Random Analogies

What: "DNA is like your phone line. As Northwestern University biophysicist Johnathan Widom put it in a talk recently, DNA simultaneously encodes multiple overlapping signals, just like your phone line that allows you to call home while you're surfing the net via DSL."

Writer: Johnathan Widom

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Where:

Date: Sep 21 2011 9:05 PM

What:

"Dietmar Schreiner, postdoctoral researcher, and Joshua A. Weiner, assistant professor of biology at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Biology Interface, writing on the topic of cell adhesion. Cell adhesion is like a cell binds to another cell with specific molecules, a large family that is known as the cadherins."

Writer: Not Stated

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Where: Reference Link Has Evaporated

Date: Dec 31 2013 8:25 PM

What:

"A healthy immune system is like a carefully balanced teeter totter. Tip it one way, and your immune system weakens, leaving you vulnerable to pathogens. Tip it the other way, and your immune system becomes overactive and attacks your own healthy tissue. Such overactive immune systems cause what we call autoimmune diseases, like lupus, Crohn's Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis. These are not things you want. If boosting your immune did have some actual medical meaning, it would be the last thing any healthy person should want to do "

Writer: Brian Dunning

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Where:

Date: Aug 7 2014 4:10 PM

What:

"There is one other dichotomy of cancer as metaphor that "Breaking Bad" exemplifies to the hilt. Because cancer functions metaphorically as a reification of capitalism, Walter engages in two kinds of symbolic behavior: before his diagnosis he stands for early capitalism with its sagacity, accounting, and thrift. After his diagnosis he is the embodiment of post-industrial capitalism -expansionist, excessive, speculative, or as Sontag would say he represents "an economy that depends on the irrational indulgence of desire")."

Writer: Stephen Kuusisto

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Date: Aug 31 2014 3:14 PM