World’s smallest Christmas card
Engineers have used nanotechnology to etch a Christmas tree image so small that 8276 of them will fit on a stamp.
University of Glasgow: 23 December 2010
Image is from the University of Glasgow
Merry Christmas and a safe New Year
TechNyou
Anxious wait on GM contamination in WA
WA canola contamination stoush get political and personal as they wait for final tests
Farm Weekly: 23 December 2010
And as an interesting contrast in framing by the media
The Australian 23 December 2010
Compare the following lead para of the Australian with the political/rural angle of Farm Weekly. Not sure if the fact the Aust story was written by the Consumer Editor has anything to do with it. I wonder if she is aware that a conventionally-bred herbicide-tolerant canola was generated via mutation breeding techniques?
The Aust: MUTANT canola crops genetically engineered to survive repeated sprayings of herbicide have been approved for planting.
Versus
Farm Weekly: SHADOW Minister for Agriculture Mick Murray has called for current Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman to allow WA shires to declare themselves Genetically Modified (GM) crop-free after Kojonup organic farmer Stephen Marsh lost his organic certification due to contamination.
2011 and beyond
By Jason Major
TechNyou
Because of the personal information harvest Google has on people, they reckon they can guess what your next move is going to be. They will predict what you want before you want it and it will send you a message telling you.
As 2010 draws to a close, predictions for what science will are a little less immediate. Making predictions about scientific advances only 12 months out is easy as science happens in small incremental steps. It takes time for a good idea or serendipitous finding to translate into something useful in any commercial sense. What is difficult is predicting what our lives will be like in 10 or 20 years time. Science may go in small incremental steps, but those steps, which are generating knowledge, are increasing their pace at a remarkable rate. Picking the ideas that will run the gauntlet to emerge victorious in the wake of failed, politically incorrect, socially unacceptable or commercially unviable ideas is like backing a winner at the Melbourne Cup. You only have a form guide, intuition, your own knowledge and a degree of luck to work with.
Despite crappy odds, I have dug out the predictions of a few sciency people plus added a few of my own, though mine are what I predict not to expect. Based on questions received at TechNyou there is a lot of expectation of what science will deliver and they expect it today, tomorrow at the latest. The problem is that it is often based on hope and hype rather than reality. So I provide the reality check.
First though the predictions. Here are what a few people think.
Math and IT
Our predictive powers are getting a boost from mathematic modeling and computing grunt, though some of the answers might leave us going, What the…!.
Steven Strogatz, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell University
“We’re going to see scientific results that are correct, that are predictive, but are without explanation. We may be able to do science without insight, and we may have to learn to live without it. Science will still progress, but computers will tell us things that are true, and we won’t understand them.”
Genome sequencing
Some serious advances are being made here and although 2011 is unlikely to see a human genome sequenced in a few hours for $1000, a prediction made back in about 2002, it is tantalisingly close. See Imperial College, London research suggesting that with some cool nanotechnology we will soon be reading our genome in minutes.
Reading your immune system
David Haussler, Director, Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering
“You’ll have a number of reports where people will have their genome sequenced, but there will be new types of genomes being read. We can read genomes from your immune cells. They adapt throughout your lifetime so they can protect you from diseases. Reading those genomes will be important, and you’re going to hear a lot about them next year.”
Gene hunters
The gene hunters will continue to churn out genes associated with all sorts of human traits, but more importantly we will start to get a handle on the epigenetic relationships, that is, the relationship between our genes and environment and more importantly how these external influences operate to regulate the function of our genes. Having said that, the deeper we look, the more complex it becomes, so don’t expect miracle cures.
As for the gene hunters, every day new papers are published revealing the function of previously unknown genes and there potential links to disease. The next step is to translate that knowledge into the clinic with effective treatments and drugs. John Cleese puts it into perspective.
See also following articles from Australian Life Scientist
Understanding human evolution and consciousness
Stem cells
There is great hope that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) will negate the need for embryonic stem cells. iPSCs are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to be embryonic-like in the pluripotency. Recent research managed the reprogramming with only one gene needing to be inserted into the adult cell. There is still a number of obstacles to overcome but it is likely in the next 10 years there will be advances in this field and in the clinical use of embryonic stem cells to treat specific diseases such as macular degeneration and other vision problems. One definite for 2011 will be the continuation of the stem cell tourism trade where unscrupulous operators will play on people’s desperation and convince them to cough up loads of $$ for an unproven and potentially risky stem cell transplant.
DIY stem cells
Rob Carlson, Principal, Biodesic
“It seems pretty likely within this year someone will show how to go from an adult peripheral blood draw to pluripotent stem cells. It means anyone who wants to try to make stem cells will be able to give it a whirl.”
and in more detail on Carlson’s own blog
IT and artificial intelligence
In the realm of artifical intelligence (AI), the closest commercial application will simply be a better robot vacuum cleaner. Other than that, the best on offer for the immediate future is remote controlled robots robot avatars – can’t see the point myself, but then I am a bit of a luddite.
For a peek into a speculative future a bit further away, Ray Kurzweil has taken an interest in how we could build a brain, though I tend to think Kurzweil’s time frame for his predictions is a little out.
And for the Tech Heads out there – another version of the future of AI from Ben Goertzel
Reality check
Science is often the victim of hype: nanotechnologies or gene therapies curing disease, GM crops that can prevent malnutrition, stem cells that will treat Parkinsons, spinal damage and replace organs.
All this may one day be a reality, but the hype surrounding the science has handed out a lot of false hope, especially in the area of stem cells. So here are my predictions for what will not make the light-year jump from the lab to lounge room, in the next few years at least.
Stem cells: We certainly will not be making our own organs from stem cells (unless you include skin as an organ). Nor will we be repairing spinal damage and enabling people to leave their wheel chairs. If the next two years show that we can use ESCs safely that will be a good start.
Gene therapy: This science will still struggle until they can gain better control over where a gene inserts itself into a genome, they can transform a sufficient number of cells to achieve some sort of clinical benefit, or they can perfect the method of correcting the code of an existing gene, again, in enough cells to have a clinical effect.
Nanobots: By nanobots I mean autonomous nano-sized machines that will scurry through our bodily fluids repairing damage and disease. There are too many laws of physics to overcome for any of this to be a reality in the near future and I suspect beyond. And you can forget the grey goo scenario.
GM crops: The much hyped GM crops with traits such as drought-tolerance or increased nutritional qualities will not appear in 2011, but the Golden Rice at least is predicted to be commercially available by 2012, assuming it gets through the regulatory hoops and hurdles. But any other such crops are at least five years away, if not more. The one certainty is that the controversy surrounding them will remain, regardless if there is a bounty of scientific evidence suggesting they are safe.
Synthetic biology: Our first attempt at “playing God” involved stitching together a copy of a real pathogen genome from synthetic DNA. This pathogen copy did self-replicate, but it if we define synthetic biology as constructing an original genome from the ground up that is self-replicating and has some function, then we are a long way off, though the research and conversations at a scientific level are growing, so I suspect within the next 5-10 years we will see some significant announcements.
Is night falling on classic solar panels?
Solar cells that work at night? A new breed of nanoscale light-sensitive antennas could soon make this possible
New Scientist 20 December 2010
Girl benefits from UK’s first IVF ‘saviour sibling’ therapy
A nine-year-old girl is recovering from a rare disease after a bone marrow transplant from her baby brother who was selected at embryo stage as the perfect donor.
Guardian 21 December 2010
Image of home page courtesy of Australian Stem Cell Centre
Public support for genetic tests
UNSW study: A majority of Australians would seek testing to establish their genetic susceptibility to depression.
UNSW 17 December 2010
Research collaboration to deliver ‘healthier’ grains
Four Australian research institutions will collaborate to fast-track development of new, ‘healthier’, strains of three widely cultivated cereal grains.
University of Melbourne 17 December 2010
TechNyou note: Some of this research does involves transgenics (genetic modification). I am waiting on the details
New notification requirements for of industrial nanomaterials
Australia’s National Industrial Notification and Assessment Scheme has issued new guidelines for industrial nanomaterials that come into effect 1 Jan 2011
PDF – GUIDANCE ON NEW CHEMICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR NOTIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL NANOMATERIALS
Guidance on New Chemical Requirements for Notification of Industrial Nanomaterials
Angus testes now in Brahman. No bull
CSIRO researchers have inseminated Brahman bulls with stem cells from the testicles of European Angus bulls, so the Brahmans will deliver Angus sperm.
ABC Rural: 16 December 2010
What’s the point?
It is not mentioned in the ABC report, so in case you are wondering why CSIRO, or anyone, would bother doing this when this is effectively the same as the simple and effective artifical insemination (AI) process, it is because Brahmans are a tropical breed used in the northern parts of Australia where cattle stations are measured in square miles – many thousands of them. The vast distances and millions of individual cattle simply make AI too costly. Nigel Preston, CSIRO’s theme leader on this research project also says the technique could potentially amplify elite genetics through the herd. We (CSIRO) commissioned a major consumer survey by University of Western Australia with the finding that the technology was broadly viewed as a natural alternative to AI. The few consumers that viewed AI as unnatural had the same view about stem cell transfer.
More information at CSIRO Livestock Industries
And yes, the homepage pic in neither a Brahman or Angus. It is a hereford, but it what I had on file
New method for making tiny catalysts holds promise for air quality
Iron added to nano-sized carbon spheres can create catalytic materials that have the potential to remove contaminants from gas or liquid.
PhysOrg: 15 December 2010