How to Manage Technical Debt 🦠– by Luca Rossi
December 26, 2025Heritability 101: What is “heritability”? — Neale lab
December 26, 2025Spandrel (biology) – Wikipedia
December 26, 2025https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology)
QT:{{” In evolutionary biology, a spandrel is a phenotypic trait that is a byproduct of the evolution of some other characteristic, rather than a direct product of adaptive selection. Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin brought the term into biology in their 1979 paper “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme”.[1] Adaptationism is a point of view that sees most organismal traits as adaptive products of natural selection. Gould and Lewontin sought to temper what they saw as adaptationist bias by promoting a more structuralist view of evolution.
The term “spandrel” originates from architecture, where it refers to the roughly triangular spaces between the top of an arch and the ceiling.[2] “}}
A Big Bridge In The Wrong Place : Planet Money : NPR
December 26, 2025https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/08/19/139749870/a-big-bridge-in-the-wrong-place#:~:text=No%20one%20seemed%20to%20know,three%2Dmile%2Dlong%20bridge. QT:{{” You would never look at a map of the Hudson River, point to the spot where the Tappan Zee Bridge is, and say, “Put the bridge here!”… The Port Authority — the body that proposed putting the bridge further south — had a monopoly over all bridges built in a 25-mile radius around the Statue of Liberty.
If the bridge had been built just a bit south of its current location — that is, if it had been built across a narrower stretch of the river — it would have been in the territory that belonged to the Port Authority. “}}
E. coli long-term evolution experiment – Wikipedia
December 26, 2025https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli_long-term_evolution_experiment QT:{{” It has been tracking genetic changes in 12 initially identical populations of asexual Escherichia coli bacteria since 24 February 1988.[4] Lenski performed the 10,000th transfer of the experiment on March 13, 2017.[5] The populations reached over 73,000 generations in early 2020, shortly before being frozen because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] “}}
Exaptation – Wikipedia
December 26, 2025https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exaptation
QT:{{” Exaptation or co-option is a shift in the function of a trait during evolution. For example, a trait can evolve because it served one particular function, but subsequently it may come to serve another. Exaptations are common in both anatomy and behaviour. Bird feathers are a classic example. Initially they may have evolved for temperature regulation, but later were adapted for flight. When feathers were first used to aid in flight, that was an exaptive use. “}}
Syncytin-1 – Wikipedia
December 26, 2025https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncytin-1
QT:{{” Syncytin-1 also known as enverin is a protein found in humans and other primates that is encoded by the ERVW-1 gene (endogenous retrovirus group W envelope member 1). Syncytin-1 is a cell-cell fusion protein whose function is best characterized in placental development.[3][4] The placenta in turn aids in embryo attachment to the uterus and establishment of a nutrient supply. “}}
Epistasis
December 26, 2025https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Epistasis#:~:text=Epistasis%20is%20a%20circumstance%20where,one%20or%20more%20other%20genes. QT:{{”
Epistasis is a circumstance where the expression of one gene is modified (e.g., masked, inhibited or suppressed) by the expression of one or more other genes. “}}
Unlocking AI: Visual Question Answering Insights
December 26, 2025https://viso.ai/deep-learning/understanding-visual-question-answering-vqa/ QT:{{”
What is Visual Question Answering (VQA)?
The simplest way of defining a VQA system is a system capable of answering questions related to an image. It takes an image and a text-based question as inputs and generates the answer as output. The nature of the problem defines the nature of the input and output of a VQA model.
Inputs may include static images, videos with audio, or even infographics. Questions can be presented within the visual or asked separately regarding the visual input. It can answer multiple-choice questions, YES/NO (binary questions), or any open-ended questions about the provided input image. It allows a computer program to understand and respond to visual and textual input in a human-like manner.
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