Altered mobility of polydeoxyribonucleotides in high resolution polyacrylamide gels due to removal of terminal phosphates.

We have compared the electrophoretic mobility of a series of polynucleotides differing solely by the presence or absence of a terminal phosphate. As expected, the effect of removal of a single terminal phosphoryl residue on electrophoretic mobility is dependent on the size of the polynucleotide and therefore is not constant. Removal of a phosphoryl residue from polynucleotides shorter than 30 nucleotides reduces the mobility the equivalent of one nucleotide. Between 30 and 50 nucleotides the reduction in mobility is approximately one-half a nucleotide, while above 50 nucleotides in size the effect of phosphate removal approaches zero.     

Information overload for (bounded) rational agents

Bayesian inference offers an optimal means of processing environmental information and so an advantage in natural selection. We consider the apparent, recent trend in increasing dysfunctional disagreement in, for example, political debate. This is puzzling because Bayesian inference benefits from powerful convergence theorems, precluding dysfunctional disagreement. Information overload is a plausible factor limiting the applicability of full Bayesian inference, but what is the link with dysfunctional disagreement? Individuals striving to be Bayesian-rational, but challenged by information overload, might simplify by using Bayesian networks or the separation of questions into knowledge partitions, the latter formalized with quantum probability theory. We demonstrate the massive simplification afforded by either approach, but also show how they contribute to dysfunctional disagreement.