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Submission + - Scientists create bacteria with expanded DNA code (firstpost.com)

perryizgr8 writes: Biologists have managed to create a bacteria with DNA made of the usual A-T, C-G plus an artificial third base pair, thus encoding more data in DNA.

"This shows that other solutions to storing information are possible and takes us closer to an expanded-DNA biology that will have many exciting applications — from new medicines to new kinds of nanotechnology," said Romesberg.


Comment Re:Could be worse (Score 1) 191

Giving lectures, on the other hand, is the most efficient way to learn.

this is truer than most people realize. i had a teacher who divided the syllabus into parts at the start of the semester, and gave each student one part to teach. everyone knew their parts well in time and had time to prepare. the portion i had to take up, i didn't even need to study for the final, just the other topics. i wonder how well my score could have been if i would have taught the whole syllabus.

Yet, no matter how you take your notes, attending lectures is the least efficient way to learn.

i don't know about this. many people don't attend lectures and get copies of notes from multiple people. then decipher those notes, and make their own notes. i tried it a couple of times (classes are boring!) and i feel this is the least efficient way to learn. people take notes for themselves. the notes are full of individual quirks, mnemonics, povs to look at a concept, etc. it's very tough to grasp the crux, and form your own understanding. in comparison, teachers usually present the topic as is, without much of an individual spin.

Comment Re:Battery Life (Score 1) 191

the s4 is such a nice piece of hardware, but they have burdened it with at least 15 redundant apps. why do i need two browsers, 2 music players, 2 email clients, 2 sms clients, 2 voice thingies, 2 notes, 2 galleries, 2 video players, 2 book readers, 2 app stores? i'm surprised it still works as well as it does. and no way to remove the crap. even microsoft doesn't include as much crap, and all of that is removable.
here, neither google, nor samsung is willing to back down. i like apps from both samsung and google, i can use both variants of the browser, for example. please one of you be the bigger person and let me remove your app!

Comment Re:Seriously, Get A Life (tm) ... (Score 1) 24

Facebook should by Foursquare.

1000x this. Foursquare has been the most obvious purchase for facebook since the beginning. Instead of buying unrelated crap (instagram/whatsapp), Zucky should just buy foursquare and integrate the whole functionality. It will be the first acquisition which would add real value.

Comment Re:tabs on the side (Score 1) 688

so people are actually using that piece of shit called "firefox for android"? just switch to chrome. excellent support for hundreds of tabs, simple+cool+responsive ui. in fact the tab switch ui is better than the desktop version's tab bar.

Comment Re:woo (Score 1) 688

and the other tabs fade into the background to be less of a distraction when youâ(TM)re not using them.

multiple extensions were able to do this, long ago. and with more customization too.

The Firefox menu has moved to the right corner of the toolbar and puts all your browser controls in one place.

the logic is: it's better because it's identical to chrome.

The menu includes a âoeCustomizeâ tool that transforms Firefox into a powerful customization mode where you can add or move any feature, service or add-on.'

this "customization mode" is a joke. it's just a super watered-down version of the customize toolbars feature. it has about a 10th of the functionality, but cool pretty animations and cute gridlines.

PS: tab mix plus features don't work properly with tree style tabs anymore. the last thing i was holding on was because i loved to have a vertical tabbar and set double click on tab bar to open a new tab. and its gone. and i dunno whose fault it is. but since the breakage happened with the 29 update, i am inclined to believe it was mozilla, and not the extension authors (who have always been the value adders for firefox, imo).

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