Hartree @hartree@qoto.org

A model with any predictions on the probability of abiogenesis (the formation of first life from random chemical processes and then RNA) is, so far, hard to come by. But the consensus is that abiogenesis is extremely improbable, although that's only based on the mechanisms and conditions we could think of.

Let me expand on the numbers. This paper from 2020 gives a really generous goalpost of 40–100 nucleotides for a sequence to be self-replicating.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58060-0

Compare this to the minimal genome - the smallest set of genes for life to exist and propagate. The minimal genome is often considered to be 256 genes. A gene is typically 1000 or more nucleotides long, and there is some space in between, so 256 genes would amount to about 300,000 nucleotides. So the difference in definition is crucial. Not taking any fancy processes into account, just purely statistically, there's "no way" of the minimal genome occuring. The odds are one in 10 to the 90,000 power. I wanted to say, that's like winning a lottery on a cosmic scale - for example, if every solar system in the Universe had humans and everyone bought a ticket, but it's far from that. The probability is so low it's indescribable.

Nevertheless, if we suppose that a self-replicating sequence and an arbitrary amount of time is all we need, we may consider a length of 40–100 nucleotides.

On the cosmological side of calculations, it is easier to have some estimates. Totani argues that while the current number of stars in the observable universe is estimated to be approximately 10 sextillion (or 10^22), the number of stars in a model that accounts for universe inflation may be over 10 googol (or 10^100). "If that is the case, that’s a huge petri dish within which RNA, and life, could form," says an article, but I wouldn't be so optimistic. The cited research author himself says that the sequence length must be shorter than ~20 nucleotides for abiogenesis to occur on a single(!) terrestrial planet, but self-replicating activity is not expected for such a short RNA. Therefore, if extraterrestrial organisms of a different origin from those on Earth are discovered in the future, it would imply an unknown mechanism.

So, for the sake of understanding, there is hope in researching more on the mechanism and chemistry, in a wider set of conditions. But in terms of traveling to see our living brethren, that would never be possible. The theory of relativity forbids us from ever leaving our observable universe anyway.

#abiogenesis #science #biology #cosmology #hartree_bio #aliens

Just watched #Coffeezilla 's documentary on #Tether (#USDT). You'd think the coin acting as a backbone for half of the crypto world would have provable backing by real-world currency... While in reality, it's such a mess I don't even have words for it. Have some top comments instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-whuXHSL1Pg

Darjeeling is a mountain town in the state of West Bengal in India. The world's third highest mountain is located near it - Kangchenjunga.

Darjeeling is famous for three things at least:
- cosmopolitan culture
- nice tea
- Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Its cosmopolitan culture means that, historically, different ethnic groups intermixed and created an environment to eventually live together in accord, as well as become open to different foreign cultures. The main foreign influencer here were the British: for the better, they started the backup tea industry that is now famous for its high quality tea. The reason I say "backup" is because at the time, the British were seeking an alternative supply of tea apart from China and attempted growing the plant in several candidate areas in India. For worse, they displaced a lot of indigenous peoples, made Nepali people work at their plantations and brought a lot of disorder.

More facts:
- Darjeeling tea's production is falling quite rapidly. In its prime, Darjeeling tea production touched 11 million kg in a year. In 2022, its production was at 7 million kg. It's more expensive than common black tea, but is pretty common itself, thus in rough economic times it wouldn't be the first choice.
- The Darjeeling area is located in Eastern Himalayas and has an average elevation of ~2000 metres.
- Kangchenjunga is a mouthful, since it's a Tibetan name. The "en" in the middle is pronounced like in "when"; the "j" after is pronounced like in the word "just". In that part of the world "j" is usually pronounced like that.
- Darjeeling Himalayan Railway features cool blue retro trains. Combine that with the lush mountain views, and it's definitely a memorable trip.
- Darjeeling's population today is constituted largely of the descendants of aforementioned workers from Nepal. Although the Nepali language has been given official recognition in India, the recognition has created little meaningful employment for the language's speakers nor has it increased their ability to have a significantly greater say in their political affairs. But that's a problem in Nepal as well: it's a country greatly dependent on India.

#geography #culture #Darjeeling #India #tea #hartree_geo

Fish from Finding Nemo worth learning about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocellaris_clownfish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_tang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracanthurus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_gramma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorish_idol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaner_shrimp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitetail_dascyllus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_longnose_butterflyfish

#fish #findingnemo #nemo #species #marinebiology

Squares of numbers like 11, 1111, etc. give palindromic numbers - numbers that can be read from left to right the same as from right to left:
111*111=12321
Of course, numbers like 111 are also palindromic.

#math #mathematics #numbers #palindrome #square #hartree_math

There is a story in China, where King Huai of Chu (懐王) saw a dream where he laid with a goddess from the mysterious Wu Mountains (巫山). Now, the character 戯 (as well as ふざける!) can also mean "to have intercourse". Combining "Wu Mountains" and "intercourse" together gives us a story within a single word - 巫山戯る.
As for the reading: the first part, 巫山, is read ふざん. It would be difficult to say ふざんける, so the ん was dropped. The ける part, however, was made up for newer Japanese (the word before was ふざく and didn't have space to house the 戯 character). It could've been ふざかる or something else, for all we know. The point is 戯 doesn't have a reading け・る outside of the word ふざける. And that's pretty curious.

#japanese #language #kanji #etymology #reading #日本語 #漢字 #hartree_jp

I've truly been sleeping on the #Fediverse. Yesterday I've started looking into alternatives to Youtube and, while not federated, I found #LBRY had some success in setting up a decentralised video sharing platform, without ads and copyright bullying.

I cannot believe how progressive it is to already have a fully-functional decentralised network, in which anyone can not only create their own communities (federations) but also shape their functionality and build apps - hell, games! - to interact with them.
#Mastodon #opensource

I encourage more intelligent individuals, who don't have the attention span of a goldfish, to stop tolerating Twitter's handicapping character limit and move to a place without algorithms and centralisation. Me, I might have finally found the place for my thoughts - #Mastodon.