Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Swedes, sludge, and nanocellulose fibres

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According to a Swedish research team at Luleå University of Technology, it’s possible to create cellulose nanofibres from sludge. Well, it’s a particular kind of sludge. From the Feb. 16, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

For example, at one single cellulose manufacturer, Domsjö Fabrikerna in Sweden, the producer of special cellulose, which is used to in the manufacturing of viscose fibers, causes one thousand tons of sludge as a residue each year.

…

A few years ago, cellulose industries in Sweden, disposed some of their waste as sludge into the ocean. It is now prohibited, and the sludge is stored in large tanks on land. This particular cellulose sludge makes it possible, to produce, so far, the most profitable production of cellulose nanofibres from bio-residue products.

The yield of the manufacture of cellulose nanofibres from the sludge is 95%, compared with cellulose nanofiber production from wood chips 48%, lignin residues 48%, carrot residues of 20%, barley 14% and grass 13%. [emphases mine] “The separation of cellulose nanofibres from bioresidues is energy demanding but when we separate the waste from Domsjö, the energy consumption is lower. The special cellulose from Domsjö has very small size and it also has high cellulose content and therefore the fibers do not need to be chemically pre-treated before the production of cellulose nanofibers,” says Professor Kristiina Oksman.

This is interesting news especially in light of the interview with Jean Moreau (president of CelluForce, a company which manufactures nanocrystalline cellulose [NCC] in Québec, Canada) that I heard yesterday where there was some discussion as to what type of wood is needed to produce it.

In an interview with Dr. Richard Berry (now with CelluForce but with FPInnovations at the time), I asked where the NCC comes from (my Aug. 27, 2010 posting),

Q: Does the process use up the entire log or are parts of it left over? What happens to any leftover bits?

A:         We are starting from the bleached chemical pulp which is, to a large extent, cellulose. The left over bits have actually been processed as part of the chemical pulp mill processes. The acid used is recovered and reused and the sugars are converted into other products; in the demonstration plant they will be converted into biogas.

I’m not sure when the ‘spiderphone’  interview took place but it seems to be prior to the manufacturing/demonstration plant’s opening earlier this year (2012). For the curious, here’s a link to the 48 min. interview (roughly 25 mins. Moreau and roughly 25 mins. of questions from callers), http://ccc.spiderphone.com/RealCast/9597937293/Flashcast.html. (Thanks again to David Rougley for dropping by to leave a comment and this link to the interview on an earlier nanocellulose fibre posting [March 28, 2011].)

Getting back to the main event, the Swedish research is part of a larger project called Bio4Energy and you can find out more about that here.

Bravo to the Swedes for making use of sludge!

 

Story collider

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Put two physicists together, add an interest in the arts and storytelling, throw in some inspiration from the Large Hadron Collider (and its brethren) into the mix and most of us still would not have come up with Story Collider, the science storytelling community/project/events/magazine/etc. in New York, New York.

Andrew Revkin in his Jan. 31, 2012 story for the New York Times interviewed Ben Lillie, one of the originators,

I’ve often argued that the world would be better off if people, from an early age, absorbed science not as a set of facts (sadly the state of science education today), but as a story — full of vexing questions, conflict, dead ends, insights and the occasional thrilling leap.

That’s why I love Story Collider, a storytelling project, both onstage and online, in which scientists and people affected by science recount short, often funny, sometimes disturbing experiences, mostly in front of audiences, cabaret-style.

…

I had time to chat a bit with Lillie at this year’s Science Online conference (where science blogging and hip-hop collided) and followed up with him by e-mail to learn more about the story-telling project. Here’s our exchange:

Q.

How did you come up with the idea for Collider?

A.

In 2010 I was a high-energy particle physicist who had just quit being a researcher and moved to New York to try my hand in science theater. I had just discovered the world of live personal storytelling and was starting to attend Moth StorySLAMs, and I heard about another physicist who was also telling stories. That turned out to be Brian Wecht, a string theorist who did musical comedy on the side.

I was doing theater because I’m fascinated by the human side of science: How does science affect who we are as people? How does it play a role in our lives? Brian and I met up at a storytelling event and got to talking about new ways to address those questions when we had a mutual “duh” moment. How do you get people to talk about the role of science in their lives? Ask them to tell the story. And do it on a stage in front of a hundred people. What can go wrong?

You can find more story and links if you click on the link I’ve provided to Revkin’s article.

You can find a listing of upcoming and previous shows here. The next show is tonight, Feb. 15, 2012, 8 pm (EST) at the Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn. If you are interested in telling a story at one of these events or writing a story for the online magazine, you can go to the Submit a Story page. I’ve excerpted this from the ‘submissions’ page,

The Story Collider is always looking for new stories. If you have a personal story about science that you’d like to tell at one of our live events, or in our upcoming magazine, let us know.

Live stories:

Stories at the live events should be true, personal stories, about 8-10 minutes long. They can range from absurd, hilarious moments, to touching and life-altering. We take a broad interpretation of “science,” including medicine, technology, math, and social sciences as well as the traditional science subjects.

Each storyteller will work with the producers to develop and rehearse the story. No prior stage experience or formal science background is necessary.

The Story Collider website also offer podcasts and videos of their science stories. Enjoy!

Ranking atoms the Google way

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According to the Feb. 13, 2012 news item on Nanowerk, professor Aurora Clark has developed a laboratory-free technique for analyzing molecules which she derived from Google’s PageRank software,

The technology that Google uses to analyze trillions of Web pages is being brought to bear on the way molecules are shaped and organized.

Aurora Clark, an associate professor of chemistry at Washington State University, has adapted Google’s PageRank software to create moleculaRnetworks, which scientists can use to determine molecular shapes and chemical reactions without the expense, logistics and occasional danger of lab experiments.

I was particularly interested in this relationship between webpages and molecules,

Google’s PageRank software, developed by its founders at Stanford University, uses an algorithm—a set of mathematical formulas—to measure and prioritize the relevance of various Web pages to a user’s search. Clark and her colleagues realized that the interactions between molecules are a lot like links between Web pages. Some links between some molecules will be stronger and more likely than others.

“So the same algorithm that is used to understand how Web pages are connected can be used to understand how molecules interact,” says Clark.

The PageRank algorithm is particularly efficient because it can look at a massive amount of the Web at once. Similarly, it can quickly characterize the interactions of millions of molecules and help researchers predict how various chemicals will react with one another.

Clark has a special interest given her specialty,

Clark, who uses Pacific Northwest National Laboratories supercomputers and a computer cluster on WSU’s Pullman campus, specializes in the remediation and separation of radioactive materials. With computational chemistry and her Google-based software, she says, she “can learn about all those really nasty things without ever touching them.”

You can find out more about moleculaRnetworks and download the software from this webpage. There’s more about Aurora Clark and her work here.

MORPHONANO, an art/sci exhibit in California

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This description of the event (MORPHONANO) which is being held at the Beall Center at the University of California (Irvine) comes from the Beall Center’s home page,

MORPHONANO explores a number of art works created by media artist Victoria Vesna and nanoscientist James Gimzewski. Their collaborative works create an intersection of space, time and embodiment by employing a very subtle and responsive energetic exchange. Participants interact with the works in mindful ways resulting in rich visual and sonic experiences within a meditative space. By reversing the scale of nanotechnology to the realm of human experience, the artist and scientist create a sublime reversal of space-time.

Here’s an image depicting one of the exhibits in the show,

ZERO@WAVEFUNCTION plays with the idea of scale and molecular manipulation from a distance with the participant changing the structures of the buckyballs with their shadows, a real time interactive metaphor of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM).

It looks to me that the idea is to ’embody’ the nanoscale as per the caption “the participants changing the structures of the buckyballs with their shadows, a real time interactive metaphor of the scanning tunneling microscope.” There’s a larger version of the image and information about this exhibit in the Feb. 14, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

BLUE MORPH is an interactive installation that uses nanoscale images combined with sounds derived from the microscopic undulations of a chrysalis during the period of its metamorphosis into a butterfly recorded using nanotechnology. The work is designed to be responsive to minute, subtle, mindful movements of the participant creating a rich visual and sonic experience of morphing. Most is revealed in complete stillness.

NANOMANDALA is a video projected onto a disk of sand, 8 feet in diameter. Visitors can touch the sand as images are projected in evolving scale from the molecular structure of a single grain of sand – achieved my means of photography, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) – to the recognizable image of the complete mandala, and then back again. The original Chakrasamvara mandala was created by monks of the Ghaden Lhopa Khangsten monastery. Patience will allow experiencing the whole.

ZERO@WAVEFUNCTION plays with the idea of scale and molecular manipulation from a distance with the participant changing the structures of the buckyballs with their shadows, a real time interactive metaphor of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Slow motion makes change happen.

BRAIN STORMING: SOUNDS OF THINKING a premier of a work of self organization in progress focusing on scale invariant and the brain using biometric data. A number of brain storming sessions with cutting neuroscientists, nanotechnologists, philosophers and monks will take place throughout the exhibition. In many ways the works in this exhibition reverse the scale of nanotechnology to a visible realm and time in nano scale creating a sublime reversal of space-time.

The show opened Feb. 2 and closes May 6, 2012. The address is

Beall Center for Art + Technology
University of California, Irvine
Claire Trevor School of the Arts
712 Arts Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-2775
www.beallcenter.uci.edu

Here are some details about the art/sci collaborators, Victoria Vesna and James Gimzewski, from the undated Beall Center news release,

Victoria Vesna is a media artist and Professor at the Department of Design | Media Arts at the UCLA School of the Arts and director of the UCLA Art|Sci center. Currently she is Visiting Professor at Art, Media + Technology, Parsons the New School for Design in New York and a senior researcher at IMéRA – Institut Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées in Marseille, France. Her work can be defined as experimental creative research that resides between disciplines and technologies. She explores how communication technologies affect collective behavior and how perceptions of identity shift in relation to scientific innovation. Her most recent experiential installations — Blue Morph, Water Bowls, Hox Zodiac, all aim to raise consciousness around environmental issues natural and human-animal relations. …

James Gimzewski FRS is a distinguished Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA. He is director of Pico and Nano core laboratory at the California NanoSynstems Institute (CNSI). He is also scientific director of the Art | Sci center and a senior fellow of IMéRA. He is a satellite co-director and PI of materials nanoarchitectonics at the National Institute of Material Science in Tsukuba, Japan. Until February 2001, he was a group leader at the IBM Zurich Labs, where he was involved in Nanoscale science since 1983. He pioneered research on electrical contact with single atoms and molecules, light emission and molecular imaging using STM. His accomplishments include the first STM-manipulation of molecules at room temperature, the realization of molecular abacus using buckyballs, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of nanomechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore the ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. …

I have mentioned Gimzewski previously in a post (Oct. 17, 2011) about a three-part nanotechnology series on Canadian television.

Interpol and innovation? Let’s not underestimate the criminals

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My hat’s off to Neal Ungerleider at the Fast Company website. His Feb. 9, 2012 article (Inside INTERPOL’s New Cybercrime Innovation Center) has proven to be incredibly successful. It seems to be everywhere which makes tracking down additional information about INTERPOL’s new complex a bit of a challenge. Here’s what Ungerleider wrote about the centre,

INTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive innovation center in Singapore in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest cybercrimes… and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and research stations.

I particularly enjoyed this line from Ungerleider’s article,

INTERPOL, the international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek heaven in Singapore.

Here’s a video of what this new complex may look like,

Ungerleider goes on to note this about the activities and the bureaucracy supporting the complex,

Beyond cybercrime, police officers and researchers at IGCI will also be developing experimental strategies to combat environmental crime, counterfeiting, corruption in football/soccer, and Asian criminal syndicates. The complex will include laboratories, conference space, and a museum-like space for tours geared toward the public. INTERPOL being INTERPOL, the whole organizational process behind the center is highly bureaucratic and intricate [PDF].

The Jan. 16, 2012 media release from INTERPOL announces the director for this new complex,

INTERPOL has announced that Noboru Nakatani of Japan, currently the Special Advisor to the Commissioner General of Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA), and Director of the NPA’s Transnational Organized Crime Office, has been appointed as the Executive Director of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore.

The state-of-the-art facility, due to become operational in early 2014, will equip the world’s police with the tools and knowledge to better tackle the crime threats of the 21st century. As a research and development facility for the identification of crimes and criminals, it will provide innovative training and operational support for law enforcement across the globe.

During the building’s ongoing construction, Mr Nakatani will oversee and coordinate the creation and development of the programmes and services that will be delivered from the IGCI by INTERPOL to its 190 member countries.

…

At Japan’s National Police Agency, Mr Nakatani held the post of Senior Assistant Director for cybercrime, as well as Executive Officer to the Minister of State, the Chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission.

“I am very pleased that the Government of Japan has allowed Mr Nakatani to return to INTERPOL in order to take up this challenging and historic post; it reaffirms Japan’s strong commitment to INTERPOL and to international police cooperation,” said INTERPOL President Khoo Boon Hui.

INTERPOL notes this about the need for this complex, from the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation page,

Crime threats are changing

Police worldwide are facing an increasing challenging operational landscape, as criminals take advantage of new technology, the ease of international travel and the anonymous world of virtual business.

Criminal phenomena are becoming more aggressive and elusive, notably in the areas of cybercrime and child sexual exploitation.

The future of policing

It is crucial for police to stay one step ahead of criminals. In today’s world this can only be achieved if law enforcement officials have real-time access to information beyond their own borders.

The digital age has opened up immense new opportunities to police forces, providing secure communications channels and instant access to criminal data. Innovation must become our best ally.

Championing innovation

The Global Complex will go beyond the traditional reactive law enforcement model. This new centre will provide proactive research into new areas and latest training techniques. [emphasis mine] The aim is to give police around the world both the tools and capabilities to confront the increasingly ingenious and sophisticated challenges posed by criminals.

The four main components of the Global Complex are as follows:

Innovation, research and digital security

  • Boosting cybersecurity and countering cybercrime;
  • A forensic laboratory to support digital crime investigations;
  • Research to test protocols, tools and services and to analyse trends of cyber-attacks;
  • Development of practical solutions in collaboration with police, research laboratories, academia and the public and private sectors;
  • Addressing issues such as Internet security governance.

For some reason that business about extending past the traditional reactive approach  to become proactive reminded me of the movie, Minority Report (internet movie database),

In the future, criminals are caught before the crimes they commit, … [sic]

I can’t imagine getting more proactive than that.

Morpho butterflies detect heat for GE

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One wonders if Morpho butterflies are going to decide that they need to protect their intellectual property. Yet another scientific group has found a way to exploit the nanostructures on the Morpho butterfly’s wing.  From the Feb. 13, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

GE [General Electric] scientists are exploring many potential thermal imaging and sensing applications with their new detection concept such as medical diagnostics, surveillance, non-destructive inspection and others, where visual heat maps of imaged areas serve as a valuable condition indicator. Some examples include:

  • Thermal Imaging for advanced medical diagnosis – to better visualize inflammation in the body and understand changes in a patient’s health earlier.
  • Advanced thermal vision – to see things at night and during the day in much greater detail than what is possible today.
  • Fire thermal Imaging – to aid firefighters with new handheld devices to enhance firefighter safety in operational situations
  • Thermal security surveillance – to improve public safety and homeland protection
  • Thermal characterization of wound infections – to facilitate early diagnosis.

“The iridescence of Morpho butterflies has inspired our team for yet another technological opportunity. This time we see the potential to develop the next generation of thermal imaging sensors that deliver higher sensitivity and faster response times in a more simplified, cost-effective design,” said Dr. Radislav Potyrailo, Principal Scientist at GE Global Research who leads GE’s bio-inspired photonics programs. “This new class of thermal imaging sensors promises significant improvements over existing detectors in their image quality, speed, sensitivity, size, power requirements, and cost.”

GE has provided a video and description that illustrates this newest biomimicry work. First the description then the video (from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoaILSCzlTo&feature=youtu.be)

This is a thermographic video of a Morpho butterfly structure in response to heat pulses produced by breathing onto the whole butterfly structure (video part 1) and onto its localized areas (video part 2). Nanostructures on Morpho butterfly wings coated with carbon nanotubes can sense temperature chances down to .02 degrees Celsius, at a response rate of 1/40 of a second. This is a demonstration of how new bio-inspired designs by GE scientists could enable more advanced applications for industrial inspection, medical diagnostics and military. This video was filmed by Bryan Whalen in the Electronics Cooling Lab at GE Global Research.

This newest work seems to have its origins in a DARPA-funded (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) GE project. From the Aug. 12, 2010 GE news release,

Scientists at GE Global Research, GE’s technology development arm, in collaboration with Air Force Research Laboratory, State University at Albany, and University of Exeter, have received a four-year, $6.3 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop new bio-inspired nanostructured sensors that would enable faster, more selective detection of dangerous warfare agents and explosives.

Three years ago, GE scientists discovered that nanostructures from wing scales of butterflies exhibited acute chemical sensing properties. [emphasis bold] Since then, GE scientists have been developing a dynamic, new sensing platform that replicates these unique properties.  Recognizing the potential of GE’s sensing technologies for improving homeland protection, DARPA is supporting further research. [emphasis mine]

For anyone who’s particularly interested in the technical details, Dexter Johnson offers more in his Feb. 13, 2012 posting about this research on the Nanoclast blog for the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

Simon Fraser University’s Jay Vidyarthi exhibits Sonic Cradle at TEDActive 2012

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The Sonic Cradle, Simon Fraser University (SFU located in Vancouver, Canada) student Jay Vidyarthi’s project which combines music, meditation and modern technology, will be exhibited from Feb. 27 – March 1, 2012, at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs (US).

This is a Sonic Cradle video (available from the Sonic Cradle website) which gives viewers a sense of the project and includes some interviews with people who’ve been held in the cradle,

Sonic Cradle from Jay Vidyarthi on Vimeo.

The Feb. 10, 2012 news release from SFU provides more details,

 “The idea grew from my desire to explore how technology can be used to free us from the stress associated with information overload,” says Vidyarthi, who is pursuing a master’s degree in SFU Surrey’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology.

Vidyarthi and his supervisor Bernhard Riecke, who heads up SIAT’s new iSpace lab, have been invited to display Sonic Cradle as part of the prestigious TEDActive TechArt exhibition. During the week-long conference participants will be able to try 15-minute meditative sessions.

Vidyarthi, who is also working with co-supervisor Diane Gromala, director of SFU’s Transforming Pain research group, says the project was accepted despite being primarily a design research artifact rather than a piece of art.

Developed last spring, Sonic Cradle provides a digitized compendium of musical sound bites from 30 musicians from across North America, including recordings of falling rain, flute and guitar arrangements, meditative chimes and even spoken poetry.

Breathing stimulates the sound patterns, which are unique to each ‘cradle’ visit, says Vidyarthi, a musician who earlier studied psychophysics and neuroscience at McGill University.

…

The researchers plan further study on how the system physiologically affects people. The creation of a handheld mobile version of Sonic Cradle is also possible.

As the one who has spent the most time in Sonic Cradle, Vidyarthi says, “when you remove all the distractions, it can feel something like leaving the planet.”

You can find out more about the TEDActive 2012 programme here and there’s more about the Transforming Pain research group at SFU here.

New type of scaffolding for tissue engineering

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Since the international July 2011 coverage of Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene’s synthetic trachea transplant (mentioned in my Aug. 2, 2011 posting), I’ve been quite interested in tissue engineering. Scientists at Northwestern University (US) have developed a new type of scaffolding for tissue engineering.

There’s a description in the Feb. 12, 2012 news release on EurekAlert of  tissue engineering and scaffolding and some of the disadvantages with the current technology,

Through tissue engineering, researchers seek to regenerate human tissue, such as bone and cartilage, that has been damaged by injury or disease. Scaffolds — artificial, lattice-like structures capable of supporting tissue formation — are necessary in this process to provide a template to support the growing cells. Over time, the scaffold resorbs into the body, leaving behind the natural tissue.

Scaffolds are typically engineered with pores that allow the cells to migrate throughout the material. The pores are often created with the use of salt, sugar, or carbon dioxide gas, but these additives have various drawbacks; They create an imperfect pore structures and, in the case of salt, require a lengthy process to remove the salt after the pores are created, said Guillermo Ameer, professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and professor of surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

The new scaffolds are more flexible and can be tailored to ‘resorb’ at different times,

The new scaffolds, created from a combination of ceramic nanoparticles and elastic polymers, were formed in a vacuum through a process termed “low-pressure foaming” that requires high heat, Ameer said. The result was a series of pores that were highly interconnected and not dependent on the use of salt.

The new process creates scaffolds that are highly flexible and can be tailored to degrade at varying speeds depending on the recovery time expected for the patient. The scaffolds can also incorporate nano-sized fibers, providing a new range of mechanical and biological properties, Ameer said. [emphasis mine]

I wonder what “new range of mechanical and biological properties” will be enabled; I was not able to find any speculation.

In the meantime, here’s an image of the scaffolding from the McCormick School (at Northwestern University) http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/article_1043.html,

For anyone who’s interested in an update on Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, according to this Dec. 9, 2011 posting on StemSave, he’s doing well.

ETA Feb. 14, 2012: Michael Berger at Nanowerk has written an article titled, Tissue engineering of 3D tubular structures, which provides some insight into another aspect of creating scaffolding, the tubular nature of many of our organs.

Less confused about Europe’s FET (Future and Emerging Technologies programme)

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I’ve had problems trying figure out the European Union’s Future and Emerging Technologies programme and so I’m glad to say that the Feb. 10, 2012 news item on Nanowerk offers to clear up a few matters for me (and presumably a few other people too).

From the news item,

Go forth and explore the frontiers of science and technology! This is the unspoken motto of the Future and Emerging Technologies programme (FET), which has for more than 20 years been funding and inspiring researchers across Europe to lay new foundations for information and communication technology (ICT). [emphasis mine]

The vanguard researchers of frontier ICT research don’t always come from IT backgrounds or follow the traditional academic career path. The European Commission’s FET programme encourages unconventional match-ups like chemistry and IT, physics and optics, biology and data engineering. Researchers funded by FET are driven by ideas and a sense of purpose which push the boundaries of science and technology.

They have three funding programmes (from the news item),

To address these challenges, the FET scheme supports long-term ICT programmes under three banners:

  • FET-Open, which has simple and fast mechanisms in place to receive new ideas for projects without pre-conceived boundaries or deadlines;
  • FET-Proactive, which spearheads ‘transformative’ research and supports community-building around a number of fundamental long-term ICT challenges; and
  • FET Flagships, which cut across national and European programmes to unite top research teams pursuing ambitious, large-scale, science-driven research with a visionary goal.

The news item goes on to describe a number of projects including the GRAPHENE-CA flagship pilot currently under consideration, along with five other flagship projects, for one of two 1 Billion Euro prizes. I have commented before (my Feb. 6, 2012 posting) on the communication strategies being employed by at least some of the members of this particular flagship project. Amazingly, they’ve done it again; theirs is the only flagship pilot project mentioned.

You can see the original article on the European Union website here where they have described other projects including this one, PRESENCCIA,

‘Light switches, TV remote controls and even house keys could become a thing of the past thanks to brain-computer interface (BCI) technology being developed in Europe that lets users perform everyday tasks with thoughts alone.’ So begins a story on ICT Results about a pioneering EU-funded FET project called Presenccia*.

Primary applications of BCI are in gaming/virtual reality (VR), home entertainment and domestic care, but the project partners also see their work helping the medical profession. ‘A virtual environment could be used to train a disabled person to control an electric wheelchair through a BCI,’ explained Mel Slater, the project coordinator. ‘It is much safer for them to learn in VR than in the real world, where mistakes could have physical consequences.’

So, PRESENCCIA is a project whereby people will be trained to use a BCI in virtual reality before attempting it in real life. I wish there was a bit more information about this BCI technology that is being developed in Europe as I am deeply fascinated and horrified by this notion of thought waves that ‘turn light switches on and off’ or possibly allow you to make a phone call as Professor Mark Welland at Cambridge University was speculating in 2010 (mentioned in my April 30, 2010 posting [scroll 1/2 way down]). Welland did mention that you would need some sort of brain implant to achieve a phone call with your thought waves, which is the aspect that makes me most uncomfortable.

Governance/regulation of synthetic biology

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The Synthetic Biology Project folks at the Woodrow Wilson Center have created a Synthetic Biology Scorecard and I think before discussing the scorecard I’ll provide a little background information about synthetic biology and what is being scored.

From the About page on the Synthetic Biology Project website,

Synthetic biology involves making new genetic code, also known as DNA, which does not already exist in nature.

In May 2010, J. Craig Venter announced that he had created the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell (my May 21, 2010 post) and this set off some alarm bells. From the Feb. 8, 2012 news item on Physorg.com,

On May 20, 2010, scientists at the J.C. Venter Institute unveiled a bacterial cell controlled by a synthetic genome. That same day, the president asked the Commission [Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues] to undertake “a study of the implications of this scientific milestone . . . [and] consider the potential medical, environmental, security, and other benefits of this field of research, as well as any potential health, security, or other risks.”

Now we get to the scorecard (from the news item),

More than a year has passed since the release of the Commission’s report. What progress has been made? The Scorecard seeks to answer that question: In addition to tracking the progress of various federal and non-federal initiatives, the website encourages broad participation in achieving the goals set forth by the Commission and invites public comment on the recommendations and implementation efforts.

“The Commission’s report was a landmark document and lays out a framework with broad applicability to many emerging technologies, but, like many reports of this type, no mechanisms were put in place to track progress,” David Rejeski, director of the Synthetic Biology Project, said. “Our goal is ensure that this report — and others like it – can drive change.”

The scorecard is here. I’ve linked to the overview which lists all of the recommendations and each one is colour-coded to indicate whether or not there has been activity to implement the recommendation. There are three colour codes, one indicating that no federal activity has taken place, one indicating that federal activity has begun, and one indicating federal activity has been completed. You can click on each recommendation to get more details about federal and non-federal activity.