Malaria

Image via CrunchBase

How Malaria Hijacks Your Immune System

Malaria infects at least 150 million people per year and kills over half a million people.... half the world’s population is susceptible to the disease.

Malaria is one of the things Bill Gates has worked on in his post Microsoft life. Many more people are talking about it now. Otherwise it used to be the poor person's disease.

Malaria is one of those hard to tie down tropical diseases. A software guy struggling with bio has business implications. Gates himself has said if he were to launch a startup today it would be in bio tech.

Software has viruses. Bio has malaria. Bio is still capital intensive. But that does not change its high growth potential status.

Related articles

• Malaria Fix May Rely on Engineered Bacteria

  ---

• Engineered bacteria kill malaria parasite

  ---

• Travellers 'need malaria warnings'

  ---

• GMO bacteria vs malaria [erv]

  ---

• Australia to host major Malaria summit

  ---

Alzheimer's Stabilization

Alzheimer's Disease (Photo credit: AJC1)

Study Suggests Alzheimer's Disease Can Be Stabilized

Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States; 35 million people are estimated to have the disease today, a figure that is expected to balloon in the coming decades.

One of the things people look forward to is getting old with vigor. Perhaps advances will catch up with expectations.

Related articles

• Small study: Drug may help stabilize Alzheimer's

  ---

• New drug, Gammagard, could help stabilize Alzheimer's

  ---

• Small study: Drug may help stabilize Alzheimer's

  ---

The Disabled And Computing

Cover of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Controlling a Computer with Your Eyes

the French author of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly dictated his memoirs solely through eye-movements--one letter at a time, and with the help of an assistant

One of the things about computing has been the help it has provided to the disabled, or rather the physically challenged. At one level we are all physically challenged. Or we would not need computers, right? Computers compute when we can't. Like Steve Jobs said, the computer is like a bicycle for the mind. We are all disabled, we all need bicycles.

Related articles

• MRPS chief vows to fight for rights of physically challenged

  ---

• Technology › The eyes have it for disabled gamers

  ---

• Controlling a Computer with Your Eyes

  ---

Cyrstal Clear

Human brain - midsagittal cut (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Crystals, Information And The Origin of Life

Crystals are among the most beautiful objects in the natural word. They are well understood, ubiquitously used and much admired.... the convergence of crystallography, materials science and biology is opening up a new approach to the study of structure, form and function. ... the energy landscape in which they exist and the flow of information to and from the environment..... the information a mollusc uses to make mother of pearl; and that is determined by its genome, proteome and so on, which together they call a conchome. .... this information is a kind of algorithm or formula for producing mother of pearl, analogous to an algorithm that produces the digits of pi. ..... a similar change in thinking about form and function is also emerging in the entirely different field of robotics and artificial intelligence. .... turns out that humans perform many actions that are so quick that the human brain cannot possibly be involved .... the brain outsources the control of this movement to materials themselves.... morphological computing.

Related articles

• Crystals, Information And The Origin of Life

  ---

• Notice to all Blessington FC Managers & Members

  ---

• Jewelry Designer Spotlight: Legge & Braine

  ---

• Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: "Building Artificial Brains ...

  ---

• My Design Process by Yvonne de Villiers

  ---

Kiva's Robots

English: Logo of Saks Fifth Avenue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Warehouses, Kiva's Robots Do the Heavy Liftings

Sixty of the automated dollies crisscross the floor carrying shelves to humans, who pick, pack, and ship items without ever taking more than a couple of steps..... as Web retailers look for an edge in a business with low margins and sharp competition.... In addition to Amazon, Kiva's customers include Office Depot, Staples, Crate & Barrel, Toys "R" Us, and Saks Fifth Avenue. .... With the help of robots, workers at Gilt are able to process items three times faster.... After an order comes in to Gilt's website, a robot automatically wheels into a grid of 1,600 shelves arranged in tight rows. The robot locates the right shelf, lifts it onto its back, and carries it to a picking station, where human workers take what is needed. .... From above, the scene looks a little like robot rush hour as dozens of shelves zoom around the warehouse floor.....using them on inventory that gathers dust isn't cost-effective, and larger items also pose problems for the automated shelves. .... the relatively small area where robots operate accounts for 65 percent of all items shipped from the warehouse

This is like FoxConn wanting robots.