SNS: Absolute Genetic Synergy: A New “FBI,” Part I

SNS Subscriber Edition
Week of 3/14/2016    
Vol. 21 Issue 9

In This Issue

FEATURE: Absolute Genetic Synergy: A New “FBI,” Part I

• The Lightbulb Goes On
• The Human Microbiome

Quotes of the Week

Takeout Window

• China’s Economy: Hedge Funds Turn to SNS’ “Flow Economics” via Satellite

Upgrades and Numbers

• China Buys the US (Movie Theaters)
• Chine Buys the US (Hotels)

Ethermail

There are lots of good ideas out there; most of us come across a few, if not many, every week. Occasionally, we stumble upon a much larger, more important thought.

I had the opportunity to visit with a very large number of scientists and engineers a couple of weeks ago, over just a few days, during a series of meetings at Calit2 / Qualcomm Institute at UCSD, in Silicon Valley, and during a private tour of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories.

As often happens, one of the most interesting conversations was unplanned. SNS members may know that SNS and Calit2 have just co-founded the Pattern Recognition Lab, and it was just after the first staff meeting of the PRL that I had the good fortune to also meet the son of Calit2 founding director Larry Smarr, Benjamin. “Benjy” is currently a post-doc at Berkeley, studying biological clocks and circadian rhythms.

I asked Benjy about two papers I had read decades ago while studying biology at Stanford. Both had shown dramatic harm to small mammals (ground squirrels) when the subjects’ biological clocks had been deranged. I’ve often thought of that work in the years since, because of the studies’ dramatic findings. As I recall, in the first, a test group, deranged for 30 days, required 18 months for their bio clocks to sync with those of the control group. In the other, clock cycle derangement led to a reduction in life expectancy of nearly one-half.

Now I’ve got your attention.