Session 7

The focus for the week was on the agricultural side of BioBusiness. I found the presentations on GM food and vertical farming really interesting. 

One of the presentations was about Enviropigs, which are pigs that are genetically modified to digest phosphates so that the waste they produce will be a lot less toxic. People have been modifying organisms so that they will be beneficial to us, for example, making plants grow better in adverse conditions, improving the nutritious value of the food we consume, or making animals grow larger so that they provide more for human consumption. The ability to modify the genes of living organisms brings about endless possibilities, but there may be implications that are not yet known to us. These GM food may adversely affect our health, as mentioned in another presentation about the possible existence of a toxic gene 6. Also, if the GM organisms are released out of the labs into the outside environment, the combination of genes from the modified and non-modified organism may cause unexpected effects. Since GM food can bring about a lot of positive impacts on the world, there are also many dangers that we have yet to fully explore. Hence, I think that it is necessary that we conduct as much research as possible before releasing this kind of food into the market for human consumption (although there is already a lot of GM food in the market).

Another interesting presentation was about the possibility of vertical farming. Such a farming method is especially beneficial to countries such as Singapore, where land space is very limited. Such technology will allow Singapore to be partially sustainable in terms of food. Developing countries will find this useful as well, since vertical farming has the potential to grow the same amount of food in a lot less space. This will free up land for other uses, such as housing and transport. Plants grown in this manner would also be less susceptible to the weather conditions outside, since the farm would be designed to provide the best possible environment for the plants to grow in, regardless of what happens outside. The risk of losing precious crops to floods and droughts would be greatly reduced, and people can be assured of a constant and reliable source of food. 

In a time where the world is possibly facing a shortage of food, things like GM food and vertical farming might just be potential solutions.

Rating: 8.5/10

I learnt a lot about the application of technology in solving real problems, and also the problems that these technology might bring.

Session 6

This week's topic was about the BioBusiness revolution. There was an interesting presentation about the medical tricorder, which is supposed to be able to diagnose illnesses in humans. This technology has the potential to allow people to be able to diagnose illnesses at home with accuracy, which is a lot more efficient than having to see a doctor. In cases where the person is just mildly ill, it might also remove the need for the patient to visit the doctor at all, which will then  create greater efficiency in the healthcare system. There was also some discussion in class about whether such technology will someday render doctors redundant. I think that doctors will still be needed even with this kind of technology. Although machines are able to give us more accurate readings and diagnoses based on the symptoms that the patients have, they are unable to handle exceptional cases. In such situations, the flexibility of a human mind is still needed. Also, technology (as of now) is unable to diagnose new or mutated illnesses without people first putting this information into a database. Hence, doctors will still be needed to deal with these new illnesses. However, as many more people are able to self-diagnose with the help of this machine, the number of doctors required in the future may be significantly lower than the number now. 

The medical tricorder will be especially beneficial to people living in remote areas of developing countries, where they sometimes have little or no access to medical help. It might even allow people to self-medicate which will greatly reduce the number of people dying from illnesses that are actually really easy to cure. However, this can only be done if people have access to medication, because having a diagnosis without medication is of little help. 

Rating: 8/10
I saw how new technology can possibly create a higher standard of living for the poor.

Session 5

This session's topic was about ICT and world change, and prof mentioned this quote which was really interesting:

"The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology, but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human." - John Naisbitt

People used to define themselves by what they can or cannot do, but with greater applications of our knowledge taking place now, we are constantly pushing boundaries, and we are able to make use of our creations to do things that we never thought possible before.

We then discussed about how gaming technology can have medical benefits. For example, people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and those with phobias have been know to benefit from games that simulate real life. I also have a friend who did an internship with a company that was trying to develop games that would help to track the progress of stroke patients who were partially paralyzed by making use of the accuracy that computers have to measure the extent of movement that a patient has. Perhaps, computers will be the physiotherapists of the future, if they can accurately record the progress that the patients have made and make recommendations.

There was also discussion on Project Natal, which is an amazing technology that allows a virtual character to interact with people just as normal humans would. This opens up a world of possibilities for people who are unable to communicate well with other people, because they would be able to build up their confidence by playing with the virtual people. However, this technology is also dangerous because people who use it too often may get caught up in the virtual world and forget how to communicate with real people. They might completely disregard all the real friendships and interactions that can happen in the real world, and instead, be overly reliant on the virtual world.

One of the interesting presentation was done by Charis, about cloud computing. She thought that the term 'cloud computing' was misleading because it gave people the impression that the data stored in clouds are actually not stored in a physical place, and that a large amount of data centers and servers that are still required to store all these information. I agree with her that some people actually have the misconception that the information stored on clouds seem to go nowhere, some people do not know that the data is really physically stored somewhere. She is also right to say that the number of data centers needed to store information is huge, but actually, cloud computing really reduces the wastage of space on the servers. Companies used to buy their own servers to host their data, but more often than not, they only use a fraction of the memory space their servers offer. On the other hand, in cloud computing, companies such as Amazon will buy the servers, use the space that they need, and allow others to store information on their servers as well. A lot more servers are hence fully utilized, which reduces the wastage of resources and fewer data centers would be needed. Therefore, I think that while it is true that a large number of data centers are still needed when cloud computing is used, I believe that that number is still much lower than the traditional way of data storage.

Rating: 8.5/10
The applications of technology in our lives present exciting new possibilities

Individual Report Outline

Cloning and its Impacts on Endangered Species

Intro

Cloning has a great potential to solve many issues that the world faces right now. If we were to fully decode the genome of an organism, we would be able to clone organs, or even the whole organism. The implication of this process in profound, and with future developments, there may be a lot more uses that we can only dream of now.

History

It is not clear when cloning actually started, but there was a series of events that happened in the past that led to the concept of cloning. The most significant developments were probably the understanding of the cell cycle and the realization that the genetic information of an organism is stored in the nucleus of a cell.

Present Situation

1. John Gurdon of Oxford University cloned South African frogs from the nucleus of fully differentiated adult intestinal cells in 1962.
2. F.E. Steward of Cornell University grew a complete carrot plant from a fully differentiated carrot root cell in 1964.
3. Karl Illmensee cloned three mice in 1979
4. The first mammalian cloning occurred in 1984 when Steen Willadsen cloned a sheep from embryonic cells.
5. Steen Willadsen and Neal First, Randal Prather and Willard Eyestone cloned a cows from embryonic cells in separate events in 1986.
6. Two sheep, Megan and Morag were cloned from cells extracted from differentiated embryos by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell in 1995.
7. Dolly the sheep was cloned from adult cells, and Polly, a lamb, was cloned from skin cells by Ian Walmut and Keith Campbell in 1996.
8. Two Rhesus monkeys cloned at the Oregan Regional Primate Research Center in 1997.
9. President Clinton barred the use of federal funds for human cloning in 1997.
10. Ryuzo Yanagimachi cloned fifty mice from adult cells using "The Honolulu Technique" in 1998.
11. First endangered animal, Noah the bull gaur was cloned at the Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. It died from an infection in 2001.
12. Dolly the sheep was put to sleep after suffering from lung cancer and arthritis in 2003.

Source: https://bsp.med.harvard.edu/?q=node/18

Future Considerations

Many ethical issues have been brought to light with increased developments in cloning. There will possibly be heated debates on what regulations should be put in place for plant, animal and human cloning. Manbe assess if there are any other possible use of cloning in the future.

Conclusion

Summarize the report, and maybe include suggestions on who cloning should be regulated by, what can be done and how these regulations might be enforced.