Influence
Stephenson's writing is influential in technology circles. Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, John Carmack, and Peter Thiel are all fans of his work.[32] In Snow Crash Stephenson coined the term Metaverse[33] and popularized the term avatar in a computing context.[34] The Metaverse inspired the inventors of Google Earth[32] and Snow Crash was required reading on the Xbox development team under Microsoft executive J Allard.[16] According to academic Paul Youngquist, Snow Crash also dealt the cyberpunk genre a "killer blow".[35] According to Publishers Weekly, Cryptonomicon is "often credited with sketching the basis for cryptocurrency."[36]
Through advances in prenatal imaging and the field of immunology, the truly wondrous miracle that is pregnancy is now being more fully understood. Two aspects of pregnancy that your readers might be interested in knowing more about relate to the placenta and something known as fetomaternal microchimerism.
As many of your readers may know, the placenta is the organ through which the mother and prenatal child interface. The placenta is an organ that is attached to the inside of the uterus and connects to the prenatal child through the child’s umbilical cord.
What is not as well known about this organ is that the placenta is the only organ in human biology that is made by two persons, together, in cooperation. The placenta is ‘built’ from tissue that is part from mom, and part from the growing baby. Because of this, the placenta is referred to as a ‘feto-maternal’ organ. It is the only organ made by two people, in cooperation with providence. It is the first time mom and her baby come together, ...