‘It’s Like a Miracle’: Woman Gives Birth Using Ovary Frozen Since Childhood
LONDON — A woman has made medical history by giving birth after having had an ovary removed and its tissue frozen at age 9, before reaching puberty.
Moaza al-Matrooshi, now 24, was born with beta thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that was treated with chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant when she was a child. Because chemotherapy damages ovaries, her parents had authorized the removal of her right ovary in advance at the University of Leeds.
The medical community celebrated the birth of Ms. Matrooshi’s baby boy on Tuesday in London at the Portland Hospital for Women and Children, saying the event could pave the way to restoring fertility to women who suffer cancer and other illnesses at an early age. Until now, many prepubescent girls who have undergone chemotherapy have had to abandon hopes of bearing children as adults.
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/world ... d=71987722
TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
Amazon made its first drone delivery in the U.K.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter on Dec. 14, that the company had made its first ever drone delivery.
Amazon Prime Air, the name of the service, completed its first customer trials near Cambridge, England and flew an Amazon Fire streaming device and popcorn to a customer on Dec. 7. The 13-minute flight covered two miles (3.2 km) from the delivery center and was navigated via GPS.
The drones, so far, are limited to carrying merchandise weighing less than five pounds (2.3 kg) and can only fly below 400 feet (121 meters). The service is available only in daylight and good weather.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/weekendre ... out#page=2
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced on Twitter on Dec. 14, that the company had made its first ever drone delivery.
Amazon Prime Air, the name of the service, completed its first customer trials near Cambridge, England and flew an Amazon Fire streaming device and popcorn to a customer on Dec. 7. The 13-minute flight covered two miles (3.2 km) from the delivery center and was navigated via GPS.
The drones, so far, are limited to carrying merchandise weighing less than five pounds (2.3 kg) and can only fly below 400 feet (121 meters). The service is available only in daylight and good weather.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/weekendre ... out#page=2
Drone-based blood deliveries in Tanzania to be funded by UK
The UK government is to fund a trial of drone-based deliveries of blood and other medical supplies in Tanzania.
The goal is to radically reduce the amount of time it takes to send stock to health clinics in the African nation by road or other means.
The scheme involves Zipline, a Silicon Valley start-up that began running a similar service in Rwanda in October.
Experts praised that initiative but cautioned that "cargo drones" are still of limited use to humanitarian bodies.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38450664
******
For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp
Extract:
Tales of immigrant woe are not unusual in Silicon Valley. But Mr. Koum’s story carries greater resonance because his app has quietly become a mainstay of immigrant life. More than a billion people regularly use WhatsApp, which lets users send text messages and make phone calls free over the internet. The app is particularly popular in India, where it has more than 160 million users, as well as in Europe, South America and Africa.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/techn ... ile=0&_r=0
The UK government is to fund a trial of drone-based deliveries of blood and other medical supplies in Tanzania.
The goal is to radically reduce the amount of time it takes to send stock to health clinics in the African nation by road or other means.
The scheme involves Zipline, a Silicon Valley start-up that began running a similar service in Rwanda in October.
Experts praised that initiative but cautioned that "cargo drones" are still of limited use to humanitarian bodies.
More...
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38450664
******
For Millions of Immigrants, a Common Language: WhatsApp
Extract:
Tales of immigrant woe are not unusual in Silicon Valley. But Mr. Koum’s story carries greater resonance because his app has quietly become a mainstay of immigrant life. More than a billion people regularly use WhatsApp, which lets users send text messages and make phone calls free over the internet. The app is particularly popular in India, where it has more than 160 million users, as well as in Europe, South America and Africa.
More..
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/21/techn ... ile=0&_r=0
Humans are at the forefront of what could be the first major shift of evolution in over a billion years
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/hum ... ailsignout
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/hum ... ailsignout
From Hands to Heads to Hearts
Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.
Add it all up and you quickly realize that Donald Trump’s election isn’t the only thing disrupting society today. The far more profound disruption is happening in the workplace and in the economy at large, as the relentless march of technology has brought us to a point where machines and software are not just outworking us but starting to outthink us in more and more realms.
To reflect on this rapid change, I sat down with my teacher and friend Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, which advises companies on leadership and how to build ethical cultures, for his take. “What we are experiencing today bears striking similarities in size and implications to the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century,” said Seidman. “The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, which spurred that scientific revolution, challenged our whole understanding of the world around and beyond us — and forced us as humans to rethink our place within it.”
Once scientific methods became enshrined, we used science and reason to navigate our way forward, he added, so much so that “the French philosopher René Descartes crystallized this age of reason in one phrase: ‘I think, therefore I am.’” Descartes’s point, said Seidman, “was that it was our ability to ‘think’ that most distinguished humans from all other animals on earth.”
The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”
In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/opini ... ef=opinion
Software has started writing poetry, sports stories and business news. IBM’s Watson is co-writing pop hits. Uber has begun deploying self-driving taxis on real city streets and, last month, Amazon delivered its first package by drone to a customer in rural England.
Add it all up and you quickly realize that Donald Trump’s election isn’t the only thing disrupting society today. The far more profound disruption is happening in the workplace and in the economy at large, as the relentless march of technology has brought us to a point where machines and software are not just outworking us but starting to outthink us in more and more realms.
To reflect on this rapid change, I sat down with my teacher and friend Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, which advises companies on leadership and how to build ethical cultures, for his take. “What we are experiencing today bears striking similarities in size and implications to the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century,” said Seidman. “The discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, which spurred that scientific revolution, challenged our whole understanding of the world around and beyond us — and forced us as humans to rethink our place within it.”
Once scientific methods became enshrined, we used science and reason to navigate our way forward, he added, so much so that “the French philosopher René Descartes crystallized this age of reason in one phrase: ‘I think, therefore I am.’” Descartes’s point, said Seidman, “was that it was our ability to ‘think’ that most distinguished humans from all other animals on earth.”
The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”
In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/opini ... ef=opinion
Japanese company replaces workers with artificial intelligence
Human workers at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance are set to be replaced by an artificial intelligence that can calculate payouts to policyholders.
After the 200m yen (£1.4m) AI system is installed this month, the company believes productivity will be increased by 30 per cent and that it would save about 140m yen (£1m) a year.
The company also said it believes it will get a return on its investment in under two years.
The 34 employees will be made redundant by the end of March.
The artificial intelligence system is based on IBM’s Watson Explorer, which, according to the tech firm, has "cognitive technology that can think like a human" and can analyse and interpret data, "including unstructured text, images, audio and video".
This means it can analyse all manner of medical data before calculating payouts.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
*******
Clean Disruption: Why Current Energy and Transportation Systems Will Be Obsolete by 2030
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F4SobqxyU
Human workers at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance are set to be replaced by an artificial intelligence that can calculate payouts to policyholders.
After the 200m yen (£1.4m) AI system is installed this month, the company believes productivity will be increased by 30 per cent and that it would save about 140m yen (£1m) a year.
The company also said it believes it will get a return on its investment in under two years.
The 34 employees will be made redundant by the end of March.
The artificial intelligence system is based on IBM’s Watson Explorer, which, according to the tech firm, has "cognitive technology that can think like a human" and can analyse and interpret data, "including unstructured text, images, audio and video".
This means it can analyse all manner of medical data before calculating payouts.
More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstori ... ailsignout
*******
Clean Disruption: Why Current Energy and Transportation Systems Will Be Obsolete by 2030
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0F4SobqxyU
30 inventions that changed the world forever
Game-changing innovations
Every once in a while, a revolutionary invention comes along with the power to advance humanity and change the course of history. From the wheel to the World Wide Web, here are the 30 most important innovations ever.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ut#image=1
Game-changing innovations
Every once in a while, a revolutionary invention comes along with the power to advance humanity and change the course of history. From the wheel to the World Wide Web, here are the 30 most important innovations ever.
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technolo ... ut#image=1
A tissue of truths
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
How to build organs from scratch
EVERY year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.
One promising approach is to print them. Lots of things are made these days by three-dimensional printing, and there seems no reason why body parts should not be among them. As yet, such “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. But bioprinted tissue is already being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are expected to be ready for use in a few years’ time.
Just press “print”
Bioprinting originated in the early 2000s, when it was discovered that living cells could be sprayed through the nozzles of inkjet printers without damaging them. Today, using multiple print heads to squirt out different cell types, along with polymers that help keep the structure in shape, it is possible to deposit layer upon layer of cells that will bind together and grow into living, functional tissue. Researchers in various places are tinkering with kidney and liver tissue, skin, bones and cartilage, as well as the networks of blood vessels needed to keep body parts alive. They have implanted printed ears, bones and muscles into animals, and watched these integrate properly with their hosts. Last year a group at Northwestern University, in Chicago, even printed working prosthetic ovaries for mice. The recipients were able to conceive and give birth with the aid of these artificial organs.
No one is yet talking of printing gonads for people. But blood vessels are a different matter. Sichuan Revotek, a biotechnology company based in Chengdu, China, has successfully implanted a printed section of artery into a monkey. This is the first step in trials of a technique intended for use in humans. Similarly, Organovo, a firm in San Diego, announced in December that it had transplanted printed human-liver tissue into mice, and that this tissue had survived and worked. Organovo hopes, within three to five years, to develop this procedure into a treatment for chronic liver failure and for inborn errors of metabolism in young children. The market for such treatments in America alone, the firm estimates, is worth more than $3bn a year.
Johnson & Johnson, a large American health-care company, is so convinced that bioprinting will transform parts of medical practice that it has formed several alliances with interested academics and biotechnology firms. One of these alliances, with Tissue Regeneration Systems, a firm in Michigan, is intended to develop implants for the treatment of defects in broken bones. Another, with Aspect, a biotechnology company in Canada, is trying to work out how to print parts of the human knee known as the meniscuses. These are crescent-shaped cartilage pads that separate the femur from the tibia, and act as shock absorbers between these two bones—a role that causes huge wear and tear, which sometimes requires surgical intervention.
More immediately, bioprinting can help with the development and testing of other sorts of treatments. Organovo already offers kidney and liver tissue for screening potential drugs for efficacy and safety. If this takes off it will please animal-rights activists, as it should cut down on the number of animal trials. It will please drug companies, too, since the tissue being tested is human, so the results obtained should be more reliable than ones from tests on other species.
With similar motives in mind, L’Oréal, a French cosmetics firm, Procter & Gamble, an American consumer-goods company, and BASF, a German chemical concern, are working on printing human skin. They propose to use it to test their products for adverse reactions. L’Oréal already grows about five square metres of skin a year using older and slower technology. Bioprinting will permit it to grow much more, and also allow different skin types and textures to be printed.
Skin in the game
Printed skin might eventually be employed for grafts—repairing burns and ulcers. Plans are also afoot, as it were, to print skin directly onto the surface of the body. Renovacare, a firm in Pennsylvania, has developed a gun that will spray skin stem cells directly onto the wounds of burns victims. (Stem cells are cells that proliferate to produce all of the cell types that a tissue is composed of.) The suggestion is that the stem cells in question will come from the patient himself, meaning that there is no risk of his immune system rejecting the new tissue.
The real prize of all this effort would be to be able to print entire organs. For kidneys, Roots Analysis, a medical-technology consultancy, reckons that should be possible in about six years’ time. Livers, which have a natural tendency to regenerate anyway, should also arrive reasonably soon. Hearts, with their complex internal geometries, will take longer. In all cases, though, printed organs would mean that those awaiting transplants have to wait neither for the altruism of another nor the death of a stranger to provide the means to save their own lives.
This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "A tissue of truths"
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
How to build organs from scratch
EVERY year about 120,000 organs, mostly kidneys, are transplanted from one human being to another. Sometimes the donor is a living volunteer. Usually, though, he or she is the victim of an accident, stroke, heart attack or similar sudden event that has terminated the life of an otherwise healthy individual. But a lack of suitable donors, particularly as cars get safer and first-aid becomes more effective, means the supply of such organs is limited. Many people therefore die waiting for a transplant. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.
One promising approach is to print them. Lots of things are made these days by three-dimensional printing, and there seems no reason why body parts should not be among them. As yet, such “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. But bioprinted tissue is already being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are expected to be ready for use in a few years’ time.
Just press “print”
Bioprinting originated in the early 2000s, when it was discovered that living cells could be sprayed through the nozzles of inkjet printers without damaging them. Today, using multiple print heads to squirt out different cell types, along with polymers that help keep the structure in shape, it is possible to deposit layer upon layer of cells that will bind together and grow into living, functional tissue. Researchers in various places are tinkering with kidney and liver tissue, skin, bones and cartilage, as well as the networks of blood vessels needed to keep body parts alive. They have implanted printed ears, bones and muscles into animals, and watched these integrate properly with their hosts. Last year a group at Northwestern University, in Chicago, even printed working prosthetic ovaries for mice. The recipients were able to conceive and give birth with the aid of these artificial organs.
No one is yet talking of printing gonads for people. But blood vessels are a different matter. Sichuan Revotek, a biotechnology company based in Chengdu, China, has successfully implanted a printed section of artery into a monkey. This is the first step in trials of a technique intended for use in humans. Similarly, Organovo, a firm in San Diego, announced in December that it had transplanted printed human-liver tissue into mice, and that this tissue had survived and worked. Organovo hopes, within three to five years, to develop this procedure into a treatment for chronic liver failure and for inborn errors of metabolism in young children. The market for such treatments in America alone, the firm estimates, is worth more than $3bn a year.
Johnson & Johnson, a large American health-care company, is so convinced that bioprinting will transform parts of medical practice that it has formed several alliances with interested academics and biotechnology firms. One of these alliances, with Tissue Regeneration Systems, a firm in Michigan, is intended to develop implants for the treatment of defects in broken bones. Another, with Aspect, a biotechnology company in Canada, is trying to work out how to print parts of the human knee known as the meniscuses. These are crescent-shaped cartilage pads that separate the femur from the tibia, and act as shock absorbers between these two bones—a role that causes huge wear and tear, which sometimes requires surgical intervention.
More immediately, bioprinting can help with the development and testing of other sorts of treatments. Organovo already offers kidney and liver tissue for screening potential drugs for efficacy and safety. If this takes off it will please animal-rights activists, as it should cut down on the number of animal trials. It will please drug companies, too, since the tissue being tested is human, so the results obtained should be more reliable than ones from tests on other species.
With similar motives in mind, L’Oréal, a French cosmetics firm, Procter & Gamble, an American consumer-goods company, and BASF, a German chemical concern, are working on printing human skin. They propose to use it to test their products for adverse reactions. L’Oréal already grows about five square metres of skin a year using older and slower technology. Bioprinting will permit it to grow much more, and also allow different skin types and textures to be printed.
Skin in the game
Printed skin might eventually be employed for grafts—repairing burns and ulcers. Plans are also afoot, as it were, to print skin directly onto the surface of the body. Renovacare, a firm in Pennsylvania, has developed a gun that will spray skin stem cells directly onto the wounds of burns victims. (Stem cells are cells that proliferate to produce all of the cell types that a tissue is composed of.) The suggestion is that the stem cells in question will come from the patient himself, meaning that there is no risk of his immune system rejecting the new tissue.
The real prize of all this effort would be to be able to print entire organs. For kidneys, Roots Analysis, a medical-technology consultancy, reckons that should be possible in about six years’ time. Livers, which have a natural tendency to regenerate anyway, should also arrive reasonably soon. Hearts, with their complex internal geometries, will take longer. In all cases, though, printed organs would mean that those awaiting transplants have to wait neither for the altruism of another nor the death of a stranger to provide the means to save their own lives.
This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "A tissue of truths"
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
Change is sweeping through the world of work
Automated production lines, ageing populations, superstar companies — these are just some of the forces of change sweeping through the world of work.
As new technologies and extended lifespans upend and disrupt the job market, knowing how to stay ahead of the trends, and making the right choices in your career, can seem like a challenge.
Stay informed with The Economist. Read our free guide on the world of work by clicking on the image below. Here you’ll find a selection of some of our best articles on how the working world is changing, including:
• How lifelong learning may help you survive in the age of automation
• Why today’s technology will affect tomorrow’s jobs
• How to spot a superstar company
More...
http://learnmore.economist.com/story/58 ... 6c0ee8f1bc
Automated production lines, ageing populations, superstar companies — these are just some of the forces of change sweeping through the world of work.
As new technologies and extended lifespans upend and disrupt the job market, knowing how to stay ahead of the trends, and making the right choices in your career, can seem like a challenge.
Stay informed with The Economist. Read our free guide on the world of work by clicking on the image below. Here you’ll find a selection of some of our best articles on how the working world is changing, including:
• How lifelong learning may help you survive in the age of automation
• Why today’s technology will affect tomorrow’s jobs
• How to spot a superstar company
More...
http://learnmore.economist.com/story/58 ... 6c0ee8f1bc
Why augmented reality will be big in business first
THE history of computers is one of increasing intimacy. At first users rented time on mainframe machines they did not own. Next came the “personal computer”. Although PCs were confined to desks, ordinary people could afford to buy them, and filled them with all manner of personal information. These days smartphones go everywhere in their owners’ pockets, serving as everything from a diary to a camera to a voice-activated personal assistant.
The next step, according to many technologists, is to move the computer from the pocket to the body itself. The idea is to build a pair of “smart glasses” that do everything a smartphone can, and more. A technology called “augmented reality” (AR) would paint computerised information directly on top of the wearers’ view of the world. Early versions of the technology already exist (see article). If it can be made to work as its advocates hope, AR could bring about a new and even more intimate way to interact with machines. In effect, it would turn reality itself into a gigantic computer screen.
For the time being, the most popular AR apps are still found on smartphones. Pokémon Go, a smartphone game that briefly entranced people in 2016, used a primitive form of the technology. Another popular application is on Snapchat, a messaging app whose parent firm is gearing up for an IPO (see article): when teenagers overlay rabbit ears onto the faces of friends and family, they are using AR.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8764907/n
THE history of computers is one of increasing intimacy. At first users rented time on mainframe machines they did not own. Next came the “personal computer”. Although PCs were confined to desks, ordinary people could afford to buy them, and filled them with all manner of personal information. These days smartphones go everywhere in their owners’ pockets, serving as everything from a diary to a camera to a voice-activated personal assistant.
The next step, according to many technologists, is to move the computer from the pocket to the body itself. The idea is to build a pair of “smart glasses” that do everything a smartphone can, and more. A technology called “augmented reality” (AR) would paint computerised information directly on top of the wearers’ view of the world. Early versions of the technology already exist (see article). If it can be made to work as its advocates hope, AR could bring about a new and even more intimate way to interact with machines. In effect, it would turn reality itself into a gigantic computer screen.
For the time being, the most popular AR apps are still found on smartphones. Pokémon Go, a smartphone game that briefly entranced people in 2016, used a primitive form of the technology. Another popular application is on Snapchat, a messaging app whose parent firm is gearing up for an IPO (see article): when teenagers overlay rabbit ears onto the faces of friends and family, they are using AR.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8764907/n
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Kateeeeeeeeee
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Hello everyone, My name is Katiya. I am a Ukrainian who has been retained to launch an Ismaili website. I need some help with content. Therefore i decided to search an Ismaili website to find someone who is an Ismaili and can help with this Project. Once the site has been launched, we will be looking for full time staff in maintaining this world wide website. Please contact me on my email amira.dream13@gmail.com if you are able too assist. Thank you very much Katiya.
Reproductive technologies
Gene editing, clones and the science of making babies
Ways of reproducing without sexual intercourse are multiplying. History suggests that they should be embraced
IT USED to be so simple. Girl met boy. Gametes were transferred through plumbing optimised by millions of years of evolution. Then, nine months later, part of that plumbing presented the finished product to the world. Now things are becoming a lot more complicated. A report published on February 14th by America’s National Academy of Sciences gives qualified support to research into gene-editing techniques so precise that genetic diseases like haemophilia and sickle-cell anaemia can be fixed before an embryo even starts to develop. The idea of human cloning triggered a furore when, 20 years ago this week, Dolly the sheep was revealed to the world (see article); much fuss about nothing, some would say, looking back. But other technological advances are making cloning humans steadily more feasible.
Some are horrified at the prospect of people “playing God” with reproduction. Others, whose lives are blighted by childlessness or genetic disease, argue passionately for the right to alleviate suffering. Either way, the science is coming and society will have to work out what it thinks.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8885810/n
Gene editing, clones and the science of making babies
Ways of reproducing without sexual intercourse are multiplying. History suggests that they should be embraced
IT USED to be so simple. Girl met boy. Gametes were transferred through plumbing optimised by millions of years of evolution. Then, nine months later, part of that plumbing presented the finished product to the world. Now things are becoming a lot more complicated. A report published on February 14th by America’s National Academy of Sciences gives qualified support to research into gene-editing techniques so precise that genetic diseases like haemophilia and sickle-cell anaemia can be fixed before an embryo even starts to develop. The idea of human cloning triggered a furore when, 20 years ago this week, Dolly the sheep was revealed to the world (see article); much fuss about nothing, some would say, looking back. But other technological advances are making cloning humans steadily more feasible.
Some are horrified at the prospect of people “playing God” with reproduction. Others, whose lives are blighted by childlessness or genetic disease, argue passionately for the right to alleviate suffering. Either way, the science is coming and society will have to work out what it thinks.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... /8885810/n
A Facebook-Style Shift in How Science Is Shared
Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at the University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at his disposal.
Recently, he added another tool: social media.
During a monthslong project to prove that the mesentery — folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the abdomen — was in fact a human organ, Professor Coffey regularly turned to his followers on ResearchGate, a free Facebook-style social network aimed solely at scientists worldwide, for tips and suggestions on where his four-person team should focus their research.
“It’s real-time feedback from people who are experts in this field,” said Professor Coffey, who published his findings last month in the The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a prestigious British medical journal. “It’s not like your typical social media.”
That paper was, in part, shaped by his interactions on the social network, indicative of a shift in how scientific research is conducted. As Professor Coffey noted, researchers once faced difficulty in getting feedback from peers before publication, and their projects were often closed to outsiders.
This change was initially gradual. But it has increased at pace in recent years as the cost of cloud computing has plummeted and researchers have become comfortable in uploading their work onto social media.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/tech ... d=71987722
Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at the University of Limerick in Ireland, has a world of gadgetry, scientific equipment and medical tests at his disposal.
Recently, he added another tool: social media.
During a monthslong project to prove that the mesentery — folded tissue that connects the intestines to the wall of the abdomen — was in fact a human organ, Professor Coffey regularly turned to his followers on ResearchGate, a free Facebook-style social network aimed solely at scientists worldwide, for tips and suggestions on where his four-person team should focus their research.
“It’s real-time feedback from people who are experts in this field,” said Professor Coffey, who published his findings last month in the The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a prestigious British medical journal. “It’s not like your typical social media.”
That paper was, in part, shaped by his interactions on the social network, indicative of a shift in how scientific research is conducted. As Professor Coffey noted, researchers once faced difficulty in getting feedback from peers before publication, and their projects were often closed to outsiders.
This change was initially gradual. But it has increased at pace in recent years as the cost of cloud computing has plummeted and researchers have become comfortable in uploading their work onto social media.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/tech ... d=71987722
The wonder drug
A digital revolution in health care is speeding up
Telemedicine, predictive diagnostics, wearable sensors and a host of new apps will transform how people manage their health
WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon’s Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association. Alexa is accumulating other health-care skills, too, including acting as a companion for the elderly and answering questions about children’s illnesses. In the near future she will probably help doctors with grubby hands to take notes and to request scans, as well as remind patients to take their pills.
Alexa is one manifestation of a drive to disrupt an industry that has so far largely failed to deliver on the potential of digital information. Health care is over-regulated and expensive to innovate in, and has a history of failing to implement ambitious IT projects. But the momentum towards a digital future is gathering pace. Investment into digital health care has soared (see chart).
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... /9012562/n
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Lunar spaceflight
Two races to the Moon are hotting up
One involves robots. The other involves humans
THE $30m Google Lunar XPRIZE has had a slow time of it. Set up in 2007, it originally required competitors to land robots on the Moon by 2012. But the interest in returning to the Moon that the prize sought to catalyse did not quickly materialise; faced with a dearth of likely winners, the XPRIZE Foundation was forced to push back its deadline again and again. Now, though, five competing teams have launch contracts to get their little marvels to the Moon by the end of this year. And as those robotic explorers head into the final straight, a new contest is opening up.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
******
Why literature is the ultimate big-data challenge
In a few decades, statistical analysis of literature has gone from crackpot theorising to cutting-edge research
Extract:
This new edition of the Complete Works made headlines last October as it identified 17 of Shakespeare’s 44 plays as collaborations (by comparison, the 1986 edition named only eight). The most thrilling new name on the contents page is that of Christopher Marlowe; his inclusion seems to give credence to authorship theories previously dismissed as conspiracies. What has really raised eyebrows, though, is the technique used to identify Marlowe’s hand: not traditional editorial insight, but computational analysis. So how do today’s data linguists figure out who wrote what, without confusing authorship and influence? And more importantly, why does it matter?
Computers and human readers can identify Shakespeare’s writing through “plus-words”—such as “gentle”, “answer”, “beseech”, “tonight”—which he uses frequently. This method becomes less accurate, though, when writers ape one another’s style as they often did in Elizabethan theatre-land. Early modern playwrights were a close-knit bunch and 16th-century audiences do not appear to have placed a high premium on novelty. “Tamburlaine”, Christopher Marlowe’s wildly popular play, spawned so many knock-off sequels and serials that Ben Jonson, a fellow playwright, felt compelled to lament the endless “Tamerlanes and Tamer-chams of the late age”. Shakespeare was as guilty of this as anyone. In “The Jew of Malta” (1589), Marlowe’s Barabas spies his daughter Abigail on a balcony:
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... n/NA/email
A digital revolution in health care is speeding up
Telemedicine, predictive diagnostics, wearable sensors and a host of new apps will transform how people manage their health
WHEN someone goes into cardiac arrest, survival depends on how quickly the heart can be restarted. Enter Amazon’s Echo, a voice-driven computer that answers to the name of Alexa, which can recite life-saving instructions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a skill taught to it by the American Heart Association. Alexa is accumulating other health-care skills, too, including acting as a companion for the elderly and answering questions about children’s illnesses. In the near future she will probably help doctors with grubby hands to take notes and to request scans, as well as remind patients to take their pills.
Alexa is one manifestation of a drive to disrupt an industry that has so far largely failed to deliver on the potential of digital information. Health care is over-regulated and expensive to innovate in, and has a history of failing to implement ambitious IT projects. But the momentum towards a digital future is gathering pace. Investment into digital health care has soared (see chart).
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/business/ ... /9012562/n
*******
Lunar spaceflight
Two races to the Moon are hotting up
One involves robots. The other involves humans
THE $30m Google Lunar XPRIZE has had a slow time of it. Set up in 2007, it originally required competitors to land robots on the Moon by 2012. But the interest in returning to the Moon that the prize sought to catalyse did not quickly materialise; faced with a dearth of likely winners, the XPRIZE Foundation was forced to push back its deadline again and again. Now, though, five competing teams have launch contracts to get their little marvels to the Moon by the end of this year. And as those robotic explorers head into the final straight, a new contest is opening up.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... n/NA/email
******
Why literature is the ultimate big-data challenge
In a few decades, statistical analysis of literature has gone from crackpot theorising to cutting-edge research
Extract:
This new edition of the Complete Works made headlines last October as it identified 17 of Shakespeare’s 44 plays as collaborations (by comparison, the 1986 edition named only eight). The most thrilling new name on the contents page is that of Christopher Marlowe; his inclusion seems to give credence to authorship theories previously dismissed as conspiracies. What has really raised eyebrows, though, is the technique used to identify Marlowe’s hand: not traditional editorial insight, but computational analysis. So how do today’s data linguists figure out who wrote what, without confusing authorship and influence? And more importantly, why does it matter?
Computers and human readers can identify Shakespeare’s writing through “plus-words”—such as “gentle”, “answer”, “beseech”, “tonight”—which he uses frequently. This method becomes less accurate, though, when writers ape one another’s style as they often did in Elizabethan theatre-land. Early modern playwrights were a close-knit bunch and 16th-century audiences do not appear to have placed a high premium on novelty. “Tamburlaine”, Christopher Marlowe’s wildly popular play, spawned so many knock-off sequels and serials that Ben Jonson, a fellow playwright, felt compelled to lament the endless “Tamerlanes and Tamer-chams of the late age”. Shakespeare was as guilty of this as anyone. In “The Jew of Malta” (1589), Marlowe’s Barabas spies his daughter Abigail on a balcony:
More...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero ... n/NA/email
Resist the Internet
So far, in my ongoing series of columns making the case for implausible ideas, I’ve fixed race relations and solved the problem of a workless working class. So now it’s time to turn to the real threat to the human future: the one in your pocket or on your desk, the one you might be reading this column on right now.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true: You are enslaved to the internet. Definitely if you’re young, increasingly if you’re old, your day-to-day, minute-to-minute existence is dominated by a compulsion to check email and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram with a frequency that bears no relationship to any communicative need.
Compulsions are rarely harmless. The internet is not the opioid crisis; it is not likely to kill you (unless you’re hit by a distracted driver) or leave you ravaged and destitute. But it requires you to focus intensely, furiously, and constantly on the ephemera that fills a tiny little screen, and experience the traditional graces of existence — your spouse and friends and children, the natural world, good food and great art — in a state of perpetual distraction.
Used within reasonable limits, of course, these devices also offer us new graces. But we are not using them within reasonable limits. They are the masters; we are not. They are built to addict us, as the social psychologist Adam Alter’s new book “Irresistible” points out — and to madden us, distract us, arouse us and deceive us. We primp and perform for them as for a lover; we surrender our privacy to their demands; we wait on tenterhooks for every “like.” The smartphone is in the saddle, and it rides mankind.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/opin ... d=45305309
So far, in my ongoing series of columns making the case for implausible ideas, I’ve fixed race relations and solved the problem of a workless working class. So now it’s time to turn to the real threat to the human future: the one in your pocket or on your desk, the one you might be reading this column on right now.
Search your feelings, you know it to be true: You are enslaved to the internet. Definitely if you’re young, increasingly if you’re old, your day-to-day, minute-to-minute existence is dominated by a compulsion to check email and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram with a frequency that bears no relationship to any communicative need.
Compulsions are rarely harmless. The internet is not the opioid crisis; it is not likely to kill you (unless you’re hit by a distracted driver) or leave you ravaged and destitute. But it requires you to focus intensely, furiously, and constantly on the ephemera that fills a tiny little screen, and experience the traditional graces of existence — your spouse and friends and children, the natural world, good food and great art — in a state of perpetual distraction.
Used within reasonable limits, of course, these devices also offer us new graces. But we are not using them within reasonable limits. They are the masters; we are not. They are built to addict us, as the social psychologist Adam Alter’s new book “Irresistible” points out — and to madden us, distract us, arouse us and deceive us. We primp and perform for them as for a lover; we surrender our privacy to their demands; we wait on tenterhooks for every “like.” The smartphone is in the saddle, and it rides mankind.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/opin ... d=45305309
Patients Lose Sight After Stem Cells Are Injected Into Their Eyes
Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a loosely regulated clinic in Florida, doctors reported in an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
One, 72, went completely blind from the injections, and the others, 78 and 88, lost much of their eyesight. Before the procedure, all had some visual impairment but could see well enough to drive.
The cases expose gaps in the ability of government health agencies to protect consumers from unproven treatments offered by entrepreneurs who promote the supposed healing power of stem cells.
The women had macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss, and they paid $5,000 each to receive stem-cell injections in 2015 at a private clinic in Sunrise, Fla. The clinic was part of a company then called Bioheart, now called U.S. Stem Cell. Staff members there used liposuction to suck fat out of the women’s bellies, and then extracted stem cells from the fat to inject into the women’s eyes.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/heal ... d=71987722
Three women suffered severe, permanent eye damage after stem cells were injected into their eyes, in an unproven treatment at a loosely regulated clinic in Florida, doctors reported in an article published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.
One, 72, went completely blind from the injections, and the others, 78 and 88, lost much of their eyesight. Before the procedure, all had some visual impairment but could see well enough to drive.
The cases expose gaps in the ability of government health agencies to protect consumers from unproven treatments offered by entrepreneurs who promote the supposed healing power of stem cells.
The women had macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes vision loss, and they paid $5,000 each to receive stem-cell injections in 2015 at a private clinic in Sunrise, Fla. The clinic was part of a company then called Bioheart, now called U.S. Stem Cell. Staff members there used liposuction to suck fat out of the women’s bellies, and then extracted stem cells from the fat to inject into the women’s eyes.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/heal ... d=71987722
The future is here: First flying car hits the market
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/the ... ailsignout
VIDEO
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/news/the ... ailsignout
Small flying “cars” come a bit closer to reality
A German firm completes a test, and Uber promises a prototype by 2020
“YOU may smile, but it will come,” said Henry Ford in 1940, predicting the arrival of a machine that was part-automobile and part-aeroplane. For decades flying cars have obsessed technologists but eluded their mastery. Finally there is reason to believe. Several firms have offered hope that flying people in small pods for short trips might become a reality in the next decade. These are not cars, as most are not fit to drive on land, but rather small vehicles, which can rise and land vertically, like quiet helicopters.
A prototype of a small electric plane capable of flying up to 300 kilometres per hour, made by Lilium, a German startup, completed a successful test over Bavaria on April 20th. Lilium is starting work on a five-seat vehicle and hopes to offer a ride-hailing service. Another German firm, e-volo, has been testing a flying vehicle for several years. It recently showed off the second version of its electric Volocopter (pictured), which could be certified for flight as soon as next year.
More..
http://www.economist.com/news/business- ... lydispatch
A German firm completes a test, and Uber promises a prototype by 2020
“YOU may smile, but it will come,” said Henry Ford in 1940, predicting the arrival of a machine that was part-automobile and part-aeroplane. For decades flying cars have obsessed technologists but eluded their mastery. Finally there is reason to believe. Several firms have offered hope that flying people in small pods for short trips might become a reality in the next decade. These are not cars, as most are not fit to drive on land, but rather small vehicles, which can rise and land vertically, like quiet helicopters.
A prototype of a small electric plane capable of flying up to 300 kilometres per hour, made by Lilium, a German startup, completed a successful test over Bavaria on April 20th. Lilium is starting work on a five-seat vehicle and hopes to offer a ride-hailing service. Another German firm, e-volo, has been testing a flying vehicle for several years. It recently showed off the second version of its electric Volocopter (pictured), which could be certified for flight as soon as next year.
More..
http://www.economist.com/news/business- ... lydispatch
Owning Your Own Future
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Political analysts will long debate over where Brexit, Trump and Le Pen came from. Many say income gaps. I’d say … not quite. I’d say income anxiety and the stress over what it now takes to secure and hold a good job.
I believe the accelerations set loose by Silicon Valley in technology and digital globalization have created a world where every decent job demands more skill and, now, lifelong learning. More people can’t keep up, and clearly some have reached for leaders who promise to stop the wind.
Let me elaborate through a few conversations, starting with Brian Krzanich, the C.E.O. of Intel, who recently remarked to me: “I believe my grandchildren will not drive.”
Since he has teenage daughters, that means self-driving vehicles should be fully deployed in 25 years, at which time you won’t “steer” your car but will program it on a smartphone or watch or glasses. Sounds like fun — unless you’re one of the millions who drive a truck or cab for a living.
But don’t think you’re safe as an accountant, either.
Mark Bohr, Intel’s senior fellow for technology, explained to me that Intel’s main workhorse microprocessor today is the 14-nanometer chip it introduced in 2014. It packs 37.5 million transistors per square millimeter. By the end of 2017, thanks to Moore’s Law, Intel will begin producing a 10-nm chip that will pack “100 million transistors per square millimeter — more than double the previous density with less heat and power usage,” said Bohr.
If you think machines are smart today … wait a year. It’s this move from 14-nm to 10-nm chips that will help enable automakers to shrink the brain of a self-driving car — a brain that has to take in sensor data from 360 degrees and instantly process whether it’s a dog, a human, a biker or another car — from something that fills a whole trunk to a small box under the front seat, so these cars can scale.
When you get that much processing power, putting out that much data exhaust with ever-improving software, you create a world where we can analyze, prophesize and optimize with a precision unknown in human history. We can see trends we never saw, predict when engine parts will break and replace them before they do, with great savings, and we can optimize everything — from the most energy-saving flight path for an airplane to the ideal drilling path for a natural gas well.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opin ... pe=article
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Political analysts will long debate over where Brexit, Trump and Le Pen came from. Many say income gaps. I’d say … not quite. I’d say income anxiety and the stress over what it now takes to secure and hold a good job.
I believe the accelerations set loose by Silicon Valley in technology and digital globalization have created a world where every decent job demands more skill and, now, lifelong learning. More people can’t keep up, and clearly some have reached for leaders who promise to stop the wind.
Let me elaborate through a few conversations, starting with Brian Krzanich, the C.E.O. of Intel, who recently remarked to me: “I believe my grandchildren will not drive.”
Since he has teenage daughters, that means self-driving vehicles should be fully deployed in 25 years, at which time you won’t “steer” your car but will program it on a smartphone or watch or glasses. Sounds like fun — unless you’re one of the millions who drive a truck or cab for a living.
But don’t think you’re safe as an accountant, either.
Mark Bohr, Intel’s senior fellow for technology, explained to me that Intel’s main workhorse microprocessor today is the 14-nanometer chip it introduced in 2014. It packs 37.5 million transistors per square millimeter. By the end of 2017, thanks to Moore’s Law, Intel will begin producing a 10-nm chip that will pack “100 million transistors per square millimeter — more than double the previous density with less heat and power usage,” said Bohr.
If you think machines are smart today … wait a year. It’s this move from 14-nm to 10-nm chips that will help enable automakers to shrink the brain of a self-driving car — a brain that has to take in sensor data from 360 degrees and instantly process whether it’s a dog, a human, a biker or another car — from something that fills a whole trunk to a small box under the front seat, so these cars can scale.
When you get that much processing power, putting out that much data exhaust with ever-improving software, you create a world where we can analyze, prophesize and optimize with a precision unknown in human history. We can see trends we never saw, predict when engine parts will break and replace them before they do, with great savings, and we can optimize everything — from the most energy-saving flight path for an airplane to the ideal drilling path for a natural gas well.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opin ... pe=article
Weighing the Ethics of Artificial Wombs
With 3-D printing, lab-grown organs and lifelike prosthetic limbs, science creeps ever nearer to replicating the parts and functions of the human body.
But not pregnancy: Despite several attempts over the past 20 years, researchers have been largely unsuccessful at encouraging human gestation outside the womb, and important elements of the interaction between mother and fetus remain a profound mystery.
Recently, however, scientists announced that they had created an artificial womb in which lambs born prematurely grew for a month. Human testing is not expected for three to five years, if it is done at all.
But should an artificial womb succeed for premature infants, it could have far-reaching legal and ethical consequences.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/heal ... dline&te=1
With 3-D printing, lab-grown organs and lifelike prosthetic limbs, science creeps ever nearer to replicating the parts and functions of the human body.
But not pregnancy: Despite several attempts over the past 20 years, researchers have been largely unsuccessful at encouraging human gestation outside the womb, and important elements of the interaction between mother and fetus remain a profound mystery.
Recently, however, scientists announced that they had created an artificial womb in which lambs born prematurely grew for a month. Human testing is not expected for three to five years, if it is done at all.
But should an artificial womb succeed for premature infants, it could have far-reaching legal and ethical consequences.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/heal ... dline&te=1
‘The Internet Is Broken’: @ev Is Trying to Salvage It
SAN FRANCISCO — Evan Williams is the guy who opened up Pandora’s box. Until he came along, people had few places to go with their overflowing emotions and wild opinions, other than writing a letter to the newspaper or haranguing the neighbors.
Mr. Williams — a Twitter founder, a co-creator of Blogger — set everyone free, providing tools to address the world. In the history of communications technology, it was a development with echoes of Gutenberg.
And so here we are in 2017. How’s it going, Mr. Williams?
“I think the internet is broken,” he says. He has believed this for a few years, actually. But things are getting worse. “And it’s a lot more obvious to a lot of people that it’s broken.”
People are using Facebook to showcase suicides, beatings and murder, in real time. Twitter is a hive of trolling and abuse that it seems unable to stop. Fake news, whether created for ideology or profit, runs rampant. Four out of 10 adult internet users said in a Pew survey that they had been harassed online. And that was before the presidential campaign heated up last year.
“I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place,” Mr. Williams says. “I was wrong about that.”
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur first drew notice during the dot-com boom, for developing software that allowed users to easily set up a website for broadcasting their thoughts: blogging. By the time Google bought the company in 2003, more than a million people were using it.
Then came Twitter, which wasn’t his idea but was his company. He remains the largest individual shareholder and a board member.
After fame and fortune come regrets. Mr. Williams is trying to fix some things. So, in different ways, are Google and Facebook, and even Twitter. This is a moment for patches and promises.
More...
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/t ... qWkEgTMz8z
SAN FRANCISCO — Evan Williams is the guy who opened up Pandora’s box. Until he came along, people had few places to go with their overflowing emotions and wild opinions, other than writing a letter to the newspaper or haranguing the neighbors.
Mr. Williams — a Twitter founder, a co-creator of Blogger — set everyone free, providing tools to address the world. In the history of communications technology, it was a development with echoes of Gutenberg.
And so here we are in 2017. How’s it going, Mr. Williams?
“I think the internet is broken,” he says. He has believed this for a few years, actually. But things are getting worse. “And it’s a lot more obvious to a lot of people that it’s broken.”
People are using Facebook to showcase suicides, beatings and murder, in real time. Twitter is a hive of trolling and abuse that it seems unable to stop. Fake news, whether created for ideology or profit, runs rampant. Four out of 10 adult internet users said in a Pew survey that they had been harassed online. And that was before the presidential campaign heated up last year.
“I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place,” Mr. Williams says. “I was wrong about that.”
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur first drew notice during the dot-com boom, for developing software that allowed users to easily set up a website for broadcasting their thoughts: blogging. By the time Google bought the company in 2003, more than a million people were using it.
Then came Twitter, which wasn’t his idea but was his company. He remains the largest individual shareholder and a board member.
After fame and fortune come regrets. Mr. Williams is trying to fix some things. So, in different ways, are Google and Facebook, and even Twitter. This is a moment for patches and promises.
More...
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/t ... qWkEgTMz8z
The long, winding road for driverless cars
Forget hype about autonomous vehicles being around the corner—real driverless cars will take a good deal longer
CARMAKERS like to talk about autonomous vehicles (AVs) as if they will be in showrooms in three or four years' time. The rosy scenarios suggest people will soon be whisked from place to place by road-going robots, with little input from those on board. AVs will end the drudgery of driving, we are told. With their lightning reactions, tireless attention to traffic, better all-round vision and respect for the law, AVs will be safer drivers than most motorists. They won’t get tired, drunk, have fits of road rage, or become distracted by texting, chatting, eating or fiddling with the entertainment system.
The family AV will ferry children to school; adults to work, malls, movies, bars and restaurants; the elderly to the doctor’s office and back. For some, car ownership will be a thing of the past, as the cost of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft tumbles once human drivers are no longer needed. Going driverless could cut hailing costs by as much as 80%, say optimists. Welcome to the brave new world of mobility-on-demand.
All these things may come to pass one day. But they are unlikely to do so anytime soon, despite the enthusiasm of people like Elon Musk. Within two years, says the Tesla boss, people will be napping as driverless vehicles pilot them to their destinations. Mr Musk has defied conventional wisdom before, and proved critics and naysayers wrong. In this case, however, too many obstacles lie ahead that are not amenable to brute-force engineering. It could take a decade or two before AVs can transport people anywhere, at any time, in any condition—and do so more reliably and safely than human drivers.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
Forget hype about autonomous vehicles being around the corner—real driverless cars will take a good deal longer
CARMAKERS like to talk about autonomous vehicles (AVs) as if they will be in showrooms in three or four years' time. The rosy scenarios suggest people will soon be whisked from place to place by road-going robots, with little input from those on board. AVs will end the drudgery of driving, we are told. With their lightning reactions, tireless attention to traffic, better all-round vision and respect for the law, AVs will be safer drivers than most motorists. They won’t get tired, drunk, have fits of road rage, or become distracted by texting, chatting, eating or fiddling with the entertainment system.
The family AV will ferry children to school; adults to work, malls, movies, bars and restaurants; the elderly to the doctor’s office and back. For some, car ownership will be a thing of the past, as the cost of ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft tumbles once human drivers are no longer needed. Going driverless could cut hailing costs by as much as 80%, say optimists. Welcome to the brave new world of mobility-on-demand.
All these things may come to pass one day. But they are unlikely to do so anytime soon, despite the enthusiasm of people like Elon Musk. Within two years, says the Tesla boss, people will be napping as driverless vehicles pilot them to their destinations. Mr Musk has defied conventional wisdom before, and proved critics and naysayers wrong. In this case, however, too many obstacles lie ahead that are not amenable to brute-force engineering. It could take a decade or two before AVs can transport people anywhere, at any time, in any condition—and do so more reliably and safely than human drivers.
More...
http://www.economist.com/news/science-a ... lydispatch
Robocop joins Dubai police to fight real life crime
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/r ... ailsignout
A robotic policeman which can help identify wanted criminals and collect evidence has joined Dubai's police force and will patrol busy areas in the city, as part of a government program aimed at replacing some human crime-fighters with machines.
If the "Robocop" experiment is successful, Dubai Police says it wants the unarmed robots to make up 25 percent of its patrolling force by 2030.
Clad in the colors of the Dubai Police uniform, the life-size robot, which can shake hands and perform a military salute, is the lighter side of a government plan to use technology to improve services and security ahead of Dubai hosting Expo 2020.
"These kind of robots can work 24/7. They won't ask you for leave, sick leave or maternity leave. It can work around the clock," said Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, director general of the Smart Services Department at Dubai Police.
The first automated policeman in the Middle East, the robot on wheels is equipped with cameras and facial recognition software.
It can compare faces with a police database and flag matches to headquarters. It can read vehicle license plates and its video feed can help police watch for risks such as unattended bags in popular areas of Dubai, a financial and tourism hub.
Members of the public can also talk to the robot to report a crime or communicate with it using a touch screen computer embedded in its chest. Built by Barcelona-based PAL Robotics, and programed by Dubai Police, the cost of the robot has not been disclosed.
Most people are not nervous about talking to a robot and some even seem to prefer it, Razooqi said.
"We now see the new generations who are using smart devices - they love to use these kind of tools. A lot of them have seen the Robocop movie and they said: you guys, you have done it."
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Alison Williams)
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/offbeat/r ... ailsignout
A robotic policeman which can help identify wanted criminals and collect evidence has joined Dubai's police force and will patrol busy areas in the city, as part of a government program aimed at replacing some human crime-fighters with machines.
If the "Robocop" experiment is successful, Dubai Police says it wants the unarmed robots to make up 25 percent of its patrolling force by 2030.
Clad in the colors of the Dubai Police uniform, the life-size robot, which can shake hands and perform a military salute, is the lighter side of a government plan to use technology to improve services and security ahead of Dubai hosting Expo 2020.
"These kind of robots can work 24/7. They won't ask you for leave, sick leave or maternity leave. It can work around the clock," said Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, director general of the Smart Services Department at Dubai Police.
The first automated policeman in the Middle East, the robot on wheels is equipped with cameras and facial recognition software.
It can compare faces with a police database and flag matches to headquarters. It can read vehicle license plates and its video feed can help police watch for risks such as unattended bags in popular areas of Dubai, a financial and tourism hub.
Members of the public can also talk to the robot to report a crime or communicate with it using a touch screen computer embedded in its chest. Built by Barcelona-based PAL Robotics, and programed by Dubai Police, the cost of the robot has not been disclosed.
Most people are not nervous about talking to a robot and some even seem to prefer it, Razooqi said.
"We now see the new generations who are using smart devices - they love to use these kind of tools. A lot of them have seen the Robocop movie and they said: you guys, you have done it."
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Alison Williams)
Are You a Self-Interrupter?
Distraction in the technology age.
BY ADAM GAZZALEY & LARRY D. ROSEN
MAY 25, 2017
Our technology-rich world has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. While on the one hand we have access to information or people anywhere at any time, on the other hand we find our attention constantly drawn by the rich, multisensory, technological environments. It all started with the graphical user interface that took us from the flat, two-dimensional text-based environment that operated on a line-by-line basis similar to a typewriter, to a small picture depicting an operation or program. From there it was a short hop to a completely multisensory world appealing to all of our visual, auditory, and tactile or kinesthetic senses. We now see videos in high definition, often in simulated 3-D. We hear high-definition stereo sounds that feel as crisp as sounds in the real world. Our devices vibrate, shake, rattle, and roll, and our attention is captured. It is no accident that we now attach specific ringtones and vibrations to certain people to grab our attention. When Larry D. Rosen hears that piano riff from his iPhone he knows it must be either his fiancée or one of his four children, and he grabs the phone before the end of the first few notes. As B.F. Skinner would say, he has been positively reinforced on a fixed-ratio schedule, as it is almost always a positive experience to talk to any of them. On the other hand, several people in his contact list have an “alarm” ringtone, which causes the exact opposite visceral reaction, and he reaches for the button to ignore the call.
More...
http://nautil.us//issue/48/chaos/are-yo ... 2-60760513
Distraction in the technology age.
BY ADAM GAZZALEY & LARRY D. ROSEN
MAY 25, 2017
Our technology-rich world has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. While on the one hand we have access to information or people anywhere at any time, on the other hand we find our attention constantly drawn by the rich, multisensory, technological environments. It all started with the graphical user interface that took us from the flat, two-dimensional text-based environment that operated on a line-by-line basis similar to a typewriter, to a small picture depicting an operation or program. From there it was a short hop to a completely multisensory world appealing to all of our visual, auditory, and tactile or kinesthetic senses. We now see videos in high definition, often in simulated 3-D. We hear high-definition stereo sounds that feel as crisp as sounds in the real world. Our devices vibrate, shake, rattle, and roll, and our attention is captured. It is no accident that we now attach specific ringtones and vibrations to certain people to grab our attention. When Larry D. Rosen hears that piano riff from his iPhone he knows it must be either his fiancée or one of his four children, and he grabs the phone before the end of the first few notes. As B.F. Skinner would say, he has been positively reinforced on a fixed-ratio schedule, as it is almost always a positive experience to talk to any of them. On the other hand, several people in his contact list have an “alarm” ringtone, which causes the exact opposite visceral reaction, and he reaches for the button to ignore the call.
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http://nautil.us//issue/48/chaos/are-yo ... 2-60760513
Privacy in the Cellphone Age
Odds are you need to use that phone in your pocket many times a day — and doing so leaves you no choice but to constantly relay data revealing your location and movements to Verizon, AT&T or whatever cellphone company you pay for the service. For most people, most of the time, that’s not a concern, if they’re aware of it at all. But how easy should it be for the government to get its hands on that data?
That’s the question at the heart of a major new case the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear. The justices’ decision could redefine not only the limits on law enforcement access to cellphone-location records, but the future of surveillance more broadly.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/opin ... dline&te=1
Odds are you need to use that phone in your pocket many times a day — and doing so leaves you no choice but to constantly relay data revealing your location and movements to Verizon, AT&T or whatever cellphone company you pay for the service. For most people, most of the time, that’s not a concern, if they’re aware of it at all. But how easy should it be for the government to get its hands on that data?
That’s the question at the heart of a major new case the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear. The justices’ decision could redefine not only the limits on law enforcement access to cellphone-location records, but the future of surveillance more broadly.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/opin ... dline&te=1
When a Computer Program Keeps You in Jail
The criminal justice system is becoming automated. At every stage — from policing and investigations to bail, evidence, sentencing and parole — computer systems play a role. Artificial intelligence deploys cops on the beat. Audio sensors generate gunshot alerts. Forensic analysts use probabilistic software programs to evaluate fingerprints, faces and DNA. Risk-assessment instruments help to determine who is incarcerated and for how long.
Technological advancement is, in theory, a welcome development. But in practice, aspects of automation are making the justice system less fair for criminal defendants.
The root of the problem is that automated criminal justice technologies are largely privately owned and sold for profit. The developers tend to view their technologies as trade secrets. As a result, they often refuse to disclose details about how their tools work, even to criminal defendants and their attorneys, even under a protective order, even in the controlled context of a criminal proceeding or parole hearing.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/opin ... &te=1&_r=0
The criminal justice system is becoming automated. At every stage — from policing and investigations to bail, evidence, sentencing and parole — computer systems play a role. Artificial intelligence deploys cops on the beat. Audio sensors generate gunshot alerts. Forensic analysts use probabilistic software programs to evaluate fingerprints, faces and DNA. Risk-assessment instruments help to determine who is incarcerated and for how long.
Technological advancement is, in theory, a welcome development. But in practice, aspects of automation are making the justice system less fair for criminal defendants.
The root of the problem is that automated criminal justice technologies are largely privately owned and sold for profit. The developers tend to view their technologies as trade secrets. As a result, they often refuse to disclose details about how their tools work, even to criminal defendants and their attorneys, even under a protective order, even in the controlled context of a criminal proceeding or parole hearing.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/opin ... &te=1&_r=0
Most drones today are either cheap toys or expensive weapons. But interesting commercial uses are emerging in the middle, says Tom Standage
STARTING a riot at a football match. Revealing an unknown monument in the desert near Petra. Performing at the Super Bowl. Sneaking drugs and mobile phones into prisons. Herding elephants in Tanzania. What links this astonishing range of activities? They are all things that have been done by small flying robots, better known as drones.
To most people a drone is one of two very different kinds of pilotless aircraft: a toy or a weapon. It is either a small, insect-like device that can sometimes be seen buzzing around in parks or on beaches, or a large military aircraft that deals death from the skies, allowing operators in Nevada to fire missiles at terrorist suspects in Syria. The first category, recreational drones aimed at consumers, are the more numerous by far; around 2m were sold around the world last year. The second category, military drones, account for the vast majority (nearly 90%) of worldwide spending on drones. But after a pivotal year for the civilian drone industry, an interesting space is now opening up in the middle as drones start to be put to a range of commercial uses.
Last year around 110,000 drones (technically known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) were sold for commercial use, according to Gartner, a consultancy. That figure is expected to rise to 174,000 this year and the number of consumer drones to 2.8m. Although unit sales of commercial drones are much smaller, total revenues from them are nearly twice as big as for the consumer kind (see chart).
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http://www.economist.com/technology-qua ... ian-drones
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Fertility doctor offering to blend eggs from two women to make ‘three-parent’ babies
For $US50,000 and up, Dr. John Zhang is offering women in their 40s a “solution” for age-related infertility — swapping chromosomes between two women’s eggs, resulting in a child with, technically speaking, three genetic parents.
Some of the hopeful mothers-to-be he’s screening are in Canada.
Zhang, who spearheaded the delivery of the world’s first baby born last year from his controversial DNA-blending technique, is now preparing to offer the procedure to older women desperate for their own biologically related babies. “We hope to begin cases within the next few weeks,” he said in an email to the Post. Canadian women are among those being considered for the revolutionary — and some say hugely ethically objectionable — procedure.
More...
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/b ... 2017-06-18
STARTING a riot at a football match. Revealing an unknown monument in the desert near Petra. Performing at the Super Bowl. Sneaking drugs and mobile phones into prisons. Herding elephants in Tanzania. What links this astonishing range of activities? They are all things that have been done by small flying robots, better known as drones.
To most people a drone is one of two very different kinds of pilotless aircraft: a toy or a weapon. It is either a small, insect-like device that can sometimes be seen buzzing around in parks or on beaches, or a large military aircraft that deals death from the skies, allowing operators in Nevada to fire missiles at terrorist suspects in Syria. The first category, recreational drones aimed at consumers, are the more numerous by far; around 2m were sold around the world last year. The second category, military drones, account for the vast majority (nearly 90%) of worldwide spending on drones. But after a pivotal year for the civilian drone industry, an interesting space is now opening up in the middle as drones start to be put to a range of commercial uses.
Last year around 110,000 drones (technically known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) were sold for commercial use, according to Gartner, a consultancy. That figure is expected to rise to 174,000 this year and the number of consumer drones to 2.8m. Although unit sales of commercial drones are much smaller, total revenues from them are nearly twice as big as for the consumer kind (see chart).
More...
http://www.economist.com/technology-qua ... ian-drones
*******
Fertility doctor offering to blend eggs from two women to make ‘three-parent’ babies
For $US50,000 and up, Dr. John Zhang is offering women in their 40s a “solution” for age-related infertility — swapping chromosomes between two women’s eggs, resulting in a child with, technically speaking, three genetic parents.
Some of the hopeful mothers-to-be he’s screening are in Canada.
Zhang, who spearheaded the delivery of the world’s first baby born last year from his controversial DNA-blending technique, is now preparing to offer the procedure to older women desperate for their own biologically related babies. “We hope to begin cases within the next few weeks,” he said in an email to the Post. Canadian women are among those being considered for the revolutionary — and some say hugely ethically objectionable — procedure.
More...
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/b ... 2017-06-18
A MEETING OF MINDS… AND COMPUTERS: WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF USING TECHNOLOGY TO MERGE HUMANS WITH MACHINES?
There has been a lot of talk recently about the Singularity: the idea that we’re rapidly approaching a threshold event in history when artificial intelligence will transcend human intelligence, and the resulting transformation will lead to a new form of existence utterly different from anything that has come before. Discussions of the Singularity, however, sometimes miss the fact that there are very different ways it could happen, with different levels of likelihood.
One version that has received significant press lately is the emergence of a superhuman artificial intelligence (AI). Last year DeepMind, a Google-backed AI system, used deep learning techniques to teach itself Go, a game far more complex than chess, and then trounced world champion Lee Sedol. Prominent scientists, Stephen Hawking included, warn that the rise of self-organized machine intelligence could be the greatest existential threat facing humanity.
At the other end of the optimism spectrum, futurist Raymond Kurzweil dreams of immortality by downloading his mind and re-uploading it to new hardware after his death—a prospect he believes is closer than most people imagine, setting its date at 2045 in his bestseller The Singularity Is Near. Kurzweil’s ideas are gaining traction—he is a director of engineering at Google, and his Singularity University boasts a faculty of some of Silicon Valley’s leading entrepreneurs. But his vision may contain a fatal flaw: the human brain cannot be split, like a computer, between hardware and software. Rather, neuroscientists point out that a neuron’s biophysical makeup is intrinsically linked to its computations; the information doesn’t exist separately from its material construction.
More...
http://religiondispatches.org/a-meeting ... 3-84570085
There has been a lot of talk recently about the Singularity: the idea that we’re rapidly approaching a threshold event in history when artificial intelligence will transcend human intelligence, and the resulting transformation will lead to a new form of existence utterly different from anything that has come before. Discussions of the Singularity, however, sometimes miss the fact that there are very different ways it could happen, with different levels of likelihood.
One version that has received significant press lately is the emergence of a superhuman artificial intelligence (AI). Last year DeepMind, a Google-backed AI system, used deep learning techniques to teach itself Go, a game far more complex than chess, and then trounced world champion Lee Sedol. Prominent scientists, Stephen Hawking included, warn that the rise of self-organized machine intelligence could be the greatest existential threat facing humanity.
At the other end of the optimism spectrum, futurist Raymond Kurzweil dreams of immortality by downloading his mind and re-uploading it to new hardware after his death—a prospect he believes is closer than most people imagine, setting its date at 2045 in his bestseller The Singularity Is Near. Kurzweil’s ideas are gaining traction—he is a director of engineering at Google, and his Singularity University boasts a faculty of some of Silicon Valley’s leading entrepreneurs. But his vision may contain a fatal flaw: the human brain cannot be split, like a computer, between hardware and software. Rather, neuroscientists point out that a neuron’s biophysical makeup is intrinsically linked to its computations; the information doesn’t exist separately from its material construction.
More...
http://religiondispatches.org/a-meeting ... 3-84570085
The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence
BEIJING — What worries you about the coming world of artificial intelligence?
Too often the answer to this question resembles the plot of a sci-fi thriller. People worry that developments in A.I. will bring about the “singularity” — that point in history when A.I. surpasses human intelligence, leading to an unimaginable revolution in human affairs. Or they wonder whether instead of our controlling artificial intelligence, it will control us, turning us, in effect, into cyborgs.
These are interesting issues to contemplate, but they are not pressing. They concern situations that may not arise for hundreds of years, if ever. At the moment, there is no known path from our best A.I. tools (like the Google computer program that recently beat the world’s best player of the game of Go) to “general” A.I. — self-aware computer programs that can engage in common-sense reasoning, attain knowledge in multiple domains, feel, express and understand emotions and so on.
This doesn’t mean we have nothing to worry about. On the contrary, the A.I. products that now exist are improving faster than most people realize and promise to radically transform our world, not always for the better. They are only tools, not a competing form of intelligence. But they will reshape what work means and how wealth is created, leading to unprecedented economic inequalities and even altering the global balance of power.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opin ... ef=opinion
BEIJING — What worries you about the coming world of artificial intelligence?
Too often the answer to this question resembles the plot of a sci-fi thriller. People worry that developments in A.I. will bring about the “singularity” — that point in history when A.I. surpasses human intelligence, leading to an unimaginable revolution in human affairs. Or they wonder whether instead of our controlling artificial intelligence, it will control us, turning us, in effect, into cyborgs.
These are interesting issues to contemplate, but they are not pressing. They concern situations that may not arise for hundreds of years, if ever. At the moment, there is no known path from our best A.I. tools (like the Google computer program that recently beat the world’s best player of the game of Go) to “general” A.I. — self-aware computer programs that can engage in common-sense reasoning, attain knowledge in multiple domains, feel, express and understand emotions and so on.
This doesn’t mean we have nothing to worry about. On the contrary, the A.I. products that now exist are improving faster than most people realize and promise to radically transform our world, not always for the better. They are only tools, not a competing form of intelligence. But they will reshape what work means and how wealth is created, leading to unprecedented economic inequalities and even altering the global balance of power.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opin ... ef=opinion
10 modern engineering marvels every traveler should see
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/news/10 ... t#image=10
Slide show:
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/news/10 ... t#image=10