Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of increasing portions of other major crops like soy, have emerged as a likely trigger for colony collapse disorder.
The father has heard that foreigners come here and experiment on people. Rafiq, the first child we treated with drugs died and the mother reported to others that the drugs we gave Rafiq killed him. This leaves me deeply upset.
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Dr. Kartik Chandaria is a doctor writing from Tajikistan where he is working to treat children with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. This is Kartik’s second mission as an MSF doctor. His first was in Liberia in 2007.
Check out his blog from working in the field.
(via doctorswithoutborders)
The Incredible Rise of Mind-Controlled Robotic Limbs
A few years ago the thought of a robotic limb controlled by a person’s mind was the stuff of science fiction. Today, it seems like there’s a new breakthrough in bionic technology every week.
A new study published on Tuesday by Nature described one of the more impressive feats we’ve heard about: A paralyzed man and woman each had chips implanted onto the motor cortex area of the brain that measured their neurons firing as they watched lab technicians move a robotic arm. A computer recorded the pattern of their thinking as they imagined moving the robotic arm and after they had trained the computer, they took control of the arm. For the first time in years, they were able to serve themselves using nothing more than brain power.
This woman moved a robotic arm with her mind. That is so, so cool.
(Source: food-ethics)
(Source: food-ethics)
Today’s show: why breasts are getting bigger, why breast milk isn’t as pure as you think it is, why breast cancer rates are increasing…
3/6/10 (by kristiniscool - 365Project)
Last day of school photos!
(You can also see them here.)
Quantum Teleportation
From Tshering:
Quantum teleportation is the technology developed based on the quantum mechanism where the original data can be scanned and transferred to the desired location by destroying the original copy of an object. The object formed in the desired location is the replication of the original object as no original copy is left, thus, it is not the cloning of object.
This quantum teleportation works on the principal of “entangled pair” and “polarization”-horizontal and vertical. For example, consider the original object as A (polarized horizontally), entangled pair B (vertical) and C and the final transported object as A. Object B and C are “entangled pair” where B on contact with original object A during the scanning process transfer information to its pair C and orient the position of C as A which is horizontal. The object C without being contacted with object A replicates the same original object A. Thus, this is how the quantum teleportation works.
However, the principality on which it works in interesting unlike other scientific experiments which require detailed understanding of physical properties. The “entangled pair” does not show any properties of its work and that is how the quantum teleportation works. The state of teleportation from the time the object A is scanned until its transportation to the desired location is called “Bell-states measurement”.
However, quantum teleportation has its own problems associated while it has its purposes too.
Problems:
- Mass object: Leads to have poor communication channel which will take longer time
- Superposition of several states at the same time: The state during the quantum teleportation state is known as the “Bell-States”. This state is in single state. However, there is a chance that the states may get overlapped.
Purposes:
This quantum teleportation will be helpful for:
- Quantum communication where the whole data can be sent unlike the modern computers where information need to be stored
- Future experiment on the foundations of quantum mechanics
- The possibility of human beings being transferred to another place without actual physical travel
Robotic Age Poses Ethical Dilemma
From Neethu:
The article describes about the attempt of South Korea, one of the leading countries in terms of technology, to develop “The Robot Ethics Charter.” The motive of the Charter is to ensure human control over robots, to protect data obtained by robot, to prevent illegal use of robot, and also to prevent abuse of robots by humans and vice versa. The new Charter emphasis on three laws written by Issac Asimov, a Russian fiction writer, in his short story called Run Around in 1942. Asimov’s first law states that at any cost, robots are not permitted to cause harm to humans directly or indirectly. Second law states that robots are permitted to follow orders from human beings except the cases where the orders are given to harm another human. Third law states a robot has right to protect its existence unless the protection do not harm any human. This move of South Korean government can be seen as identification of robots as a significant economic driver and its commitment to upcoming robotic technology. South Korean government has a vision of one robot for each household by 2020. There are so many predictions, such as robots will develop strong intelligence and even able to conduct surgery by 2018. Another prediction is that if the robotic technology progresses and if robots coexist with humans in this world, then robots could demand same rights as humans for survival, privacy, and other fundamental rights.
Development in robotic technology will be awarding in future since we can use robots for conducting house hold works, office works, mining, and can use in situations where humans cannot reach physically or in dangerous jobs. Also, it may be so exciting to imagine humans living along with robots in this world. However, it raises so many ethical issues. What if some enjoy living with robots and want to marry and consider robots as their wives against human culture and traditions? Secondly alike cyber world addiction, what if some really get addicted to robots after close interactions with them? What if robots develop strong intelligence that it turns against humans and try to control the world, like we had seen in movies and stories? After all, what if humans get addicted to the efficiency and intelligence of robots and lose confidence in them? Also, since robots can be programmed according to the wish of the manufacturer with whatever character/ trait, there will be a tendency to opt for robots over humans for certain works and employments, which may lead to suppression of human qualities and traditional knowledge. This reflects that there are so many disadvantages behind every exciting technology provided by the science, and we humans have to be really careful in choosing a technology to our lives.
Prostibots
From Saren:
Two professors in New Zealand predict a future in their research paper, “Robots, Men and Sex tourism” that robots will replace prostitutes by 2050. The robots would be called prostibots and their price would be about $9500. The prostibots will be made of bacteria resistant fiber that will resist against STD and HIV. Just like human, prostibots will have emotional connection, and best of all it will have perfect beauty. The author mentions that the greatest benefit of prostibot is “cleanliness” but there are also a number of other benefits including destroying human trafficking and probably controlling population (suggested in a youtube video). Other articles that discuss about this research paper suggest that there are some other benefits including reducing ethical concern and economical gains for countries that establish prostibots tourism. And the single problem it will bring is taking out the job of sex workers.
