Watched "The West Wing" Constituency of One from Netflix
Directed by Laura Innes. With Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Joshua Malina, Janel Moloney. While Will gets an enticing offer from the new Vice President, Josh finds himself responsible for a crucial mistake that could sorely embarrass the Administration. He isn't the only one on the wrong side of the tracks as Amy finds out first hand why she shouldn't handle the First Family.
I’ve been watching West Wing a lot this month as background noise, but actually sat through this episode and paid attention. Sort of sad that it’s leaving Netflix on the 24th, but I’m hoping it will return to the air immediately on HBO Max, which I’m already subscribed up in anticipation.
Read Snowflakes in SoCal! A High School Musical (ceruleansounds.com)
A small-town activist thinks he’ll be better off fighting climate change with the other queer influencers on the West Coast! But Southern California ain’t all sunshine & rainbows…
ᔥ w4rner in @c ha love it! I explore similar themes of sentimental West Coast environmentalists in my satirical musical “Snowflakes in SoCal!” ()
Bookmarked Nonenzymatic Template-Directed RNA Synthesis Inside Model Protocells (science.sciencemag.org)
The potential for self-replication makes RNA an attractive candidate as a primordial catalysis in the origin of life. Catalysis may have occurred in some kind of compartment, possibly a fatty acid vesicle. However, RNA catalysis generally requires high levels of magnesium, which are incompatible with fatty acid vesicle integrity. Adamala and Szostak (p. [1098][1]) screened magnesium chelators and found that several—including citrate, isocitrate, and oxalate—could maintain the membrane stability of fatty acid vesicles in the presence of Mg2+. Citrate also allowed Mg2+-dependent RNA synthesis within protocell-like vesicles, while at the same time protecting RNA from Mg2+-catalyzed degradation. Efforts to recreate a prebiotically plausible protocell, in which RNA replication occurs within a fatty acid vesicle, have been stalled by the destabilizing effect of Mg2+ on fatty acid membranes. Here we report that the presence of citrate protects fatty acid membranes from the disruptive effects of high Mg2+ ion concentrations while allowing RNA copying to proceed, while also protecting single-stranded RNA from Mg2+-catalyzed degradation. This combination of properties has allowed us to demonstrate the chemical copying of RNA templates inside fatty acid vesicles, which in turn allows for an increase in copying efficiency by bathing the vesicles in a continuously refreshed solution of activated nucleotides. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1241888
ᔥ Michael Marshall in He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have so few heard of him? ()
Bookmarked Tibor Gánti (1933- 2009): Towards the Principles of Life and Systems Chemistry (Journal of Theoretical Biology | sciencedirect.com)
Edited by Eörs Szathmáry
Volume 381, Pages 1-60 (21 September 2015)
ᔥ Michael Marshall in He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have so few heard of him? ()

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Bookmarked Founder of systems chemistry and foundational theoretical biologist: Tibor Gánti (1933–2009) (sciencedirect.com)
With his chemoton theory theoretical biologist and chemical engineer Tibor Gánti was one of the most outstanding intellects behind systems chemistry a…
ᔥ Michael Marshall in He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have so few heard of him? ()