies for bath bombs, violent cocktail drinks, and other common household products. I am suggesting this type of book because I want to find and use free recipies that follow the latest trends, such as bath bombs. Although the books online are not expensive, and many are already free to read with special communication devices, I think Wikipedia should start this type of home-Chemistry Wikibook, for people interesting in books, chemistry, and applied Chemistry. I think this type of recipe book may become popular on Wikibooks. The Wikibook recipies, are currently popular. Why not a home-chemist book with recipies / instructions for mixing interesting household products? This idea is similar to the Wikipedia ABC book [a developing collection about mixing drinks using alcohol], and Wikibook recipies, a current and useful section of Wikibooks that people seem to enjoy. Without people actively using their learning to develop new products, there would be few recipies instructing people, so they may learn how to make bath bombs, or other novelties. Chemistry can be a fizzling, bubbling, and sometimes violent (in a peaceful way) exploration of the known world as introduced by people who like Science, and want to share what they found. If this idea goes in the wrong direction, people may experience a shortage of common supplies like cider vinegar, or baking soda. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 13:37, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Hello [Basic Introduction]
Greeting Wikibookians, I am new, and have so far survived the DELETE speedy-creation-Page stage. I have a lot of questions, and would appreciate help from other people! I have started a book/page: Create Vampires. I hope this book, suggested as a guide and factual resource, will help people in general. Any title suggestions? Ideas on how to avoid copyright violations? Anyone want to volunteer as contributors? I have created a basic outline [Table of content] that is just a suggestion.

I really want this project to be a good guide for people, written by several people, not just by ME. Thanks.
 * Thanks for joining up with us. I'm a little confused about the scope of your proposed book. What would the book be about exactly? It's about best practices for writing fictional characters that are vampires or writing in a sub-genre of horror fiction, is that correct? —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:54, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
 * @Justin I may be the only contributor so far, yet the ideas and good advice of other people are always good. I mean, if you want to contribute new ideas... Ideally, the book is, and will be a guide for writers that will focus on what makes a vampire a original fictional monster, what aspects make a vampire a unique character. Tips to help writers begin their own fictional creation, or monsters, will guide introducing moral points of view. The ideas and good advice of other people are also good, because ideas should be shared. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 13:02, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Just a heads up, with each new comment you add directly referencing one before it, add a new colon <:> and if you want to notify users that you are mentioning them, use (e.g.  ) to get my attention. I think that guides on writing fiction are a great idea. It seems like you have a very narrow topic that doesn't really fit an entire books scope but certainly a subsection of a book. —Justin ( koa'vf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:28, 9 May 2020 (UTC)
 * trying this new stuff...:)… Thanks Justin. I am not worried, although I do hear your subtle criticism, I do think that I am blending several book types: textbook+guides, and this may create a split, meaning that people may choose a textbook, over a writing guide. I think my idea works...yet, I also wondered, would it be better to 1. stay general, meaning suggest a Wikibook like "Create Monsters," or 2. move towards a more neutral zone, with a less horrific creation, such as "Create Ghost," A NEUTRAL ZONE that allows for positive creations, as well as negative creations.
 * I was going to next suggest Create Ghost, yet I have problems naming titles, and I feel that this project is 1. big enough, and 2. a clear zone that others can move away from. I hope this makes some sense. I think other people could use these guides when they are better understood. Thanks. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 03:44, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Trying to make the perfect book is hard, choosing to make a good book is less difficult. I'm going to aim towards making a good book. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 03:49, 10 May 2020 (UTC)

Justin, I hope you don't mind me asking, are you available? I wonder, should I focus on teaching some people's ideas, or should I work out a way to teach ideas? I could use help. I have this in mind: Textbooks [collected info], Tutorial [guide by Tutor], Self-Study course [self guide. read recommendations]. This seems to be the key to what I had in mind. Today, I discovered a new approach. Create Vampires was intended to focus on vampires, and introduce zombies, demons, ghost, and hungry-ghosts. I could suggest a logical fallacy is created when we choose to "create" monsters, rather than reflecting actual people, their dramatic or horrifying stories. This suggests readers have a choice in the type of fiction they can study. This seems better as a formula. I wonder how I can get help from writers? Any suggestions? There are flaws... Thanks. Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 04:54, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm happy to help but I'm not quite as experienced on this project as I am on other ones. I think you should focus on what you feel like is highest value. I think that tutorials on writing genre fiction are a perfectly appropriate venture. If you stick with it, I'd love to see what that looks like in several months or years. If you want feedback from other writers, that's tricky. Maybe you could have a little project on Wikiversity and see if anyone wants to collaborate on best practices for writers there? In reality, it seems like a lot of writers are out of work now due to all the pandemic lockdown but I have no idea how to reach out to them or convince them to give free labor to Wikibooks. :/ —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:05, 10 May 2020 (UTC)
 * } Thanks. Good advice. Sorry to hear about other people's modern problems...I hope things get better.

Greeting wikibookians, my internet connection is down, meaning that for the past few days I am having a difficult time connecting to Wikibooks. I have done nothing with Create Ghost. Sorry.Peyton09 (discuss • contribs) 10:51, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

I want people who dream of writing their own books, text-books, or tutorials to slow down. I myself am less willing to pay expensive postage to mail new ideas, and although computer connections do communicate at higher speeds than traditional mail carriers, computer connections do not often connect, link, and computers may "freeze" for unknown reasons. Although several writers may be out of work, this time could be a blessing in disguise. I hope we can share good advice with people, and information of use. ThanksPeyton09 (discuss • contribs) 18:53, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

Tips on how to create a first book
Any tips on how to create a first book please?Thank you
 * Thanks for asking. Have you looked at Help:Contents yet? If you haven't, there's a lot to poke thru there. I suppose things that may not be explicit in the help documentation are:

 * 1) Make sure you have some idea of the structure of a book before you start. This will save you a lot of administrative headaches later.
 * 2) Books here generally tend to be solo projects. There's no reason why this has to be true and of course, as a wiki, we are here to help one another but there are just very few editors at Wikibooks, so many, many books end up being either essentially the work of one person or a failed experiment that is abandoned for years. :/
 * Here's hoping you stick around. Let me know how I can help. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 15:43, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
 * You'll want to read this book: Using Wikibooks. --17:34, 28 May 2020 (UTC)


text:
User:Williamvds/sandbox

Signed integers are in two's complement and can represent values from -128 to +127. Bit 7 is set if the integer is negative.

two's complement

title: User:Williamvds/sandbox


text:
Cognitive Science: An Introduction/Cognitive Training in Adults

Cognitive Training in Adults
Methods for improving the cognitive abilities of adults by way of training is growing increasingly researched. Until recently, humans were thought to be at their cognitive peak in young adulthood, allowing little room for improvement. New findings have indicated that significant cognitive gains are possible long into adulthood through training.

Cognitive training has been aided by research within the fields of neurogenesis. Cognitive training generally involves the practice of a single cognitive task or set of cognitive tasks. What differentiates this form of training from typical practice is that cognitive training is designed to bring about improvements in different transferable tasks. Cognitive transfer is the ability to apply knowledge, skills, and practices across various situations and contexts. The cognitive form of training leads to improvements in the ability or abilities targeted. Such improvements have also been correlated with functional and structural changes in the brain, for example, connectivity in the frontoparietal network. What remains a matter of discussion, however, is the potential for such a course of action to evoke substantial improvements outside of the trained abilities. Early findings of transfer have failed to replicate in several other studies resulting in some degree of skepticism over the validity of the rationale. In this context, more recent studies have emphasized the need to understand the underlying mechanisms of such inconsistencies to offer better, more powerful interventions.

Embodied perspective
An embodied perspective can assist in understanding cognitive training in adults. Embodied cognition may be described as a perspective on cognition that is deeply rooted within the features of the physical body. Research in embodied cognition explores how aspects of the human body other than the brain may play a significant role in cognitive processing. This view expands upon the traditional perspective in cognitive science, that human cognition is an internally bounded system.

Research in embodied cognition may study the interrelation between motor processes, spatial abilities, working memory, language, problem-solving, and reasoning. Supporting evidence derives from studies of motor expertise, in which expert agents have been found to perform above average in assessments of perception, working memory capacity, attention, long-term memory, and decision making.

Various approaches have been documented, including simple physical exercise, purely cognitive training, and various hybrid forms of training. Various studies of cognitive training affirm that complex forms of physical exercise outperform more impoverished exercise workouts. For example, wrestling involves complex, unusual motor coordination and appears to elicit greater improvements in measures of spatial ability and working memory capacity compared to running, a largely automatized activity. Evidence also suggests that dance can be particularly well-adapted to cognitive training designs. Further, juggling has shown to induce gains in mental imagery rotation performance, as does practicing musical instruments that involve complex motor coordination.


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Oberon/ETH Oberon/speaker

Back to: Native Oberon Hardware Compatiblity List

Speaker support   Summary The PC speaker is a poor man's sound generator capable of no more than producing pitiful beeps and squawks, but it is simple to program in Oberon. However, since the SYSTEM module is used, code is not portable. How to control the speaker by program Assume that a sound of a frequency f should be emitted during a time t. The system Timer 2, one of three timers in the Programmable Interval Timer (PIT), is used to control sound generation, in five sucessive steps. The PIT operates at 1.19318 MHz.

 * compute a 2-byte counter value (1 <= count <= 65'535) corresponding to the specified frequency f - IntFreq. 1'193'180 >= f >= 18.2

 * send a PIT control word to port address 43H - InitTimer

 * send the counter value to port address 42H - SetFreq

 * set "on" the bits 0 and 1 of the control register at port address 61H to switch on the speaker and the amplifier - Tone

 * after a time delay t, set "off" the same bits at port address 61H - Tone

The time delay must be controlled by a background task. Note that once the speaker is "on", the frequency may be changed at will, even set to something inaudible to simulate a silence.

Program snippets CONST TONES = 12; OCTAVES = 10; ON = TRUE;  OFF = FALSE; A4 = 440; (* the latin "la" *) (* Convert the frequency to an "internal" value *) PROCEDURE IntFreq(hz: LONGINT): INTEGER; CONST Rate = 1193180;   (* Timer clock is 1.19318 MHz *) BEGIN RETURN SHORT(Rate DIV hz) END IntFreq; (* Set PIT control word to: Timer 2, 16-bit, mode 3, binary = {01110110} i.e. B6H *) PROCEDURE InitTimer;  (* Timer port address: 43H *) BEGIN SYSTEM.PORTOUT (43H, 0B6H) END InitTimer; (* Set counter value *) PROCEDURE SetFreq(hz: LONGINT); (* Timer 2 port address: 42H *) BEGIN SYSTEM.PORTOUT (42H, CHR(hz MOD 100H)); SYSTEM.PORTOUT (42H, CHR(hz DIV 100H)); Tone(ON) END SetFreq; (* Switch speaker and amplifier on/off *) PROCEDURE Tone(b: BOOLEAN); (* Loudspeaker port address: 61H *) VAR s: SET; BEGIN SYSTEM.PORTIN (61H, SYSTEM.VAL(CHAR, s)); IF b THEN s := s + {0, 1} ELSE s := s - {0, 1} END; SYSTEM.PORTOUT (61H, SYSTEM.VAL(CHAR, s)) END Tone; (* Calculate table of "internal" frequencies for a number of octaves *) PROCEDURE CalcTF; VAR t, oct: INTEGER; f, f0, df: REAL; BEGIN df := Math.exp(Math.ln(2) / TONES); f0 := A4 * df * df * df / 32;  (* = c0 *) FOR oct := 0 TO OCTAVES-1 DO       f := f0; FOR t := 0 TO TONES-1 DO          TF[t, oct] := IntFreq(ENTIER(f)); f := f * df       END; f0 := f0 * 2 END END CalcTF; (* Beep on the speaker: beepFreq during beepLen *) PROCEDURE Beep*; VAR wakeUp: LONGINT; BEGIN IF ~timerActive THEN InitTimer; SetFreq(beepFreq); wakeUp := Input.Time + beepLen * (Input.TimeUnit DIV 1000); REPEAT UNTIL Input.Time - wakeUp >= 0; Tone(OFF); timerActive := FALSE END END Beep; [Top] ''13 Jul 2002 - Copyright © 2002 ETH Zürich. All rights reserved.''

E-Mail: oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch

Homepage: http://www.ethoberon.ethz.ch/

title: Oberon/ETH Oberon/speaker


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User:Lalsingh45

LalSingh Ahuja

title: User:Lalsingh45


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Cognitive Science: An Introduction/Psychology of Play

Psychology of Play
Play is an activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation instead of for strictly utilitarian purposes. Play consists of amusing activities that are often beneficial to the development of the child’s cognitive growth, self-regulation, and general psychological welfare. Play has shown to help stimulate a child’s social, physical, and emotional development. Through play, children express their feelings, interpretations of events, and imagination. One important aspect of play is the development of children’s physical and social skills.

The physical activity of play can help to stimulate children's brains. The resulting cognitive growth of play can help enhance children's anticipatory thinking and general intelligence.

Research in the field of child psychology has demonstrated the advantages of play for a range of improved psychological outcomes, including learning, emotional development, and social skills.

The Role of Play in Child Development
The functional role of play has been linked to various benefits in the psychological development of children. Research has demonstrated the significance of socially interactive play in relation to different styles, such as physical, symbolic, pretend, and others.

Physical play has been speculated to be among the earliest to evolve in human children. Children's physical play can include climbing, jumping, dancing, simulated combat, and other activities. A recent review summarized evidence that indicated a generally positive effects of moderately unsafe outdoor play among children aged 3–12 years. It revealed an interaction between physical play and playful combat for improved levels of social skills.

Symbolic Play can generally be seen to emerge in children after 12 months of age as they begin using sounds to deliberately convey meaning. In early childhood, this style of play becomes important to children’s play as they learn to speak, gesture, and understand their surroundings. A recent qualitative analysis indicates that children between 9–11 years almost universally suffuse their writing and speech with symbolic play.

Pretend play involves an imaginative style of play in which children assign deliberately fictitious roles to objects or individuals. This exercise in mental simulation has been linked to the development in children’s anticipatory thinking. Pretend play has also been linked to the development of learning and reasoning skills, and executive functioning. Further, it has shown to improve children’s grasp of their environment as well as their creative use of environmental resources.

Neuroscience of Play
Neuroscience can help to inform our understanding of the structure and growth of the brain and nervous system during childhood development. Neuroscientific research has investigated how playful experiences can support children's learning. Such features may lead to the capacity of children to observe, perceive, and benefit from interactions from a neurobiological perspective.

Active engagement is linked to numerous networks involved in controlled, goal-driven behavior and reward. These processes include memory, cognitive flexibility, and adaptive learning.

Introduction
Play is a common occurrence in humans and widely studied. Knowledge of play in non-human animals, however, is wanting. With only thirty organisms, mostly mammals, demonstrating play behaviour, researchers are attempting to explore the function of play in greater detail. Burghardt defines play in animals as: “repeated, seemingly non-functional behavior differing from more adaptive versions structurally, contextually, or developmentally, and initiated when the animal is in a relaxed, unstimulating, or low stress setting.” Animals can engage in play on their own or with others. Researchers hypothesize and study different criteria and contexts for play in non-human animals. Some criteria for play in non-human animals are described as a behaviour important for the development of competence in adulthood, to ensure short- and long-term development for coping with sudden events , demonstrating fairness for survival in adulthood by learning through fair play when young , and engaging in a pleasurable experience. These categories that encompass the definition of play are explained in further detail below.

Preparing for Adulthood
Play as the development of competence for adulthood proposes that animals engage in play behaviour when they are free from threats and their overall well-being is preserved. This allows the animal to engage in play behaviour because they do not need to focus on aspects of survival. Play generally occurs when resources or energy levels are adequate. For example, when needs for food and health are satisfied. Therefore, when basic needs are met, an animal can then feel safe and content to engage in play. Play behaviour also allows for the development of sensory and motor skills, for example, reciprocal gentle grabbing and tickling in chimpanzees. Moreover, play behaviour in young non-human animals ensures that they increase and advance their motor skills for use in adulthood.

Adapting for the Unexpected
Play behaviour allows animals to cope with unexpected or sudden events. During play, animals can perform different actions in an unpredictable fashion which present as a way for the animal to practice for real or serious survival situations. In a cognitive, or emotional capacity, play allows animals to adapt to novel situations such as surprise and disorientation. A study by Richter and others notes that although play encourages preparedness for uncertainty, animals may experience an increased level of anxiety. This finding is interpreted as an adaptive benefit because if the animal is generally on higher alert, they may not encounter as many unexpected situations.

Fair Play for Survival
When non-human animals engage in play fighting within partners or groups, they learn to pay attention to multiple social communication cues. Play fighting usually involves rules and allows the animal to assess the risk of the situation, whether it be serious or for fun. Following the rules of fair play allow the animal to learn cooperation and equity for survival. For example, if resources are limited, the animal can choose to keep the resources they acquire to themselves or gather or share resources with others which may derive a more successful result.

A Pleasurable Experience
As previously mentioned, play can occur when an animal is free of threats and their well-being is preserved. Similarly, this could be defined as a low stress situation and animals use play as a way to regulate levels of stress. Play is also a way to limit boredom when other survival needs are met. Examples of pleasurable play are exploration of objects, chasing, nipping, and tumbling. Engaging in playful behaviour can result in a rewarding experience due to an opioid-like trigger. Social play with others can also act as a reward in itself, for example, play as a reinforcer can be stronger than other activities or items such as food.

Play Across the Animal Kingdom
Sources:, , , , ,.

Conclusion
Although researchers are still filling the voids of knowledge on the topic of animal play, they have come to understand that the inherent reason for play involves multiple factors and that the connection between the level or availability to play is dependent on an animal’s well-being. From skill acquisition to social emotional elements, play in animals can be a fascinating topic.


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English-Hanzi/When the muscle is elongated, the muscle spindle is stretched and its nerve activity increases

When the muscle is elongated, the muscle spindle is stretched and its nerve activity increases. This increases the activity of alpha motor neurons, causing muscle fibers to contract, thereby resisting stretching. The second group of neurons also causes opposite muscle relaxation. The reflex function keeps the muscles at a constant length.

当肌肉拉长时，肌肉纺锤被拉伸并且其神经活动增加. 这增加了α运动神经元的活性，导致肌肉纤维收缩，从而抵抗了拉伸. 第二组神经元也会引起相反的肌肉松弛. 反射功能使肌肉保持恒定的长度.


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Radiation Oncology/SCLC/Brain Metastases

Small Cell Brain Metastases Overview

 * Small cell lung cancer brain metastases have historically been treated with first line whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT)
 * Small cell lung cancer patients were excluded from the landmark randomized trials that established the strategy of SRS alone for limited brain metastases

Stereotactic Radiosurgery

 * FIRE-SCLC (1994–2018) PMID 32496550 -- "Evaluation of first-line radiosurgery vs whole-brain radiotherapy for small cell lung cancer brain metastases: the FIRE-SCLC cohort study" (Rusthoven CG,JAMA Oncology. 2020, epub Jun 4)
 * Retrospective. 710 patients treated with first-line SRS without prior PCI or WBRT
 * Median OS 8.5 months (1 lesion = 11 mo, 2-4 lesions = 8.7 mo, 5-10 lesion = 8.0 mo, 11+ lesions = 5.5 mo)
 * Median time to CNS progression 8.1 months
 * On comparison with propensity-score matched dataset of first-line WBRT, WBRT was associated with improved time to CNS progression (HR, 0.38; P < .001), without an improvement in overall survival (median, 6.5 mo for SRS vs 5.2 mo for WBRT; P = .003)
 * Conclusion: "Results of this study suggest that the primary trade-offs associated with SRS without WBRT, including a shorter time to CNS progression without a decrease in overall survival, are similar to those observed in settings in which SRS is already established."

 * Review of SRS in SCLC: PMID: 32776807 -- "Radiosurgery for Small-Cell Brain Metastases: Challenging the Last Bastion of Preferential Whole-Brain Radiotherapy Delivery" (Journal of Clinical Oncology, epub August 2020)


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Annotated Republic of China Case Law/Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 2

Date
6 January 1949

Issue
Shall uniform interpretation be mentioned when a governmental agency petitions for it?

Holding
Uniform interpretation shall be mentioned when a governmental agency petitions for it.

Effect
When a governmental agency may petition for unified interpretation is clearer.