Archive for July, 2010

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Miniaturization Applications with Nanotechnology Monday, July 19th, 2010

A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter and objects of nanoscale are invisible to the human eye. Yet these invisible objects could be of immense use in different areas. Some recent developments at the University of Utah point to some of these possibilities.

One researcher is developing a nanotech torch that is invisible but could make it possible to avoid the waste incurred during the production of electronic chips. By depositing and erasing materials at the precise locations where they are needed, not only is waste avoided but the size of the chip also gets much smaller.

With these small chips, it becomes possible to develop much more compact devices such as GPS units and cell phones.

The Utah University team is also developing a nano tuning fork that can help reduce power consumption. These are nanoscale mechanical switches that can, for example, prevent laptop computers from overheating, eliminate wasted energy and keep the battery charged for longer periods.

The research team at the university has received a $3 million, three year federal DARPA grant for nanotechnology research and the faculty in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering working on these projects constitute the Wireless Nanosystems research team.

Read the news at UtahPulse.

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Posted in energy efficiency, nanotechnology | No Comments »

The Importance of Finding a Vaccine for HIV Sunday, July 18th, 2010

As things stand now “for every two patients who begin receiving treatment for HIV, five people are newly infected.” What this means is that HIV cannot be controlled through treatment alone. Instead, it is necessary to prevent the infection from occurring through appropriate means.

One theoretical approach to do this is by getting people to practice safe sex. In practice, however, this has not been found successful as indicated by the increasing incidence of the infection.

It is in this context that finding a vaccine for HIV becomes important. If a vaccine could immunize people against HIV, the prospect of controlling its incidence becomes more realistic.

The biennial International Aids Conference from July 18 to July 23, 2010 in Vienna will review the current state of the war against HIV, which we are presently losing. Despite massive infusion of resources into HIV research, the number of HIV patients continues increasing.

A vaccine that is not only effective but also safe is the best defense in this war. And the hopeful news is that there are some exciting developments on this front. A vaccine regimen consisting of a canary-pox-vector prime plus a protein-subunit boost in the RV144 is on trial in Thailand. New vaccine approaches for improved control over Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) is advancing to clinical trials. Novel approaches to HIV vaccine design are also being explored.

Read a perspective on this issue at
New England Journal of Medicine.

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Posted in biopharmaceutical, biotechnology | No Comments »

Knowledge Society and Nanotechnology Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Knowledge society is a society where the primary production resource is knowledge, rather than capital, labor or even raw materials. In such societies, accumulated and newly discovered knowledge will be the dominant element supporting not only economic but also social and cultural activities. If one looks around modern societies, one can observe the huge volume of knowledge that underlies almost everything we do, including how we think.

Knowledge supporting community activity is not something new. Even ancient tribes observed, acquired and passed on knowledge about weather patterns and about the best practices for obtaining desired results. Activities like agriculture and fishing benefited from such knowledge. What is different in modern times is the huge volume of knowledge, the ease of sharing it globally and the elimination of the need for geographical proximity for knowledge societies to arise.

As against physical meeting places and bulletin boards, it is Web portals, chat rooms, video conferences and other information distribution and collaboration environments that dominate the modern scenario.

Validating the results of scientific research through economic achievements that benefit members of the society has become a major topic of study.

Nanotechnology is a field in which many countries, including developing countries, have invested heavily. It is a field with many promises, and also many unknown risks. It is in such a context that many conferences and movements are focusing on nanotechnology.

The article on Nanotechnology for a Knowledge Society in Emerging Economies and Developing Countries discusses this concern.

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Challenge to develop the next Generation Power Grid Thursday, July 15th, 2010

General Electric, in partnership with venture capital firms Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital have announced a $200 million innovation challenge. The challenge asks technologists, entrepreneurs and startups to share their best ideas for an electric power grid that will meet the needs of the 21st century. The challenge, announced on July 13, 2010, is named as “GE ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid.”

The challenge, open immediately at Ecomagination Website is reportedly one of the largest of challenges ever announced.

The goals are to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint during electricity generation, optimize the flow of energy through distribution systems to minimize power losses and use energy more efficiently through better designed buildings and in other ways.

GE is already offering digital energy grids and wants to make it a comprehensive one by working with ideas generated globally. By accelerating the development of a cleaner, more efficient and economically viable grid through collaboration, GE hopes to “jump-start new ideas and deploy them on a scale that will modernize the electrical grid around the world.”

The fund of $200 million will be invested globally into promising startups and ideas. GE will also help the entrants in other ways. Read the news release at MarketWatch.

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Posted in business, clean technology, energy distribution, energy efficiency, energy generation, environment, information technology, innovation | 1 Comment »

Cognitive Science in Education Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

WestEd’s National Center for Cognition and Mathematics Instruction (NCCMI) is redesigning its existing mathematics curriculum using principles of cognitive science to improve student outcomes. It will use current cognitive science knowledge about how we acquire, retain and transfer knowledge for the redesign project. The project will then evaluate whether the new curriculum has indeed improved students’ mathematics achievement.

The project focus will be on the widely used Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) curriculum for middle schools. The evaluation of the revised project will be done through multiple studies.

The team that will execute the project includes experienced and accomplished experts in cognitive research, mathematics instruction specialists, assessment and measurement experts, curriculum writers, professional developers and national advisers.

WestEd will work on the project along with partners such as CMP, Carnegie Mellon University, Temple University and other universities, and Apple Computer Inc. They will also establish a diverse community of users to learn from and apply the NCCMI research.

WestEd is a research, development and service agency that works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity and improve learning. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences is funding the research.

Read more at WestEd website.

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Posted in cognitive science, cognitive tutor, education, learning | No Comments »

Nanotechnology Whitepaper from the 2009 Environmental Health Summit Monday, July 12th, 2010

In a number of posts at this blog, both the positive and the potentially harmful impact that nanotechnology can have on health have been mentioned. The whitepaper on environmentally responsible development of nanotechnology focuses on this duality of benefits and dangers of nanotechnology. It contains the recommendations from the Research Triangle Environmental Health Collaborative and represents a collection of opinions.

The impact of nanotechnology is understood by most countries. In the U.S., for example, $14 billion had been set apart for R&D under the Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The NNI is a U.S. government program of “25 agencies working together toward the common vision of a future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to a revolution in technology and industry that benefits society.”

Russia has been focusing on developing tools that enable working with materials at nanoscale, something extremely difficult considering that a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

As the whitepaper says, when materials at this size scale are released into the environment, they can penetrate traditional biological barriers (like the human skin) and the so far “impermeable” synthetic filters. The result can be unhealthy for humans, animals and the ecology.

As at the time of this writing, the whitepaper can be downloaded from EnvironmentalHealthCollaborative.org.

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Posted in health risks, nanotechnology | No Comments »

Superstitions are Obstacles not only for Cognitive but also Economic and Cultural Development Sunday, July 11th, 2010

When you see things as they are, you can usually find ways to achieve your goals, whether these are economic or some other. By developing a scientific approach, cause and effect relationships can be perceived more readily and this perception can be used to move towards one’s goals.

Not only an understanding of cause and effect relationships but the emotional balance to accept reality and act intelligently based on this reality is also necessary for effective achievements.

Superstitions, including ritualistic religious beliefs, prevent both these requirements. One tends to see things in a preconceived way instead of as they are. Emotional balance also might be affected because of strong biases in favor of one’s set of beliefs.

If the findings of cognitive science can be used by governments and other influencers of people’s views to change the superstitious mindset, it should theoretically be possible to create a better world where conflict is replaced by enlightened self-interest and cooperation. It would be a massive exercise, however.

The above thoughts entered this writer’s mind on going through the article titled “Scientific Mindsets and Worldviews for Peace and Development in Africa” at Azibo Press. The article suggests that African policy-makers, freedom thinkers and activists should adopt the ideals of the French Revolution and work to get rid of “paternalistic, autocratic and despotic kings and fear-mongering, deceitful and fraudulent merchant-priests.”

Read the article at Azibo Press.

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Posted in behavior, cognitive development, cognitive science, culture | No Comments »

Information Technology for Society: Tele-Medicine in Operation Saturday, July 10th, 2010

The website next billion.net describes itself as a community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise. An article dated July 8, 2010 reports on the use of mobile devices for healthcare delivery in remote locations.

The article titled “Hand-held Doctors and Mobile Premium Payments: How Technology Can Improve Insurance for the Poor” includes the story of one village woman who supplemented the meager income of her household by making and selling bread in her village. One day she felt unwell, and had a suspicion that she had contracted malaria. Meeting the nearest doctor would have meant a two-hour bus ride and loss of a day’s earnings just for the trip, at the same time spending money for the bus ride.

It so happened that the woman’s village had a CARE facility and she had been enrolled by her CARE-trained neighbor into a health insurance program. CARE Foundation trains Village Health Champions (VHCs) to provide healthcare at the village doorstep. VHCs are trained to ask the right questions, record basic medical symptoms and vital statistics, and identify emergency symptoms.

The VHCs are also provided with a hand-held terminal that has a built-in clinical decision support system. With the knowledge-base thus available, the VHCs can even provide medical advice and order prescriptions. In the above case, the VHC contacted a remote CARE doctor who recommended treatment through an SMS prescription, which was dispensed from the VHC’s medical kit.

Read the story in more detail at next billion blog.

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Nanotechnology from a Social Angle: the ISSA Symposium Friday, July 9th, 2010

Nanotechnology that works with materials at molecular and atomic levels offers numerous opportunities. The technology also poses risks of which we might not yet be aware. Nanotech is receiving increasing attention from different perspectives.

Some of the nanotech applications being explored (and even actually used) include:

Carrying miniaturization further in electronics and developing innovative new products
Developing new materials that make for new or more effective industrial processes
Developing new treatments and diagnostics for diseases, such as cancer where existing treatments lead to undesirable side effects
Improving the processes in self-cleaning, which can solve several everyday problems
Improving protection against corrosion, as in the case of car bodywork
Enhancing protection against UV rays through their use in cosmetics

As against opportunities like those mentioned above, nanotechnology also poses risks such as the particles entering human bloodstream because of their minuscule size. Such dangers make it necessary to enact regulations that ensure safety aspects are considered by developers and producers. For example, people working with nanomaterials in research laboratories are exposed to unknown risks.

It is in such a context that the International Social Security Association is organizing a symposium on Nanotechnology. The symposium will seek to highlight the opportunities as well as the risks. It will also provide information on incidental legal regulations, national and international. The symposium is scheduled at KKL, Lucerne, Switzerland during October 4th and 5th, 2010.

Read about the event at ISSA website.

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A Glimpse into what Nanotechnology can do Thursday, July 8th, 2010

While opening the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, the Premier of Victoria, Australia and other speakers touched upon the potential exciting innovations that nanotechnology makes possible. The possibilities mentioned by them provide an insight into what the technology can provide in widely varying fields.

One of the most promising areas is the field of energy. Energy generation without polluting the environment, batteries that could last far longer than now and minuscule power sources that are efficient and could be accommodated in presently inaccessible locations (such as inside human organs) are some possibilities that nanotechnology offers.

Additionally, energy efficient materials and applications can reduce levels of energy consumed. For example, self-cleaning glass and paint can eliminate much of the effort needed for cleaning (as well as lead to less energy consumption for climate control indoors). And clothing that can keep you cool on a hot day could possibly save on energy needed for keeping people cool.

The new facility’s sophisticated equipment “will enable the production of devices, customised sensors and integrated systems with applications in biomedicine, energy, nanoelectronics and environmental management,” according to one of the participants. The Victorian and commonwealth governments have funded investment in the new centre, “directed to the Australian Synchrotron, Monash University’s Electron Microscopy facility and CSIRO’s Niche Manufacturing Flagship,” according to the Victorian Premier.

Read the news at Nanowerk

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