The mechanisms inhaled anesthetics
The ability to be anesthetized is clearly important from a physiological perspective. Indeed, virtually all life forms have this ability. Why? Anesthesia is not necessary in nature – bunnies do not perform surgery on one another (as far as I can tell). So why should evolution incur the cost of conserving this trait?
There are many theories out there, but this post is not so much about that question as it is the mechanistic possibilities underlying this feature. As engineers know, systemic redundancy leads to robustness; knock out one pathway and there are others to pick up the slack. Many of the studies probing the mechanisms of anesthesia tend to perturb one or a few receptors – either pharmacologically or via genetic studies (knock-in, knock out, RNAi). It remains an open question how this all works.
That the ability to be anesthetized is important is undisputed. It stands to reason that something this important – evidenced by its sheer ubiquity through the tree of life – would be robust, containing redundant paths to achieve the same end. Perhaps anesthesia is not primarily about certain compounds (and they are a diverse group) provoking some specific response (e.g. blocking sodium channels). Maybe it’s that introducing some noxious compound into the system provokes the physiological system at large to invoke a non-specific response – leading to the suppression of excitation and enhancement of inhibition – resulting in sedation.
Probing the mechanisms of inhaled anesthesics with single-receptor mutations is like trying to hold a beach ball underwater – with one finger.
Revelation
Revelation is often thought of as manifestation of the miraculous. G-d reveals itself through some object or event (a bush, a scroll, a parting of seas, a word). But revelation is not a passive quality of being and it does not rely on external conditions. Key to revelation is the idea that the object of revelry was and is present, albeit unknown. Revelation is not invention but discovery (or awareness); dusting the mirror.
Revelation is a chain reaction. Maybe it originates from some divine source. Maybe it originates from other people (i.e. seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants). I like to think that the divine resides within each of us and therefore we should listen to what it is we are thinking, feeling, saying.
We are both capable of receiving revelation as well as revealing for others. That revelation has been historically thought the domain of G-d and it’s Prophets seems unfortunate.
Prophets reveal possibility and break new ground for us to then run in new directions and continue this great reaction into the future. Is there a purpose to this reaction? Who knows – the subject for another time.
T.S. Eliot said it well,
We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
….And we need not keep this knowledge to ourselves
Akrowheels now featured at Crunch Gym
So Crunch gym just launched a class using the Akrowheels. I actually did take the class – my abs were sore for 3 days!
We’re currently courting Angel investors for a round of captalization. This funding is necessary as sales have sharply risen (over 800%) in Q4 of this year as we’ve taken on some larger distributors. Some serious cash-flow for operations is needed to keep up with the pace. Oh, the average Amazon review is 5 stars! Not bad:
Akrowheels get average 5 stars on Amazon!
A Bioinformatics Study – Annotation of Drosophila Erecta
A Bioinformatics Study & ReportA paper I wrote for a bioinformatics class several years ago in which I annotated part of the Drosophila Erecta genome (a Fosmid, to be precise) as part of a concerted effort to annotate the entire genome. The study was spearheaded by Washington U. in Seattle. This paper was A Bioinformatics Study & Reportwritten for a class I took at SFSU in 2007.
