Getting A Life

Just a wee heads up on the mycorrhizal fungi as discussed. VAM is a broad term that doesn't deal with specifics of major mycorrhizal fungi. The two major groups of mycorrhizal fungi are ectomycorrhizal and endomycorrhizal. The majority of plants associate with one of the two, some with both. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are typically basidiomycetes with visible fruiting bodies. They wrap their hyphae around the exterior of root systems. Typical associations are with trees and perennials. In vitro propogation of most species fails or lacks vitality as they require a host plant. Many endomycorrhizal species can be found associated with host trees in autumn (normally a couple metres out from drip line) and their fruiting bodies can be gathered and made into a spore slurry for innoculation of similar species being planted on your land. Endomycorrhizal fungi are zygomycetes. These lack a visible fruiting body and sporulate underground for the most part. The hypha penetrate cell walls of roots. These species are typically associated with annuals, like many of our vegetable crops. It takes a microscope to find these associations. Doud's bahai grass is a great system, but many other plants may be better suited for endomycorrhizal propogation in your environment as discussed. The science slapping is a bit out of line. If academic papers do not float your boat by all means find more suitable reading material for yourself. In vitro experiments are obviously limited but there are a great number of field trials regarding fungi and biochar all around the globe. I agree that innoculating char will accelerate it's benefits in soil. If the soil lacks (and needs) the organisms you are innoculating. Compost teas, bahai type endo cultures, collection of autumn ectomycorrhizal species for the compost, that's how it's done cheaply. Here's another list of some plants and associations. Products there too, not a product placement. Not my business. I'm a student. Fungal associations.

I think it deserves looking into. What weaknesses the body has are often highlighted when deprived of sleep - scars are enhanced, aches and pains appear, even lumps... The body in a non rested state might point out problems not normally manisfesting in a rested state. This may make early diagnosis of certain conditions a lot easier. I bet good money it affects blood counts of metabolites and more. This doesn't fit my study in any manner, whoever here is medical, and looking for an interesting study - take this observation and put it to good use please.

Safety is paramount. I think there should be a few changes to synthetic species to provide peace of mind for those afraid of the implications when these organisms are used in the wider world. eg: Removing the genes responsible for transormation and conjugation of prokaryotes. Provided artificial cells reproduce via binary fission there is no real cause for alarm as the nth generation should still be the same as the first. Of course, then there's mutation. Transfer of genes responsible for DNA editing could help reduce occurence. As for plasmid and virus vectors - I don't know. The papers a good read. It proves what I suspected all along - ideas for utilising biotechnology are rather simple to come up with but the actual practise takes a lot of time and hard work. 15 years for Craig Venter to pull this off, worth every minute.

It is the coupling of exergonic reactions to endergonic that makes a cell's metabolism so efficient.

Just a heads up on that paper. THANK YOU VERY MUCH kind people, for helping me out. Math 108 - A. I hope I can help others here in time as I get clued up.

Ahh, the plot thickens (and confounds a bit). Perhaps the channel is coupled with another cellular metabolic event. I forget the name but one activity eg: bond cleaving, produces the energy to drive another. Much of cellular work is done in this manner. Balance and efficiency. In a similar vein, as the other protein (Na+/K+ pump with facilitated transport) exports 3 Na+ and only imports 2 K+ this would imply an electrochemical gradient is created that might be utilised by other processes like the channel proteins you are examining. Just theorising, hoping some edyarkated type will step in and reveal all. This stuff fascinates me, but is also hard for me to grasp. Love will conquer :phones:

Sorry mate, was in a hurry and didn't read properly, love the links by the way. If the channel is a sieve the gradient must be higher (before sieving) and lower (in destination). Otherwise, it must be facilitated transport to work against a gradient. Feedback regulation is huge in cellular metabolism. Levels will be monitored and adjusted, no idea how but typically involves an allosteric protein in the pathway.

"If the channel acts as a sieve then what happen to the local concentrations, inside and outside?" The K/Na channel is ATP assisted, so can work against a gradient. 3 Na+ ions are expelled as 2 K+ ions are imported. The protein channel is not a sieve, it regulates the flow of ions according to cellular/extracellular conditions.

I never cared for anything or so I thought, now I'm studying ecology and I'm engaged, enthused and passionate about our planet. The young folks today are a lot smarter when it comes to sustainability. I have hope for our future, and marvel at the change in the general populations mindset this past decade. It's our corporate leaders who will screw everything up, these archaic old fashioned freaks with nothing on their minds but growth. Another word for growth is tumor.

I always liked to shoot from the hip but I never realised I held a smoking gun. The fairy tale of Hell had me spouting truth as fast as I could think it subversion just would not do as I would roast and as a wee boy the very smell singed my nostrils acrid with fear. The foundation of my truth was a ridiculous lie, but I learnt to speak it so well you'd never see that the seams that held it together were actually cracks. I thought truth was the greatest thing but the cops lied when I stood in the dock and the truth I spelt out sent me down for some time. The truth has seen me assualted by big stupid men who asked for opinions they didn't really want. The truth saw me ostracised, outcast and outclassed by perfect little liars. But the thing about the truth is, it's better than the fiction. Good one liners win the fight every time, even when you're getting your *** kicked. With these truths I like to use a bit of poetic liscence. :shrug:

Hear Hear. Use it or lose it. Brains and brawn. But in evolution? When speaking of evolving, we know that Dad pushing weights does not give son bigger arm genes. In that respect Dad not pushing weights does not make a wimpy son or pass on wimpy arm genes. The only way a machine that does our lifting would create humans with skinny weak arms is if weak skinny armed people got laid more often than strong armed people. It would have little to do with the prosthetic, only our opinion of the mating desirability of those with the prosthetic. We are dumbing ourselves down through television, not calculators. Television reinforces stupidity and big strong arms as desirable. Stupid people think they're hot in their calvin kleins and they pump weights and each other and more stupid people are made. Clever people don't get laid often enough. They're too busy, and rarely watch television where they might learn to act stupid so as not to stand out as a skinny armed freak, and get themselves laid. I have a calculator, but I hate not understanding the proof and math behind it, not really doing math punching buttons is it. Just a stupid illusion. Stupid people sell their calculator as soon as they don't have more math classes and they never understood any of it anyways. Seems off topic a bit, but the topic title fits it.

Very well put. The more intelligent/advanced we become, the more the concept of God must advance beyond what our intelligence can encompass. As we become 'godlike' the goalposts shift so that godlike is not within human capability. You can't impress the natives with fire if they have blowtorches. 1MYAP... 1MYBP = 1 million years before present. 1MYAP = ? :shrug:

Having just come back from 1MYAP I can tell you: Creation is a board game, and old hat. Black holes are simply misunderstood. Religions are defined as early programmable psycho/social viruses. We hated the concept of God being supreme to us. That was the only impossible premise: We destroyed the religions. We destroyed their literature. We killed their Gods and replaced them with ourselves, the true rulers of destiny. We are the Gods of our own designs. Through our consciousness we are everything that ever exists.

They keep you hooked, and months later, when your initial quit resolve has been whittled down to the skin of your teeth, that's when you got to dump the patches and go through withdrawal... Patches set up a psychological barrier for months (soon you have to go off the patches, you need them, getting quit is hard, follow the instructions...) Cunning product. Keeps you buying nicotine even when you are 'quitting' and keeps you thinking it's all a really big deal. It's not. It's all in your head. The only big deal is the fact it is poison. Our countries are run by people who care more for cash and 'freedom of choice' than they do for human life and common sense. 'Freedom of choice' just doesn't work when there's so many options on our shelves. I don't want to spend my life researching catalogue items and minutely examining everything I consume as it's 'up to me to be informed'... Surely our governments need to grow some testicles, and kick these large corporations squarely in theirs.

More questions... Where do I start to derive y= ln(x^5/5) I'm having trouble with the x^5/5 term. I need a derivative. Ah just answered my own question, I think... Do I use chain rule, and use quotient rule to get derivative of x^5/5 term, then solve? Please don't solve that one for me, it's an assignment question. Just a hint if I'm moving in the right direction would be appreciated. Also, if you have a term eg f (x) = 5 ; What value would I enter as f ' (x) ? 0? Two weeks to go... got 2 extra marks awarded in test, marker was wrong - 94%. Thanks for the help! Exams gonna be tough though, lots of new material to learn yet and little time to do it in... Nothing like a good challenge, the old gray matter is partially cobwebs but I'm soldiering on.

Yes, I needed the rest. There are lots of wee 'leaps' in the algebra, showing my lack of basics having skipped school early. I'm sitting with year 12 and 13 (with calculus) textbooks on my desk though and refusing to let anything slide. Another brief question (or two): If I derive 0.5x^2 does it become x or 1. And... What is the order for sorting out a derivative. Do I use chain rule first then quotient/product rule, or vice versa. Starting to get most of the chain rule problems now...

Thanks JM. Methinks I'm getting a bit tired not to have spotted that. I'm taking the (1/2 an) evening off! Time for a movie and junk food.

Again most grateful. We're getting two new subjects a day now, no problem with product or quotient rules but the chain rule is giving me grief. The 1st example, after the working states 3/2x^2 x 4x = 6/x. How did they get this. I can enter the values etc and get 3/2x^2 x 4x, but the algebra seems to take a leap to = 6/x; that I don't fathom. Without understanding this I fear I'll keep getting stuck at half an anwer ie: not enough working. Is there a name for what I am trying to fathom, I have a few books on math I can look it up. ps: 90% on the midterm test, could improve, next time I won't leave early. Was a bit sick but poor excuse I had 20 minutes to check answers and didn't. I'm also interested in Mayan math. I can multiply it out in base 10 and 20 now using both numeral systems. I'd love to know who has a handle on how they worked out division etc. Had very little time for it so far unfortunately, too much math 102.

Wow, thanks Craig. Would you mind if I print this and show a couple of classmates? I was messing with rational functions and derivatives last night and came up with this A/B^c derived becomes A(-c)/B^C+1. Thing is it works half the time the other half a negative sign is in the wrong place. Any idea how to tidy this up? It might be ok it was very late I'll investigate it some more today. Again, thank you I'm very grateful for the realistic advice and help you folks have given. I never dreamed I'd enjoy math.

Thank you Don. I was not aware I could take a 6th root. As for algebra, I really enjoy it but it does not come easily. I first met algebra in August last year in an adult bridging course. Damn was that a learning curve! I use a refill pad a week practising algebra but I still meet certain problems (like the above) and for some reason I'm blank. In looking at some of tricks logs can perform I'm keen to get them straight in my head, but a new situation still throws my newly trained algebraic grey matter into a tailspin. Logs, exponents, roots, my latest algebraic bugbears. I shall persevere as you are right - it's fun.

That is so awesome! Say you have land to be farmed, and you plan buildings etc, certain key spots of frequent use get a bit more substrate, watch the slime mold link it up - there's your raceways. Roads, shipping, pedestrian traffic. Model constraints and bring in the slime. I wonder how they handle contours? In "Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamets there is a slime mold negotiating a maze. Most excellent.

Yep, that's right, that's the paper, entry level math and I'm struggling with logs. I've never seen them before and now after 2 lectures I'm meant to have a handle on them. Summer school is a mad pace I can't let these slow me up too much. I'm not here to cheat. here's something I solved, is there an easier way, this hurt my head. Is it just practise I need, why are these darn things so alien? My attempt. Find r. 30®^6 = 300 r^6 = 10 6 log r = log 10 log r = log 10/6 = 1/6 log r = 1/6 -> 6^-1 = 1/6 10^(1/6) = r r = 1.467799268 Very hard for me to bridge the gap and find meaning to log r = (1/6) when I finally clicked I'd found that statement in base 10 and could rearrange it so. Any way to see these things, or do I just need to keep remembering lists of powers? I'd have been screwed if I met this question in a test, it literally took me hours. We all gotta start somewheres...

Dd's twin, you are so far moved from reality, where is it you hang out to hear such tripe voiced as reason. Making anything illegal increases crime rates - well duh! Mate, what are you saying, if rape was legalised we could lower crime? WTF? Make things illegal kids want to try it even more - hmm, didn't raise the homosexuality rate. In fact, I'm sure there's more than ever here now it is legal and less people are haters. Good on them, everyone deserves love (except me, dd's vacuous twin has pointed out what a %$$@#% and #$^^& and #$^%^& I am). Anything illegal and quality suffers - Go have a rushed through highly profitable and completely unneccessary swine flu jab or two and tell me about how quality it was. Go check out the $2 shop for legal quality. Ill informed nonsense once again. You say the buyer has the choice, so what is the point of this point? 4. "Trading freedoms for protections from one's own stupidity" - you must be industry, only they talk such two faced garbage trying to make a consumer feel bad and calling him stupid for thinking they shouldn't sell poison. As for 5 and 6, is this your attempts at humour? You appear to have a very limited intellect, it is quite common, I think I'll go talk to my plants.

Moontanman you say nobody lied to your son but all his movie heros were lying to him smoking is not cool it is not something you give a dying man it is not something you should give to anyone (like giving a rock to a drowning man). The way of thinking I hear from mr twin is so far removed to many other ways of thinking in the world. Unfortunately it is also common. These free enterprise freaks - what's free about it? Profiting from death and calling it free enterprise is gutless pandering to corporate interests and the greed of the few outweighing everything else. Some people are too stupid to be allowed to choose. Freeztar, yes, scare campaigns don't work. Adding up benefits doesn't work either. I think Alan Carr hit it on the head. The whole smoking thing is a giant crock - brainwashing - and the actual addiction becomes significant due to our programming - that dying man sucking on a cigarette his best friend gives him is a powerful and oft repeated scene - we are presented with smoking as some sort of special thing that imparts us with the ability to face even death - but the reality is the only real payoff is the scraching of a mild physical itch caused by the cigarettes themselves. The brainwashing is the real fight. Every little pang becomes a means for your mind to start talking crap to itself. Years of brainwashing have their power. Look at the ways fundamentals religious indoctrination can see young people discard their lives for an ideal, why wouldn't billions and billions in funds spread over decades and decades of programming product placement and advertising have some mental power over the general populace. Most crimes against humanity are dwarfed by comparison with the tobacco giants and the govts and industries they sleep with. They poison a large percentage of our population for financial gain while inundating and overloading our health systems worldwide. Ordinary folks we all love just like you and yours die prematurely of horrible indignities and the trade continues. Free enterprise. Jerks.:naughty:

It's not about me. It's about the law. You sure sound pissed about something there, you got a grudge now you had to stop, one year and you sure sound miserable about it... So I'm an "@#%$", "a complete *&$%", and I suffer from stupidity. OK. I can't wait to see your next contributions, class act all round. B)