Category Archives: public perceptions

High-quality, empathetic advice to patient questions: ChatGPT outperforms physicians

For the record, it’s one study and details in the news release about how it was constructed and how results were analyzed are scant (more about that later in this post). Nonetheless, an April 28, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily offers an intriguing ChaptGPT possibility,

There has been widespread speculation about how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) assistants like ChatGPT could be used in medicine.
A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine [JAMA is Journal of the American Medical Association] led by Dr. John W. Ayers from the Qualcomm Institute within the University of California San Diego provides an early glimpse into the role that AI assistants could play in medicine. The study compared written responses from physicians and those from ChatGPT to real-world health questions. A panel of licensed healthcare professionals preferred ChatGPT’s responses 79% of the time and rated ChatGPT’s responses as higher quality and more empathetic.
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In a new JAMA Internal Medicine study, independent licensed healthcare professionals evaluated both quality (left) and empathy (right) for ChatGPT and physician responses to patient questions, preferring ChatGPT’s responses 79% of the time. Courtesy: UCSD

An April 28, 2023 University of California at San Diego (UCSD) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, gives a little more information about the study, Note: Links have been removed,

“The opportunities for improving healthcare with AI are massive,” said Ayers, who is also vice chief of innovation in the UC San Diego School of Medicine Division of Infectious Disease and Global Public Health. “AI-augmented care is the future of medicine.”
Is ChatGPT Ready for Healthcare?
In the new study, the research team set out to answer the question: Can ChatGPT respond accurately to questions patients send to their doctors? If yes, AI models could be integrated into health systems to improve physician responses to questions sent by patients and ease the ever-increasing burden on physicians.
“ChatGPT might be able to pass a medical licensing exam,” said study co-author Dr. Davey Smith, a physician-scientist, co-director of the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute and professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, “but directly answering patient questions accurately and empathetically is a different ballgame.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated virtual healthcare adoption,” added study co-author Dr. Eric Leas, a Qualcomm Institute affiliate and assistant professor in the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. “While this made accessing care easier for patients, physicians are burdened by a barrage of electronic patient messages seeking medical advice that have contributed to record-breaking levels of physician burnout.”
Designing a Study to Test ChatGPT in a Healthcare Setting
To obtain a large and diverse sample of healthcare questions and physician answers that did not contain identifiable personal information, the team turned to social media where millions of patients publicly post medical questions to which doctors respond: Reddit’s AskDocs.
r/AskDocs is a subreddit with approximately 452,000 members who post medical questions and verified healthcare professionals submit answers. While anyone can respond to a question, moderators verify healthcare professionals’ credentials and responses display the respondent’s level of credentials. The result is a large and diverse set of patient medical questions and accompanying answers from licensed medical professionals.
While some may wonder if question-answer exchanges on social media are a fair test, team members noted that the exchanges were reflective of their clinical experience.
The team randomly sampled 195 exchanges from AskDocs where a verified physician responded to a public question. The team provided the original question to ChatGPT and asked it to author a response. A panel of three licensed healthcare professionals assessed each question and the corresponding responses and were blinded to whether the response originated from a physician or ChatGPT. They compared responses based on information quality and empathy, noting which one they preferred.
The panel of healthcare professional evaluators preferred ChatGPT responses to physician responses 79% of the time.
“ChatGPT messages responded with nuanced and accurate information that often addressed more aspects of the patient’s questions than physician responses,” said Jessica Kelley, a nurse practitioner with San Diego firm Human Longevity and study co-author.
Additionally, ChatGPT responses were rated significantly higher in quality than physician responses: good or very good quality responses were 3.6 times higher for ChatGPT than physicians (physicians 22.1% versus ChatGPT 78.5%). The responses were also more empathic: empathetic or very empathetic responses were 9.8 times higher for ChatGPT than for physicians (physicians 4.6% versus ChatGPT 45.1%).
“I never imagined saying this,” added Dr. Aaron Goodman, an associate clinical professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and study coauthor, “but ChatGPT is a prescription I’d like to give to my inbox. The tool will transform the way I support my patients.”
Harnessing AI Assistants for Patient Messages
“While our study pitted ChatGPT against physicians, the ultimate solution isn’t throwing your doctor out altogether,” said Dr. Adam Poliak, an assistant professor of Computer Science at Bryn Mawr College and study co-author. “Instead, a physician harnessing ChatGPT is the answer for better and empathetic care.”
“Our study is among the first to show how AI assistants can potentially solve real world healthcare delivery problems,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Digital Officer at UC San Diego Health. “These results suggest that tools like ChatGPT can efficiently draft high quality, personalized medical advice for review by clinicians, and we are beginning that process at UCSD Health.”
Dr. Mike Hogarth, a physician-bioinformatician, co-director of the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute at UC San Diego, professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and study co-author, added, “It is important that integrating AI assistants into healthcare messaging be done in the context of a randomized controlled trial to judge how the use of AI assistants impact outcomes for both physicians and patients.”
In addition to improving workflow, investments into AI assistant messaging could impact patient health and physician performance.
Dr. Mark Dredze, the John C Malone Associate Professor of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins and study co-author, noted: “We could use these technologies to train doctors in patient-centered communication, eliminate health disparities suffered by minority populations who often seek healthcare via messaging, build new medical safety systems, and assist doctors by delivering higher quality and more efficient care.”
In addition to Ayers, Poliak, Dredze, Leas, Kelley, Goodman, Longhurst, Hogarth and Smith, authors of the JAMA Internal Medicine paper, “Comparing Physician and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Responses to Patient Questions Posted to a Public Social Media Forum” (JAMA Intern Med. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.1838), are Zechariah Zhu of UC San Diego and Dr. Dennis J. Faix of the Naval Health Research Center.
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COI Statement Disclosures as reported in the paper: Dr Ayers reported owning equity in companies focused on data analytics, Good Analytics, of which he was CEO until June 2018, and Health Watcher. Dr Dredze reported personal fees from Bloomberg LP and Sickweather outside the submitted work and owning an equity position in Good Analytics. Dr Leas reported personal fees from Good Analytics during the conduct of the study. Dr Goodman reported personal fees from Seattle Genetics outside the submitted work. Dr Hogarth reported being an advisor for LifeLink, a health care chatbot company. Dr Longhurst reported being an advisor and equity holder at Doximity. Dr Smith reported stock options from Linear Therapies, personal fees from Arena Pharmaceuticals, Model Medicines, Pharma Holdings, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Evidera, Signant Health, Fluxergy, Lucira, and Kiadis outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Comparing Physician and Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Responses to Patient Questions Posted to a Public Social Media Forum by John W. Ayers, Adam Poliak, Mark Dredze, Eric C. Leas, Zechariah Zhu, Jessica B. Kelley, Dennis J. Faix, Aaron M. Goodman, Christopher A. Longhurst, Michael Hogarth, Davey M. Smith. JAMA Intern Med. 2023;183(6):589-596. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.1838 Published: April 28, 2023

This paper is behind a paywall.

More info. please

it’s very easy to take research at face value. I do it too so I’m forcing myself to read this news release with a critical eye. here are a few questions I have,

How did this ChatGPT learn to be empathetic? And, how did the researchers measure empathy?
What did they mean by ‘quality’ of response? How did they measure it?
The respondents’ age range would have been interesting and useful to know as age can affect the types of questions being asked.
How did they randomize the physicians taking part in the study? i.e., Does a certain kind of (or age) physician go to the website AskDocs to answer questions?

Sadly I can’t get behind the paywall to see if that information is available in the study but this has been a good reminder (to me and, hopefully, you found it useful, too) to keep asking questions.

Art is a feeling in my body (and yours too)

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I stumbled across this piece of research about the same time as I received a book from the library (requested months ago), “All the Beauty in the World; The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by Patrick Bringley. 2023 (Simon and Schuster). The author is describing his earliest experience of art in the context of starting a new job as a guard at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in the wake of his brother’s death,

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Roaming the old master wing, i was stopped and held fast by Pieter Bruegel’s The Harvesters, from 1565. I responded to that great painting in a way that I now believe is fundamental to the peculiar power of art. Namely: I experienced the great beauty of the picture even as I had no idea what to do with that beauty. I couldn’t discharge the feeling by talking about it—there was nothing much to say. What was beautiful in the painting was not like words, it was like paint—silent, direct, and concrete, resisting translation even into thought. As such, my response to the picture was trapped inside me, a bird fluttering in my chest. And I didn’t know what to make of that. It is always hard to know what to make of that. As a guard, I will be watching countless visitors respond in their own ways to the curious feeling. [all emphases mine; p. 10]
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This research into art and its effects on you is focused solely on digitized paintings viewed on screens (more details about with paintings follow after the citation and link to the paper). With that in mind, from a March 27, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,

People all around the world are drawn to creating and consuming art, and human emotions are often a central subject in visual artworks as well as in music and performance art. However, the mechanisms underlying the feelings that art evokes remain poorly characterised.
A new study reveals how viewing visual art affects our emotions. The research subjects viewed different kinds of artworks and described the feelings that the art stimulated in their bodies. The researchers recorded the subjects’ eye movement while they viewed the art. In addition, the subjects assessed what kind of emotions each piece of art evoked.
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I find the image illustrating the research quite fascinating,

Caption: The image shows the bodily sensations evoked by art (A) as well as the most interesting areas in the paintings (B) and eye movements while viewing the art (C). Credit: Lauri Nummenmaa

A March 27, 2023 University of Turku (Finland) press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, explains the research,

“Viewing the art evoked many different kinds of feelings and emotions in people. Even though many of the pieces handled sad or scary topics, the emotions that the people experienced were mainly positive. The bodily sensations evoked by art also contributed to the emotions: the stronger the body’s reaction was to the artwork, the stronger were the emotions experienced by the subject,” says Professor Lauri Nummenmaa from the Turku PET Centre at the University of Turku, Finland.
“In the artworks, human figures were the most interesting subject and were looked at the most. People have a tendency to empathise with each other’s emotions and this is probably also the case when we view human figures in art. The human emotions presented in art pieces can be absorbed by the viewer unnoticed, through so-called mirroring,” says Academician Riitta Hari from Aalto University.
Altogether 1,186 people from different countries participated in the study and they assessed the emotions evoked by over 300 artworks. The research was conducted with online surveys and eye movement recordings in the laboratory.
“Our results suggest that our bodies have a significant role in the aesthetic experience. Bodily sensations can draw people to art: art evokes feelings in the body, and such stimulation of the body’s pleasure centres feels pleasant to the viewer. This is why the emotions and bodily sensations evoked by art can be used, for example, in mental health rehabilitation and care,” Professor Nummenmaa recounts.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Bodily feelings and aesthetic experience of art by Lauri Nummenmaa & Riitta Hari. Cognition and Emotion DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2023.2183180 Published online: 13 Mar 2023

This paper is open access.

It looks to me, based on what’s described in the introduction, WikiArt’s homepage (source of the digitized paintings used in the study) and the list of famous paintings, that they have focused heavily on European art, Note 1: Links have been removed; Note 2: Researchers have limited funds and may have to constrain their interests,

Emotion is central to art. Humans all around the world are drawn to creating and consuming art due to its capability to evoke emotions (Chatterjee & Vartanian, Citation2014; Zentner et al., Citation2008), and human emotions are also a central subject of numerous artworks ranging from The Scream by Edvard Munch to The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. Emotions coordinate physiological and behavioural activation patterns to promote survival and govern decision-making across contexts ranging from mate selection (Johnston, Citation2006) to feeding (Spence et al., Citation2016) and environmental preferences (Kaplan, Citation1987). …
Yet, humans may experience powerful emotions in the absence of survival challenges, notably when encountering art. …
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The stimuli were digital photographs of 336 paintings and drawings spanning multiple genres and periods. Most of the stimuli were retrieved from the WikiArt Emotions database (Se ID:s in Supplementary Text 1) and were chosen based on their capacity to evoke emotions in the viewers (Mohammad & Kiritchenko, Citation2018). These artworks were complemented with 20 internationally famous paintings and 20 famous Finnish paintings presumably not widely known outside Finland (see Supplementary text 2); this was done to make sure the stimulus contained also well-known and well-liked as well as unfamiliar artworks. …
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Suuplementary text 2 [sic?]
Famous Finnish and international paintings included in the study
Finnish: Gunnar Berndtson: Morsiamen laulu, Albert Edelfelt: Lapsen ruumissaatto, Albert Edelfelt: Leikkiviä poikia rannalla, Akseli Gallen-Kallela : Lemminkäisen äiti, Akseli Gallen-Kallela : Symposion, Pekka Halonen: Tienraivaajia Karjalassa, Werner Holmberg: Postitie Hämeessä,Edvard Isto: Hyökkäys, Tove Jansson: Juhlat kaupungissa, Eero Järnfetl: Kaski, Eero Järnfetl: Maisema Kolilta, Juho Rissanen: Kuppari, Juho Rissanen: Lapsuuden muisto, Juho Rissanen: Piipunsytyttäjät, Tyko Sallinen: Piruntanssi, Tyko Sallinen: Saunassa, Helene Schjerfbeck: Toipilas, Hugo Simberg: Haavoittunut Enkeli, Hugo Simberg: Vanhus ja lapsi, Ellen Thesleff: Kaiku. International: Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights, Sandro Botticelli: La Primavera, William-Adolphe Bouguereau: The Wave, Francisco de Goya: El Tres de Mayo, Grant Wood: American Gothic, Francisco de Goya: La maja desnuda, Hokusai: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Edward Hopper: Nighthawks, Wassily Kandinsky: Composition 8, Gustav Klimt: Der Kuss, Édouard Manet: Olympia, Edvard Munch : Aske, Pablo Picasso: The Old Guitarist, Rembrandt van Rijn: Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee, Auguste Renoir: Le Moulin de la Galette, Diego Riviera: The Flower Carrier, Henri Rousseau: The Sleeping Gypsy, Peter Paul Rubens: Massacre of the Innocents, Vincent van Gogh: Starry night, Johannes Vermeer: Meisje met de parel

It would be interesting to find out if there are differences attributable to a viewer’s unconscious assumptions about art, specifically paintings. Would we experience our emotions differently in front of prehistoric art, or ancient Egyptian art, or art uninfluenced by European art?

As it turns out, I have an August 23, 2016 posting titled, “Georgina Lohan, Bharti Kher, and Pablo Picasso: the beauty and the beastliness of art (in Vancouver).”

Celebrating Italian Research in the World Day at The Age of Immunotherapy, an April 12th, 2023 event in Vancouver (Canada)

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ARPICO (Society of Italian Researchers and Professionals in Western Canada) is co-presenting an event with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver to celebrate Italian Research in World Day.

From a March 21, 2023 ARPICO notice (received via email), Note: i have reformatted parts of the text,

It is our pleasure, with the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver, to invite you to ARPICO’s next public event “The Age of Immunotherapy” to be held on Wednesday, April 12th, 2023 at 7:00 PM at the Museum of Vancouver, History Room & Garden Patio, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC.
The event is in celebration of Italian Research in the World Day instituted in 2018 to value the quality and competencies of Italian researchers abroad and promote concrete actions and investments to allow Italian researchers to continue pursuing their careers in their homeland as well as make Italy an attractive environment for foreign researchers.
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Main Event Details
The Age of Immunotherapy, a lecture by Dr. Gregorio Aversa
The Immune system has evolved primarily to protect the body against foreign pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and fungi but sparing the body, recognizing it as “self”. However, sometimes the immune system can also can attack the body’s own tissues, as in autoimmune diseases, or react against harmless molecules, as in allergies. It is now clear that the immune system can also recognize cancer cells, but their elimination can be challenging as the cancer deploys sophisticated mechanisms to evade the immune surveillance. The deeper understanding of the immune system, the key molecules involved in cancer-immune cell interactions and advances in antibody and cell engineering accumulated over the past three decades, have resulted in the recent development of novel and effective immunotherapeutic treatments for cancer. For example, antibodies that target suppressive signals in immune cells are now used to “awaken” the immune system to kill a variety of tumors, resulting in often curative therapies for previously lethal cancers. Multiple new immunotherapeutic approaches and combinations are currently being developed and clinically tested for a variety of cancers and other diseases such as autoimmune diseases, transplant rejection, allergies and viral infections, thus paving the way for potential cures for currently challenging diseases.
About Our Speaker
Dr. Gregorio Aversa is an experienced immunologist and industrial scientist. He has made significant contributions to the discovery of novel monoclonal antibodies and molecules involved in immune regulation in allergies, autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection. Over the past 25 years Dr. Aversa has held executive leadership positions in global Pharmaceutical companies, Biotech, and a Translational Research Institute. These positions include Senior Vice President of the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) on UBC campus, Unit Head of the Autoimmune Diseases, Biology and Cellular and Molecular Biology Units at Novartis (Vienna, Austria) and Vice President of Research at Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals. He also previously held positions at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, California (now Merck), and has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC. Dr. Aversa is currently President of his own private biotechnology business, Abimmune Technologies Inc., in Vancouver, Canada, focusing on the development and commercialization of monoclonal antibodies for research and clinical use. [Note: Dr. Aversa is listed as Principal for Abmedix Biomedical {as of March 24, 2023} on his LinkedIn profile; I cannot websites for either Abmedix or Abimmune.] Dr. Aversa did his Ph.D. work in Transplantation Immunology at the University of Sydney and Stanford University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney School of Medicine in Australia. Dr. Aversa has over 60 publications in international scientific journals and is an inventor on several patents.

Evening Program

6:30 PM – Doors open for registration.
7:00 PM – Start of the event with introductions by the Consul General of Italy, Fabio Messineo, and ARPICO’s president, Nicola Fameli.
7:15 PM – Talk “The Age of Immunotherapy” by Dr. Gregorio Aversa, immunologist and industrial scientist.
8:00 PM – Q & A Period
8:15 PM – Mediterranean refreshments catered by Bottles and Bottega offered by the Consulate General of Italy.

We look forward to seeing everyone there.
RSVP: Tickets for this event are required, but FREE; all wishing to attend are requested to obtain “free-admission” tickets on EventBrite
Further details are also available at arpico.ca, arpico facebook, and EventBrite.
If participants wish to donate to ARPICO, this can be done within EventBrite or in person at the event; this would be greatly appreciated in order to help us continue our public lecture program and to build upon our scholarship fund.
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FAQ

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
info@arpico.ca
Can I update my registration information?
Yes. If you have any questions, contact us at info@arpico.ca
I am having trouble using EventBrite and cannot reserve my ticket(s). Can someone at ARPICO help me with my ticket reservation?
Of course, simply send your ticket request to us at info@arpico.ca so we can help you.

Happy Italian Research in the World Day!

Is it possible that I will live long enough to put my brain into a computer? Guillaume Thierry answers the question

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A June 9, 2022 news item on Nanowerk featured the question,

Reader question: I am 59 years old, and in reasonably good health. Is it possible that I will live long enough to put my brain into a computer? [from] Richard Dixon.
We often imagine that human consciousness is as simple as input and output of electrical signals within a network of processing units – therefore comparable to a computer. Reality, however, is much more complicated. For starters, we don’t actually know how much information the human brain can hold.
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Guillaume Thierry’s (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bangor University in Bangor, Wales, UK) June 9, 2022 essay (on The Conversation) provides the rest of this fascinating answer (Note: Links have been removed),

Two years ago, a team at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, US, mapped the 3D structure of all the neurons (brain cells) comprised in one cubic millimetre of the brain of a mouse – a milestone considered extraordinary.
Within this minuscule cube of brain tissue, the size of a grain of sand, the researchers counted more than 100,000 neurons and more than a billion connections between them. They managed to record the corresponding information on computers, including the shape and configuration of each neuron and connection, which required two petabytes, or two million gigabytes of storage. And to do this, their automated microscopes had to collect 100 million images of 25,000 slices of the minuscule sample continuously over several months.
Now if this is what it takes to store the full physical information of neurons and their connections in one cubic millimetre of mouse brain, you can perhaps imagine that the collection of this information from the human brain is not going to be a walk in the park.
Data extraction and storage, however, is not the only challenge. For a computer to resemble the brain’s mode of operation, it would need to access any and all the stored information in a very short amount of time: the information would need to be stored in its random access memory (RAM), rather than on traditional hard disks. But if we tried to store the amount of data the researchers gathered in a computer’s RAM, it would occupy 12.5 times the capacity of the largest single-memory computer (a computer that is built around memory, rather than processing) ever built.
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… If you were paying attention when I described the extraordinary achievement of researchers who managed to fully store the 3D structure of the network of neurons in a tiny bit of mouse brain, you will know that this was done from 25,000 (extremely thin) slices of tissue.
The same technique would have to be applied to your brain, because only very coarse information can be retrieved from brain scans. Information in the brain is stored in every detail of its physical structure of the connections between neurons: their size and shape, as well as the number and location of connections between them. But would you consent to your brain being sliced in that way?
Even if [you] would agree that we slice your brain into extremely thin slices, it is highly unlikely that the full volume of your brain could ever be cut with enough precision and be correctly “reassembled”. The brain of a man has a volume of about 1.26 million cubic millimetres.
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There are more technical problems according to Thierry (Note: Links have been removed),

After we die, our brains quickly undergo major changes that are both chemical and structural. When neurons die they soon lose their ability to communicate, and their structural and functional properties are quickly modified – meaning that they no longer display the properties that they exhibit when we are alive. But even more problematic is the fact that our brain ages.
From the age of 20, we lose 85,000 neurons a day. But don’t worry (too much), we mostly lose neurons that have not found their use, they have not been solicited to get involved in any information processing. This triggers a programme to self-destruction (called apoptosis). In other words, several tens of thousands of our neurons kill themselves every day. Other neurons die because of exhaustion or infection.
This isn’t too much of an issue, though, because we have almost 100 billion neurons at the age of 20, and with such an attrition rate, we have merely lost 2-3% of our neurons by the age of 80. And provided we don’t contract a neurodegenerative disease, our brains can still represent our lifelong thinking style at that age. But what would be the right age to stop, scan and store?
Would you rather store an 80-year-old mind or a 20-year-old one? Attempting the storage of your mind too early would miss a lot of memories and experiences that would have defined you later. But then, attempting the transfer to a computer too late would run the risk of storing a mind with dementia, one that doesn’t quite “work” as well.
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There are other technical issues but this is my favourite set of issues,

I may have a useful, albeit unexpected, answer to give you after all. I shall assume that you would want to transfer your mind to a computer in the hope of existing beyond your lifespan, that you’d like to continue existing inside a machine once your body can no longer implement your mind in your living brain.
If this hypothesis is correct, however, I must object. Imagining that all the impossible things listed above were one day resolved and your brain could literally be “copied” into a computer – allowing a complete simulation of the functioning of your brain – at the moment you decide to transfer, Richard Dixon would have ceased to exist. The mind image transferred to the computer would therefore not be any more alive than the computer hosting it.
That’s because living things such as humans and animals exist because they are alive. You may think that I just stated something utterly trivial, verging on stupidity, but if you think about it there is more to it than meets the eye. A living mind receives input from the world through the senses. It is attached to a body that feels based on physical sensations. This results in physical manifestations such as changes in heart rate, breathing and sweating, which in turn can be felt and contribute to the inner experience. How would this work for a computer without a body?
All such input and output isn’t likely to be easy to model, especially if the copied mind is isolated and there is no system to sense the environment and act in response to input. The brain seamlessly and constantly integrates signals from all the senses to produce internal representations, makes predictions about these representations, and ultimately creates conscious awareness (our feeling of being alive and being ourselves) in a way that is still a total mystery to us.
Without interaction with the world, however subtle and unconscious, how could the mind function even for a minute? And how could it evolve and change? If the mind, artificial or not, has no input or output, then it is devoid of life, just like a dead brain.
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So no, no and no. I have tried to give you my (scientifically grounded) take on your question and even though it is a definite no from me, I hope to have helped alleviate your desire to ever have your brain put into a computer.
I wish you a long and healthy life, Richard, because that definitely is where your mind will exist and thrive for as long as it is implemented by your brain. May it bring you joy and dreams – something androids will never have.

I recommend reading the essay (if you have time) or even going to Thierry’s June 9, 2022 essay to view the embedded video about the mouse brain work mentioned at the beginning.

As to where this ‘reader question’ came from, this is a special ‘The Conversation’ series,

This article is part of Life’s Big Questions
The Conversation’s series, co-published with BBC Future, seeks to answer our readers’ nagging questions about life, love, death and the universe. We work with professional researchers who have dedicated their lives to uncovering new perspectives on the questions that shape our lives.

BBC being the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Japan’s Minister of Digital Affairs becomes a cybernetic avatar

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Caption: Left: Geminoid TK (Avatar of Taro Kono, Minister of Digital Affairs) Right: Geminoid HI-6 (Avatar of Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro). Credit: ATR & JST Moonshot R&D Avatar Symbiotic Society Project

Amazingly lifelike, eh, and nothing like what you see in James Cameron’s Avatar movies,

“Avatar: The Way of Water” will show in cinemas around the world from December 16. 2022 [downloaded from https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/23/movies/avatar-china-release-intl-hnk/index.html]

Before getting to the press release, this image’s caption helps to explain what Japan’s government wants to accomplish,

Caption: To overcome the challenges of a declining birthrate, aging population and associated labor shortage, the key is to realize a society free from the limitations of body, brain, space, and time and to allow people with various backgrounds and values – such as the elderly and those with responsibilities for nursing and childcare – to actively participate in society. Our R&D will develop core technologies related to cyborgs and avatars, called ‘Cybernetic Avatars’, allowing expansion of human physical, cognitive and perceptual abilities. We will build ‘Cybernetic Avatar Infrastructure’ in the cloud while easing the acceptance of Cybernetic Avatars into future society. Credit: Japan Science and Technology Agency

An October 21, 2022 Japan Science and Technology Agency press release (also on EurekAlert but published November 16, 2022) announces Japan’s Minister of Digital Affairs’ cybernetic avatar (or you could call it a robot),

The use of cybernetic avatars⁽¹⁾ (CAs) will allow their operators to take part in social activities without being physically present at a particular location, thereby enhancing the efficiency of business operations. Further productivity increases will be achieved if a single individual operates multiple avatars. For operations that must be carried out by a designated person (e.g., those in which a designated responsible party must provide some explanation), a CA that closely resembles the individual will create the impression that they are on site, allowing work to be carried out remotely. However, a CA closely resembling the operator may be equated with the individual, even when it is operated by a different person or by artificial intelligence. To realize the use of CAs within social activities, problems related to their “identity” must be taken into consideration: that is, whether perceiving the doings of a CA as the same as those of its operator is acceptable. Such problems should be considered not only by specialists engaged in the design of social systems but also by those experienced with using CAs.
As part of the Moonshot Research and Development Program lead by the Cabinet Office and promoted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the group lead by Takahiro Miyashita, director of the Interaction Science Laboratory at Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), and Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of the Osaka University Graduate School of Engineering Science are aiming to create highly hospitable CAs capable of moral discourse and conduct; they will conduct a proof-of-concept test using a government minister’s CA to determine the norms for a CA society.
The current project will seek to undertake a proof-of-concept test using the CA of Taro Kono, Minister of Digital Affairs, by the year-end. Using a physical CA, the test will assess whether people feel that the minister is addressing them, whether they are more receptive to what the minister is saying, among other potential effects. Further, a broad range of people will be asked to consider whether it is acceptable to equate the actions of a CA with those of its operator, to aid the determination of new social norms for a CA society.
This initiative is curried out with the cooperation of the Guardian Robot Project, Riken led by a team leader, Dr. Takashi Minato.
(1) Cybernetic Avatar: Cybernetic Avatar is a concept that includes not only remote avatars using robots and 3D images as proxies but also augmentations of physical/cognitive abilities of humans using ICT and robotics. It aims to allow for free action within the cyber-physical environment of Society 5.0. CAs may have various functions and forms that aim to remove the natural limitations of the body, brain, space, and time.
Moonshot Research and Development Program
Moonshot Goal 1: Realization of a society in which human beings can be free from limitations of body, brain, space, and time by 2050.
Program Director (PD): Hagita Norihiro, Chair and Professor, Art Science Department, Osaka University of Arts
The program will utilize a superior level of cyborg- and avatar-related technologies to promote the development of CA technologies that will expand human physical, cognitive, and perceptual abilities, while considering social acceptability. This shall be undertaken in the hope of creating a society wherein humans are liberated from the limitations of body, brain, space, and time, by 2050.
Project: The Realization of an Avatar-Symbiotic Society where Everyone can Perform Active Roles without Constraint
Project Manager: Ishiguro Hiroshi, Professor, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University
The project will see multiple highly hospitable CAs capable of moral dialogue , which act according to users’ reactions while being operated remotely, allowing for participation in a range of daily activities (work, education, healthcare and other everyday activities) without being physically present at a particular location. By the year 2050, lifestyles will have changed markedly in terms of location choice, the use of time, and the expansion of human capacities. Nonetheless, this project will seek to achieve a society wherein people and avatars coexist harmoniously.

If you want to take a look at Minister Kono and his cybernetic avatar in action (one of Hiroshi Ishiguro’s Geminoid robots) in action together, watch the embedded video in this October 25, 2022 news item on the NHK world Japan website “Humanoid replica to assist Japan minister in digital push.”

Hiroshi Ishiguro and his work have been featured here a number of times starting with a March 10, 2011 posting about Danish philosopher, Henrik Scharfe, who commissioned a Geminoid in his own image for his research. I have not been able to find any published articles about Scharfe’s work post Geminoid but that may be due to my inability to read to Danish.

The most recent previous ‘Ishiguro’ posting here is a March 27, 2017 post titled: “Ishiguro’s robots and Swiss scientist question artificial intelligence at SXSW (South by Southwest) 2017.”

Nanotechnology, scientists, social media, and public perceptions

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve stumbled across a study about public perceptions of nanotechnology. This study is focused on public perceptions as seen on Twitter (before the Elon Musk acquisition completed on October 27, 2022). From a May 9, 2022 article by Kristy McRoberts for Chemistry World,

Scientists should be aware of the impact social media could have on their work. A new study shows that to reduce the chance of disruption due to legislative, regulatory or funding changes linked to public opinion, it is important to include social media when considering risk.
Finbarr Murphy, from the University of Limerick in Ireland, and colleagues performed a sentiment analysis of tweets between 2006 and 2020 relating to three areas of nanoscience – silver, carbon and titanium – to examine the public perception of nanotechnology. They found that overall public perception is slightly positive. But whilst positive events have little to no impact on tweet volume or perception, adverse events caused an increase in the volume of tweets presenting a negative opinion.
If an event is perceived badly enough to generate a twitterstorm, this decrease in public confidence could have far reaching impacts, with legislation, research funding and insurance coverage all susceptible to public opinion. As many research grants are through public funds, a large negative shift in public opinion towards nanotechnology could result in a decrease in funding available for research in that area.
Murphy says that ‘insurers are potentially the weak link [emphasis mine] of the scientific community’ and if insurers are impacted by a change in public opinion ‘they might begin to either exclude nanotechnology from their premiums or withdraw’.
…

Finbarr Murphy was last mentioned here in a December 17, 2014 posting titled: “Insurance companies, the future, and perceptions about nanotechnology risks.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for Murphy’s latest research,

The risk perception of nanotechnology: evidence from twitter by Finbarr Murphy, Ainaz Alavi, Martin Mullins, Irini Furxhi, Arash Kia and Myles Kingston. RSC Adv., 2022,12, 11021-11031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1RA09383E Published (online): 07 Apr 2022

This paper is open access.

The last Ada Lovelace Day?

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[downloaded from https://www.wthub.org/article/happy-ada-lovelace-day-sadly-the-last/]

I love this image. Unfortunately, it heralds what seems to be the last Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) according to the Women’s Tech Hub ~ Bristol,

Posted on 9th October 2022 by serrie
Happy Ada Lovelace Day – sadly the last!

This year, Ada Lovelace Day was celebrated on October 11, 2022 as Sue Gee notes in her ALD post on programmer.info (Note: Links have been removed),

Last Ever Ada Lovelace Day
Today [October 11, 2022] sees the final ever Ada Lovelace Day, an event which aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. The flagship event, combining science and comedy from an all-female line up takes place online starting at 8:00pm London time
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Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) was founded by Suw Charman-Anderson in 2009 and became an international event celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
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So why was a nineteenth century aristocrat chosen to be the symbol of an effort to inspire women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths, STEM?
The answer is that, due to her involvement with Charles Babbage, she is widely regarded as the person who wrote the first computer program, for more on this theme see our history article, Ada Lovelace, The First Programmer. This achievement has been widely popularized, including in children’s books, making hers a name that girls might recognize.
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While the Finding Ada Network, which provides one-to-one mentorship for women in STEM and advocates who work towards gender equality, appears to be continuing, this year’s Ada Lovelace Day is the final such event due to lack of financial backing. Suw Charman-Anderson told the BBC the reason it was now coming to an end was:
“incredibly simple – we just couldn’t raise the funding to continue”.

The announcement about the last Ada Lovelace Day is here in an October 11, 2022 BBC tech news item. Suw Charman-Anderson’s Finding Ada (Lovelace) website is here, where oddly enough I was not able to find confirmation that 2022 is the last year for ALD.

I have a lot of Ada Lovelace postings here but this October 13, 2015 post stands out for me, ‘Ada Lovelace “… manipulative, aggressive, a drug addict …” and a genius but was she likable?‘

Farewell Ada Lovelace Day.

Navigating Uncertainty; Targeting Sustainability—the Canadian Science Policy Conference (Nov. 16 – 18, 2022)

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As always these days, the in person portion of the conference is in Ottawa and, if you’re looking for the supersaver discount, you’d best rush to register for the Nov. 16 – 18, 2022 Canadian Science Policy Conference before September 3rd [2022], 11:59PM EST. Here are a few details from the Registration page,

Registration includes 3 Lunches, 3 breakfasts, refreshment breaks, and one reception, and zoom pre-conference sessions.
Gala Dinner is included in the Standard registration category. Gala dinner for students and non-profit pricing is $99

Registration Label Name	SuperSaver Rate All summer – Sept 3rd	Early Bird Rate Sept. 4th – Oct 1st	Regular Rate From Oct 5th
Standard (Gala dinner included)	$990	$1100	$1250
Academic / Non-Profit / Retired / Diplomat	$550	$650	$750
Student / Postdoctoral Fellow / Trainee	$200	$250	$300

I’m not sure why there’s a gap (Oct. 2 – 4, 2022) between the dates for the Early Bird Rage and the Regular Rate but I assume that will be addressed at some point.

The programme doesn’t seem all that exciting (YMMV). So, I’ve done the best I can with the choices at hand, here’s the description for one of the pre-conference Zoom sessions followed by a conference session description,

709: One Health in a time of pandemics: how it can future-proof our health systems and economy from future disease emergencies
Panel Organized by: Guelph University
If the current pandemic has taught us anything, we need to find a way to avoid, or, at minimum, mitigate the effects of disease and environmental emergencies, including future pandemics propagated in human and animal populations. A One Health approach, which focuses on the perfect storm of health challenges at the intersection of human, animal, and environmental health, must be at the centre of preparedness; these events have the potential to cause massive suffering, disrupt food systems, derail our economies, and lead to huge inequities and political unrest. Although this call to action may seem daunting, there are many examples of successful One Health initiatives and policy approaches around the globe. This panel will consider One Health’s success stories and how they chart a course for putting a strategy in place to prepare us best for future national and global health threats. Our panellists will present their stories of how they initiated positive change utilizing a One Health approach and the important lessons they have learned.
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901: Machine M.D.: AI for our Future Health
Panel Organized by: University of Ottawa
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform healthcare, addressing long-standing problems of safety, quality and access. Yet, AI itself also raises concerns relating, for instance, to algorithmic bias, apportionment of liability, safety, privacy and informed consent. Are our existing legal structures, across Canada, sufficient to meet these 21st century challenges? Our panel will discuss their research program of work shopping case studies with a multidisciplinary group (legal, clinical, computer science, engineering, ethics) of a range of health-related AI across healthcare settings. In doing so they will illuminate the heterogeneity of challenges AI presents and the needs we have for adroit law reform [emphasis mine].
…

It’s nice to see that lawyers care about our health.

Organizers have spiced things up a bit with two performances (November 15 and November 16, 2022) of a play,

Special Performance: The Anniversary, A Play” (RSVP required)
Panel Organized by: CSPC [Canadian Science Policy Centre/Conference], ISSP [Institute for Science, Society and Policy], Faculty of Art University of Ottawa
RSVP required
The Anniversary: A play
Ottawa lawyer Evelyn Carlyle married the perfect man and created her ideal family. But when her three adult children return home to celebrate their parents’ 30th anniversary, her creation starts to look like a failed lab experiment.
Choice, identity and the nature of connection collide in a gripping exploration of the intimate role of science and technology in our lives. How does technology shape our deepest familial relationships in ways we don’t even recognize?
An alt-present family drama that gets at the ancient roots of what it is to be human, or not.
A special arts-science collaboration from the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, University of Ottawa.

As for sustainability, there’s this session amongst others,

147: Implementing just and equitable Nature-based Solutions in Canada- opportunities and knowledge gaps
Panel Organized by: Future Earth/Sustainability in the Digital Age
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) could help Canada meet 2030 carbon reduction commitments while protecting biodiversity and providing multiple ecosystem services that improve the well-being of humanity; but their long-term impacts are still poorly understood and they don’t engage all stakeholders for an equitable and effective approach forward. The panel’s objective is to discuss preliminary Canadian NbS trends and data needs. We also assess the co-creation of NbS, centering these solutions around Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. This panel also explores recent gatherings towards strengthening Indigenous Carbon Rights as a crucial pillar of NbS success in Canada and globally.

Here’s one last tidbit from the conference programme,

239: Science for All? What the pandemic and digital shift have taught us about the social positioning of science and tech (and how to fix it)
Panel Organized by: Visions of Science Network for Learning
In our current crises of vaccine hesitancy, the digital divide, health inequities, misinformation, and climate change denial, we have seen the dire consequences of approaching STEM separately from society, equity, and community. This session brings together community-focused science experts who have played pivotal roles working with marginalized communities in the context of the pandemic and digital shift. Panelists will share their insights and calls to action to break down the elitism in science, embed humility and curiosity about diverse expertise and lived experiences, and foster inclusion, integrity, and accountability to communities to restore trust in science institutions.
…

The conference website can be found here and the Visions of Science Network for Learning website is here.

Documentary “NNI Retrospective Video: Creating a National Initiative” celebrates the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) and a lipid nanoparticle question

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i stumbled across an August 4, 2022 tvworldwide.com news release about a video celbrating the US National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) over 20 years of operation, (Note: A link has been removed),

TV Worldwide, since 1999, a pioneering web-based global TV network, announced that it was releasing a video trailer highlighting a previously released documentary on NNI over the past 20 years, entitled, ‘NNI Retrospective Video: Creating a National Initiative’.
The video and its trailer were produced in cooperation with the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), the National Science Foundation and the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Video Documentary Synopsis
Nanotechnology is a megatrend in science and technology at the beginning of the 21 Century. The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has played a key role in advancing the field after it was announced by President Clinton in January 2000. Neil Lane was Presidential Science Advisor. Mike Roco proposed the initiative at the White House in March 1999 on behalf of the Interagency Working Group on Nanotechnology and was named the founding Chair of NSET to implement NNI beginning with Oct. 2000. NSF led the preparation of this initiative together with other agencies including NIH, DoD, DOE, NASA, and EPA. Jim Murday was named the first Director of NNCO to support NSET. The scientific and societal success of NNI has been recognized in the professional communities, National Academies, PCAST, and Congress. Nanoscale science, engineering and technology are strongly connected and collectively called Nanotechnology.
This video documentary was made after the 20th NNI grantees conference at NSF. It is focused on creating and implementing NNI, through video interviews. The interviews focused on three questions: (a) Motivation and how NNI started; (b) The process and reason for the success in creating NNI; (c) Outcomes of NNI after 20 years, and how the initial vision has been realized.
About the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)
The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a U.S. Government research and development (R&D) initiative. Over thirty Federal departments, independent agencies, and commissions work together toward the shared vision of a future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to ongoing revolutions in technology and industry that benefit society. The NNI enhances interagency coordination of nanotechnology R&D, supports a shared infrastructure, enables leveraging of resources while avoiding duplication, and establishes shared goals, priorities, and strategies that complement agency-specific missions and activities.
The NNI participating agencies work together to advance discovery and innovation across the nanotechnology R&D enterprise. The NNI portfolio encompasses efforts along the entire technology development pathway, from early-stage fundamental science through applications-driven activities. Nanoscience and nanotechnology are prevalent across the R&D landscape, with an ever-growing list of applications that includes nanomedicine, nanoelectronics, water treatment, precision agriculture, transportation, and energy generation and storage. The NNI brings together representatives from multiple agencies to leverage knowledge and resources and to collaborate with academia and the private sector, as appropriate, to promote technology transfer and facilitate commercialization. The breadth of NNI-supported infrastructure enables not only the nanotechnology community but also researchers from related disciplines.
In addition to R&D efforts, the NNI is helping to build the nanotechnology workforce of the future, with focused efforts from K–12 through postgraduate research training. The responsible development of nanotechnology has been an integral pillar of the NNI since its inception, and the initiative proactively considers potential implications and technology applications at the same time. Collectively, these activities ensure that the United States remains not only the place where nanoscience discoveries are made, but also where these discoveries are translated and manufactured into products to benefit society.
…

I’m embedding the trailer here and a lipid nanoparticle question follows (The origin story told in Vancouver [Canada] is that the work was started at the University of British Columbia by Pieter Quilty.),

I was curious about what involvement the US NNI had with the development of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and found a possible answer to that question on Wikipedia The LNP Wikipedia entry certainly gives the bulk of the credit to Quilty but there was work done prior to his involvement (Note: Links have been removed),

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A significant obstacle to using LNPs as a delivery vehicle for nucleic acids is that in nature, lipids and nucleic acids both carry a negative electric charge—meaning they do not easily mix with each other.^[19] While working at Syntex in the mid-1980s,^[20] Philip Felgner [emphasis mine] pioneered the use of artificially-created cationic lipids (positively-charged lipids) to bind lipids to nucleic acids in order to transfect the latter into cells.^[21] However, by the late 1990s, it was known from in vitro experiments that this use of cationic lipids had undesired side effects on cell membranes.^[22]
During the late 1990s and 2000s, Pieter Cullis of the University of British Columbia [emphasis mine] developed ionizable cationic lipids which are “positively charged at an acidic pH but neutral in the blood.”^[8] Cullis also led the development of a technique involving careful adjustments to pH during the process of mixing ingredients in order to create LNPs which could safely pass through the cell membranes of living organisms.^[19][23] As of 2021, the current understanding of LNPs formulated with such ionizable cationic lipids is that they enter cells through receptor-mediated endocytosis and end up inside endosomes.^[8] The acidity inside the endosomes causes LNPs’ ionizable cationic lipids to acquire a positive charge, and this is thought to allow LNPs to escape from endosomes and release their RNA payloads.^[8]
From 2005 into the early 2010s, LNPs were investigated as a drug delivery system for small interfering RNA (siRNA) drugs.^[8] In 2009, Cullis co-founded a company called Acuitas Therapeutics to commercialize his LNP research [emphasis mine]; Acuitas worked on developing LNPs for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’s siRNA drugs.^[24] In 2018, the FDA approved Alnylam’s siRNA drug Onpattro (patisiran), the first drug to use LNPs as the drug delivery system.^[3][8]
By that point in time, siRNA drug developers like Alnylam were already looking at other options for future drugs like chemical conjugate systems, but during the 2010s, the earlier research into using LNPs for siRNA became a foundation for new research into using LNPs for mRNA.^[8] Lipids intended for short siRNA strands did not work well for much longer mRNA strands, which led to extensive research during the mid-2010s into the creation of novel ionizable cationic lipids appropriate for mRNA.^[8] As of late 2020, several mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 use LNPs as their drug delivery system, including both the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines.^[3] Moderna uses its own proprietary ionizable cationic lipid called SM-102, while Pfizer and BioNTech licensed an ionizable cationic lipid called ALC-0315 from Acuitas.^[8] [emphases mine]

You can find out more about Philip Felgner here on his University of California at Irvine (UCI) profile page.

I wish they had been a little more careful about some of the claims that Thomas Kalil made about lipid nanoparticles in both the trailer and video but, getting back to the trailer (approx. 3 mins.) and the full video (approx. 25 mins.), either provides insight into a quite extraordinary effort.

Bravo to the US NNI!

Drag artists making science more accessible

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I can remember kids describing science (and mathematics too) as a drag never imagining this, “Meet The Drag Artists Who Are Making Science More Accessible,” a 17 – 20 min. segment on the Science Friday (SciFri ) radio programme (broadcast on US National Public Radio).

Luckily, there’s a webpage devoted to the segment where you’ll find all kinds of interesting tidbits like this (Note: Links have been removed),

Each generation has had science communicators who brought a sometimes stuffy, siloed subject into homes, inspiring minds young and old. Scientists like Don Herbert, Carl Sagan, and Bill Nye are classic examples. But our modern age of social media has brought more diverse communicators into the forefront of science communication, including the wild, wonderful world of STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] drag stars.
These are queer folk who mix the flashy fashions of the drag world with science education. Some, like Kyne, use TikTok as a medium to teach concepts like math. Others, like Pattie Gonia, use drag to attract more people to the great outdoors. The accessibility of the internet has made these personalities available to a wide audience.
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Kyne and Pattie Gonia join Ira [SciFri host Ira Flatow] to talk about the magic drag can bring to science education, and why they think the future of SciComm looks more diverse than the past.
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You’ll find images similar to this one of Pattie Gonia in the SciFri article,

This dress is trash—in a good way. With the help of recycling, one queen’s trash is Pattie Gonia’s treasure. Credit: Pattie Gonia [downloaded from https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/science-friday/segments/science-advisor-resigns-covid-drug-treatments-science-drag-artists-feb-11-2022-part-1]

You can listen to the segment, read transcripts, watch videos, and find more information on the “Meet The Drag Artists Who Are Making Science More Accessible” webpage.

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Commentary about nanotech, science policy and communication, society, and the arts

Category Archives: public perceptions

Art is a feeling in my body (and yours too)

Celebrating Italian Research in the World Day at The Age of Immunotherapy, an April 12th, 2023 event in Vancouver (Canada)

Evening Program

Is it possible that I will live long enough to put my brain into a computer? Guillaume Thierry answers the question

Japan’s Minister of Digital Affairs becomes a cybernetic avatar

The last Ada Lovelace Day?

Documentary “NNI Retrospective Video: Creating a National Initiative” celebrates the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) and a lipid nanoparticle question

Drag artists making science more accessible