Imagine having a host cell, emptying its nucleus and replacing it with re-engineered DNA - removing unwanted genes and adding wanted ones among millions others of them so that you can shape the characteristics of that new cell and succeed in making it to replicate. Well that's what happened last week says Craig Venter, a genome pioneer.
The last such milestone was the creation of Dolly the sheep back in 1996 through cloning. This time instead of using the whole genome of a cell, they just customised it using computer-aided genetic engineering.
This great achievement opens new avenues in creating new living organisms which never existed in nature before which can be used to accomplish very specific tasks much harder for machines to do. Craig Venter gave examples such as fuel-producing bacteria, algae that can consume higher levels of carbon dioxide, or more efficient ways of cleaning polluted water.
Of course, in order to take full benefit of such technology mankind should be comfortable once again in the creating & killing of new species of living organisms.
Although there is still no creation of life from scratch, this is more like altering the software that run on the hardware of life, making it do things that no living organisms can do up to now.
Needless to say, such a technique represent a great threat if it falls in wrong hands or even if just a mistake or human error happens. Therefore as in 1996 government regulations needs to be put in place ASAP.
And now the question that remains is: What does it take to create life from scratch? Maybe it's just plain impossible to create life from scratch since when a baby is conceived, he is always conceived from living parents i.e. it takes two already living cells in order to create a new living one.
Or maybe it's possible and that it takes some variables that are still unknown to mankind. But Im still convinced that there should be a way how it all started, may it be from asteroids or whatever, it can surely be reproduced successfully in a lab à la LHC
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Volcano Eyjafjallajokull rules
The Icelandic volcano provoked an unprecedented havoc across the airline industry in late April 2010. Intense volcanic ash cloud and south eastern winds caused major Europe airports to be grounded including Heathrow, Nordic countries, France, Spain & even Russia. They remain grounded for up to a week while the airline companies suffocated economically day by day leaving millions of passengers stranded all over the world.
This reminds me of 2 things. 1) Nature always has the last word. 2) The increasing dependency we have on airline travel.
This make me think that we are often over-dependent on a particular system. Just imagine a 5-day total internet blackout! Even if that's less probable, it remains scary!
How about the Yellowstone caldera erupting? Well, forget it!
This reminds me of 2 things. 1) Nature always has the last word. 2) The increasing dependency we have on airline travel.
This make me think that we are often over-dependent on a particular system. Just imagine a 5-day total internet blackout! Even if that's less probable, it remains scary!
How about the Yellowstone caldera erupting? Well, forget it!
Monday, May 17, 2010
BP rig massive oil leak in Gulf of Mexico
I'm not worried at all about the massive oil leak in the gulf of Mexico because everyone is going to win in this disaster except the earth and the local fishermen.
From what I know, BP alone can deal with 50 such oil leaks given the fact he made huge profits year over year, even record profits until 2 years ago in 2008. Oil companies like Bp, Exxon Mobil and Shell make millions of dollars per second! That's why I'm not worried for them.
President Obama recently extend the atlantic-side oil drill-able area. That's why it's in BP best interest to fully finance the repercussions of this massive oil leak else he won't get privileged access to the new drillable area and his competitors will.
Furthermore, millions of dollars are already being spent every year to find new oil reserves in difficult areas. What we have now in the gulf of Mexico is an active reserve spurting thousand of barrels a day which is so apparent that we can see it from space and is just waiting to be exploited. It's out of question to just block the leak in an unexploitable way by means of nukes etc. Whatever the time it takes to get control over the leaks is justifiable because there are loads of money to make. So its just a question of time and time alone, these oil companies know best in situation like this. They have the resources it takes and have the best engineers in this field. They are the expert and we just have to wait and see how they transform such a chaotic situation into a profitable one.
As for the massive oil spills over the sea, this will give life to small entrepreneurs who will recycle the oil slicks and restore the disturbed fauna and flora over 10 or so years. End of story.
From what I know, BP alone can deal with 50 such oil leaks given the fact he made huge profits year over year, even record profits until 2 years ago in 2008. Oil companies like Bp, Exxon Mobil and Shell make millions of dollars per second! That's why I'm not worried for them.
President Obama recently extend the atlantic-side oil drill-able area. That's why it's in BP best interest to fully finance the repercussions of this massive oil leak else he won't get privileged access to the new drillable area and his competitors will.
Furthermore, millions of dollars are already being spent every year to find new oil reserves in difficult areas. What we have now in the gulf of Mexico is an active reserve spurting thousand of barrels a day which is so apparent that we can see it from space and is just waiting to be exploited. It's out of question to just block the leak in an unexploitable way by means of nukes etc. Whatever the time it takes to get control over the leaks is justifiable because there are loads of money to make. So its just a question of time and time alone, these oil companies know best in situation like this. They have the resources it takes and have the best engineers in this field. They are the expert and we just have to wait and see how they transform such a chaotic situation into a profitable one.
As for the massive oil spills over the sea, this will give life to small entrepreneurs who will recycle the oil slicks and restore the disturbed fauna and flora over 10 or so years. End of story.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Motorola Milestone
Now that's what I call an interesting mobile phone..
Based on the open Android platform as oppose to the closed iphoneOS and hence has full Flash support.
With a full slide on keyboard and a wide tactile screen you get the best of both Blackberry and iphone-like input experiences on the one same phone.
Built-in accelerometer to detect movements that enable the phone to switch display in portrait and landscape, also great for gaming control.
A decent 5 MP camera with the indispensable flash to operate in dim light conditions.
Plays major audio & video formats.
Has WiFi 802.11 b/g in case to don't have an unlimited data package.
and it's a 3G phone.
What else would you need? It's all in there.. and is indeed a milestone. I'll buy that!
Motorola Milestone
Based on the open Android platform as oppose to the closed iphoneOS and hence has full Flash support.
With a full slide on keyboard and a wide tactile screen you get the best of both Blackberry and iphone-like input experiences on the one same phone.
Built-in accelerometer to detect movements that enable the phone to switch display in portrait and landscape, also great for gaming control.
A decent 5 MP camera with the indispensable flash to operate in dim light conditions.
Plays major audio & video formats.
Has WiFi 802.11 b/g in case to don't have an unlimited data package.
and it's a 3G phone.
What else would you need? It's all in there.. and is indeed a milestone. I'll buy that!
Motorola Milestone
Monday, May 10, 2010
4% Neanderthal 96% Homo-sapiens
Max Planck Institute recent finding concludes that humans who live outside of Africa have 1-4% of Neanderthal DNA and that those who live in Africa are 100% from Homo-sapiens.
Things seems to be a little clearer now, this is how I see it:-
It all makes sense when you consider that the genome difference between humans and chimpanzees were found to be around 1% and then later revised 10x to around 10%.
Basically humans vary so much in skin colour and body traits all around the world. For such a configuration to happen there should have been 'extremes' and then a blend among these 'extremes'. Think of it like a black & white TV set. It displays black, white and different shades of grey.
On one hand you have the Neanderthal in the icy european north with bright blue eyes, fair skin and straight hair and on the other hand you have the Homo-sapiens in hot central Africa with dark eyes, black skin and coiled hair. Then at some point in time the two species co-existed at a converging area most probably the middle-east, they interbred to give birth to the early human explorers.
The new breeds explored different parts of the world at different time intervals (10,000 years) and their respective climate sculptured what we now know as babylonians, persians, indians, chinese or even aboriginal Australians. My guess is the further north the region is, the greater the Neanderthal DNA content. Therefore I would say that Europe & Russia have a 4% Neanderthal DNA content, Mongolia & China 3%, India 2%, Australian Aboriginal 1%, Africa & Madagascar 0%.
Note the skin colour variation from white in Europe & Russia (4%) to black in Aboriginal Australia (1%). Perhaps our skin colour is determined within the 4% Neanderthal DNA that we may have. 4% is huge compared to the initially thought 1% DNA difference between human and chimps.
Note: Im no scientist, the above is just the big picture as i see it with all the possible inaccuracies.
Things seems to be a little clearer now, this is how I see it:-
It all makes sense when you consider that the genome difference between humans and chimpanzees were found to be around 1% and then later revised 10x to around 10%.
Basically humans vary so much in skin colour and body traits all around the world. For such a configuration to happen there should have been 'extremes' and then a blend among these 'extremes'. Think of it like a black & white TV set. It displays black, white and different shades of grey.
On one hand you have the Neanderthal in the icy european north with bright blue eyes, fair skin and straight hair and on the other hand you have the Homo-sapiens in hot central Africa with dark eyes, black skin and coiled hair. Then at some point in time the two species co-existed at a converging area most probably the middle-east, they interbred to give birth to the early human explorers.
The new breeds explored different parts of the world at different time intervals (10,000 years) and their respective climate sculptured what we now know as babylonians, persians, indians, chinese or even aboriginal Australians. My guess is the further north the region is, the greater the Neanderthal DNA content. Therefore I would say that Europe & Russia have a 4% Neanderthal DNA content, Mongolia & China 3%, India 2%, Australian Aboriginal 1%, Africa & Madagascar 0%.
Note the skin colour variation from white in Europe & Russia (4%) to black in Aboriginal Australia (1%). Perhaps our skin colour is determined within the 4% Neanderthal DNA that we may have. 4% is huge compared to the initially thought 1% DNA difference between human and chimps.
Note: Im no scientist, the above is just the big picture as i see it with all the possible inaccuracies.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
My words on the iPad
Everyone has his views on Apple's iPad, here is mine:-
iPad is yet another luxury gear whose success relies on how close it is to itself. It will surely and brilliantly suit all people non-techie needs and will make BUYING anything as easy as possible (That's the only revolution here). So everything will be possible with the iPad, if the solution is not available for free, you just buy the app/song/book/magazines/concert tickets whatever. This closed model is of course very appealing to all businesses and hence adopted by all.
All the frenzy around the iPad looks very promising, which means that the IT sector still has its golden years ahead.
The ban on Adobe's Flash is purely a business decision which affects directly the web landscape and that's why all the photos i posted on the blog won't appear on the iPad. Thats lame but i wonder for how long will Apple resist when new competitors are entering the couchpad market with Flash enabled.
Bottom-line I already have the smaller iPod Touch which fit perfectly in my jean back pocket, i will not buy a bigger iPad but i will not refuse an iPad as a gift either.. (Note: I don't read books and when i surf the web I have 80 tabs open in my browser) What I will buy are some Apple shares if I can get the money ;) and some Android-based devices which look more open and versatile yet promising.
iPad is yet another luxury gear whose success relies on how close it is to itself. It will surely and brilliantly suit all people non-techie needs and will make BUYING anything as easy as possible (That's the only revolution here). So everything will be possible with the iPad, if the solution is not available for free, you just buy the app/song/book/magazines/concert tickets whatever. This closed model is of course very appealing to all businesses and hence adopted by all.
All the frenzy around the iPad looks very promising, which means that the IT sector still has its golden years ahead.
The ban on Adobe's Flash is purely a business decision which affects directly the web landscape and that's why all the photos i posted on the blog won't appear on the iPad. Thats lame but i wonder for how long will Apple resist when new competitors are entering the couchpad market with Flash enabled.
Bottom-line I already have the smaller iPod Touch which fit perfectly in my jean back pocket, i will not buy a bigger iPad but i will not refuse an iPad as a gift either.. (Note: I don't read books and when i surf the web I have 80 tabs open in my browser) What I will buy are some Apple shares if I can get the money ;) and some Android-based devices which look more open and versatile yet promising.
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