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One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

nytimes.com

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Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#41

Post by rrobukef »

mjevans wrote: post #31
bildung wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the small quantity of humans exactly what makes it less survivable? The smaller the group, the more severe a single fault in the system. This is the way habitats ecosystems work anyway. A trivial example might be aquariums: the bigger the easier to maintain a healty equilibrium.

If you have 1000000 people, there's a very high risk at least one is crazy or illogical with respect to survival. If you have a couple hundred really well examined people who all really wanted to be somewhere the odds are much better, and all the more so, that problems can be contained when identified.

Given that mental illness is prevalent and that we misdiagnose mental illness at a rate >1%. There is a already high risk in a couple hundred people.

Furthermore, some 500 healthy adults do not form a stable society. Being in a high risk environment will flare tempers, 500 is on the low side of genetic diversity, there are no children, there will be pregnancies...

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#42

Post by voisin »

permo-w wrote: post #33

I despise articles written like this Clickbait Headline informative intro Real Article Begins: Once upon a time… Please just tell me the information, I’m not here to read a story

Seems like a good problem to tackle with NLP text summarization.

Text summarization is already pretty good for the real article issue you mentioned. I wonder if the same process could be applied in reverse to identify low quality headlines too.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#43

Post by Xplune13 »

grey-area wrote: post #38
Xplune13 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find these types of comments funny. I cannot think of any other reason on why a person would think that going to mars is a better option than lack of research on the planet and its habitability. On top of that, going to Mars isn't going to magically solve the problems. As I've said earlier in some past comment, going to Mars is just as good as moving the goalpost. What we have to do is change what we're curr…

The reason for going to Mars is not to avoid mankind’s mistakes (e.g. global warming) but to avoid the great filter in whatever form it takes.

Yes, that's what I meant when I said I'm all for space exploration. But, most of the reasons to leave the planet Earth from us general public have been in the line of "I'm fed up with all this and that's why I have to go to the Mars to start anew" i.e. mostly running away from the problems or fed up of the system etc.

That being said, in my opinion, we should definitely pay more attention to saving this planet rather than finding new ones and doing the same thing all over again.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#44

Post by mhb »

permo-w wrote: post #33

I despise articles written like this Clickbait Headline informative intro Real Article Begins: Once upon a time… Please just tell me the information, I’m not here to read a story

Well, journalists used to be taught the inverted pyramid concept. Maybe they've become preoccupied with other agenda.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#45

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

Xplune13 wrote: post #26
gnarbarian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. This is why I am dead set on one of those tickets to Mars.

I always find these types of comments funny. I cannot think of any other reason on why a person would think that going to mars is a better option than lack of research on the planet and its habitability. On top of that, going to Mars isn't going to magically solve the problems. As I've said earlier in some past comment, going to Mars is just as good as moving the goalpost. What we have to do is change what we're curr…

Yeah, I agree. Mars is so utterly inhospitable that even the worst apocalypses the earth has ever seen (since it has cooled anyway) leave it orders of magnitude more hospitable. Going to mars and learning how to live there is certainly valuable, but it is definitely not a solution to earth's environmental problems.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#46

Post by JoeAltmaier »

permo-w wrote: post #33

I despise articles written like this Clickbait Headline informative intro Real Article Begins: Once upon a time… Please just tell me the information, I’m not here to read a story

Its four pages including large pictures. Shorter than a children's book. Have a heart - its an interesting story with lots of detail packed into those 20 paragraphs.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#47

Post by weinzierl »

puzzledobserver wrote: post #8
flobosg wrote: post #2

Not the longest, but my favorite long-running experiment is the E. coli LTEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_ex... EDIT: I just realized that the LTEE and Beal’s experiment are being conducted at the same place, Michigan State University!

It's amazing how such long experiments are organized. My first thought when I read "longest-running experiment" was the Rothamstead Park Grass Experiment. I'm accustomed to thinking of Big Science as the LHCs and the Human Genome Project and the Human Brain Projects of the world, but there might be a category of experiments that are instances of Long-Term Science.

> It's amazing how such long experiments are organized.

.. and how they are financed. Sometimes I wonder what humanity missed because experiments that only yield after more than one generation are rare.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#48

Post by ballenf »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #46
permo-w wrote: post #33

I despise articles written like this Clickbait Headline informative intro Real Article Begins: Once upon a time… Please just tell me the information, I’m not here to read a story

Its four pages including large pictures. Shorter than a children's book. Have a heart - its an interesting story with lots of detail packed into those 20 paragraphs.

I don't get moralizing the point. And if you want to go that route, I'd argue that forcing someone who is coming to you based on a headline's promise to sift through a short children's book is disrespectful and rude.

But maybe it's a generational thing and stories are what more people expect now. I bet NYT knows its audience better than I do.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#49

Post by gnarbarian »

Xplune13 wrote: post #26
gnarbarian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. This is why I am dead set on one of those tickets to Mars.

I always find these types of comments funny. I cannot think of any other reason on why a person would think that going to mars is a better option than lack of research on the planet and its habitability. On top of that, going to Mars isn't going to magically solve the problems. As I've said earlier in some past comment, going to Mars is just as good as moving the goalpost. What we have to do is change what we're curr…

It's not about what's better for me. It's about avoiding global extinction events and not keeping all our eggs in one basket. it's also about sacrifice in order to push the envelope and to rekindle The drive for exploration and discovery. it's about escaping before it is made impossible by people in this thread arguing that we should be punished for even trying.

Re: One of the World’s Longest-Running Experiments Sends Up Sprouts

#50

Post by Xplune13 »

gnarbarian wrote: post #49
Xplune13 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find these types of comments funny. I cannot think of any other reason on why a person would think that going to mars is a better option than lack of research on the planet and its habitability. On top of that, going to Mars isn't going to magically solve the problems. As I've said earlier in some past comment, going to Mars is just as good as moving the goalpost. What we have to do is change what we're curr…

It's not about what's better for me. It's about avoiding global extinction events and not keeping all our eggs in one basket. it's also about sacrifice in order to push the envelope and to rekindle The drive for exploration and discovery. it's about escaping before it is made impossible by people in this thread arguing that we should be punished for even trying.

> It's about avoiding global extinction events and not keeping all our eggs in one basket.

That's what I meant when I said "I'm all for space exploration".

> it's also about sacrifice in order to push the envelope and to rekindle The drive for exploration and discovery which made Western civilization great.

That "I'm all for space exploration" also covers this point as well. I'm not against space exploration and habitation. What I'm saying is we should definitely pay more attention to this planet because it is still possible to save this planet. Mars has so many obstacles that as one other comment said, Antarctic is more habitable than Mars. What I'm against is people who say "I'm off to Mars the first time tickets get available" to avoid current Earth problems (may it be their personal lives or the whole system). Expecting different things in context of these problems is just naive at best as these are human thinking problems which cannot be solved with reaching different planet i.e moving the goalpost.

Your first comment came off like that. If my interpretation was wrong then I'm sorry.

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