I thought it was high time we got a thread for any questions, news, or discussion for any of the four general areas of science.

I think it is a brilliant idea!
Anyone here wants to discuss how awesome DNA is?
And for news: Cancer's little helpers.

I would like to now use this thread space to bitch about my Physics AP class.

In short, it consists of some parts unprepared people and other parts plain idiots.

Generally, the standard for taking an AP class is that you must have already taken it already as a more basic regular or pre-ap form. Thus by the time you're in AP you've weeded out the people who only took physics as a requirement and now you can learn with people who care about the subject more and prepare for the AP exam.
Sadly, in this school, any bozo can take AP Physics (without having even taken physics 1). And there's people in my class who struggle with basic cabbage like scientific notation and basic SOHCAHTOA trig. -.-
What do you guys think? Should I just drop the class and self-study for the AP exam? Or should I keep it and get an easy high grade and appear on my transcript all impressive?

Mwamba wrote:I would like to now use this thread space to bitch about my Physics AP class.

In short, it consists of some parts unprepared people and other parts plain idiots.

Generally, the standard for taking an AP class is that you must have already taken it already as a more basic regular or pre-ap form. Thus by the time you're in AP you've weeded out the people who only took physics as a requirement and now you can learn with people who care about the subject more and prepare for the AP exam.
Sadly, in this school, any bozo can take AP Physics (without having even taken physics 1). And there's people in my class who struggle with basic cabbage like scientific notation and basic SOHCAHTOA trig. -.-
What do you guys think? Should I just drop the class and self-study for the AP exam? Or should I keep it and get an easy high grade and appear on my transcript all impressive?

Your school is messed. =p

Really how are you tolerating the class? Since, as you said, the class is easy, it would be better just to get that high GPA. But if you truly can't stand it or find it a waste of time, then I would drop it.

But you should be able to tolerate it really. There's worse.

Hit the morons with sticks until they drop the class.

Sentynel wrote:Hit the morons with sticks until they drop the class.

xD

Well thinking about it, my theatre teacher wants to transfer me from Theatre Arts I class to Production (she was apparently impressed with my literary charisma on some written assignment we were supposed to do to introduce ourselves.) And that class is conveniently at the same time as my Physics class, so I have a convenient way to drop it.

So I suppose MIT Open Course Ware it is and screw the system.

@N&B: When do you predict we will be able to genetically alter our children to resemble x-men characters?

Mwamba wrote:@N&B: When do you predict we will be able to genetically alter our children to resemble x-men characters?

Not in our lifetimes thankfully.

Nero wrote:This doesn't make any sense

It makes complete sense. It is basically what type of evolution you're talking about. Say, if you're talking about a parasite gaining an advantage over a host which contains other parasites, you're talking about competition being the reason for the parasites to evolve. The parasites which don't evolve to produce better defense systems against each other, better adhesion to host, better utilization of available nutrients etc. would die out soon. Here, competition helps them evolve into more virulent organisms. And such evolutions don't really create a complete new species. At most, they create different strains of the same species.

Now, take the case of some wide-scale evolution which produces completely different species. The wild cat didn't evolve into tigers, lions, leopards etc. because of competition. Evolutions of such kind usually occur when some animals of the same species get separated from the rest. And this separation used to mainly occur because of formation of a water body, a mountainous range, migration of a few to a geographically distinct area etc. The animals then continued to evolve, but since the place they now lived in was geographically different, they evolved along different lines. Then, if millenniums later, you bring the once-upon-a-time-same-species together, you realize that they have become so different that they can't even interbreed.

And, about the article, I completely agree with this:

wrote:"It's an interesting study, a wonderful description of diversification of life. The interpretation is, at least in my mind, completely consistent with -- and probably reinforces -- Darwin's insights, which we're still building on today, more than 150 years later," Fox said.

"What the authors have shown is that the diversification of species has gone hand-in-hand with the diversification of ecological roles those species fill. That's exactly what Darwin himself would have expected."

nathanielandbartimaeus wrote:

Nero wrote:This doesn't make any sense

It makes complete sense. It is basically what type of evolution you're talking about. Say, if you're talking about a parasite gaining an advantage over a host which contains other parasites, you're talking about competition being the reason for the parasites to evolve. The parasites which don't evolve to produce better defense systems against each other, better adhesion to host, better utilization of available nutrients etc. would die out soon. Here, competition helps them evolve into more virulent organisms. And such evolutions don't really create a complete new species. At most, they create different strains of the same species.

Now, take the case of some wide-scale evolution which produces completely different species. The wild cat didn't evolve into tigers, lions, leopards etc. because of competition. Evolutions of such kind usually occur when some animals of the same species get separated from the rest. And this separation used to mainly occur because of formation of a water body, a mountainous range, migration of a few to a geographically distinct area etc. The animals then continued to evolve, but since the place they now lived in was geographically different, they evolved along different lines. Then, if millenniums later, you bring the once-upon-a-time-same-species together, you realize that they have become so different that they can't even interbreed.

Ah. I see now. Thank you.

Welcome =D.
And Nero Productions is a cool name. So is the sig.

Thank you.

AND:
IT'S OFFICIAL NOW: GOD DID NOT CREATE THE UNIVERSE

I thought it was already official?

Well, technically nothing is ever official. We could all be a figment of Nero's imagination. XD That is rather unlikely though, I would think. (But if so, then you have a lovely imagination, sir. :P )

FuzzyLobster wrote:Well, technically nothing is ever official. We could all be a figment of Nero's imagination. XD That is rather unlikely though, I would think. (But if so, then you have a lovely imagination, sir. :P )

I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, it created awesometastic people like, say, me. But on the other hand, it created David.

Sentynel wrote:But on the other hand, it created David.

You skate like a girl.

nathanielandbartimaeus wrote:I thought it was already official?

But now it comes from the word of Hawking.

---

Sentynel wrote:

FuzzyLobster wrote:Well, technically nothing is ever official. We could all be a figment of Nero's imagination. XD That is rather unlikely though, I would think. (But if so, then you have a lovely imagination, sir. :P )

I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, it created awesometastic people like, say, me. But on the other hand, it created David.

As great as my imagination created you, we must have balance and create David.

I just hope we're not part of DC's mind.

Well, if we are all a figment of Nero's imagination, let me tell y'all that it was I who entered his mind and implanted the idea of creating us. Also an unfortunate error that occurred during the procedure manifested itself in the form of David. I did not give Nero the idea of creating David.

nathanielandbartimaeus wrote:Well, if we are all a figment of Nero's imagination, let me tell y'all that it was I who entered his mind and implanted the idea of creating us. Also an unfortunate error that occurred during the procedure manifested itself in the form of David. I did not give Nero the idea of creating David.

But then where did you come from?