Robert

= = =Week 4:DNA as Data Storage =  Everyone knows that DNA stores information, but researchers at the European Bioinformatics Institute have synthesized DNA and encoded a different kind of information on them.  They encoded Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, an audio excerpt from the "I have a Dream" speech, and a colour photograph of the Bioinformatics Institute building. Confused?  All this newfangled technology... Binary, the current system for data storage, uses strings of 1's and 0's to represent data. This is known as a "base 2" notation. DNA however, as you know, has four different options: G,T,C and A. This makes it a "base 4" system. Consequently, DNA can store a lot more data in the same volume as binary. It is estimated that 100 million hours of HD video can be stored in about a cup of DNA. Furthermore, DNA is a molecule and thus does not require a power source to maintain the data. This provides a boon to more efficient data storage.  However, there are drawbacks to using DNA as a storage medium. Currently it costs 12,400 dollars to store a megabyte of data using DNA, so if you were that rich anyway, you'd be better off just buying a bunch of external hard drives. In the future, when DNA becomes cheaper to synthesize, this method of data storage would become more feasible. For now however, it is still a distant dream and we will have to make do with our boring binary.  

Boooooooo Source:[] =Week 3: Makin' It Rain! =



When they aren't busy hacking into US Army databases or creating super-viruses capable of killing millions, Chinese scientists enjoy //controlling the weather.// It is unknown however, if long walks on the beach is among their hobbies as well. Chinese meteorologists have spent years perfecting what is known as "cloud seeding" in order to combat droughts by inducing rain.

Cloud seeding works by applying particles to clouds that encourage the formation of raindrops. Silver Iodide and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) are the most common chemicals. Salt and propane are becoming more popular. Silver Iodide was tested for its environmental impact. Several studies have shown that the chemical has negligible environmental and health impact. Cloud seeding generates silver at levels 100 times less than industrial emissions in some parts of the world or individual exposure from tooth filings.

Most cloud seeding around the world is accomplished using aircraft. The aircraft fly over the clouds and ignite small flares that release the silver iodide into the air. Chinese scientists have opted for the infinitely more awesome method: using a//rtillery batteries.//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Waiting is for suckers. When we need water, we shoot mother nature. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And then she //cries// on our fields. Beat that, America. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Cloud seeding was utilized during the 2008 Beijing Olympics to cause rain clouds to release their water before they hit Beijing. 1,110 rockets seeded the clouds over a period of four hours. Meteorologists from other nations were initially skeptical of the success rate of cloud seeding, but the tactic seemed to have worked, preventing a major thunderstorm from hitting the opening ceremony. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">That'll teach you not to rain on our parade! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Besides the more frivolous usages such as preventing rain on special occasions, cloud seeding can have very useful applications. Chinese meteorologists have already used cloud seeding to prevent droughts. Major famines caused by droughts can be prevented from cloud seeding. This goes hand in hand with what was discussed in class this week: the challenge of limited water supplies. However, the international community remains skeptical on the effectiveness of cloud seeding. Chinese engineer Lu Chen said, "Studies on artificial rainfall are very important, but the use of cloud-seeding technology on a large-scale remains open to question,". <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 29px;">A key challenge to scientists is the question of how much rain would have fallen if the cloud had not been seeded. In essence, more studies should be conducted to analyze the effectiveness of cloud seeding before it's used on a large scale.

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=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 240%;">Week 2: Biomimetics =

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Biomimetics is the study of naturally occurring phenomena and patterns and applying them to engineering. Biomimetics has been around for centuries, even millennia. Boats' rudders were modeled off the tail fins of fish, velcro is modeled off the adhesive properties of gecko feet, and recent studies of shark skin might play a role in creating more fuel efficient aircraft chasses.

Biomimetics is crucial to the field of engineering. When trying to design adhesive pads, what can be easier than studying adhesive pads found in nature that have evolved over millions of years specifically to be adhesive. Researchers at Tokyo university placed food sources around a fungus corresponding to subway stations in Tokyo. After letting the fungus grow, researchers found that the paths the fungus grew in order to reach the food were //almost the exact same// as the paths taken by the Tokyo subway.

There are many, many other examples of biological models being applied to human engineering but the significance of Biomimetics is not how many examples I can show you, but how efficient it is. Biological models have already taken millions and millions of years of mutation after mutation and trial and error. Evolution does the intense research that engineers don't have time for. In essence, instead of looking for an entirely new way to solve a practical problem, look to nature, it's not usually wrong.

Some cool examples if you were curious: [] [] [] [] []

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 240%;">Week 1: Vaccine Controversy =

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Vaccination has had a proud history of saving lives and preventing disease ever since Edward Jenner first administered his smallpox vaccine to a child in 1796. Another large breakthrough occurred in 1952, with the invention of the Polio vaccine by Jonas Salk. Today, brilliant scientists and dedicated minds around the world have made it their mission to reduce suffering in the world.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Vaccines work by priming the immune system for an actual infection of the pathogen. A weakened or dead pathogen is first administered to the body. The immune system responds immediately, B cells identifying the pathogen by its antigen and making memory cells with this specific antigen. In case of a future infection, the memory cells floating around from the time of vaccination initiate an immune response so quick, people don't have time to feel any symptoms. Intravenous vaccines are the most common followed by oral vaccines.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Alas, all is not well within the world of medicine regarding vaccines today. The first arguments against vaccination held that smallpox and other diseases were punishments sent by God to sinful people. British Reverend Edmund Massey said that inoculation was a "diabolical operation". <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">The modern day controversy originated in the publishing of a paper in the British scientific journal //Nature// regarding the safety of MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccines in 1998. This paper led to a Vaccine paranoia which was not extinguished even by the later discrediting of the paper.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Most anti-vaccination groups today disregard science's insistence of the safety of vaccines, accusing the pharmaceutical world of conspiring to keep people sick for profit. Besides the fact that this conspiracy, if true, would make for a horrible business model, since selling one or two vaccines plus three or four booster shots wouldn't generate much profit, there are many reasons why anti-vaccination is unfounded.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">One common argument against vaccines is that the various compounds present in the vaccine are dangerous. Granted, things like aluminum and thiomersal sound scary at first glance, but there's more to them then just their names. Aluminum and thiomersal are known as adjuvants; substances added into the vaccine to increase its efficiency. The adjuvants help stimulate a stronger immune response in order to make the vaccine more long lasting. Scientists who removed adjuvants due to health concerns found that the efficiency of the vaccine was reduced so greatly that they put them back in soon after. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 1.5;">Other arguments linking vaccines to cancer, autism, and other grave diseases are unfounded by research and are completely speculation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 1.5;">One may dismiss the importance of these anti-vaccination groups but they are certainly a force to be reckoned with. The anti-vaccination groups are usually supported by well known celebrities and few scientists. However, the impact of this anti-vaccine craze is very large. If parents refuse to have their kids vaccinated, then the obvious consequence is that their kids are left vulnerable to various diseases. Lives are being put in danger all because of a few paranoid groups.