Journal Entry #8
Bassler, Bonnie. "Bonnie Bassler on How Bacteria "talk" | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, Apr. 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html.
Bonnie Bassler begins her talk about how there are 1 trillion cells that make up a human body and there are 10 trillion bacterial cells that are either in you as well or on your body. So we are pretty much 90% bacteria and 1% human. Also, humans have approx. 30,000 genes and there are 100x more bacteria genes in or on us, therefore, making us 99% bacterial and 1% human depending on which scale we were to look at. She says that there are two different groups that they can be separated in: the good and the bad. The good bacteria helps our body and the bad harms us. Bassler says that bacteria usually act alone even though they are around so many but there are some cases like a bacterium called Vibro fischeri that work together to produce a beatuiful blue light. However, for this light to happen they have to some how talk to each other so they can turn this light on. She found out that they do in fact 'talk' with each other through a chemical language. When the bacteria is alone, they produce and release these molecules but they go away because no one is around so it makes no light. However, when the bacteria is together they all produce those molecules and when there is enough bacteria doing this, it creates the light. Since there are many different types of bacteria, she wanted to know if the different kinds could communicate with each other too and they can. Bacteria is multi-lingual. She also found out that there is a way to turn this communication off so that the bacteria cannot grow, easily becoming our future antibiotic.
1. Is there a way that we could use this to turn the communication off for diseases like cancer?
2. Has this been tested on humans yet or just animals?
3. What are the consequences for using such a thing to treat someone?
4. Is it possible that bacteria in us could have a glich of some sort and make us start to glow since there are so many in us?
5. If this is a universal antibiotic and it will be able to destroy bad bacteria is there a chance that it could affect the human race in a bad way? How is someone supposed to die if we have an answer to the problem?
Lehrer, Jonah. "Does Marijuana Make You Stupid? | Wired Science | Wired.com." Wired.com. WIRED, 17 Aug. 2011. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/does-marijuana-make-you-stupid/.
Marijuana should not be a Schedule 1 drug because it's not addictive. It can be abused but the withdrawl symptoms are not nearly as bad as cigarettes, heroine and other addictive things. Tests have been done that show that smoking pot doesn't have longer-term effects on the users, therefore, those who have smoked it won't be automatically stupid. Although there are mind altering effects of smoking it, they are only temporary. Those mild learning and memory impairments only last about 28 days and then they are gone. The use of marijuana can actually improve your semantic priming, which means that allows our minds to think more creatively when we are altered. Marijuana has been usd for a long time for relaxing someone during a very stressful time. It is a good thing because it makes us happier and so when we take the negatives of anxiety out of the equation, we are left with a much happier and relaxed person. This allows the person to actually find the solution to rational problems.
1. If it has benefits to using then why are so many people against it?
2. How bad can the short-term effects be?
3. How does smoking marijuana help with masking the pain of some injuries?
4. Are all the short-term effects completely gone after 28 days?
5. What are the side effects that happen to your body, not your brain? Do those go away?
Haas, Peter. "Peter Haas: Haiti's Disaster of Engineering | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_haas_haiti_s_disaster_of_engineering.html.
Peter Haas says that the disaster in Haiti was not that of the horrific earthquake but that of the awful engineering of the buildings. People checking that were checking if the buildings were safe after the quake found very shocking discoveries. They found that there wasn't enough concrete in the walls, rebar was smooth and rusted because it had been exposed to the weather, and the walls and slabs of concrete were not tied together properly in the columns to provide the maximum stability. This was especially proven to be true when the 500x more powerful earthquake hit Chile not to long after. With this disaster there were less than 1000 deaths. He says that we had people working with the Haitians to teach them better skills on how to build buildings that will provide the most support so they will be ready when the next earthquake hits. Haas says that for every disaster there is an opportunity to learn and do it better for the future.
1. Why didn't the Haitians know how to properly build?
2. How many buildings were actually saved during the eathquake in Haiti?
3. How did the people in Chile now how to build so well?
4. What are the chances that the new buildings in Haiti will hold up?
5. Did we learn how to build similarly from the people in Chile?
Kraft, Daniel. "Daniel Kraft Invents a Better Way to Harvest Bone Marrow | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, July 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kraft_invents_a_better_way_to_harvest_bone_marrow.html.
I thought this video was pretty cool. Daniel Kraft gives us a demonstration on how he used to harvest bone marrow. It seem like a pretty strenuous job because the doctor had to stick a large needle into the person bone and then extract the marrow from inside. They had to do this about 200 times just to have enough and this was really painful for the patient. Kraft, though, invented the Marrow Miner which is put into the person and then this little powered circular device turns and sucks the bone marrow into the tube and out into a container. This has proved to be a lot less painful for the patient and tests have shown that his invention actually gets the richer marrow out rather than what the original method did.
1. Are they able to be used in places that are less wealthy? Can they afford them?
2. It's been a few years, do we have a better technology now?
3. Does Kraft's invention only create one hole instead of multiple?
4. Does getting the richer bone marrow out harm the patient that's getting iti taken out of?
5. Do people still use the old method of harvesting bone marrow?
Hanson, David. "David Hanson: Robots That "show Emotion" | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. TED, Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you.html.
This video was kind of short but really interesting and actually a little scary. David Hanson has been working a new technology where robots actually show emotion. For so long we've said that robots are nothing but some nuts and bolts but are not human because they can't think and act like a human being. The scary thing is that these robots he has created have this skin on it called flubber that looks identical to skin that we have. They also can see our emotions that we express on our faces and then replicate it, but they also store that facial expression into their minds. The robots can even walk and can look from person to person, memorizing who they are and what they say and do. Hanson said that it was kind of spooky because he was talking with one of his robots and what it was saying sounded like it actually understood what Hanson was saying. He also said that he's working on a new invention that is a robot that will act as a campanion of the child.
1. How can this technology help us in the future?
2. Will it actually be safe to have a machine playing with a child? Would anyone actually be ok with that?
3. How can this be helpful for us?
4. Will the robots ever be able to show their own emotion and not that of a person?
5. Is it really a good idea to be making these things that can learn and pretty much think on their own?