A Mosquito Defense System For Your Home?

Posted: 7/24/2019

Was I amused this morning when I saw this news article: Laser-targeted mosquito locater aims to keep you bite-free Israeli startup Bzigo is developing a phone-sized detector for flying insects that pinpoints their location, even in the dark, so you can zap them.

An Iron Dome like defense for your home?

And this development coincides with recent reports of successful eradication of mosquito sites.

Poor mosquitoes! Soon the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will have to add the mosquito to its Red List of endangered species. 

However, on reviewing the article about this device a bit closer you find out:

1. It only locates, but does not kill
2. Once it identifies a flying insect (not just mosquitoes), it directs a low-powered laser beam at the bug’s location. Lots of false alarms!
3. Only detects mosquitoes (or other insects) on the ceiling or near the ceiling

In the end this device with its current very limited capabilities is a joke! Much more hype than utility

In Defense Of Facial Recognition

Posted: 7/23/2019  Updated: 10/10/2019

Update Of 10/10/2019

I was remiss not to mention that facial recognition could also be successfully and effectively used to provide government services. Apparently, France and Singapore are at the forefront of this endeavor!

“France is poised to become the first European country to use facial recognition technology to give citizens a secure digital identity -- whether they want it or not.” (S1)

Original Post

Facial recognition defined here:  Facial recognition + facial tracking + facial reidentification. Probably, we are missing some, other related tasks here.

Controversy has been building up over this fairly new technology. There are concerns about privacy; abuse by law enforcement; potential for (racial) bias; abuse by authoritarian governments like in China etc. Most of these concerns are rather minor or can easily be ameliorated with time and effort. Some geographic jurisdictions have prematurely chosen to ban it for now. Banning such new technology is certainly a bad choice as if the lessons of history were never learnt.

However, the benefits of this new technology, as usual, most likely will far outweigh its disadvantages.

Some benefits are:

1. Better evidence against criminals
2. Better evidence for the innocent accused of crimes etc.
3. Better evidence against abuse by government officials (incl. law enforcement)
4. Protection of innocent people from violence or crimes (e.g. fewer opportunities for a crime)
5. Better chances of recovery of e.g. missing persons or children

What needs to be done? We need a legal framework that greatly reduces the potential for abuse of facial recognition e.g. court approvals, perhaps citizen councils for oversight and so on.

As far as authoritarian regimes like China are concerned, unless the citizens of China protest the omnipresent surveillance and its reported abuses by government authorities, the regime might get away with it.

Sources (S):

1. French Liberte Tested by Nationwide Facial Recognition ID Plan (10/3/19)

The Human Immune System Engineering Revolution

Posted: 7/22/2019  Updated: 7/23/2019

This is a very exciting and very promising revolution! Expect much more to come!

Here is one of the latest iterations. Previously, Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells were successfully engineered (S2). Now, B cells are next! Personalized medicine becomes reality!

“The latest group to do so has successfully modified human and mouse B cells to express antibodies targeting HIV, EBV [Epstein-Barr virus], influenza, and RSV [Respiratory Syncytial Virus]. The researchers also demonstrate that the engineered B cells protect against RSV in a mouse model of infection. ” (S1, emphasis added)

“... we developed a genetic engineering strategy in which CRISPR-Cas9 was used to replace endogenously encoded antibodies with antibodies targeting RSV, HIV, influenza virus, or EBV in primary human B cells. The engineered antibodies were expressed efficiently in primary B cells under the control of endogenous regulatory elements, which maintained normal antibody expression and secretion. Using engineered mouse B cells, we demonstrated that a single transfer of B cells engineered to express an antibody against RSV resulted in potent and durable protection against RSV infection in RAG1-deficient mice. This approach offers the opportunity to achieve sterilizing immunity against pathogens for which traditional vaccination has failed to induce or maintain protective antibody responses.” (S3, emphasis added)

“... scientists have successfully re-engineered human B cells to produce antibodies that can neutralize, or disable, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The technique they describe could one day be used to generate new, broadly acting vaccines or therapies against not only HIV but other pathogens such as influenza and hepatitis.” (S4; emphasis added)

As more of these engineered immunotherapies are developed, the cost of these novel therapies will most likely come down significantly from its current very high levels. “... personalized CAR T-cell therapies are already thought to cost close to $500,000.” (S1)

Sources (S):

1. CRISPRed B Cells Produce Antibodies Against Hard-to-Treat Viruses (5/17/19)
2. Chimeric antigen receptor T cell (N/A)
3. B cells engineered to express pathogen-specific antibodies protect against infection (5/17/19)
4. Engineered immune cells produce antibodies to fight HIV Cells removed from patients’ bloodstreams and genetically altered may allow more effective vaccines for HIV, influenza, hepatitis (2/19/19)

Human Gut Microbiome On A Chip

Posted: 7/21/2019

The Wyss Institute at Harvard University may have delivered a momentous breakthrough by developing a very realistic, viable human gut microbiome on a chip. If confirmed, this has great potential for further and rapid medical progress!

“A research team ... has developed a ... ‘organ-on-a-chip’ (Organ Chip) microfluidic culture technology. ... now able to culture a stable complex human microbiome in direct contact with a vascularized human intestinal epithelium for at least five days in a human Intestine Chip in which an oxygen gradient is established that provides high levels to the endothelium and epithelium while maintaining hypoxic conditions in the intestinal lumen inhabited by the commensal bacteria. Their “anaerobic Intestine Chip” stably maintained a microbial diversity similar to that in human feces over days and a protective physiological barrier that was formed by human intestinal tissue. The study is published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.” (S1; emphasis added)

Sources (S):

1. Human gut microbiome physiology can now be studied in vitro using Organ Chip technology/Anaerobic human Intestine Chip supports complex gut microbiome under low oxygen, enabling direct investigations of health and disease-related human-microbiome interactions (5/13/19)

Possibly A New Chapter In The Rivalry Of India And China?

Posted: 7/21/2019 

The long history of these two great civilizations of the East has not always been harmonious between the two of them.

It appears that India lately is becoming more wary of the possible Chinese spying and influencing via popular social media applications. “India’s IT ministry has asked Chinese video app TikTok, one of the world’s most popular, to explain how it collects user data and creates awareness for safe use of its platform” (S1) 

Sources (S):

1. India queries Chinese app TikTok after call for ban by Hindu group (7/18/19)

Is The Artificial Womb Coming?

Posted: 7/21/2019

For decades, there have been efforts to create artificial wombs, but, in the past, these were rather preliminary, primitive, and not very functional experiments as far as I remember. These past experiments have advanced our knowledge, but not much more.

However, given the latest scientific and technological advances, the outlook has changed dramatically! I think, it is quite possible that in 15-30 years human babies will not be born naturally anymore. How many women died in childbirth in the course of history of humanity?

Be prepared for the intensive moral and religious controversy this prospect may cause!

Sources (S):

1. Israeli Scientists Say They Bio-Engineered Model Of 'Receptive' Human Uterus

President Trump's Three Major Economic Challenges

Posted: 7/21/2019  Updated: 7/22/2019

President Trump’s three major challenges are:

1. Fiscal irresponsibility and fiscal profligacy: The federal deficit is sliding again from roughly $600 billion in 2016 to now about $1 trillion dollars. This can not go on!
2. Dangerous federal indebtedness: As a consequence of out of control deficit spending, the federal debt stands now above $22 trillion or about 105% of GDP. Since the year 2000 ($5.7 trillion or 54% of GDP) , federal debt has nearly quadrupled! This cannot go on!
3. Reckless and irresponsible monetary policy:  Since Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan were the short term interest rates kept artificially at historically very low values. These irresponsibly low interest rates have allowed the public and private sector to pile on more and more debt like never before! 

Seriously complicating matters is the fact that the federal deficit and the ultra low interest rates are intrinsically linked. A one percentage point rise in the long term interest rate would very quickly and significantly increase the federal deficit via higher federal expenditures on servicing federal debt.

President Trump could certainly address the first challenge either by aggressively shutting down irrelevant federal  agencies or by massively downsizing or even privatizing federal agencies as much as is possible! The federal government and all its agencies is bloated! To some extent, I believe, Trump is working on this already.

So far President Trump has largely ignored these three challenges to the peril of the American economy. Left unmitigated, these challenges have the power to undermine the standing of the U.S. in global politics!

Sources (S):

1. Federal Surplus or Deficit 
2. Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
3. Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product

Plant Plenty Of Trees Exposing The Global Warming Hoax

Posted: 7/20/2019

It has been widely known for several decades that simply planting trees, many of them, could help to effectively reduce CO2 and improve air quality in general. Why is this discovered again or better pushed lately? This “rediscovery” is mind blowing! (S2) 

Instead we planted plenty of expensive and toxic windmills and solar cells! What an irony! There is never any shortage of human folly!

Is this another of the many, often dubious environmentalist campaigns to promote something? We will find out! Let’s not forget that recently the global forest/tree forecast was significantly revised upwards; that the U.S. has added substantial amounts of trees and forest in the past century etc.

Sources (S):

1. Planting more trees could cut carbon by 25% (7/12/19)
2. Greenhouse gas emissions Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis Research shows a trillion trees could be planted to capture huge amount of carbon dioxide (7/4/19)

Who Is The President Of the Royal Society?

Posted: 7/20/2019

The president of the prestigious Royal Society, i.e. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK) has authored a Correspondence in the Nature International Journal of Science, where he compares the justified and serious concern of the U.S. government over Chinese espionage in the U.S. to “... Actions such as the internment of US citizens of Japanese descent during the Second World War or the blacklisting of actual or alleged communists during the McCarthy era are now considered shameful episodes in US history” (S1; emphasis added)

This president of the Royal Society is such a naive, dumb, political hack and should be removed from office immediately! He is perhaps a brilliant scientist (shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009), but his political views are deeply tarnished by a myopic ideology!

A Noble prize winner with views that are anything but noble!

Without LPCAT1 Multiple Types Of Tumors Cannot Survive

Posted: 7/20/2019

Are we finally closing in to defeat cancer! Yes we are! Here is more evidence! Cancer is history!

“[DNA sequencing] Complementary biochemical and biophysical perspectives of cancer point toward profound shifts in nutrient uptake and utilization that propel tumor growth and major changes in the structure of the plasma membrane of tumor cells.” (S3; emphasis added)

The more targets, the better the offensive! 

We should have very powerful cocktails or other therapies (e.g. immunotherapies) in 10-20 years that will make the eradication of cancer possible. We may also opt to change some genetic code to prevent cancer! Not to mention that our diagnostic tools are getting so much better like liquid biopsy of blood etc.

Sources (S):

1. LUDWIG STUDY ESTABLISHES CANCER-DRIVING ROLE OF ENZYME THAT ALTERS THE MEMBRANE OF CANCER CELLS (7/12/19)
2. Cancer scientists identify new drug target for multiple tumor types (7/11/19)
3. Oncogene Amplification in Growth Factor Signaling Pathways Renders Cancers Dependent on Membrane Lipid Remodeling (7/11/19)

Brain Exams Instead Of Multiple Choice Tests

Posted: 7/20/2019

“Here, we investigated whether patterns of brain activity collected during a concept knowledge task could be used to compute a neural ‘score’ to complement traditional scores of an individual’s conceptual understanding” (S2)

Are we entering a new age of measuring human cognition? Mind reading ante portas!

I thank the author of S1, Sibylle Anderl, for giving me the idea for this blog post!

Sources (S):

1. NEUROIMAGING : Hirnscan statt Klausur? (7/11/19)
2. Decoding individual differences in STEM learning from functional MRI data (5/2/19)

Western Civilization Still Lives In The Dark Ages

Posted: 7/20/2019  Updated: 7/21/2019

We live in the 19th year of the 21 century, we have smartphones, the Internet, supercomputers and so much more. We think, we are so sophisticated and superior compared to our ancestors. What a mirage! What a self delusion!

When you look at the hot, dominant subjects of civil or not so civil discourse in Western societies you are forgiven not to believe that the Dark Ages are still upon us. Medieval superstition trumps everywhere, every day! Barbarism is very much alive!

Diversity is but a modern form of racism (skin color matters again). People like Frederick Douglas or Martin Luther King Jr. must be spinning wildly in their graves

Gender equality nonsense propaganda everywhere. Wild imaginations of a mythical gender pay gap every day! Males are too aggressive and not femine enough! Sexual harassment accusations crop up everywhere, anytime like witch hunts! Government mandated gender quotas are becoming the norm.  When power hungry women determined to dominate and to convert the supposed patriarchy into a matriarchy while males still continue to be chivalrous to ladies.

Global Warming (a.k.a. Climate Change) is the greatest hoax perpetrated on humanity in several generations! The widespread fanatic religious zeal behind this superstition (or pseudo religion) compares very well or even exceeds those prevalent in Ancient or Medieval times. Way too many scientists and highly educated people are accomplices to this hoax! Some things never change so they say!

LGBTQ is the greatest and hyped tribe on earth according to the daily propaganda! Was there ever more tribalism in Ancient or Medieval times? The LGBTQ tribe promotes a colorful, alternative, hip, glamorous, vanity lifestyle! Contrary to their claims, there is not much welcoming at all about their attempt to dominate or impose their lifestyle on the rest of us! Males now directly compete with females in sports! Males freely use Lady’s restrooms etc. etc. What is your sex? Do you have more than one sex? Can we transgender your sex? The age of sex obsession! In the whole scheme of things, the gender of a human being is ultimately so irrelevant, so unimportant! Even highly reputed and respected Western scientific institutions and publications are in on this craze! Ancient and medieval alchemy, astronomy, mathematics etc. were far more scientific than that!

Iconoclasm (destruction or damaging of past symbols for religious or political reasons) is still not eradicated! It is as if the Barbarians and Vandals are still among us. What an irony of history!

Dante Alighieri would be too happy to write a new Divine Comedy!

What to do? Perhaps privatize government public education, Social Security like schemes, government run health care etc. In short, more small and very limited government!