Hacker News: randogp

New comment by randogp in "Craig Venter has died"

randogp — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 06:49:17 +0000

At the time they announced the full genome sequence I was an intern in molecular biology. We had a thermocycler in the lab and I had to book my slot on a paper agenda. I remember this portrait of him in front of multiple racks each plenty of thermocyclers. He taught me something about scale and he proved that sometimes it's worth looking at what you have and ask what if I could 200x this. In software this might seem obvious with GPU arrays etc.. but when you are trained in a wet lab and the instrument paper agenda, I wonder if we could have more breakthroughs in life sciences if we could use some bruteforce now and then. RIP

New comment by randogp in "Show HN: Craftplan – I built my wife a production management tool for her bakery"

randogp — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 07:24:12 +0000

Awesome, does it support Semiproducts? For example I'm making my own jam (sugar + fruit) and then I use this again as a material in different finished products, say cakes and croissants.

New comment by randogp in "Two recently found works of J.S. Bach presented in Leipzig [video]"

randogp — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 18:38:12 +0000

Apparently the works were known since long time, not 'recently found' as the title suggests. The novelty is the authorship attribution to JSB.

New comment by randogp in "Sequencing wastewater may be key to getting a grip on the H5N1 bird flu outbreak"

randogp — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 08:09:48 +0000

The EU publishes monthly bulletins around DNA surveillance programs. "The bulletin summarise the reported results and findings from European national wastewater surveillance programmes. It also informs about the local surveillance projects and non-EU countries participating as observers" https://wastewater-observatory.jrc.ec.europa.eu/#/bulletin

New comment by randogp in "Lactic Acid Bacteria as Markers for the Authentication of Swiss Cheeses"

randogp — Thu, 04 May 2023 10:50:23 +0000

The article is from 2016. Update 2018: development of a rapid test for cheese authenticity https://www.foodauthenticity.global/new-services/new-test-fo...

New comment by randogp in "List of Common Misconceptions"

randogp — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 13:18:06 +0000

This, with some illustrations, could be a fantastic book for kids and adults.

New comment by randogp in ""To our surprise""

randogp — Fri, 07 May 2021 20:31:13 +0000

and patents as well https://patents.google.com/?q=%22to+our+surprise%22

New comment by randogp in "Iridescent Tempered Chocolate"

randogp — Sun, 10 May 2020 08:34:36 +0000

A Swiss startup worked in this direction to offer brand protection and consumer engagement http://www.morphotonix.com/chocolate/

New comment by randogp in "The Beginning of the Monte Carlo Method (1987)"

randogp — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 12:06:28 +0000

I'd love to have a web-app for that

New comment by randogp in "Italian doctors successfully transplant a kidney in the place of the spleen"

randogp — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 15:27:01 +0000

Intentional.

Both kidney and spleen filter blood, although spleen is not essential and can be removed (splenectomy). Sacrificing the spleen, the surgeon used the spleen vessels to connect the kidney to the blood circulation. Reading the Italian news, the vessels of the other kidneys were in bad shape.

ScienceBooster doubles every Swiss franc backers contribute to science projects

randogp — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 13:42:22 +0000

Article URL: https://wemakeit.com/pages/science

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13014020

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by randogp in "Misperceiving Bullshit as Profound"

randogp — Thu, 05 May 2016 13:29:14 +0000

Apparently, in the article's comment section the word "bullshit" triggers a profanity filter.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comment?id=info%3Ad...

New comment by randogp in "Scientists Unveil the 'Most Clever' CRISPR Gadget So Far"

randogp — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 07:32:17 +0000

I love when someone digests for me the article and gives just the facts.

New comment by randogp in "BrewDog’s open-source revolution is at the vanguard of postcapitalism"

randogp — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 16:34:29 +0000

Would be great to have machine-readable data. Any hint? (sorry if it is obvious my background is in wet lab biology)

New comment by randogp in "Death by Coconut: A Story of Food Obsession Gone Too Far"

randogp — Sun, 06 Dec 2015 10:28:40 +0000

This Death by Coconut reminds me some mice from my colleague Jun.

These mice had a mutation in one gene but they were doing fine.

One Friday Jun gave them a chow diet from another supplier. The following Monday all mutant mice were died, control mice were OK.

TLDR, the new diet contained coconut oil instead of lard. After more study, this serendipitous observation led to discover a gene important for the break down of vegetal fat.

The study: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2013.08.032