Monday's Molecule #184

Last week's molecule was raltitrexid, an anti-cancer drug [Monday's Molecule #183]. The winner was Raul A. Félix de Sousa. Raul has won ten times since I restarted Monday's Molecule last November.

This week's molecule is another strange-looking molecule with a very specific purpose. Identify the molecule and its role in mammals.

Post your answers as a comment. I'll hold off releasing any comments for 24 hours. The first one with the correct answer wins. I will only post mostly correct answers to avoid embarrassment. The winner will be treated to a free lunch.

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your comment.)

Some past winners are from distant lands so their chances of taking up my offer of a free lunch are slim. (That's why I can afford to do this!)

In order to win you must post your correct name. Anonymous and pseudoanonymous commenters can't win the free lunch.

Winners will have to contact me by email to arrange a lunch date. Please try and beat the regular winners. Most of them live far away and I'll never get to take them to lunch. This makes me sad.

Comments are invisible for 24 hours. Comments are now open.

UPDATE: The molecule is warfarin or Coumadin®, a rat poison and an anticoagulant. It's a competitive inhibitor of vitamin K reductase and this blocks blood clotting. The winner is Matt McFarlane, one of the few people who can actually collect a free lunch. Please contact me by email.

Winners
Nov. 2009: Jason Oakley, Alex Ling
Oct. 17: Bill Chaney, Roger Fan
Oct. 24: DK
Oct. 31: Joseph C. Somody
Nov. 7: Jason Oakley
Nov. 15: Thomas Ferraro, Vipulan Vigneswaran
Nov. 21: Vipulan Vigneswaran (honorary mention to Raul A. Félix de Sousa)
Nov. 28: Philip Rodger
Dec. 5: 凌嘉誠 (Alex Ling)
Dec. 12: Bill Chaney
Dec. 19: Joseph C. Somody
Jan. 9: Dima Klenchin
Jan. 23: David Schuller
Jan. 30: Peter Monaghan
Feb. 7: Thomas Ferraro, Charles Motraghi
Feb. 13: Joseph C. Somody
March 5: Albi Celaj
March 12: Bill Chaney, Raul A. Félix de Sousa
March 19: no winner
March 26: John Runnels, Raul A. Félix de Sousa
April 2: Sean Ridout
April 9: no winner
April 16: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
April 23: Dima Klenchin, Deena Allan
April 30: Sean Ridout
May 7: Matt McFarlane
May 14: no winner
May 21: no winner
May 29: Mike Hamilton, Dmitri Tchigvintsev
June 4: Bill Chaney, Matt McFarlane
June 18: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
June 25: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
July 2: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
July 16: Sean Ridout, William Grecia
July 23: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
July 30: Bill Chaney and Raul A. Félix de Sousa
Aug. 7: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
Aug. 13: Matt McFarlane
Aug. 20: Stephen Spiro
Aug. 27: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
Sept. 3: Matt McFarlane

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How to Get Banned on Sandwalk

I try really hard not to ban anyone from commenting on Sandwalk but there are some things I will not tolerate.

Someone named David Roemer recently tested the limits of my patience, and failed. He is now banned.

Here's what happened. I received an email message from David Roemer about a comment of his that did not appear on Sandwalk. I don't know why it didn't appear. I don't remember seeing it.

Shortly after receiving the email message I received a copy of a message David Roemer sent to the chair of my department. Here's the beginning ...

Dear Dr. XXX,

Prof. Moran, I believe, didn't approve of the following comment I made on his Sandwalk blog. He has every right to do so, but he has a moral duty not to coverup the misinformation contained in the AJP article I mention in my censored comment:

Natural selection only explains the adaptation of species to the environment. Not enough is known about the innovations natural selection acts upon to understand how mammals evolved from bacteria in only 3.5 billion years (common descent). The only theory that attempts to explain common descent is ID, but there is no evidence for ID.

IDiots try to make their theory look better by comparing it with natural selection. Atheists go along with this scam because they don’t want to admit that ID is a better theory than natural selection in some sense.

A corollary of the limitations of natural selection is that the second law of thermodynamics doesn’t apply to evolution, just as it doesn’t apply to the evolution of stars. Nevertheless, there is scientific literature about whether evolution violates the second law. Authors on the “does not” side argue that heat energy from the sun accounts for the increase in order (decrease in entropy). Heat, of course, tends to increase disorder.

This nonsense reached an extreme level in an article published by the American Journal of Physics (Entropy and evolution, Nov. 2008). This article actually calculates the entropy of the biosphere using the Boltzmann constant and an estimate of the thermodynamic probability of life. I’m trying to get the AJP to retract this absurd article.

I'm copying David Novak because he is on the Institute Board of First Things, which is refusing to publish my attached essay explaining why the AJP article is absurd. Both Novak and Moran are helping the AJP lie about evolution and thermodynamics.

My chair will be amused by this sort of thing. There's nothing he could do about it even if he wanted to.

This is one of the criteria for banning. Anyone who tries to get someone fired or reprimanded by going over their head to their employer will be banned. Anyone who harasses the family and friends of someone they disagree with will be banned. There are no exceptions.

I've also banned John Kwok for doing the same thing in an attempt to silence Jim Shapiro.

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John Wilkins Defends Philosophy: Begging the Question

John starts his defense by explaining the correct use of "begging the question." I agree with him 100%. I hate it when people misuse this phrase by thinking it means "prompts me to ask the question."

He then goes on to give an example ... [Begging questions about philosophy, science and everything else]

But we expect better of the educated and cosmopolitan. It comes, therefore, as a continuing pain to me that scientists will often offer this piece of question beggary:

• Science finds out things
• Philosophy does not find out things the scientific way
• Therefore philosophy is a waste of time and effort

The begged premise here is that only knowing things the scientific way is knowledge, or if the philosopher in question doesn’t say that knowledge is what philosophy offers, that only knowing things the scientific way is worthwhile. Some may even hint that only science delivers beauty, too.

It pains me to read this because I expect so much better of an educated and cosmopolitan Australian.

I'm not aware of any scientist who argues like this.

Read more »

John Wilkins Defends Philosophy: A Bit of History

There was a time, not so long ago, when science and philosophy coexisted in (relative) peace and harmony. This began to change when science came under increasing attack from religion and from others who simply denied the knowledge that had been produced by the scientific way of thinking. (The latter group included advocates of parapsychology. The modern versions include those who deny climate change and those who think vaccinations cause autism. These groups are not necessarily religious.)

The rise of anti-scientism provoked a response from scientists, just as you might expect. Scientists began to speak out against the irrational claims of these science deniers. The counter-attack necessarily covered many people with strong religious beliefs. Gradually, many scientists came to the realization that the main problem was not the specifics of evolution or whether ESP could be tested. The real battleground was a war between rationalism and superstition. This led to a number of scientists coming out in support of atheism and focusing their attention on the flaws in religious thinking (i.e. superstition).

Now, you would think that philosophy would be a natural ally in this fight since the most important feature of philosophy is its ability to distinguish logical arguments from ones that are illogical. In other words, philosophy should be on the side of rationalism and not on the side of superstition.

Read more »

"Ancient poem deifies wife of brutal Roman emperor Nero"

MSNBC

MIchigan Collection: machine serachable inventory

All 7076 inventory numbers that form the type-written Inventory book of the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection have now been entered into the APIS database. For now they are only searchable at the local site http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=apis&page=search , but eventually they will also be available through the Papyrological Navigator. The unpublished papyri are in the database with only brief descriptions, and as imaging progresses, will be accompanied by a thumbnail image.

This does not mean we are done, of course. We now have to venture into the uncataloged part of the collection, the many fragments in what Traianos always called the don't-sneeze-boxes, when he showed them during tours. This will be quite an exciting adventure, adding many more inventory numbers (This to prevent claims that the slight disagreement over which is the largest north-American collection is now settled...)

All this would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of Nikos Litinas, who in the past years has spent every summer here in Ann Arbor, making sure that we have now reached this milestone. Thank you, Nikos. His presence in Ann Arbor the last two summers was supported by the Office of the Vice President of Research and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

Thanks,

--arthur

Arthur Verhoogt

Acting Archivist

U-M Papyrology Collection

Giovanni R. Ruffini, Medieval Nubia A Social and Economic History

Description

Among the few surviving archaeological sites from the medieval Christian kingdom of Nubia--located in present day Sudan--Qasr Ibrim is unique in a number of ways. It is the only site in Lower Nubia that remained above water after the completion of the Aswan high dam. In addition, thanks to the aridity of the climate in the area the site is marked by extraordinary preservation of organic material, especially textual material written on papyrus, leather, and paper. Particularly rich is the textual material from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries CE, written in Old Nubian, the region's indigenous language. As a result, Qasr Ibrim is probably the best documented ancient and medieval site in Africa outside of Egypt and North Africa.

Medieval Nubia will be the first book to make available this remarkable material, much of which is still unpublished. The evidence discovered reveals a more complicated picture of this community than originally thought. Previously, scholars had thought medieval Nubia had existed in relative isolation from the rest of the world and had a primitive economy. Legal documents, accounts, and letters, however, reveal a complex, monetized economy with exchange rates connected to those of the wider world. eFurthermore, they reveal public festive practices, in which lavish feasting and food gifts reinforced the social prestige of the participants. These documents show medieval Nubia to have been a society combining legal elements inherited from the Greco-Roman world with indigenous African social practices. In reconstructing the social and economic life of medieval Nubia based on the Old Nubian sources from the site, as well as other previously examined materials, Giovanni R. Ruffini will correct previous assumptions and produce a new picture of Nubia, one that connects it to the wider Mediterranean economy and society of its time.
Features
• Uses native (Old Nubian) language evidence never before published
• Challenges previous interpretations claiming that Nubia had no private property and no monetized economy
Reviews
"Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History is that rare thing: a truly pioneering study. Drawing on Old Nubian documents from Qasr Ibrim, Professor Ruffini persuasively argues that Medieval Nubia was a Mediterranean society in Africa. It is a major contribution to the history of Medieval Africa and Islamic Egypt."--Stanley Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles
"This book is an outstanding work of scholarship. The author takes an important but neglected body of primary sources and exhaustively analyzes them for what they can tell us about the economy and society of their times. The resulting study revolutionizes our understanding of medieval Nubia."--T. R. Wilfong, University of Michigan

Product Details
320 pages; 8 illus., 1 map; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4;
ISBN13: 978-0-19-989163-4
ISBN10: 0-19-989163-X
About the Author(s)
Giovanni R. Ruffini is Associate Professor of History and Classical Studies at Fairfield University.