Monday, October 30, 2006

GYM
GYM is a sound format for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis.The name stands for Genesis YM2612, since the file contains the data sent to the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip in the console. The data is logged to a file through the use of emulators running a ROM image.The GYM format first appeared on the emulator Genecyst as a simple raw sound data log. This means the format does not present a proper heading or any kind of sample storage, that usually creates very large files for a complete song.

Also, the GYM format is designed around the NTSC video framerate, and thus has a time accuracy of 16 ms, which makes it improper for logging audio in any frequency other than 60 Hz such as the 50 Hz found in European or other PAL-based systems. Some new emulators and players had implemented headers, frequency compatibility and even some compression, but they do not follow any standard, which decreases the compatibility of the format.GYM files can be played using Winamp with the proper plugins or with special players.The new file format VGM also supports Yamaha YM2612 logging and is already supported by many popular emulators. It includes a complete header with tagging and looping support that renders GYM files obsolete for this kind of music storaging.


Friday, October 20, 2006

Naturalism
Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that do not distinguish the supernatural from nature. Naturalism does not necessarily claim that phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled as supernatural do not exist or are wrong, but insists that all phenomena and hypotheses can be studied by the same methods and therefore anything considered supernatural is either nonexistent, unknowable, or not inherently different from natural phenomena or hypotheses.

Any method of inquiry or investigation or any procedure for gaining knowledge that limits itself to natural, physical, and material approaches and explanations can be described as naturalistic.Many modern philosophers of science use the terms methodological naturalism or scientific naturalism to refer to the long standing convention in science of the scientific method, which makes the methodological assumption that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes, without assuming the existence or non-existence of the supernatural, and so considers supernatural explanations for such events to be outside science. They contrast this with the approach known as ontological naturalism or etaphysical naturalism, which refers to the metaphysical belief that the natural world is all that exists, and therefore nothing supernatural exists.

This distinction between approaches to the philosophy of naturalism is made by philosophers supporting science and evolution in the creation–evolution controversy to counter the tendency of some proponents of Creationism or intelligent design to refer to methodological naturalism as scientific materialism or as methodological materialism and conflate it with metaphysical naturalism to support their claim that modern science is atheistic. They contrast this with their preferred approach of a revived natural philosophy which welcomes supernatural explanations for natural phenomena and supports theistic science or pseudoscience.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Cell biology
Cell biology also called cellular biology or cytology, from the Greek kytos,container is an academic discipline that studies cells. This includes their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level. Cell biology research extends to both the great diversity of single-celled organisms like bacteria and the many specialized cells in multicellular organisms like humans.

Knowing the composition of cells and how cells work is fundamental to all of the biological sciences. Appreciating the similarities and differences between cell types is particularly important to the fields of cell and molecular biology. These fundamental similarities and differences provide a unifying theme, allowing the principles learned from studying one cell type to be extrapolated and generalized to other cell types. Research in cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and developmental biology.

Every cell typically contains hundreds of different kinds of macromolecules that function together to generate the behavior of the cell. Each type of protein is usually sent to a particular part of the cell. An important part of cell biology is investigation of molecular mechanisms by which proteins are moved to different places inside cells or secreted from cells.