We’re back on the cyborg trail or what I sometimes refer to as machine/flesh. A July 3, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily describes the latest attempts to join machine with flesh, Machine enhanced humans — or cyborgs as they are known in science fiction — could be one step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research Lieber Group at Harvard University, as well as scientists from University of Surrey and Yonsei University.Researchers have…

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This is not the first time the glasswing butterfly has inspired some new technology. Lat time, it was an eye implant, The clear wings make this South-American butterfly hard to see in flight, a succesfull defense mechanism. Credit: Eddy Van 3000 from in Flanders fields – B – United Tribes ov Europe – the wings-become-windows butterfly. [downloaded from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Greta_oto#/media/File:South-American_butterfly.jpg] You’ll find that image and more in my May 22, 2018 posting about the eye implant.…

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Two very different Canadian institutions are offering opportunities to work, in one case, and to study and work, in the other case. Evidence for Democracy and their RFP The deadline for making your proposal is November 25, 2019 and the competition was opened on November 11, 2019. Here’s more from Evidence for Democracy’s RFP webpage, DescriptionEvidence for Democracy (E4D) is a national science-based non-partisan, non-profit organization promoting science integrity and evidence-based policy development in Canada.…

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This time it’s the performing arts. I have one theatre and psychiatry production in Toronto and a music and medical science event in Vancouver. Toronto’s Here are the Fragments opening on November 19, 2019 From a November 2, 2019 ArtSci Salon announcement (received via email), An immersive theatre experience inspired by the psychiatric writing of Frantz Fanon Here are the Fragments. Co-produced by The ECT Collective and The Theatre Centre November 19-December 1, 2019 Tickets:…

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A surprising number of every day products, including items such as microwave ovens, penicillin, nylon, and more have come to us courtesy of military science. While we remember our fallen soldiers today (Remembrance Day 2019) in Canada and elsewhere throughout the Commonwealth countries, I thought it might be interesting to consider contemporary Canadian military science. I’ve often wondered whether or not we have an equivalent to the US Army’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)…

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This first part of this Reading ‘series’, Reading (1 of 2): an artificial intelligence story in British Columbia (Canada) was mostly about how one type of story, in this case,based on a survey, is presented and placed in one or more media outlets. The desired outcome is for more funding by government and for more investors (they tucked in an ad for an upcoming artificial intelligence conference in British Columbia). This story about zinc-infused underwear…

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Every once in a while I decide to dive further into a story and highlight some of the ways in which we all get fooled into thinking that the technology industry is going to leave British Columbia with use of a survey (Reading [1 of 2]) or that we can somehow make ourselves healthier (Reading [2 of 2)) with the use ‘scientifically’ derived data. Setting the scene The last time I encountered Miro Cernetig was…

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A July 10, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily announces a more environmentally friendly way to produce graphene leading to more environmentally friendly devices such as computers, In order to create new and more efficient computers, medical devices, and other advanced technologies, researchers are turning to nanomaterials: materials manipulated on the scale of atoms or molecules that exhibit unique properties.Graphene — a flake of carbon as thin as a single later of atoms — is a…

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[downloaded from https://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/967/107/107967/Spray-on-Nanofiber-Skin-May-Improve-Burn-and-Wound-Care_0-x.jpg?v=10727] Where I see a ‘ray’ gun, Rina Raphael, author of a July 6, 2019 article for Fast tCompany, sees a water pistol (Note: Links have been removed), Imagine if bandaging looked a little more like, well, a water gun?Israeli startup Nanomedic Technologies Ltd., a subsidiary of medical device company Nicast, has invented a new mechanical contraption to treat burns, wounds, and surgical injuries by mimicking human tissue. Shaped like a children’s toy,…

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Elinor Hortie at the University of Sydney (Australia) has written a very interesting essay about CRISPR ‘scissors’, a metaphor she find misleading. From Hortie’s July 4, 2019 essay on The Conversation, Last week I read an article about CRISPR, the latest tool scientists are using to edit DNA. It was a great piece – well researched, beautifully written, factually accurate. It covered some of the amazing projects scientist are working on using CRISPR, like bringing…

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