Lifeboat Foundation

While the recent cases of Ebola and Zika contributed to an emphasis on research, response, and policy related to EIDs, the meeting also had presentations on emerging biotechnologies. Of particular note was the Synthetic Biology panel, which focused on the current state of synthetic biology, its use in the health security defense enterprise, and the policy conundrums that need to be addressed.

Synthetic Biology – Complexity through Simplification

The first presenter, Dr. Christopher Voigt of the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT, noted that synthetic biology was the application of engineering principles to biological systems. The end goal of this bioengineering framework is to leverage ever-increasing computer capabilities to simplify both the designing and writing of genomic sequences. Further simplification would then allow for the creation of more complex systems.

Continue reading “The Biotechnological Wild West: The Good, the Bad, and the Underknown of Synthetic Biology” »

Artificial intelligence to simulate how molecules behave when placed on a metal surface.

Credit: Kyoto University iCeMS.

Personally; I see this not being needed in less than 10 years.

Automatic speech recognition is on the verge of becoming the chief way of interacting with primary computing devices. A decade ago, the concept of automatic speech recognition was laughed at.

Anticipating this rise in voice-controlled electronics, a team of researchers from MIT have developed a low-power chip designed for automatic speech recognition. A cell phone running speech-recognition software might need roughly 1 watt of power, but the new chip requires between 0.2 and 10 milliwatts only, based on the number of words it has to recognize.

Continue reading “MIT Team’s Low-Power Chip Could Revolutionize Speech Recognition in Electronics” »

Energy-efficient, deep-learning processors are what’s needed to make smart phones, wearables, and other consumer electronics smarter.

Multiexcitonic transitions and emission of several photons per excitation comprise a very attractive feature of semiconductor quantum dots for optoelectronics applications. However, these higher-order radiative processes are usually quenched in colloidal quantum dots by Auger and other nonradiative decay channels. To increase the multiexcitonic quantum efficiency, several groups have explored plasmonic enhancement, so far with moderate results. By controlled positioning of individual quantum dots in the near field of gold nanocone antennas, we enhance the radiative decay rates of monoexcitons and biexcitons by 109 and 100 folds at quantum efficiencies of 60 and 70%, respectively, in very good agreement with the outcome of numerical calculations. We discuss the implications of our work for future fundamental and applied research in nano-optics.

Lookout Amazon

MIS Asia offers Information Technology strategy insight for senior IT management — resources to understand and leverage information technology from a business leadership perspective.

(CNN) — Forget the US versus Russia. The real space race is taking place in Asia.

India’s space agency will attempt to launch 104 satellites from a single rocket Wednesday — a record feat that, if successful, will cement the country’s space smarts after its successful Mars orbiter mission.

The launch would almost triple the current record of 37 satellites Russia sent into orbit in 2014.

Continue reading “Space race between India, China, Japan heats up” »

The Russian spy ship, the SSV-175 Viktor Leonov, is sailing in international waters off Delaware, a U.S. defense official says.

Cancer care delivery has been mostly unchanged for the past 50 years but now needs a new model, a centaur, say Stanford University academics.