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Science

Submission + - Confusion and Criticism over ENCODE's Claims (arstechnica.com) 1

As_I_Please writes: In response to the previous report of the ENCODE project discovering "biochemical functions for 80 percent of the genome," many scientists have questioned what was meant by "function." Ars Technica Science Editor John Timmer wrote an article calling ENCODE's definition of functionality "broad to the point of being meaningless. At worst, it was actively misleading." Nature magazine also has a followup discussing the ambiguity surrounding the 80% figure and claims about junk DNA.

Comment RDX (Score 1) 268

RDX is much more cost-efficient for small setups and claims the same durability. Sure, the RDX disks are more expensive than tape but the drives are available for $60. And they act like HDD because that is basically what they are.

Idle

Submission + - Scientific study proves IE6 users are retards (aptiquant.com)

Ubi_NL writes: Didn't we know it all along? Well, now its scientifically proven! A Vancouver based Psychometric Consulting company, AptiQuant, has released a report on a trial it conducted to measure the effects of cognitive ability on the choice of web browser. AptiQuant offered free online IQ tests to over a 100,000 people and then plotted the average IQ scores based on the browser on which the test was taken. And the results are really not that surprising. With just a look at the graphs in the report, it comes out pretty clear that Internet Explorer users scored lower than average on the IQ tests. Chrome, Firefox and Safari users had just a teeny bit higher than average IQ scores. And users of Camino, Opera and IE with Chrome Frame had exceptionally higher IQ levels.

Comment Re:So lots of things. (Score 1) 189

I'm sorry but that is just the biggest load of nonsense ever encountered. First and foremost, there is no such thing as complete redundancy in genomic information. THe simplest explanation is that there is exactly zero evolutionary benefit of it, as destruction of a redundant copy does not reduce fitness but in fact increases it due to reduced energy requirement to copy the redundant pair in mitosis. In other words, the redundant copy is removed from the genepool very quickly. There are more elaborate reasons but that would make me repeat a few hunderd scientific manuscripts on the topic from the last 10 years or so. Also, there is no point in having redundant pairs of genes to shield from radiation. It is much better to have an improved DNA repair system and remove individuals from the gene pool that fail to stabilize their genome.

Seeing this being +5 insightful is something I'd expect from 4chan, not /.

Comment Re:The grey lady should look before leaping (Score 1) 368

The difference is that the Times main revenue is the paper edition, whereas Slate mainly existed as a website. As mentioned above, the Times doesn't make any money from the site, but in fact loses money as it makes their paper edition worthless. So for them less online popularity may actually increase revenue.

Ubi

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