Attending to New Technology Safety Issues
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
“It’s important for Australia to take advantage of new technologies as they arise,” said an Australia government industry department spokesman. “… it’s very important that this isn’t done to the exclusion of health, safety and the environment.”
This is the philosopy behind the National Enabling Technologies Strategy released by Australia government on February, 22 this year. A Stakeholder Advisory Council with representatives from trade unions, and consumer and environment groups will be established under the strategy.
Technologies such as nanotechnology and biotechnology have given rise to numerous controversies and the government wants to listen to all the diverse views. There are differing views on the ethical, environmental, health and other implications of new developments in these technologies.
A danger of nanotechnology is the possibility of unregulated exposure of workers to nanomaterials that act like asbestos fibers and cause serious health problems. At nanosizes, materials often exhibit properties very different from normal state. Completely safe materials can become toxic when reduced to nanosizes.
Nanotechnology is not the only new technology that poses such dangers. For example, in biotechnology there is resistance against genetically modified food crops on the grounds of unproven safety and destruction of bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is critical for the long-term health of our planet and ourselves.
A union spokesman felt that “It’s a case where the technology is running way ahead of the regulation.”
The strategy has not fully satisfied all the groups.
Read the report at: ABC Reports
Tags: adverse technology impact, biotechnology issues, nanotechnology issues, safety, technology strategy, toxic nanomaterials
Posted in biotechnology, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Stem Cell Treatment for Lou Gehrig’s Disease
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Stem cell treatment includes taking a patient’s own cells from bone marrow and developing them into specialized cells such as nerve cells in the laboratory, for injecting back into the patient. Scientists hope to find cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s using this approach.
A report from Israel mentions about a clinical research agreement for Lou Gehrig’s Disease between Hadassah Medical Organization and biotechnology firm BrainStorm. Hadassah will make its top experts in neurology and stem cell research at the disposal of BrainStorm, which will invest NIS 5 million into the research effort.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) leads to progressive degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movements. It has come to be known in North America as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Gehrig was a New York Yankee’s baseball icon who died from the disease in 1941 at age 37.
The world-renowned sceintist Stephen Hawking is a victim of the disease, illustrating how a brilliant mind can reside in a wasted body and still continue to function with its full power. In certain cases, ALS can affect cognitive functions also.
The Israeli scientists hope to prove that the proposed treatment can slow down or even halt the progress of ALS in victims. Success can help BrainStorm to tap a billion dollar market.
Read the report at Haaretz.com.
Tags: ALS, biotechnology, Lou Gehrigs, motor neuron disease, stem cell treatment, stephen hawking
Posted in biotechnology, diseases, stem cell research | No Comments »
Vitamin D Reduces Risk of Cardiometabolic Disorders
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Vitamin D is present in certain types of fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel. It is also synthesized when ultraviolet rays from the sun strikes the skin, and is also available as a diet supplement.
Cardiometabolic disorders include cardiovascular diseaes, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. A research into the literature of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders has now revealed a relationship between high levels of vitamin D in middle aged and elderly people and reducing their risks of developing heart disease or diarbetes almost by half.
The studies reviewed by researchers cover a variety of ethnic groups including men and women. The researchers were led by Johanna Parker and Dr Oscar Franco, Assistant Professor in Public Health at Warwick Medical School. 28 studies covering 99,745 participants were reviewed by the research team.
“Targeting vitamin D deficiency in adult populations could potentially slow the current epidemics of cardiometabolic disorders,” said Dr Franco.
Read more details at: Science Daily
Tags: cardiometabolic disorder, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, vitamin d
Posted in biotechnology, diseases | No Comments »
Coordinating the Behavior of two or more Individuals
Friday, February 26th, 2010
If we look at examples of complex human behavior, such as language and relgion, we find that such behavior involves coordinating the behavior of two or more individuals. After all, the term culture means the similar way in which a group of people behave. When we look further, we notice that such coordinated behavior is not uniquely human.
Non-human organisms, such as squirrels that hide their collections of nuts in secret locations, also exhibit identical behavior among different individuals to solve a particular problem.
Coordinated behavior is not cooperative behavior. It can be quite non-cooperative as the case of the squirrels illustrates. Coordination simply means that the individual’s behavior is in sync with those of the population.
According to the blog author, behavior coordination between the individual and population has both evolutionary and developmental significance.
Read the discussion at: Coordinated Novel Behaviors
Tags: behavior synchronization in groups, cognitive science, culture, development, evolution
Posted in behavior, cognitive science, culture | No Comments »
Global Nanotechnology Market For Energy Storage to 2015
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
CompaniesAndMarkets.com have published a market report titled “Global Nanotechnology Market For Energy Storage – Analysis And Forecasts To 2015.” The publisher’s release says that the report covers:
* Analysis of the market opportunities for nanotechnology enabled energy storage
* Challenges facing commercialization of nanotechnology
* Current R&D initiatives in nanotechnology R&D for energy storage
* An analysis of relevant patent activities
* Market forecasts for lithium ion and ultracapacitors for the period up to 2015
* Information about players in the market and
* Regulatory issues
The market report is priced at £ 2,178.
Information at: CompaniesAndMarkets
Tags: energy storage, market report, nanotechnology
Posted in energy storage, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Article on Nanotechnology Research in China and Germany
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
The article looks at the patenting scenarios for nanotechnology in China and Germany. According to the author, there were 12,979 Chinese patent references and 2,901 German patent references with the word nano for the period from 1985 to 2007.
Historical trends in nanotechnology patenting and major patent applicants are examined, as are the international patenting strategies in China and Germany. An above average nanotechnology patenting trend is seen in China and a below average trend in Germany.
The role of universities and research institutes in applied research that leads to patent applications are also compared.
Read the full new technology research related article.
Tags: applied research, nanotechnology, patenting
Posted in nanotechnology, patenting | No Comments »
Penn State University to Anchor a 1,700-mile Broadband Network
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funding was awarded to Keystone Initiative for Network-Based Education and Research. The $99 million federal stimulus grant is intended to create a 39-county broadhband network.
The funding will enable building a high-speed, fiber optic, 1,700 mile-long cable network, covering areas that have poor broadband access now.
Spokesman for Penn State, one of the anchor insitutions in the Keystone Inititative, said that the completed network will allow all their campuses to be connected at very high speeds. The network will support research and distance education at the universities, and enable connections with remote clinics for health care institutions.
The spokesman added that by working together with other institutions, it was possible to come up with a much stronger proposal for funding.
The network has been compared to a broadband highway with “exit ramps” where electronics systems will be based to serve as access points to the network. The proposal is to provide 13 core nodes and 45 to 50 local ones. It could reach more than 2 million households and 200,000 businesses.
Read the story about Funding for New Broadband Network.
Tags: broadband network, education delivery, health care delviery, information technology
Posted in education delivery, healthcare, information technology | No Comments »
Rational Unified Process for Software Development and Implementation
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is a framework for best practices of software engineering. Iterations, simplicity, focus on value and regular feedback underlie the best practices. With RUP as the starting point, the approach has been adapted to different domains.
The seven best practices adopted by 1997 are:
* Develop iteratively, with risk as the primary iteration driver
* Manage requirements
* Employ a component-based architecture
* Model software visually
* Continuously verify quality
* Control changes
* Customization
A commercial product sought to faciliate adoption of RUP by offering components that offered:
* a tailorable process for development
* tools to automate the process implementation
* services to support the processes and tools
Each of the RUP elements are discussed in more detail at the RUP Process article.
Tags: best practices, information technology, RUP, software engineering
Posted in information technology, software engineering | No Comments »
Patenting People out of the Benefits of Research
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Scientific progress in different fields promise so much. For example, genetic research in biotechnology promises the ability to foresee disease-proneness of individuals. These developments typically make us view a future where we can take precautions against every kind of disease.
What happens if some business goes out and patents the technology so that you have to pay them huge sums to derive the benefits of the progress? What if this patenting can be for discoveries made by government-funded programs and then transferred to private agencies? Should private agencies be allowed to derive the benefits while denying the tax-paying public the benefits of these tax-funded programs?
Of course, industry spokesmen will have numerous arguments to support any dilution of their ability to get patents on everything. They might point to the jobs created owing to new business inititatives and to “beneficial” public-private partnership and much more. However, considering the big stake that industries have in the issue, one cannot expect them to be all that open in the discussions.
A relevant issue is that businesses have huge funds at their disposal for lobbying and for opinion-making campaigns. Public interest defenders, on the other hand, might not be funded so generously. In such a context, it is heartening to see the active efforts of agencies like ip-watch who states their mission as: “Intellectual Property Watch, a non-profit independent news service, reports on the interests and behind-the-scenes dynamics that influence the design and implementation of international intellectual property policies.”
Read a recent news item from them at: ip-watch news.
Tags: benefits of scientific research, industry lobbying, intellectual property, patenting
Posted in business, intellectual property | 2 Comments »
Language Hope for Victims of ASD
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
ASD – Autistic Spectrum Disorder – is a range of autism related problems that prevents affected persons from:
* Using verbal and non-verbal communications
* Interacting appropriately with children and adults
* Behaving apppropriately and flexibly instead of obsessively and repetitively
Traditionally, it had been assumed that if a child does not learn to speak by the age of 5, language skills cannot be acquired after that critical period. The years up to 5 are considered to be critical for language.
Researchers seeking to verify this assumption set out on a program to identify children who used speech for the first time after the age of 5, and identified 167 ASD affected individuals who began to speak only after that critical age. These children had the benefit of language intervention in different forms based on different approaches.
Speech developed in these children between 6 and 12 years of age. Once they began to speak, subsequent progress was often quite rapid, indicating that the initial sound and word production had a major significance.
Read the relevant blog post at Autism Speaks.
Tags: ASD, autism, cognition, language skills, speech acquisition
Posted in cognitive impairment, cognitive science | No Comments »
