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Uncertain Principles

Physics, Politics, Pop Culture

Friday, February 14, 2003

A Gratuity or the Like

I'm tempted to get Derek Lowe in trouble with the Internet Overlords by linking to him with some phrase like "Derek Lowe offers some excellent advice for terrorists regarding nerve agents," but then that would be mean. Then again, I've already posted the phrase, so what the hell. Derek Lowe offers some excellent advice for terrorists regarding nerve agents. (He also plugs Charles Murtaugh's very good analysis of the terror preparedness recommendations I blogged about earlier.) I apologize for any inconvenience. Give Admiral Poindexter my regards.

While you're over at Lagniappe, those of you who aren't terrorists (or "terraced," as our President would say it) might want to scroll down to find good posts on why everybody should learn about quantum mechanics, and genetically engineered microbes that use 21 amino acids instead of the normal 20. The latter is particularly interesting, as there are some wild proposals out there suggesting that the fact that we only use 20 amino acids has a basis in quantum information theory. This has always struck me as little more than numerology, but if the people Derek cites have really made a viable organism that uses 21 amino acids, we may find out. Or, it may turn out to be some sort of home-made alien super-virus. In which case, let me refer any terrorists thinking about using it back to the first paragraph...

On that note, I'm off to work (where, interestingly enough, we'll be having a colloquium on quantum information processing), and then to Boskone.

Posted at 8:09 AM | link | follow-ups |