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Like the man said, humans can’t see with their eyes….
THE CREATOR IS A BEETLE (OR A STAR)
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The evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane Is famous for having repeatedly said that “the Creator must have an inordinate fondness for beetles, for the simple reason that there are just so many varieties of beetles on Earth.” (He also noted that the Creator also was “endowed with a passion for stars” – again, because there are just so darn many of them.)
Stephen Jay Gould added to this by noting:
“God is most likely to take trouble over reproducing his own image, and his 400,000 attempts at the perfect beetle contrast with his slipshod creation of man. When we meet the Almighty face to face he will resemble a beetle (or a star).”
The Coleoptera /koʊliːˈɒptərə/ order of insects is commonly called beetles. The word “coleoptera” is from the Greek κολεός,koleos, meaning “sheath”; and πτερόν, pteron, meaning “wing”, thus “sheathed wing. The Coleoptera include more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known types of animal life-forms. About 40% of all described insect species are beetles (about 400,000 species), and new species are discovered frequently. Some estimates put the total number of species, described and undescribed, at as high as 100 million, but a figure of one million is more widely accepted. ————–
According to astronomers, there are probably more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, stretching out
into a region of space 13.8 billion light-years away from us in all directions. And so, if you multiply the number of stars in our galaxy by the number of galaxies in the Universe, you get approximately 1024 stars. That’s a 1 followed by twenty-four zeros. That’s a septillion stars. But there could be more than that.
It’s been calculated that the observable Universe is a bubble of space 47 billion years in all directions. This is a minimum value, the Universe could be much bigger – it’s just that we can’t ever detect those stars because they’re outside the observable Universe. It’s even possible that the Universe is infinite, stretching on forever, with an infinite amount of stars. So add a couple more zeros. Maybe an infinite number of zeroes. That’s a lot of stars in the Universe.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/102630/how-many-stars-are-there-in-the-universe/#ixzz2uK83T2IZ
SIZE IS RELATIVE TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW
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This is an animation that demonstrates the relative size of Earth to the rest of the universe.
HOW BIG IS YOUR GENOME?
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(According to Earth “scientists”), genes are the fundamental units of inheritance in living organisms. Together, they hold all the information necessary to reproduce a given organism and to pass on genetic traits to its offspring.
Biologists have long debated what constitutes a gene in molecular terms but one useful definition is a region of DNA that carries that code necessary to make a molecular chain called a polypeptide. These chains link together to form proteins and so are the bricks and mortar out of which all organism are constructed.
Given this crucial role, it is no surprise that an ongoing goal in biology is to work out the total number of protein-coding genes necessary to construct a given organism. Biologists think the yeast genome contains about 5300 coding genes and a nematode worm genome contains about 20,470.
But the number for humans has been the subject of constant revision since biologists first began the task of estimating them in the 1960s. Then, they believed humans could have as many as 2 million protein-coding genes. But by the time the human genome project began in the late 1990s, the highest estimates put the number at 100,000 and the number has continued to shrink.
That’s an interesting result that is partly a reflection of the state of genomics. The human genome is by no means fully defined and biologists are still in the process of refining their gene models and withdrawing genes in the process.
Indeed, in the most recent update of the genome release, geneticists have withdrawn 328 of the 2000 genes that Ezkurdia, Tress and co identify as potentially non-coding.
And on this evidence, the human genome is set to get smaller still. “Our evidence suggests that the final number of true protein coding genes in the reference genome may lie closer to 19,000 than to 20,000.”
Which means that humans have fewer protein-coding genes even than nematode worms.
Geneticists long ago debunked the idea that more complex organisms require more genes. The water flea, for example, has 31,000 genes, the most in any animal, while the organism with the largest genome is thought to be the Paris jabonica, a rare flowering plant native to Japan.
The fact that the human genome is so parsimonious raises an interesting question. What exactly is it about the human genome that gives rise to our staggering complexity, in the brain for example, compared to other animals such as monkeys, worms or even water fleas?
A good answer to that question will win prizes!
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1312.7111 : The Shrinking Human Protein Coding Complement: Are There Fewer Than 20,000
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
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The public library system is one of the best ideas ever created to ensure a free, egalitarian society.
“In 1731, Benjamin Franklin and his friends, sometimes called “the Junto”, operated the Library Company of Philadelphia partly as a means to settle arguments and partly as a means to advance themselves through sharing information. Franklin’s subscription library allowed members to buy “shares” and combined funds were used to buy more books; in return, members could borrow books and use the library. Today, the Library Company continues to exist as a nonprofit, independent research library.
Recently, a general change in attitude regarding libraries has become apparent, especially in younger generations. Students now enter college with a much different idea regarding libraries and how to go about finding information they need. A study of around 2,000 American college students showed that 93% felt that finding information online “made more sense” than going to the actual library. Furthermore, 83% stated they were frequently unable to get the information they needed due to library hours and another 75% said they just didn’t have time to go to the library.
This study follows a trend found elsewhere in the nation during this current economic recession. More people are relying on their public libraries during tough economic times. It really underscores the importance of public libraries, especially when the economy declines and unemployment rises.” The study looked to measure the increases in six categories from June 2008 until November 2008 in comparison to previous years. The categories considered were attendance (patron visits), circulation (material checkouts), virtual visits, reference transactions, percent of time public Internet computers are in use, and number of public internet computer users. The percent increases from the previous year are as follows:
- Attendance (patron visits): 7.5%
- Circulation (material checkouts): 11.22%
- Virtual visits (such as to a library Web page): 20.21%
- Reference transactions: 4.41%
- Percent of time public Internet computers are in use: 9.74%
- Number of public Internet computer users: 13.77%.
As can be seen from this data, all aspects of library use have significantly increased compared to the previous year.
Unfortunately, as library usage grows during a recession, the ability to fund public libraries declines.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)