Stayin' alive with quantum physics

Stayin' alive, without antigen

Stayin' alive, without antigen hen a T cell meets a dendritic cell that carries an antigen, the meeting activates the T cell to battle pathogens. Less certain is what happens when the dendritic cell doesn't have antigen. Now, two reports bolster the controversial hypothesis that this kind of antigen-free cell-to-cell contact is necessary for the survival of T cells. Roland Martin and colleagues...

Stayin’ alive: survival of mycorrhizal fungal propagules from 6-yr-old forest soil

Spores and sclerotia are the main propagules that allow fungi to persist through unfavorable conditions and disperse into new environments. Despite their importance, very little is known about their longevity and dormancy, especially in ectomycorrhizal fungi. To assess the viability of ectomycorrhizal fungal spores in forest soil, we collected and buried non-sterile forest soil, in pots, in the...

Stayin' Alive: Aliveness as an Alternative to Authentication (Transcript of Discussion)

Authentication protocols attempt to discern whether or not a user is who she says she is based on what she has, is or knows. In many situtations, however, such as protecting Wikis from robots and Distributed Hash Tables from sybils, identity is less important than liveness: it’s not who you are that matters, it’s whether or not you are alive. We propose extensions to the Kerberos authentication...

Quantum Physics: A Case for Anti-Realism?

quantum physics: a case for anti-realism?

the aim of the present paper is to sbo» that anti-realism in science, 1vhich has a1;guab/y become more fashionable in recentyears, contrary to tuha: its proponents assert, cannot make use of quantum mechanics and its impressiue achievements as a frump card in justifying its claims. i will argue that scientific anti-realism far from providing scientific communiry with a progressive methodologica...