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Present Past Subjects Projects Misc
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DECEMBER 1998
I'm back after an absence of over two months... Slashdot.org (News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters. http://www.slashdot.org) has an thread on telomeres this evening entitled: 'Cells with Infinite Reproduction'. "Yes ... biologists have known about telomerase for a while, and there's been a lot of research into its functionality ... Telomerase basically adds repeating base pairs at the end of chromosomes."
"Each time a cell divides, because of the way chromosomes are duplicated, a small portion of each chromosome at each end is lost; nature has accounted for this by placing a buffer zone at each end of the chromosome; these ends are called telomeres."
"After many divisions, the telomeres are finally eroded away, and the divided cells start losing useful DNA. Telomerase adds more 'buffer' at the end of the chromosomes ... thus allowing more divisions." Yes I'm interested in this 'stuff'. I had a few of my own cells immortalized about this time last year at the University of Maastricht. See: Good and Evil on the Long Voyage (1997) The Slashdot thread mentions 'Henrietta Lacks' and HeLa cells and points to an article explaining the world's first 'immortal' cells to children. http://www.teachnet.org/blueplate/cellrsch.htm The way forward It would appear that attention is as cyclical as the seasons. What goes around comes around. This is true for recurring patterns of interest as much as for my paying attention to attention. So what happened during the great Alamut hiatus? To my mind too much. The snakes and ladders, the slipping and sliding... I became allergic to it. I made an artwork once: 'New Information Upsets Our Delicate Sense of Balance'. New information certainly requires adjustment. New information (and the adjustment) becomes pathological when it results in hyper focus on the information. There is a lot one can say about this. Control becomes exquisite at the edge of instability.
ALAMUT.COM is privately owned and operated Feedback: feedback@alamut.com First created: 30/12/98; 19:05:23 CET Last modified: 1/6/99; 05:17:38 CET
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