sent2null space

"And I am very much a skeptic in regards to technology being able to save us from killing ourselves as a species." A recent email exchange with a new friend contained the previous quote from my friend. It inspired me to finally write out what I'd been saying in bits and pieces to people on Facebook for quite some time. As for the question, will technology be our saving grace? I am still somewhat ambivalent about it myself, the current time of rapid developments in genetics and biology have me terrified and amazed. Terrified because as a software and hardware engineer I am well aware of the history of change that attended certain technological developments in both areas in the past and how those changes revolutionized human productivity in two phases. The first was the invention of the semiconductor transistor in 1947 by Shockley and Bardeen. The second was the invention of the integrated circuit and soon after photo-lithography that led to the astounding miniaturization o...

The last few years have been an astounding roller coaster ride of discoveries in the areas of genetics, molecular biology, oncology and in particular our understanding of how to analyze pathogens to find highly effective, targeted methods to destroy them without invasive or dangerous side effects to the living organism. The sequencing of the human genome has opened the flood gates on investigations into the genetic causes of diseases and to the quick isolation of proteins and enzymes that by over abundance , imbalance or lack of creation lead to various pathologies. In this post I am going to cover some of the recent discoveries and provide some analysis on how I think those discoveries will lead to accelerating benefits in the years to come. The story of stem cells An argument could be made that the ban of embryonic stem cell derived research in the United States by the Bush administration in 2001 forced researchers to seek other methods to investigate the power of these cells f...