@VI_nl Elk jaar weer wordt bij de geboorte- of sterf dag van Cruyff gezegd dat hij nooit vergeten zal worden: zijn gedachtegoed is echter allang vergeten. Notabene Koeman die een groot gedeelte van zijn carrière onder hem heeft mogen voetballen, wisselde verdedigend ipv aanvallend.
O gol mais chorado do Brasil em Copas: Depois de uma sequência de três bolas na trave Roberto Dinamite marca o gol do Brasil contra a Polônia pela Copa de 78.
Nostálgico!
The Beresovka mammoth; 2 original photos, and 2 photos of a museum reconstruction in St Petersburg.
This mammoth lived 44,000 years ago, in a relatively warm climate. It's stomach had undigested plants in it that are consistent with a temperate habitat... It was violently blown back onto its haunches, breaking its hips, then ENTIRELY frozen and buried within the space of 10 hours... To entirely freeze a 6 tonne mammoth, down to the contents in its stomach, in 10 hours or less, takes temperatures of between -100 and -150 degrees Fahrenheit.
So, something absolutely catastrophic happened. Something it's difficult to imagine.
In a stunning development, researchers have identified a second bacterial protein capable of synthesizing DNA without any nucleic acid template, marking the second time in just one month that a core tenet of biology has been overturned.
For more than 60 years, the Central Dogma of molecular biology has stated that genetic information flows in one direction: from DNA to RNA to protein. While exceptions like reverse transcription (RNA to DNA) have long been known, the idea that proteins could serve as templates to create DNA from scratch was considered impossible.
That assumption has now been shattered twice in rapid succession.
First came the discovery of DRT3, a bacterial anti-phage defense system. One of its components, Drt3b, uses its own protein structure as a physical mold to produce specific repetitive DNA sequences without relying on DNA or RNA as a guide.
Just weeks later, scientists detailed the workings of DRT7, a completely different protein that also achieves de novo DNA synthesis through an independent mechanism. Both systems demonstrate that proteins can directly dictate DNA sequences, effectively reversing the expected flow of genetic information.
These findings reveal that life’s molecular machinery is far more flexible and innovative than textbooks suggested. The discoveries come from bacterial defense systems evolved to combat viruses, highlighting how studying microbial warfare continues to rewrite our understanding of fundamental biology.
While these breakthroughs are currently limited to specific bacterial contexts, they challenge long-held assumptions about genetic inheritance and open exciting new possibilities in synthetic biology, gene editing, and our broader view of how life operates at the molecular level.
[Figiel, M. et al. (2026). "Antiviral reverse transcriptase–primase synthesizes protein-templated DNA." bioRxiv preprint. DOI: 10.64898/2026.04.18.719102]
Demis Hassabis says he can cure every disease in 10 years.
Most people roll their eyes when they hear this, but I don't.
Demis is the guy who just won the Nobel Prize for solving protein folding with AI (a problem biologists had been stuck on for 50 years).
But that was just one milestone in his much grander plan.
In 2010, he founded DeepMind with a 2-part mission: "solve intelligence, then use it to solve everything else."
Step 1: make AI good enough to do real science.
Step 2: point that AI at humanity's biggest problems.
Step one was AlphaFold.
He used AI to figure out the 3D shape of every protein in nature (which is basically what every drug attaches to).
Demis said it would have taken "a billion years of PhD time" to do by hand.
Step two is curing all disease.
And as of today, step two is fully funded.
Isomorphic Labs (his AI drug discovery company inside Google) just raised $2.1B led by Thrive Capital.
Here's where the money goes and what Demis thinks happens next:
> Drug discovery currently takes 5-10 years and costs billions per drug. That math is why most diseases don't have good treatments today.
> AI fixes the math. Their drug design engine compresses development from years to months. Maybe weeks.
> Isomorphic's first AI-designed cancer drug enters human trials this year.
> Their pipeline expands beyond the current 17 programs across cancer, immune diseases, and heart disease into more health domains.
> The endgame is personalized medicine: drugs designed overnight for your specific biology and your specific disease.
That last one is the whole point.
Today's drugs are mass-produced for an "average" patient who doesn't really exist.
So most existing treatments work inconsistently from person to person, and most rare diseases never get a treatment at all (no market = no drug).
When drug design gets fast and cheap, that whole calculus flips.
Cancer variants get drugs designed for that specific variant, rare diseases get treatments because economics stop mattering, and drug-resistant infections get new drugs faster than they can evolve.
That's what curing every disease actually looks like.
Now imagine what your life looks like in 2036.
A doctor draws your blood, sequences your genome, sends your disease profile to an AI.
By morning the AI has designed a custom drug for your specific biology.
Side effects, dosage, drug interactions all worked out before you take the first pill.
You and your kids never see a cancer ward.
That's what $2.1B is buying today.
Demis was right about AlphaFold.
If you consider the possibility that he's right again, every disease alive today is on borrowed time.
Great interview with Rick Rule @RealRickRule , by @TheRoyaltyKing. There are a lot of gems that are here, one should just listen and think about them. My favorite was about uranium.
This once-in-a-lifetime moment happens when sun rays hit Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park, at the perfect angle, creating a glowing lava flow.
Thousands of people gather at the same spot to witness this rare event almost every year.
Who else’s mind is blown away by this? I am a firm believer in children having to memorize times tables but what a great way to simplify multiplication with larger numbers.
De Zuid-Koreaanse violiste Hyeyoon Park speelt op virtuoze wijze de Presto uit Antonio Vivaldi's 'Zomer'. Een van de meest intense en virtuoze delen van de gehele barokmuziek vanwege de razendsnelle strijktechnieken en grote sprongen.
Everyone on earth takes a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press? BE HONEST.